Empirical analysis of the evolution of a scientific collaboration network

We present an analysis of the temporal evolution of a scientific coauthorship network, the genetic programming network. We find evidence that the network grows according to preferential attachment, with a slightly sublinear rate. We empirically find how a giant component forms and develops, and we characterize the network by several other time-varying quantities: the mean degree, the clustering coefficient, the average path length, and the degree distribution. We find that the first three statistics increase over time in the growing network; the degree distribution tends to stabilize toward an exponentially truncated power-law. We finally suggest an effective network interpretation that takes into account the aging of collaboration relationships.     

On the spreading and localization of risky information in social networks

We propose a model for the localization of risky information in social (scale free) networks where we assume that risky information can propagate only between “mutually trusted nodes” (MTN). We propose an algorithm to construct the MTN network and show that there is a critical value of trusted nodes below which information localizes. This critical value increases drastically if a fraction p of nodes does not transfer information at all. We study the fraction of initial messengers needed to inform a desired fraction of the network as a function of the average number of trusted nodes and discuss possible applications of the model also to marketing and to the spreading of a disease with very short incubation time.     

From unweighted to weighted networks with local information

In this paper, we analyze an evolving model with local information which can generate a class of networks by choosing different values of the parameter p. The model introduced exhibits the transition from unweighted networks to weighted networks because the distribution of the edge weight can be widely tuned. With the increase in the local information, the degree correlation of the network transforms from assortative to disassortative. We also study the distribution of the degree, strength and edge weight, which all show crossover between exponential and scale-free. Finally, an application of the proposed model to the study of the synchronization is considered. It is concluded that the synchronizability is enhanced when the heterogeneity of the edge weight is reduced.     

Relaxation- and decoherence-free subspaces in networks of weakly and strongly coupled resonators

We consider a network of interacting resonators and analyze the physical ingredients that enable the emergence of relaxation-free and decoherence-free subspaces. We investigate two different situations: (i) when the whole network interacts with a common reservoir and (ii) when each resonator, strongly coupled to each other, interacts with its own reservoir. Our main result is that both subspaces are generated when all the resonators couple with the same group of reservoir modes, thus building up a correlation (among these modes), which has the potential to shield particular network states against relaxation and/or decoherence.     

From regular to growing small-world networks

We propose a growing model which interpolates between one-dimensional regular lattice and small-world networks. The model undergoes an interesting phase transition from large to small worlds. We investigate the structural properties by both theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. Our growing model is a complementarity for the important static Watts-Strogatz network model.     

A hybrid method for the parallel computation of Green’s functions

Quantum transport models for nanodevices using the non-equilibrium Green’s function method require the repeated calculation of the block tridiagonal part of the Green’s and lesser Green’s function matrices. This problem is related to the calculation of the inverse of a sparse matrix. Because of the large number of times this calculation needs to be performed, this is computationally very expensive even on supercomputers. The classical approach is based on recurrence formulas which cannot be efficiently parallelized. This practically prevents the solution of large problems with hundreds of thousands of atoms. We propose new recurrences for a general class of sparse matrices to calculate Green’s and lesser Green’s function matrices which extend formulas derived by Takahashi and others. We show that these recurrences may lead to a dramatically reduced computational cost because they only require computing a small number of entries of the inverse matrix. Then, we propose a parallelization strategy for block tridiagonal matrices which involves a combination of Schur complement calculations and cyclic reduction. It achieves good scalability even on problems of modest size.     

Community structure in the United States House of Representatives

We investigate the networks of committee and subcommittee assignments in the United States House of Representatives from the 101st-108th Congresses, with the committees connected by “interlocks” or common membership. We examine the community structure in these networks using several methods, revealing strong links between certain committees as well as an intrinsic hierarchical structure in the House as a whole. We identify structural changes, including additional hierarchical levels and higher modularity, resulting from the 1994 election, in which the Republican party earned majority status in the House for the first time in more than 40 years. We also combine our network approach with the analysis of roll call votes using singular value decomposition to uncover correlations between the political and organizational structure of House committees.     

Isotopically controlled semiconductors

A review of recent research involving isotopically controlled semiconductors is presented. Studies with isotopically enriched semiconductor structures experienced a dramatic expansion at the end of the cold war when significant quantities of enriched isotopes of elements forming semiconductors became available for worldwide collaborations. Isotopes of an element differ in nuclear mass, may have different nuclear spins and undergo different nuclear reactions. Among the latter, the capture of thermal neutrons, which can lead to neutron transmutation doping, can be considered the most important one for semiconductors. Experimental and theoretical research exploiting the differences in all the properties has been conducted and will be illustrated with selected examples. Manuel Cardona, the longtime editor-in-chief of solid state communications has been and continues to be one of the major contributors to this field of solid state physics and it is a great pleasure to dedicate this review to him.     

