7,975 research outputs found

    Jarzynski equation for a simple quantum system: Comparing two definitions of work

    Full text link
    The validity of the Jarzynski equation for a very simple, exactly solvable quantum system is analyzed. The implications of two different definitions of work proposed in the literature are investigated. The first one derives from measurements of the system energy at the beginning and at the end of the process under consideration making the work a classical stochastic variable with transition probabilities derived from quantum mechanics. In the second definition an operator of work is introduced and the average in the Jarzynski equation is a quantum expectation value. For the first definition a general quantum mechanical version of the Jarzynski equation is known to hold. For the second one the Jarzynski equation fails to yield the free energy difference at low temperature.Comment: 5 papes, 1 figure largly rewritten and slightly enlarged versio

    Technique for experimental determination of radiation interchange factors in solar wavelengths

    Get PDF
    Process obtains solar heating data which support analytical design. Process yields quantitative information on local solar exposure of models which are geometrically and reflectively similar to prototypes under study. Models are tested in a shirtsleeve environment

    Measurement of the proton light response of various LAB based scintillators and its implication for supernova neutrino detection via neutrino-proton scattering

    Get PDF
    The proton light output function in electron-equivalent energy of various scintillators based on linear alkylbenzene (LAB) has been measured in the energy range from 1 MeV to 17.15 MeV for the first time. The measurement was performed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) using a neutron beam with continuous energy distribution. The proton light output data is extracted from proton recoil spectra originating from neutron-proton scattering in the scintillator. The functional behavior of the proton light output is described succesfully by Birks' law with a Birks constant kB between (0.0094 +/- 0.0002) cm/MeV and (0.0098 +/- 0.0003) cm/MeV for the different LAB solutions. The constant C, parameterizing the quadratic term in the generalized Birks law, is consistent with zero for all investigated scintillators with an upper limit (95% CL) of about 10^{-7} cm^2/MeV^2. The resulting quenching factors are especially important for future planned supernova neutrino detection based on the elastic scattering of neutrinos on protons. The impact of proton quenching on the supernova event yield from neutrino-proton scattering is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables, updated version for publication in Eur.Phys.J.

    Recombining your way out of trouble: the genetic architecture of hybrid fitness under environmental stress

    Get PDF
    Hybridization between species is a fundamental evolutionary force that can both promote and delay adaptation. There is a deficit in our understanding of the genetic basis of hybrid fitness, especially in non-domesticated organisms. We also know little about how hybrid fitness changes as a function of environmental stress. Here, we made genetically variable F2 hybrid populations from two divergent Saccharomyces yeast species, exposed populations to ten toxins, and sequenced the most resilient hybrids on low coverage using ddRADseq. We expected to find strong negative epistasis and heterozygote advantage in the hybrid genomes. We investigated three aspects of hybridness: 1) hybridity, 2) interspecific heterozygosity, and 3) epistasis (positive or negative associations between non-homologous chromosomes). Linear mixed effect models revealed strong genotype-by-environment interactions with many chromosomes and chromosomal interactions showing species-biased content depending on the environment. Against our predictions, we found extensive selection against heterozygosity such that homozygous allelic combinations from the same species were strongly overrepresented in an otherwise hybrid genomic background. We also observed multiple cases of positive epistasis between chromosomes from opposite species, confirmed by epistasis- and selection-free simulations, which is surprising given the large divergence of the parental species (~15% genome-wide). Together, these results suggest that stress-resilient hybrid genomes can be assembled from the best features of both parents, without paying high costs of negative epistasis across large evolutionary distances. Our findings illustrate the importance of measuring genetic trait architecture in an environmental context when determining the evolutionary potential of hybrid populations

    Particle alignments and shape change in 66^{66}Ge and 68^{68}Ge

    Full text link
    The structure of the NZN \approx Z nuclei 66^{66}Ge and 68^{68}Ge is studied by the shell model on a spherical basis. The calculations with an extended P+QQP+QQ Hamiltonian in the configuration space (2p3/22p_{3/2}, 1f5/21f_{5/2}, 2p1/22p_{1/2}, 1g9/21g_{9/2}) succeed in reproducing experimental energy levels, moments of inertia and QQ moments in Ge isotopes. Using the reliable wave functions, this paper investigates particle alignments and nuclear shapes in 66^{66}Ge and 68^{68}Ge. It is shown that structural changes in the four sequences of the positive- and negative-parity yrast states with even JJ and odd JJ are caused by various types of particle alignments in the g9/2g_{9/2} orbit. The nuclear shape is investigated by calculating spectroscopic QQ moments of the first and second 2+2^+ states, and moreover the triaxiality is examined by the constrained Hatree-Fock method. The changes of the first band crossing and the nuclear deformation depending on the neutron number are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
    corecore