8,484 research outputs found
Interplay between Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in a Multi-layered System
Based on a microscopic model, we study the interplay between
superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in a multi-layered system, where two
superconductors are separated by an antiferromagnetic region. Within a
self-consistent mean-field theory, this system is solved numerically. We find
that the antiferromagnetism in the middle layers profoundly affects the
supercurrent flowing across the junction, while the phase difference across the
junction influences the development of antiferromagnetism in the middle layers.
This study may not only shed new light on the mechanism for high-
superconductors, but also bring important insights to building
Josephson-junction-based quantum devices, such as SQUID and superconducting
qubit.Comment: 4+ pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Quantum-Classical Transition of Photon-Carnot Engine Induced by Quantum Decoherence
We study the physical implementation of the Photon Carnot engine (PCE) based
on the cavity QED system [M. Scully et al, Science, \textbf{299}, 862 (2003)].
Here, we analyze two decoherence mechanisms for the more practical systems of
PCE, the dissipation of photon field and the pure dephasing of the input atoms.
As a result we find that (I) the PCE can work well to some extent even in the
existence of the cavity loss (photon dissipation); and (II) the short-time
atomic dephasing, which can destroy the PCE, is a fatal problem to be overcome.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Smectic order, pinning, and phase transition in a smectic liquid crystal cell with a random substrate
We study smectic-liquid-crystal order in a cell with a heterogeneous
substrate imposing surface random positional and orientational pinnings.
Proposing a minimal random elastic model, we demonstrate that, for a thick
cell, the smectic state without a rubbed substrate is always unstable at long
scales and, for weak random pinning, is replaced by a smectic glass state. We
compute the statistics of the associated substrate-driven distortions and the
characteristic smectic domain size on the heterogeneous substrate and in the
bulk. We find that for weak disorder, the system exhibits a three-dimensional
temperature-controlled phase transition between a weakly and strongly pinned
smectic glass states akin to the Cardy-Ostlund phase transition. We explore
experimental implications of the predicted phenomenology and suggest that it
provides a plausible explanation for the experimental observations on polarized
light microscopy and x-ray scattering.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures, Published in PRE, with minor typos correcte
Stability and distortions of liquid crystal order in a cell with a heterogeneous substrate
We study stability and distortions of liquid crystal nematic order in a cell
with a random heterogeneous substrate. Modeling this system as a bulk xy model
with quenched disorder confined to a surface, we find that nematic order is
marginally unstable to such surface pinning. We compute the length scale beyond
which nematic distortions become large and calculate orientational correlation
functions using the functional renormalization-group and matching methods,
finding universal logarithmic and double-logarithmic distortions in two and
three dimensions, respectively. We extend these results to a finite-thickness
liquid crystal cell with a second homogeneous substrate, detailing crossovers
as a function of random pinning strength and cell thickness. We conclude with
analysis of experimental signatures of these distortions in a conventional
crossed-polarizer-analyzer light microscopy.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures, Published in PRE, with minor typos correcte
Isolation of Unknown Genes from Human Bone Marrow by Differental Screening and Single-Pass cDNA Sequences Determination
A cDNA sequencing project was initiated to characterize gene expression in human bone marrow and develop strategies to isolate novel genes. Forty-eight random cDNAs from total human bone marrow were subjected to single-pass DNA sequence analysis to determine a limited complexity of mRNAs expressed in the bone marrow. Overall, 8 cDNAs (17%) showed no similarity to known sequences. Information from DNA sequence analysis was used to develop a differential prescreen to subtract unwanted cDNAs and to enrich for unknown cDNAs. Forty-eight cDNAs that were negative with a complex probe were subject to single-pass DNA sequence determination. Of these prescreened cDNAs, the number of unknown sequences increased to 23 (48%). Unknown cDNAs were also characterized by RNA expression analysis using 25 different human leukemic cell lines. Of 13 unknown cDNAs tested, 10 were expressed in all cell types tested and 3 revealed a hematopoietic lineage-restricted expression pattern. Interestingly, while a total of only 96 bone marrow cDNAs were sequenced, 31 of these cDNAs represent sequences from unknown genes and 12 showed significant similarities to sequences in the data bases. One cDNA revealed a significant similarity to a serine/threonine-protein kinase at the amino acid level (56% identity for 123 amino acids) and may represent a previously unknown kinase. Differential screening techniques coupled with single-pass cDNA sequence analysis may prove to be a powerful and simple technique to examine developmental gene expression
Quantum signature scheme with single photons
Quantum digital signature combines quantum theory with classical digital
signature. The main goal of this field is to take advantage of quantum effects
to provide unconditionally secure signature. We present a quantum signature
scheme with message recovery without using entangle effect. The most important
property of the proposed scheme is that it is not necessary for the scheme to
use Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states. The present scheme utilizes single
photons to achieve the aim of signature and verification. The security of the
scheme relies on the quantum one-time pad and quantum key distribution. The
efficiency analysis shows that the proposed scheme is an efficient scheme
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