516 research outputs found
Unexpected Sources of Strontium to the Neuse and Cape Fear River Basins, North Carolina: Implications for the Global Strontium Isotope Budget in Seawater
Water, bedrock, and saprolite samples from the Neuse and Cape Fear River basins, North Carolina, were analyzed for 87Sr/86Sr and [Sr] to evaluate the control of exposed bedrock on fluvial Sr isotopic compositions and the influence of geology on Sr delivered to the ocean. The 87Sr/86Sr and [Sr] of the two rivers start low and rise downstream, eventually approximating recent ocean isotopic compositions before entering their estuaries. Groundwater samples from the headwaters have 87Sr/86Sr ratios that are lower than expected from the dominant exposed bedrock. The isotopic compositions of bedrock and saprolite samples vary predictably with rock type and age and show no correlation with degree of weathering. The data indicate that dominant surficial bedrock is not the primary source of Sr to the headwaters of the rivers. Rather, mafic dikes that focus groundwater flow and are more easily weathered than their silicic hosts impact the 87Sr/86Sr of the waters more than their limited exposure might suggest. Furthermore, the Sr isotopic composition of the water delivered to the marine environment is buffered by groundwater from coastal plain sedimentary rocks, leaving no evidence of upstream geology. The data suggest that rock type and structure exert significant control on the Sr isotope geochemistry of groundwater that enters into streams. Considering the global fluvial Sr budget, these results emphasize that, in some settings, (1) rock exposure area can be a poor indication of the geologic influence on Sr isotopic compositions of surface waters, and (2) downstream Sr isotopic compositions may not reflect upstream geology
Colossal magnetooptical conductivity in doped manganites
We show that the current carrier density collapse in doped manganites, which
results from bipolaron formation in the paramagnetic phase, leads to a colossal
change of the optical conductivity in an external magnetic field at
temperatures close to the ferromagnetic transition. As with the colossal
magnetoresistance (CMR) itself, the corresponding magnetooptical effect is
explained by the dissociation of localized bipolarons into mobile polarons
owing to the exchange interaction with the localized Mn spins in the
ferromagnetic phase. The effect is positive at low frequencies and negative in
the high-frequency region. The present results agree with available
experimental observations.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX 3.0, two eps-figures included in the tex
CMB Imprints of a Pre-Inflationary Climbing Phase
We discuss the implications for cosmic microwave background (CMB)
observables, of a class of pre-inflationary dynamics suggested by string models
where SUSY is broken due to the presence of D-branes and orientifolds
preserving incompatible portions of it. In these models the would-be inflaton
is forced to emerge from the initial singularity climbing up a mild exponential
potential, until it bounces against a steep exponential potential of "brane
SUSY breaking" scenarios, and as a result the ensuing descent gives rise to an
inflationary epoch that begins when the system is still well off its eventual
attractor. If a pre-inflationary climbing phase of this type had occurred
within 6-7 e-folds of the horizon exit for the largest observable wavelengths,
displacement off the attractor and initial-state effects would conspire to
suppress power in the primordial scalar spectrum, enhancing it in the tensor
spectrum and typically superposing oscillations on both. We investigate these
imprints on CMB observables over a range of parameters, examine their
statistical significance, and provide a semi-analytic rationale for our
results. It is tempting to ascribe at least part of the large-angle anomalies
in the CMB to pre-inflationary dynamics of this type.Comment: 38 pages, LaTeX, 11 eps figures, references added, matches version to
appear in JCA
Renormalization Group Approach to the Coulomb Pseudopotential for C_{60}
A numerical renormalization group technique recently developed by one of us
is used to analyse the Coulomb pseudopotential () in
for a variety of bare potentials. We find a large reduction in due to
intraball screening alone, leading to an interesting non-monotonic dependence
of on the bare interaction strength.