Rapid structure determination of disordered materials: study of GeSe2 glass

X-ray diffraction experiments on GeSe₂ glass employing an Imaging Plate detector system have been carried out and their performance compared to that of traditional experiments employing point-type detectors. Imaging Plate detectors have been found to perform very well delivering good quality data for just a second. The analysis of the experimental data shows that the atomic ordering in GeSe₂ glass bears many of the characteristics of a random network of Ge-Se₄ tetrahedra.     

A symmetry principle for topological quantum order

We present a unifying framework to study physical systems which exhibit topological quantum order (TQO). The major guiding principle behind our approach is that of symmetries and entanglement. These symmetries may be actual symmetries of the Hamiltonian characterizing the system, or emergent symmetries. To this end, we introduce the concept of low-dimensional Gauge-like symmetries (GLSs), and the physical conservation laws (including topological terms, fractionalization, and the absence of quasi-particle excitations) which emerge from them. We prove then sufficient conditions for TQO at both zero and finite temperatures. The physical engine for TQO are topological defects associated with the restoration of GLSs. These defects propagate freely through the system and enforce TQO. Our results are strongest for gapped systems with continuous GLSs. At zero temperature, selection rules associated with the GLSs enable us to systematically construct general states with TQO; these selection rules do not rely on the existence of a finite gap between the ground states to all other excited states. Indices associated with these symmetries correspond to different topological sectors. All currently known examples of TQO display GLSs. Other systems exhibiting such symmetries include Hamiltonians depicting orbital-dependent spin-exchange and Jahn-Teller effects in transition metal orbital compounds, short-range frustrated Klein spin models, and p+ip superconducting arrays. The symmetry based framework discussed herein allows us to go beyond standard topological field theories and systematically engineer new physical models with finite temperature TQO (both Abelian and non-Abelian). Furthermore, we analyze the insufficiency of entanglement entropy (we introduce SU(N) Klein models on small world networks to make the argument even sharper), spectral structures, maximal string correlators, and fractionalization in establishing TQO. We show that Kitaev’s Toric code model and Wen’s plaquette model are equivalent and reduce, by a duality mapping, to an Ising chain, demonstrating that despite the spectral gap in these systems the toric operator expectation values may vanish once thermal fluctuations are present. This illustrates the fact that the quantum states themselves in a particular (operator language) representation encode TQO and that the duality mappings, being non-local in the original representation, disentangle the order. We present a general algorithm for the construction of long-range string and brane orders in general systems with entangled ground states; this algorithm relies on general ground states selection rules and becomes of the broadest applicability in gapped systems in arbitrary dimensions. We exactly recast some known non-local string correlators in terms of local correlation functions. We discuss relations to problems in graph theory.     

3000% high-field magnetoresistance in super-lattices of CoFe nanoparticles

We report on magnetotransport measurements on millimeter-large super-lattices of CoFe nanoparticles surrounded by an organic layer. Electrical properties are typical of Coulomb blockade in three-dimensional arrays of nanoparticles. A large high-field magnetoresistance, reaching up to 3000%, is measured between 1.8 and 10 K. This exceeds by two orders of magnitude magnetoresistance values generally measured in arrays of 3d transition metal ferromagnetic nanoparticles. The magnetoresistance amplitude scales with the magnetic field/temperature ratio and displays an unusual exponential dependency with the applied voltage. The magnetoresistance abruptly disappears below 1.8 K. We propose that the magnetoresistance is due to some individual paramagnetic moments localized between the metallic cores of the nanoparticles, the origin of which is discussed.     

Quantum hall conductivity in a Landau type model with a realistic geometry II

We use a mathematical framework that we introduced in a previous paper to study geometrical and quantum mechanical aspects of a Hall system with finite size and general boundary conditions. Geometrical structures control possibly the integral or fractional quantization of the Hall conductivity depending on the value of NB/2π (N is the number of charge carriers and B is the magnetic field). When NB/2π is irrational, we show that monovaluated wave functions can be constructed only on the graph of a free group with two generators. When NB/2π is rational, the relevant space becomes a punctured Riemann surface. We finally discuss our results from a phenomenological viewpoint.     

Information theory link between MaxEnt and a key thermodynamic relation

We focus attention on the particular thermodynamic relation . Using information theory concepts we show that, for a reversible process in which intensive variables change, microscopic considerations related to this thermodynamic relation make the informational contents of, respectively, and MaxEnt equivalent. The pertinent demonstration is obtained when trying to ascertain the corresponding equilibrium microscopic probability distribution.     

Nitrogen plasma cleaning of Ge(1 0 0) surfaces

We propose a dry method of cleaning Ge(1 0 0) surfaces based on nitrogen plasma treatment. Our in situ Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) analyses demonstrate that surface contamination remaining after wet treatment was effectively removed by nitrogen radical irradiation at low substrate temperatures. The nitrogen plasma cleaned Ge(1 0 0) surface shows a well-ordered 2 × 1 reconstruction, which indicates the formation of a contamination-free Ge(1 0 0) surface with good crystallinity. We discuss the possible reaction mechanism considering how chemisorbed carbon impurities are removed by selective C-N bond formation and subsequent thermal desorption. These findings imply the advantage of plasma nitridation of Ge surfaces for fabricating nitride gate dielectrics, in which we can expect surface pre-cleaning at the initial stage of the plasma treatment.     

