7,403 research outputs found
Liberating Efimov physics from three dimensions
When two particles attract via a resonant short-range interaction, three
particles always form an infinite tower of bound states characterized by a
discrete scaling symmetry. It has been considered that this Efimov effect
exists only in three dimensions. Here we review how the Efimov physics can be
liberated from three dimensions by considering two-body and three-body
interactions in mixed dimensions and four-body interaction in one dimension. In
such new systems, intriguing phenomena appear, such as confinement-induced
Efimov effect, Bose-Fermi crossover in Efimov spectrum, and formation of
interlayer Efimov trimers. Some of them are observable in ultracold atom
experiments and we believe that this study significantly broadens our horizons
of universal Efimov physics.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, contribution to a special issue of Few-Body
Systems devoted to Efimov Physic
Phases of a bilayer Fermi gas
We investigate a two-species Fermi gas in which one species is confined in
two parallel layers and interacts with the other species in the
three-dimensional space by a tunable short-range interaction. Based on the
controlled weak coupling analysis and the exact three-body calculation, we show
that the system has a rich phase diagram in the plane of the effective
scattering length and the layer separation. Resulting phases include an
interlayer s-wave pairing, an intralayer p-wave pairing, a dimer Bose-Einstein
condensation, and a Fermi gas of stable Efimov-like trimers. Our system
provides a widely applicable scheme to induce long-range interlayer
correlations in ultracold atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures; (v2) stability of trimer is emphasized; (v3)
published versio
Probing strongly interacting atomic gases with energetic atoms
We investigate properties of an energetic atom propagating through strongly
interacting atomic gases. The operator product expansion is used to
systematically compute a quasiparticle energy and its scattering rate both in a
spin-1/2 Fermi gas and in a spinless Bose gas. Reasonable agreement with recent
quantum Monte Carlo simulations even at a relatively small momentum k/kF>1.5
indicates that our large-momentum expansions are valid in a wide range of
momentum. We also study a differential scattering rate when a probe atom is
shot into atomic gases. Because the number density and current density of the
target atomic gas contribute to the forward scattering only, its contact
density (measure of short-range pair correlation) gives the leading
contribution to the backward scattering. Therefore, such an experiment can be
used to measure the contact density and thus provides a new local probe of
strongly interacting atomic gases.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures; (v4) published with the new titl
Unitary Fermi gas, epsilon expansion, and nonrelativistic conformal field theories
We review theoretical aspects of unitary Fermi gas (UFG), which has been
realized in ultracold atom experiments. We first introduce the epsilon
expansion technique based on a systematic expansion in terms of the
dimensionality of space. We apply this technique to compute the thermodynamic
quantities, the quasiparticle spectrum, and the critical temperature of UFG. We
then discuss consequences of the scale and conformal invariance of UFG. We
prove a correspondence between primary operators in nonrelativistic conformal
field theories and energy eigenstates in a harmonic potential. We use this
correspondence to compute energies of fermions at unitarity in a harmonic
potential. The scale and conformal invariance together with the general
coordinate invariance constrains the properties of UFG. We show the vanishing
bulk viscosities of UFG and derive the low-energy effective Lagrangian for the
superfluid UFG. Finally we propose other systems exhibiting the nonrelativistic
scaling and conformal symmetries that can be in principle realized in ultracold
atom experiments.Comment: 44 pages, 15 figures, contribution to Lecture Notes in Physics
"BCS-BEC crossover and the Unitary Fermi Gas" edited by W. Zwerge
Impaired glycolytic metabolism causes chondrocyte hypertrophy-like changes via promotion of phospho-Smad1/5/8 translocation into nucleus
SummaryObjectiveHypertrophy-like changes are often observed in chondrocytes during the development of osteoarthritis (OA). These changes play a crucial part in the OA-associated cartilage degradation and osteophyte formation. However, the pathogenesis leading to such changes is still unknown. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which these hypertrophy-like changes are induced from the viewpoint of impaired glycolytic metabolism.MethodsThe effect of sodium fluoride (NaF) on glycolytic metabolism of cultured chondrocytes was confirmed by measurement of intracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production. Translocation of phosphorylated Smad1/5/8 to the nucleus was evaluated by subcellular fractionation and Western blotting. Chondrocyte hypertrophy-like changes were investigated by real-time RT-PCR and Western blot analysis of differentiation markers.ResultsATP production was dose-dependently decreased by NaF in the human chondrocytic cell line HCS-2/8. In addition, both chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation were inhibited, whereas cell death was promoted by treatment with NaF. Interestingly, combinational treatment with NaF and lactate enhanced translocation of phospho-Smad1/5/8 to the nucleus, as well as gene expression of ALP, VEGF, COL10a1, and matrix metalloproteinase13 (MMP13), which were the markers of late mature and hypertrophic chondrocytes. Furthermore, the production of type X collagen and activation of MMP9 were also promoted under the same conditions.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that decreased ATP production by NaF promotes hypertrophy-like changes via activation of phospho-Smad1/5/8 in the presence of lactate. Novel metabolic aspects of OA pathogenesis are indicated herein
