Preface: Centennial Physics at Peking University

The Year 2013 is probably as much remarkable for the development of modern physical science in China as it is for School of Physics at Peking University. One hundred years ago, the physics division was born in Peking University, as the very first physics higher education unit having appeared in modern national universities of China. Ill tile first one hundred years, the School has made distinguished contributions to the nation and to the world in both education and academia. As we celebrate the birthday of its first century and set our sights on the next, it is my great pleasure to invite you to this special issue of Frontier of Physics on ＂Centennial Physics at Peking University＂. In 1913, the ＂WuLi Men＂ （Physics Division） was established at Peking University, and was later renamed the Department of Physics in 1919. With the reorganization of the Chinese system of higher education in 1952, the new Physics Department of Peking University was created from the merger of the physics departments of Peking University, Tsinghua University and Yenching University. This became the premier center for physics in China. The School of Physics was established in 2001, and includes not only the traditional fields of study in physics, but also related physical sciences. Throughout its history, the School has educated and hosted many prominent physicists, including figures such as Ta-You Wu, C. N. Yang, T. D. Lee, and Kun Huang. Today, the School of Physics includes Physics, Astronomy, Atmospheric ＆： Oceanic Sciences, and Nuclear Science ~： Technology. Research is devoted not only to tile frontiers of fundamental physics but also to the innovation of advanced technology. Major research fields include high energy physics, astroptwsics and cosmology, radioactive nuclear physics, high energy-density physics, key technologies for advanced light sources and particle beams, the interaction of particle beams with materials, mesoscopic semiconductor light emission and laser physics, ultra- fast physics, optical properties of artificial microstructures and mesoscopic devices, electro-magnetic properties of mesoscopic functional systems, mesoscopic theory and material computation, high-temperature superconductivity physics and devices, nano-material and devices, near-field optics, quantum materials and quantum manipulation, soft condensed matter physics, biophysics, medical physics and imaging, atmospheric physics and the environment, meteorology and climate change, physical oceanography, and many others. The School consists of eleven divisions and seven related research institutes as follows, especially in which Daniel Chee Tsui Laboratory at Peking University was established in 2012, as Prof. Tsui, 1988 Nobel Prize Laureate, became a member of the School.     

Department of Physics Renmin University of China

Location Renmin University of China 59 Zhongguancun Ave.,Beijing 100872,China Futher Information:http:www.phys.ruc.edu.cn/Location Renmin University is one of top universities in China.The Department of Physics was founded in the fall of 2005.The Department has 35 full-time faculty members,including 20 professors,12 associate professors,and 3 lecturers.Their orientation is high-quality research combined with physics instruction across the full spectrum of core subjects.The activities of the department are designed to exploit the intrinsic synergy of innovative research teaching and academic exchanges in physics and related disciplines all of which are pursued at an internationally recognized standard.     

Editorial Announcement： Withdrawal of Chinese Physics Letters 23 （2006） 1603, ＇Diffuse Backscattering Mueller Matrices Patterns from Turbid Media＇ by Zhang Lian-Shun et al.

The editorial policy of Chinese Physics Letters （CPL）, as assigned by the Chinese Physical Society, is to provide rapid publication of short reports and important research in all fields of physics. Thus, the journal provides its diverse readership with coverage of major original advances in all aspects of physics, including the newest and most important achievements of physicists throughout the world.[第一段]     

Computational studies on the interactions of nanomaterials with proteins and their impacts

The intensive concern over the biosafety of nanomaterials demands the systematic study of the mechanisms underlying their biological effects. Many of the effects of nanomaterials can be attributed to their interactions with proteins and their impacts on protein function. On the other hand, nanomaterials show potential for a variety of biomedical applications,many of which also involve direct interactions with proteins. In this paper, we review some recent computational studies on this subject, especially those investigating the interactions of carbon and gold nanomaterials. Beside hydrophobic andπ-stacking interactions, the mode of interaction of carbon nanomaterials can also be regulated by their functional groups.The coatings of gold nanomaterials similarly adjust their mode of interaction, in addition to coordination interactions with the sulfur groups of cysteine residues and the imidazole groups of histidine residues. Nanomaterials can interact with multiple proteins and their impacts on protein activity are attributed to a wide spectrum of mechanisms. These findings on the mechanisms of nanomaterial–protein interactions can further guide the design and development of nanomaterials to realize their application in disease diagnosis and treatment.     

