Probing bulk states of correlated electron systems by high-resolution resonance photoemission

Electron correlations are known to play an important role in determining the unusual physical properties of a variety of compounds. Such properties include high-temperature superconductivity, heavy fermion behaviour and metal-to-insulator transitions. High-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) provides a means of directly probing the electronic states (particularly those near the Fermi level) in these materials, but the short photoelectron mean free paths (< or = 5 A) associated with the low excitation energies conventionally used (< or = 120 eV) make this a surface-sensitive technique. Now that high-resolution PES is possible at much higher energies, with mean free paths as long as 15 A (ref. 6), it should become feasible to probe the bulk electronic states in these materials. Here we demonstrate the power of this technique by applying it to the cerium compounds CeRu2Si2 and CeRu2. Previous PES studies of these compounds revealed very similar spectra for the Ce 4f electronic states, yet it is expected that such states should be different owing to their differing degrees of hybridization with other valence bands. Our determination of the bulk Ce 4f electronic states of these compounds resolves these differences.     

Dynamic instabilities and memory effects in vortex matter

The magnetic flux line lattice in type II superconductors serves as a useful system in which to study condensed matter flow, as its dynamic properties are tunable. Recent studies have shown a number of puzzling phenomena associated with vortex motion, including: low-frequency noise and slow voltage oscillations; a history-dependent dynamic response, and memory of the direction, amplitude duration and frequency of the previously applied current; high vortex mobility for alternating current, but no apparent vortex motion for direct currents; and strong suppression of an a.c. response by small d.c. bias. Taken together, these phenomena are incompatible with current understanding of vortex dynamics. Here we report a generic mechanism that accounts for these observations. Our model, which is derived from investigations of the current distribution across single crystals of NbSe2, is based on a competition between the injection of a disordered vortex phase at the sample edges, and the dynamic annealing of this metastable disorder by the transport current. For an alternating current, only narrow regions near the edges are in the disordered phase, while for d.c. bias, most of the sample is in the disordered phase--preventing vortex motion because of more efficient pinning. The resulting spatial dependence of the disordered vortex system serves as an active memory of the previous history.     

A first-order liquid-liquid phase transition in phosphorus

First-order structural phase transitions are common in crystalline solids, whereas first-order liquid-liquid phase transitions (that is, transitions between two distinct liquid forms with different density and entropy) are exceedingly rare in pure substances. But recent theoretical and experimental studies have shown evidence for such a transition in several materials, including supercooled water and liquid carbon. Here we report an in situ X-ray diffraction observation of a liquid-liquid transition in phosphorus, involving an abrupt, pressure-induced structural change between two distinct liquid forms. In addition to a known form of liquid phosphorus--a molecular liquid comprising tetrahedral P4 molecules--we have found a polymeric form at pressures above 1 GPa. Changing the pressure results in a reversible transformation from the low-pressure molecular form into the high-pressure polymeric form. The transformation is sharp and rapid, occurring within a few minutes over a pressure range of less than 0.02 GPa. During the transformation, the two forms of liquid coexist. These features are strongly suggestive of a first-order liquid-liquid phase transition.     

Field trial of an HTS filter system on a CDMA base station

This paper presents the field trial results of a high temperature superconductor filter system (HTSFS) in a code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile communication base station (BTS) in Tangshan, China. The center frequency of the HTSFS is 830 MHz with 1.4% fractional bandwidth. The noise figure (NF) of the HTSFS, including connectors and cables, is 0.8 dB. The field trial results show that after the HTSFS was installed in the receiver front-end of a CDMA base station, the transmitting power of handset was decreased by 3.1 dB on average. Up to now, the HTSFS has been running steadily in the base station for more than 22 months, demonstrating the reliability and stability of the system.     