Counting Majorana zero modes in superconductors
A counting formula for computing the number of (Majorana) zero modes bound to
topological point defects is evaluated in a gradient expansion for systems with
charge-conjugation symmetry. This semi-classical counting of zero modes is
applied to some examples that include graphene and a chiral p-wave
superconductor in two-dimensional space. In all cases, we explicitly relate the
counting of zero modes to Chern numbers.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure
Short communication: Identification of by-catch species of tuna purse seiners in Iranian waters of Oman Sea
One of the most visible direct impacts of fishing is the capture of non-target species, known collectively as by-catch. By-catch includes species that are unwanted and discarded (discards) and species that are retained and sold (byproduct) (Stobutzki et al., 2003). Although tuna purse seine fisheries have been shown to be selective, leading to lower levels of by-catch than other fisheries (Alverson et al., 1994; Kelleher, 2005), several species can be incidentally caught and, in some cases, discarded at sea. These include vulnerable and sensitive species such as turtles, mammals, and sharks (Minami et al. 2007; Romanov, 2008b). Tuna purse seine fisheries probably apply the most intensive direct human impact on the tropical epipelagic ecosystems in all oceans. Because of the worldwide scale of purse seine fisheries, an assessment of their impact on associated and dependent species is essential (Romanov, 2002a)
Egalitarian despots: hierarchy steepness, reciprocity and the grooming-trade model in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Biological-markets theory models the action of natural selection as a marketplace in which animals are viewed as traders with commodities to offer and exchange. Studies of female Old World monkeys have suggested that grooming might be employed as a commodity to be reciprocated or traded for alternative services, yet previous tests of this grooming-trade model in wild adult male chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have yielded mixed results. Here we provide the strongest test of the model to date for male chimpanzees: we use data drawn from two social groups (communities) of chimpanzees from different populations, and give explicit consideration to variation in dominance hierarchy steepness as such variation results in differing conditions for biological markets. First, analysis of data from published accounts of other chimpanzee communities, together with our own data, showed that hierarchy steepness varied considerably within and across communities and that the number of adult males in a community aged 20-30 years predicted hierarchy steepness. The two communities in which we tested predictions of the grooming-trade model lay at opposite extremes of this distribution. Second, in accord with the grooming-trade model, we found evidence that male chimpanzees trade grooming for agonistic support where hierarchies are steep (despotic) and consequent effective support is a rank-related commodity, but not where hierarchies are shallow (egalitarian). However, we also found that grooming was reciprocated regardless of hierarchy steepness. Our findings also hint at the possibility of agonistic competition, or at least exclusion, in relation to grooming opportunities compromising the free market envisioned by Biological Markets theory. Our results build on previous findings across chimpanzee communities to emphasise the importance of reciprocal grooming exchanges among adult male chimpanzees, which can be understood in a biological markets framework if grooming by or with particular individuals is a valuable commodity
The Compressibility of Minimal Lattice Knots
The (isothermic) compressibility of lattice knots can be examined as a model
of the effects of topology and geometry on the compressibility of ring
polymers. In this paper, the compressibility of minimal length lattice knots in
the simple cubic, face centered cubic and body centered cubic lattices are
determined. Our results show that the compressibility is generally not
monotonic, but in some cases increases with pressure. Differences of the
compressibility for different knot types show that topology is a factor
determining the compressibility of a lattice knot, and differences between the
three lattices show that compressibility is also a function of geometry.Comment: Submitted to J. Stat. Mec
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