We find that is positive for physically reasonable bare parameters,
but small enough to make the electron-phonon coupling a viable mechanism for
superconductivity in alkali-doped fullerides. We end with some open problems.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 7 figures available from [email protected]
Lattice Study of the Decay B^0-bar -> rho^+ l^- nu_l-bar: Model-Independent Determination of |V_{ub}|
We present results of a lattice computation of the vector and axial-vector
current matrix elements relevant for the semileptonic decay B^0-bar -> rho^+
l^- nu_l-bar. The computations are performed in the quenched approximation of
lattice QCD on a 24^3 x 48 lattice at beta = 6.2, using an O(a) improved
fermionic action. Our principal result is for the differential decay rate,
dGamma/dq^2, for the decay B^0-bar -> rho^+ l^- nu_l-bar in a region beyond the
charm threshold, allowing a model-independent extraction of |V_{ub}| from
experimental measurements. Heavy quark symmetry relations between radiative and
semileptonic decays of B-bar mesons into light vector mesons are also
discussed.Comment: 22 pages LaTeX-209 (dependent on settings in a4.sty), 23 PostScript
figures included with epsf.sty. Complete PostScript file including figures
available at http://wwwhep.phys.soton.ac.uk/hepwww/papers/shep9518
Quantum disorder in the two-dimensional pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnet
We present the results of an exact diagonalization study of the spin-1/2
Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a two-dimensional version of the pyrochlore
lattice, also known as the square lattice with crossings or the checkerboard
lattice. Examining the low energy spectra for systems of up to 24 spins, we
find that all clusters studied have non-degenerate ground states with total
spin zero, and big energy gaps to states with higher total spin. We also find a
large number of non-magnetic excitations at energies within this spin gap.
Spin-spin and spin-Peierls correlation functions appear to be short-ranged, and
we suggest that the ground state is a spin liquid.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, RevTeX minor changes made, Figure 6 correcte
On the effects of the magnetic field and the isotopic substitution upon the infrared absorption of manganites
Employing a variational approach that takes into account electron-phonon and
magnetic interactions in perovskites with , the
effects of the magnetic field and the oxygen isotope substitution on the phase
diagram, the electron-phonon correlation function and the infrared absorption
at are studied. The lattice displacements show a strong correlation
with the conductivity and the magnetic properties of the system. Then the
conductivity spectra are characterized by a marked sensitivity to the external
parameters near the phase boundary.Comment: 10 figure
Rap1 binding to the talin 1 F0 domain makes a minimal contribution to murine platelet GPIIb-IIIa activation
Activation of platelet glycoprotein IIb-IIIa (GPIIb-IIIa; integrin aIIbb3) leads to high-affinity fibrinogen binding and platelet aggregation during hemostasis. Whereas GTP-bound Rap1 GTPase promotes talin 1 binding to the b3 cytoplasmic domain to activate platelet GPIIb-IIIa, the Rap1 effector that regulates talin association with b3 in platelets is unknown. Rap1 binding to the talin 1 F0 subdomain was proposed to forge the talin 1–Rap1 link in platelets. Here, we report a talin 1 point mutant (R35E) that significantly reduces Rap1 affinity without a significant effect on its structure or expression. Talin 1 head domain (THD) (R35E) was of similar potency to wild-type THD in activating aIIbb3 in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Coexpression with activated Rap1b increased activation, and coexpression with Rap1GAP1 reduced activation caused by transfection of wild-type THD or THD(R35E). Furthermore, platelets from Tln1R35E/R35E mice showed similar GPIIb-IIIa activation to those from wild- type littermates in response to multiple agonists. Tln1R35E/R35E platelets exhibited slightly reduced platelet aggregation in response to low doses of agonists; however, there was not a significant hemostatic defect, as judged by tail bleeding times. Thus, the Rap1–talin 1 F0 interaction has little effect on platelet GPIIb-IIIa activation and hemostasis and cannot account for the dramatic effects of loss of Rap1 activity on these platelet functions
Theory of Two-Dimensional Quantum Heisenberg Antiferromagnets with a Nearly Critical Ground State
We present the general theory of clean, two-dimensional, quantum Heisenberg
antiferromagnets which are close to the zero-temperature quantum transition
between ground states with and without long-range N\'{e}el order. For
N\'{e}el-ordered states, `nearly-critical' means that the ground state
spin-stiffness, , satisfies , where is the
nearest-neighbor exchange constant, while `nearly-critical' quantum-disordered
ground states have a energy-gap, , towards excitations with spin-1,
which satisfies . Under these circumstances, we show that the
wavevector/frequency-dependent uniform and staggered spin susceptibilities, and
the specific heat, are completely universal functions of just three
thermodynamic parameters. Explicit results for the universal scaling functions
are obtained by a expansion on the quantum non-linear sigma model,
and by Monte Carlo simulations. These calculations lead to a variety of
testable predictions for neutron scattering, NMR, and magnetization
measurements. Our results are in good agreement with a number of numerical
simulations and experiments on undoped and lightly-doped .Comment: 81 pages, REVTEX 3.0, smaller updated version, YCTP-xxx
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