On the Coulomb interaction in chiral-invariant one-dimensional electron systems

We consider a one-dimensional electron system, suitable for the description of the electronic correlations in a metallic carbon nanotube. Renormalization group methods are used to study the low-energy behavior of the unscreened Coulomb interaction between currents of well-defined chirality. In the limit of a very large number n of subbands we find a strong renormalization of the Fermi velocity, reminiscent of a similar phenomenon in the graphite sheet. For small n or sufficiently low energy, the Luttinger liquid behavior takes over, with a strong wavefunction renormalization leading to a vanishing quasiparticle weight. Our approach is appropriate to study the crossover from two-dimensional to one-dimensional behavior in carbon nanotubes of large radius.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX, PACS: 71.27.+a, 73.20.D, 05.30.F

Crossover from marginal Fermi liquid to Luttinger liquid behavior in carbon nanotubes

We study graphene-based electron systems with long-range Coulomb interaction by performing an analytic continuation in the number of dimensions. We characterize in this way the crossover between the marginal Fermi liquid behavior of a graphite layer and the Luttinger liquid behavior at $D = 1$. The former persists for any dimension above $D = 1$. However, the proximity to the $D = 1$ fixed-point strongly influences the phenomenology of quasi-onedimensional systems, giving rise to an effective power-law behavior of observables like the density of states. This applies to nanotubes of large radius, for which we predict a lower bound of the corresponding exponent that turns out to be very close to the value measured in multi-walled nanotubes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figure

Building health research systems to achieve better health

Health research systems can link knowledge generation with practical concerns to improve health and health equity. Interest in health research, and in how health research systems should best be organised, is moving up the agenda of bodies such as the World Health Organisation. Pioneering health research systems, for example those in Canada and the UK, show that progress is possible. However, radical steps are required to achieve this. Such steps should be based on evidence not anecdotes. Health Research Policy and Systems (HARPS) provides a vehicle for the publication of research, and informed opinion, on a range of topics related to the organisation of health research systems and the enormous benefits that can be achieved. Following the Mexico ministerial summit on health research, WHO has been identifying ways in which it could itself improve the use of research evidence. The results from this activity are soon to be published as a series of articles in HARPS. This editorial provides an account of some of these recent key developments in health research systems but places them in the context of a distinguished tradition of debate about the role of science in society. It also identifies some of the main issues on which 'research on health research' has already been conducted and published, in some cases in HARPS. Finding and retaining adequate financial and human resources to conduct health research is a major problem, especially in low and middle income countries where the need is often greatest. Research ethics and agenda-setting that responds to the demands of the public are issues of growing concern. Innovative and collaborative ways are being found to organise the conduct and utilisation of research so as to inform policy, and improve health and health equity. This is crucial, not least to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals. But much more progress is needed. The editorial ends by listing a wide range of topics related to the above priorities on which we hope to feature further articles in HARPS and thus contribute to an informed debate on how best to achieve such progress

Free Cooling Phase-Diagram of Hard-Spheres with Short- and Long-Range Interactions

We study the stability, the clustering and the phase-diagram of free cooling granular gases. The systems consist of mono-disperse particles with additional non-contact (long-range) interactions, and are simulated here by the event-driven molecular dynamics algorithm with discrete (short-range shoulders or wells) potentials (in both 2D and 3D). Astonishingly good agreement is found with a mean field theory, where only the energy dissipation term is modified to account for both repulsive or attractive non-contact interactions. Attractive potentials enhance cooling and structure formation (clustering), whereas repulsive potentials reduce it, as intuition suggests. The system evolution is controlled by a single parameter: the non-contact potential strength scaled by the fluctuation kinetic energy (granular temperature). When this is small, as expected, the classical homogeneous cooling state is found. However, if the effective dissipation is strong enough, structure formation proceeds, before (in the repulsive case) non-contact forces get strong enough to undo the clustering (due to the ongoing dissipation of granular temperature). For both repulsive and attractive potentials, in the homogeneous regime, the cooling shows a universal behaviour when the (inverse) control parameter is used as evolution variable instead of time. The transition to a non-homogeneous regime, as predicted by stability analysis, is affected by both dissipation and potential strength. This can be cast into a phase diagram where the system changes with time, which leaves open many challenges for future research.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figure

Do the gravitational corrections to the beta functions of the quartic and Yukawa couplings have an intrinsic physical meaning?

We study the beta functions of the quartic and Yukawa couplings of General Relativity and Unimodular Gravity coupled to the $\lambda\phi^4$ and Yukawa theories with masses. We show that the General Relativity corrections to those beta functions as obtained from the 1PI functional by using the standard MS multiplicative renormalization scheme of Dimensional Regularization are gauge dependent and, further, that they can be removed by a non-multiplicative, though local, field redefinition. An analogous analysis is carried out when General Relativity is replaced with Unimodular Gravity. Thus we show that any claim made about the change in the asymptotic behaviour of the quartic and Yukawa couplings made by General Relativity and Unimodular Gravity lack intrinsic physical meaning.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Consistent Approximations for the Optimal Control of Constrained Switched Systems

Though switched dynamical systems have shown great utility in modeling a variety of physical phenomena, the construction of an optimal control of such systems has proven difficult since it demands some type of optimal mode scheduling. In this paper, we devise an algorithm for the computation of an optimal control of constrained nonlinear switched dynamical systems. The control parameter for such systems include a continuous-valued input and discrete-valued input, where the latter corresponds to the mode of the switched system that is active at a particular instance in time. Our approach, which we prove converges to local minimizers of the constrained optimal control problem, first relaxes the discrete-valued input, then performs traditional optimal control, and then projects the constructed relaxed discrete-valued input back to a pure discrete-valued input by employing an extension to the classical Chattering Lemma that we prove. We extend this algorithm by formulating a computationally implementable algorithm which works by discretizing the time interval over which the switched dynamical system is defined. Importantly, we prove that this implementable algorithm constructs a sequence of points by recursive application that converge to the local minimizers of the original constrained optimal control problem. Four simulation experiments are included to validate the theoretical developments

Large N Effects and Renormalization of the Long-Range Coulomb Interaction in Carbon Nanotubes

We develop a dimensional regularization approach to deal with the low-energy effects of the long-range Coulomb interaction in 1D electron systems. The method allows us to avoid the infrared singularities arising from the long-range Coulomb interaction at D = 1, providing at the same time insight about the fixed-points of the theory. We show that the effect of increasing the number N of subbands at the Fermi level is opposite to that of approaching the bare Coulomb interaction in the limit D --> 1. Then, we devise a double scaling limit, in which the large N effects are able to tame the singularities due to the long-range interaction. Thus, regular expressions can be obtained for all observables right at D = 1, bearing also a dependence o the doping level of the system. Our results imply a variation with N in the value of the exponent for the tunneling density of states, which is in fair agreement with that observed in different transport experiments involving carbon nanotubes. As the doping level is increased in nanotubes of large radius and multi-walled nanotubes, we predict a significant reduction of order N^{-1/2} in the critical exponent of the tunneling density of states.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, PACS codes: 73.40, 11.10.

Copper(I)-Phosphinite Complexes in Click Cycloadditions: Three-Component Reactions and Preparation of 5-Iodotriazoles

© 2016 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.The remarkable activity displayed by copper(I)–phosphinite complexes of general formula [CuBr(L)] in two challenging cycloadditions is reported: a) the one-pot azidonation/cycloaddition of boronic acids, NaN3, and terminal alkynes; b) the cycloaddition of azides and iodoalkynes. These air-stable catalysts led to very good results in both cases and the expected triazoles could be isolated in pure form under ‘Click-suitable’ conditions