4f-electric quadrupolar effects on the lattice constants and magnetism of RCu2Ge2 (R=rare-earths)

The temperature dependence of the lattice constants of the alloys, RCu₂Ge₂ (R=Nd, Tb, Dy, Ho and Tm) shows the existence of a lattice strain due to the alignment of the 4f-electric quadrupole at low temperatures. This strain could be related to the deviation of the Néel temperatures (T _N ) from that predicted by de Gennes scaling, thereby indicating the role of the quadrupole on the magnetism. On the other hand, in PrCu₂Ge₂, for which the enhancement ofT _N is the largest in thisR series, the lattice constants interestingly behave as if the 4f-quadrupole moment is almost quenched and the anomalous magnetism in this case is attributed to some degree of 4f-delocalisation.     

Effect of Fe substitution on the thermal expansion of the highT c superconductor Y1Ba2Cu3O y

Thermal expansion measurements have been carried out on Fe substituted superconducting compounds Y₁Ba₂(Cu_1−x Fe _x )₃O _y (0<x<4%) using a high resolution dilatometer employing the three terminal capacitance technique. The experimental set up is sensitive enough to detect changes in α of less than 10⁻⁸K⁻¹. Results show that the jump Δα in the coefficient of linear thermal expansion at the superconducting transition temperature,T _c, increases almost linearly with Fe concentration. The normal state thermal expansion coefficient α first decreases, attains a minimum value aroundx=1% and then increases for higher Fe concentrations. The oxygen content per unit formula is almost constant up tox=1% and then increases rapidly withx. It has also been observed that the anomalous behaviour of α around 260 K observed by Meingastet al [22] for Fe concentrationx=5% is due to inadequate annealing of the sample.     

Asymptotic Toeplitz and Hankel operators on the Bergman space

In this paper the concept of asymptotic Toeplitz and asymptotic Hankel operators on the Bergman space are introduced and properties of these classes of operators are studied. The importance of this notion is that it associates with a class of operators a Toeplitz operator and with a class of operators a Hankel operator where the original operators are not even Toeplitz or Hankel. Thus it is possible to assign a symbol to an operator that is not Toeplitz or Hankel and hence a symbol calculus is obtained. Further a relation between Toeplitz operators and little Hankel operators on the Bergman space is established in some asymptotic sense.     

Working group report: Collider Physics

This is summary of the activities of the working group on collider physics in the IXth Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-9) held at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India in January 2006. Some of the work subsequently done on these problems by the subgroups formed during the workshop is included in this report.     

Breathers in ferrimagnetic systems

Breathers in discrete nonlinear ferrimagnetic spin lattices are investigated for both easy-axis and easy-plane configurations. The region in frequency space of the formation of breathers is determined and the anticontinuum limit discussed. The monochromatic and the coloured breathers are found out numerically for different parameters and different conditions of excitations.     

Effect of electron inertia on large amplitude solitary waves in presence of kinematic viscosity in dusty plasma

Nonlinear dust acoustic solitary waves in a dusty plasma are studied for nonzero kinematic viscosity. Sagdeev’s potential can be obtain upto any order in ϕ. The existence of soliton solution is determined by pseudopotential approach. It is seen that the electron inertia has a significant effect on the existence of solitary waves in presence of kinematic viscosity.     

The dynamical mixing of light and pseudoscalar fields

We solve the general problem of mixing of electromagnetic and scalar or pseudoscalar fields coupled by axion-type interactions L _int = g _ϕ ϕε _μναβ F ^μν F ^αβ . The problem depends on several dimensionful scales, including the magnitude and direction of background magnetic field, the pseudoscalar mass, plasma frequency, propagation frequency, wave number, and finally the pseudoscalar coupling. We apply the results to the first consistent calculations of the mixing of light propagating in a background magnetic field of varying directions, which show a great variety of fascinating resonant and polarization effects.      

Structural study and electrical properties of Zr-doped Nd<Subscript>2</Subscript>Sn<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>7</Subscript> pyrochlore compounds

Nd₂Sn₂O₇ pyrochlores with the substitution of Zr⁴⁺ were prepared by conventional ceramic double sintering technique. The single-phase formation was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and neutron diffraction techniques. Relative intensity calculations for X-ray diffraction analysis were performed for oxygen positional parametersx = 0.331 and 0.375, while Rietveld refinements were employed for neutron diffraction data. The neutron diffraction study revealed that there are only two anion sites with 48f and 8b positions. This indicates that the 8a site, i.e. O(3) sublattice, is completely vacant and the structure is a perfect cubic pyrochlore with space group Fd3m (O _h ⁷ ). From the conductivity measurements, it is observed that the electronic conductivity dominates from room temperature up to about 525 K and forT > 525 K, the oxygen ion conduction dominates the charge transport in these compositions. Complex impedance spectroscopy indicates the existence of grain and grain boundary as two separate elements.     

Elucidating a normal function of huntingtin by functional and microarray analysis of huntingtin-null mouse embryonic fibroblasts

Background

Multi-sensory integration is necessary for organisms to discriminate different environmental stimuli and thus determine behavior. Caenorhabditis elegans has 12 pairs of amphid sensory neurons, which are involved in generating behaviors such as thermotaxis toward cultivation temperature, and chemotaxis toward chemical stimuli. This arrangement of known sensory neurons and measurable behavioral output makes C. elegans suitable for addressing questions of multi-sensory integration in the nervous system. Previous studies have suggested that C. elegans can process different chemoattractants simultaneously. However, little is known about how these organisms can integrate information from stimuli of different modality, such as thermal and chemical stimuli.

Results

We studied the behavior of a population of C. elegans during simultaneous presentation of thermal and chemical stimuli. First, we examined thermotaxis within the radial temperature gradient produced by a feedback-controlled thermoregulator. Separately, we examined chemotaxis toward sodium chloride or isoamyl alcohol. Then, assays for simultaneous presentations of 15°C (colder temperature than 20°C room temperature) and chemoattractant were performed with 15°C-cultivated wild-type worms. Unlike the sum of behavioral indices for each separate behavior, simultaneous presentation resulted in a biased migration to cold regions in the first 10 min of the assay, and sodium chloride-regions in the last 40 min. However, when sodium chloride was replaced with isoamyl alcohol in the simultaneous presentation, the behavioral index was very similar to the sum of separate single presentation indices. We then recorded tracks of single worms and analyzed their behavior. For behavior toward sodium chloride, frequencies of forward and backward movements in simultaneous presentation were significantly different from those in single presentation. Also, migration toward 15°C in simultaneous presentation was faster than that in 15°C-single presentation.

Conclusion

We conclude that worms preferred temperature to chemoattractant at first, but preferred the chemoattractant sodium chloride thereafter. This preference was not seen for isoamyl alcohol presentation. We attribute this phase-dependent preference to the result of integration of thermosensory and chemosensory signals received by distinct sensory neurons.