18,106 research outputs found
Phases of lattice hard core bosons in a periodic superlattice
We study by Quantum Monte Carlo simulations the phase diagram of lattice hard
core bosons with nearest-neighbour repulsive interactions, in the presence of a
super-lattice of adsorption sites. For a moderate adsorption strength, the
system forms crystal phases registered with the adsorption lattice; a
"supersolid" phase exists, on both the vacancy and interstitial sides, whereas
at commensuration the superfluid density vanishes. The possible relevance of
these results to experiments on He films adsorbed on graphite is discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Vitronectin at sites of cell-substrate contact in cultures of rat myotubes
Affinity-purified antibodies to the serum glycoprotein, vitronectin, were used to study sites of cell-substrate contact in cultures of rat myotubes and fibroblasts. Cells were removed from the substrate by treatment with saponin, leaving fragments of plasma membrane attached to the glass coverslip. When stained for vitronectin by indirect immunofluorescence, large areas of the substrate were brightly labeled. The focal contacts of fibroblasts and the broad adhesion plaques of myotubes appeared black, however, indicating that the antibodies had failed to react with those areas. Contact sites within the adhesion plaque remained unlabeled after saponin-treated samples were extracted with Triton X-100, or after intact cultures were sheared with a stream of fixative. These procedures expose extracellular macromolecules at the cell-substrate interface, which can then be labeled with concanavalin A. In contrast, when samples were sheared and then sonicated to remove all the cellular material from the coverslip, the entire substrate labeled extensively and almost uniformly with anti- vitronectin. Extracellular molecules associated with substrate contacts were also studied after freeze-fracture, using a technique we term "post-release fracture labeling." Platinum replicas of the external membrane were removed from the glass with hydrofluoric acid to expose the extracellular material. Anti-vitronectin, bound to the replicas and visualized by a second antibody conjugated to colloidal gold, labeled the broad areas of close myotube-substrate attachment and the nearby glass equally well. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that vitronectin is present at all sites of cell-substrate contact, but that its antigenic sites are obscured by material deposited by both myotube and fibroblast cells
Finite Controllability of Infinite-Dimensional Quantum Systems
Quantum phenomena of interest in connection with applications to computation
and communication almost always involve generating specific transfers between
eigenstates, and their linear superpositions. For some quantum systems, such as
spin systems, the quantum evolution equation (the Schr\"{o}dinger equation) is
finite-dimensional and old results on controllability of systems defined on on
Lie groups and quotient spaces provide most of what is needed insofar as
controllability of non-dissipative systems is concerned. However, in an
infinite-dimensional setting, controlling the evolution of quantum systems
often presents difficulties, both conceptual and technical. In this paper we
present a systematic approach to a class of such problems for which it is
possible to avoid some of the technical issues. In particular, we analyze
controllability for infinite-dimensional bilinear systems under assumptions
that make controllability possible using trajectories lying in a nested family
of pre-defined subspaces. This result, which we call the Finite Controllability
Theorem, provides a set of sufficient conditions for controllability in an
infinite-dimensional setting. We consider specific physical systems that are of
interest for quantum computing, and provide insights into the types of quantum
operations (gates) that may be developed.Comment: This is a much improved version of the paper first submitted to the
arxiv in 2006 that has been under review since 2005. A shortened version of
this paper has been conditionally accepted for publication in IEEE
Transactions in Automatic Control (2009
Method and apparatus for fabricating improved solar cell modules
A method and apparatus for fabricating an improved solar cell module is described. The apparatus includes a supply drum for feeding a flexible strip having etched electrical circuitry deposited on it a supply drum for feeding into overlying engagement with the flexible strip a flexible tape having a pair of exposed tacky surfaces, and a plurality of rams for receiving and depositing a plurality of solar cells in side-by-side relation on an exposed tacky surface of the tape in electrical contacting engagement with the etched circuitry
Collapse and Revival of the Matter Wave Field of a Bose-Einstein Condensate
At the heart of a Bose-Einstein condensate lies its description as a single
giant matter wave. Such a Bose-Einstein condensate represents the most
"classical" form of a matter wave, just as an optical laser emits the most
classical form of an electromagnetic wave. Beneath this giant matter wave,
however, the discrete atoms represent a crucial granularity, i.e. a
quantization of this matter wave field. Here we show experimentally that this
quantization together with the cold collisions between atoms lead to a series
of collapses and revivals of the coherent matter wave field of a Bose-Einstein
condensate. We observe such collapses and revivals directly in the dynamical
evolution of a multiple matter wave interference pattern, and thereby
demonstrate a striking new behaviour of macroscopic quantum matter
Restricted Discrete Invariance and Self-Synchronization For Stable Walking of Bipedal Robots
Models of bipedal locomotion are hybrid, with a continuous component often
generated by a Lagrangian plus actuators, and a discrete component where leg
transfer takes place. The discrete component typically consists of a locally
embedded co-dimension one submanifold in the continuous state space of the
robot, called the switching surface, and a reset map that provides a new
initial condition when a solution of the continuous component intersects the
switching surface. The aim of this paper is to identify a low-dimensional
submanifold of the switching surface, which, when it can be rendered invariant
by the closed-loop dynamics, leads to asymptotically stable periodic gaits. The
paper begins this process by studying the well-known 3D Linear Inverted
Pendulum (LIP) model, where analytical results are much easier to obtain. A key
contribution here is the notion of \textit{self-synchronization}, which refers
to the periods of the pendular motions in the sagittal and frontal planes
tending to a common period. The notion of invariance resulting from the study
of the 3D LIP model is then extended to a 9-DOF 3D biped. A numerical study is
performed to illustrate that asymptotically stable walking may be obtained.Comment: Conferenc
Competing superfluid and density-wave ground-states of fermionic mixtures with mass imbalance in optical lattices
We study the effect of mass imbalance on the phase diagram of a two-component
fermionic mixture with attractive interactions in optical lattices. Using
static and dynamical mean-field theories, we show that the pure superfluid
phase is stable for all couplings when the mass imbalance is smaller than a
limiting value. For larger imbalance, phase separation between a superfluid and
a charge-density wave takes place when the coupling exceeds a critical
strength. The harmonic trap induces a spatial segregation of the two phases,
with a rapid variation of the density at the boundary.Comment: e.g.:4 pages, 3 figure
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