A dynamic model for city size distribution beyond Zipf 's law

We present a growth model for a system of cities. This model recovers not only Zipf's law but also other kinds of city size distributions (CSDs). A new positive exponent α, which yields Zipf's law only when equal to 1, was introduced. We define three classes of CSD depending on the value of α: larger than, smaller than, or equal to 1. The model is based on a random growth of the city population together with the variation of the number of cities in the system. The striking result is the peculiar behavior of the model: it is only statistical deterministic. Moreover, we found that the exponent α may be larger, smaller or equal to 1, just like in real systems of cities, depending on the rate of creation of new cities and the time elapsed during the growth. It is to our knowledge the first time that the influence of the time on the type of the distribution is investigated. The results of the model are in very good agreement with real CSD. The classification and model can be also applied to other entities like countries, incomes, firms, etc     

Non-perturbative approach to high-index-contrast variations in electromagnetic systems

We present a method that formally calculates exact frequency shifts of an electromagnetic field for arbitrary changes in the refractive index. The possible refractive index changes include both anisotropic changes and boundary shifts. Degenerate eigenmode frequencies pose no problems in the presented method. The approach relies on operator algebra to derive an equation for the frequency shifts, which eventually turn out in a simple and physically sound form. Numerically the equations are well-behaved, easy implementable, and can be solved very fast. Like in perturbation theory a reference system is first considered, which then subsequently is used to solve another related, but different system. For our method precision is only limited by the reference system basis functions and the error induced in frequency is of second order for first-order basis set error. As an example we apply our method to the problem of variations in the air-hole diameter in a photonic crystal fiber.     

Electron affinity study of adamantane on Si(1 1 1)

Recently, tetramantane, a member of diamondoid series (C_4n+6H_4n+12), has shown to exhibit negative-electron-affinity effect which has a potential use for efficient electron emitting devices. Here, we explore the electronic property of adamantane (C₁₀H₁₆), the smallest member of the series. We prepare adamantane films on Si(1 1 1) substrates and then study their electronic structure with photoemission spectroscopy. Photoelectron spectra of adamantane on Si(1 1 1) have shown a peak at low-kinetic energy which could be a generic property of diamondoids. The possibility of the negative-electron-affinity effect in adamantane is further discussed.     

Energy transport in silica to oxygen-deficient luminescence centers. Comparison with other luminescence centers in silica and α-quartz

The transport of energy absorbed by silica glass to oxygen-deficient luminescence centers in was studied in the range of intrinsic absorption from 8.2 up to 35 eV. The low efficiency of exciting those luminescence centers by transport of energy could not be ascribed merely to carrier scattering by the disordered structure. Other centers (Cu⁺, for example) could be excited in such process with sufficiently high efficiency, albeit lower than that in crystals. The low efficiency of interaction of oxygen deficient centers with quasi-particles is attributed to isolation of these centers in clusters and the non-radiative annihilation of the quasi-particles on the boundaries of these clusters with the main network.     

Fabrication of Ge-channel MOSFETs by using replacement gate process and selective epitaxial growth

We fabricated Ge-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) by using replacement gate process and selective epitaxial growth. In our method, thin Ge layers were selectively grown on the channel region of MOSFETs after the removal of a sacrificial gate stack structure and the etching of the channel region. Ge layers with a smooth surface and a good morphology could be obtained by using the thin Si_0.5Ge_0.5 buffer layer. Dislocations were observed in the epitaxial layers and near the interface between the epitaxial layer and the substrates. We consider that these dislocations degrade the device performance. Although the electrical characteristics of the obtained MOSFETs need further improvement, our method is one of the promising candidates for the practical fabrication process of Ge-channel MOSFETs.     

Networks of interactions in the secondary and tertiary structure of ribosomal RNA

We construct four different structural networks for both the secondary and tertiary structures of the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) in the high-resolution crystal structures of the Thermus thermophilus 30S and Haloarcula marismortui 50S ribosomal subunits, and investigate topological characteristics of the rRNA structures by determining relevant measures, such as the characteristic path length, the clustering coefficient, and the helix betweenness. This study reveals that the 23S rRNA network is more compact than the 16S rRNA networks, reflecting the more globular overall structure of the 23S rRNA relative to the 16S rRNA. In particular, the large number of tertiary interactions in the 23S rRNA tends to cluster, accounting for its small-world network properties. In addition, although the rRNA networks are not the scale-free network, their helix betweenness has a power-law distribution and is correlated with the phylogenetic conservation of helices. The higher the helix betweenness, the more conserved the helix. These results suggest a potential role of the rRNA network as a new quantitative approach in rRNA research.