Plasma sheet stretching accompanied by field aligned energetic ion fluxes observed by the NUADU instrument aboard TC-2

The NUADU (NeUtral Atom Detector Unit) instrument aboard TC-2 recorded 4л solid angle images of charged particles (E >180 keV) spiraling around the magnetic field lines in the near-Earth plasma sheet (at ~ -7 RE, equatorial dawn-to-night side) during a geomagnetic storm (Dst =-219 nT) on August 24, 2005. Energetic ion beam events characterized by symmetrical, ring-like, solid angle distributions around ambient magnetic field lines were observed during a 34-minute traversal of the plasma sheet by the TC-2 spacecraft. Also, observations during these multiple crossings of the plasma sheet were monitored by the magnetometer experiment (FGM) aboard the same spacecraft. During each crossing, a whistler-mode chorus enhancement was observed in the anisotropic area by the TC-2 low frequency electromagnetic wave detector (LFEW/TC-2) at a frequency just above that of the local lower hybrid wave. A comparison of the ion pitch angle distribution (PAD) map with the ambient magnetic field shows that an enhancement in the field aligned energetic ion flux was accompanied by tailward stretching of the magnetic field lines in the plasma sheet. In contrast, the perpendicular ion-flux enhancement was accompanied by a signature indicating the corresponding shrinkage of the magnetic field lines in the plasma sheet. Since both parallel ion-flux and perpendicular ion-flux enhancements occurred intermittently, the data were interpreted to imply a dynamical, oscillatory process of the magnetic field line (stretching and shrinking) in the near-Earth plasma sheet, which might have acted to help establish an interaction region in this area which would support continuous aurora-substorm triggering during the ongoing magnetic storm. The whistler-mode chorus may have been produced due to ion gyro-resonance during particle pitch angle diffusion after the plasma sheet compression.     

P systems with array objects and array rewriting rules

Array P systems were introduced by Paun Gh. which is linking the two areas of membrane computing and picture grammars. Puzzle grammars were introduced by us for generating connected picture arrays in the two-dimensional plane, motivated by the problem of tiling the plane. On the other hand, incorporating into arrays the developmental type of generation used in the well-known biologically motivated L systems, Siromoney and Siromoney proposed a very general rectangular array generating model, called extended controlled tabled L array system (ECTLAS). In this paper we introduce two variations of the array P system, called BPG array P system and parallel array P system. The former has in the regions array objects and basic puzzle grammar rules (BPG), which are a specific kind of puzzle grammar rules. In the latter, the regions have rectangular array objects and tables of context-free rules. We examine these two types of P systems for their array generative power.     

Phylogenetic relationships of native and introduced Bemisia tabaci (Homoptera:Aleyrodidae) from China and India based on mtCOI DNA sequencing and host plant comparisons

Phylogenetic relationships for Bemisia tabaci were reconstructed by analysis of a ～780 bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) gene with an emphasis on geographic range and distribution among eight eudicot plant families that are common hosts of B. tabaci worldwide to elucidate key phylogeographic linkages between populations extant in China (n=31) and India (n=34). Bootstrap values for the Maximum Parsimony tree were highly robust for all major nodes involving the major Asian clade, subgroups, and sister groups within, at 92%—100%. Between-clade distances for the Southeast Asia and three other major clades, e.g. from sub-Sahara Africa, North Africa-Mediterranean, and the Americas, were approximately >16% divergent. Two major Asian subgroups (I, II) were resolved, which represented populations indigenous to the region, comprising two (I a, I b) and five (II a—e) sister groups, respectively, which diverged by 11%. Two distinct populations from sunflower in Hyderabad grouped separately within the two Asian subgroups. All other populations grouped uniquely within Asian subgroup II or I. The “B” biotype was identified in 23 collections from China at 97.3%—99.5% nucleotide identity with “B” biotype reference sequences; it was not identified in collections from India. The majority of haplotypes were associated with 3—4 plant families, with one exception that for sister group IId (sesame, India), it might be monophagous. Thus, B. tabaci from the southeastern and near eastern regions of the Asian continent comprise of a large number of ancestral, richly divergent, mostly polyphagous populations. This region is therefore hypothesized to constitute an important Old World center of diversification for the B. tabaci complex, together with sub-Saharan Africa.     

荧光法在对-二苯氨基苯基硼酸(DPBA)对单糖的识别作用中的应用

采用荧光光谱法研究了具有分子内电荷转移性质的一种新型硼酸衍生物,对-二苯氨基苯基硼酸(DPBA)与羧甲基-β-环糊精(CM-β-CD)的包合行为,并考察了包合物DPBA在CM-β-CD存在下与四种单糖分子的识别作用,实验结果表明,DPBA与果糖,葡萄糖,半乳糖,甘露糖分子的结合计量比均为1∶1,结合常数从大到小的顺序为:D-果糖>>D-甘露糖>D-半乳糖≈D-葡萄糖.CM-β-CD对DPBA具有增溶增敏性,从而能够在水溶液中更好地对糖分子进行识别.