Brief Introduction to Chinese Physics C

Chinese Physics C(High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics)is a science periodical focusing on specialized fields with its first issue published in 1977.It is sponsored by the Chinese Physical Society,and supported by the Institute of High Energy Physics and the Institute of Modern Physics,the Chinese Academy of Sciences and distributed monthly. This journal publishes research papers written in English on theories,experiments and applications in Particle Physics,Nuclear Physics,Astrophysics and Cosmology related to particles and nuclei,Detectors and     

Architecture of Collaborating Frameworks：Simulation,Visualisation,User Interface and Analysis

In modern high energy and astrophysics experiments the variety of user requirements and the complexity of the problem domain often involve the collaboration of several software frameworks,and different components are responsible for providing the functionalities related to each domain.For instance,a common use case consists in studying the physics effects and the detector performance,resulting from primary events,in a given detector configuration,to evaluate the physics reach of the experiment or optimise the detector design,Such a study typically involves various components:simulation,Visualisation,Analysis and (interactive)User Interface.We focus on the design aspects of the collaboration of these frameworks and on the technologies that help to simplify the complex process of software design.     

Accelerating structure design and fabrication for KIPT and PAL XFEL

ANL (Argonne National Laboratory) and the National Science Center “Kharkov Institute of Physics Technology” (NSC KIPT, Kharkov, Ukraine) jointly propose to design and build a 100 MeV/100 kW linear accelerator which will be used to drive the neutron source subcritical assembly. The linac has almost finished assembly in KIPT by a team from the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP, Beijing, China). The design and measurement result of the accelerating system of the linac will be described in this paper.     

Status and Plan of the HL-2A Project

HL-2A is a new divertor tokamak under construction at Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP), Chengdu, China, based on the experience from HL-1 and HL-1M. HL is the short term of a Chinese word that means “ Toroidal Current Device“ . The main objectives of HL-2A are to produce more adaptable divertor configurations to study energy exhaust and impurity control(the first divertor tokamak plasma in China), and to study enhanced plasma confinement by profile control and moderate plasma shaping.     

High pressure structural phase transitions of TiO_2 nanomaterials

Recently, the high pressure study on the TiO_2 nanomaterials has attracted considerable attention due to the typical crystal structure and the fascinating properties of TiO_2 with nanoscale sizes. In this paper, we briefly review the recent progress in the high pressure phase transitions of TiO_2 nanomaterials. We discuss the size effects and morphology effects on the high pressure phase transitions of TiO_2 nanomaterials with different particle sizes, morphologies, and microstructures. Several typical pressure-induced structural phase transitions in TiO_2 nanomaterials are presented, including size-dependent phase transition selectivity in nanoparticles, morphology-tuned phase transition in nanowires, nanosheets,and nanoporous materials, and pressure-induced amorphization(PIA) and polyamorphism in ultrafine nanoparticles and TiO_2-B nanoribbons. Various TiO_2 nanostructural materials with high pressure structures are prepared successfully by high pressure treatment of the corresponding crystal nanomaterials, such as amorphous TiO_2 nanoribbons, α-PbO_2-type TiO_2 nanowires, nanosheets, and nanoporous materials. These studies suggest that the high pressure phase transitions of TiO_2 nanomaterials depend on the nanosize, morphology, interface energy, and microstructure. The diversity of high pressure behaviors of TiO_2 nanomaterials provides a new insight into the properties of nanomaterials, and paves a way for preparing new nanomaterials with novel high pressure structures and properties for various applications.