Theory of ferromagnetism in Ca(1-x)La(x)B(6)

Novel ferromagnetism in Ca(1-x)La(x)B(6) is studied in terms of the Ginzburg-Landau theory for excitonic-order parameters, taking into account symmetry of the wave functions. We found that the minima of the free energy break both inversion and time-reversal symmetries, while the product of these two remains preserved. This explains various novelties of the ferromagnetism and predicts a number of magnetic properties, including the magnetoelectric effect, which can be tested experimentally.     

Identification of a Single Phosphorylation Site Within Octopus Rhodopsin

Abstract— Light-dependent phosphorylation of rhodopsin (Rho) is a first step in the desensitization of the signaling state of the receptor during vertebrate and invertebrate visual transduction. We found that only ³⁵⁸Ser of the photoac-tivated octopus Rho (oRho*) was phosphorylated by octopus rhodopsin kinase (oRK). Tryptic truncation of the C-terminal PPQGY repeats of oRho that follow the phosphorylation region did not influence spectral or G-protein activation properties of oRho but abolished phos phorylation. Despite significant structural differences between oRK and mammalian RK, these results provide i further evidence of the importance of singly phosphorylated species of Rho* in the generation of arrestin binding sites.     

Non-decoupling effects in supersymmetric Higgs sectors

A wide class of Higgs sectors is investigated in supersymmetric standard models. When the lightest Higgs boson (h  ) looks the standard model one, the mass (mh$m_h$) and the triple Higgs boson coupling (the hhh   coupling) are evaluated at the one-loop level in each model. While mh$m_h$ is at most 120–130 GeV in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), that in models with an additional neutral singlet or triplet fields can be much larger. The hhh coupling can also be sensitive to the models: while in the MSSM the deviation from the standard model prediction is not significant, that can be 30–60% in some models such as the MSSM with the additional singlet or with extra doublets and charged singlets. These models are motivated by specific physics problems like the μ-problem, the neutrino mass, the scalar dark matter and so on. Therefore, when h   is found at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, we can classify supersymmetric models by measuring mh$m_h$ and the hhh coupling accurately at future collider experiments.     

Surface Properties of Polydimethylsiloxane-Based Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Films Deposited on Polyimide Sheets by the Sol-Gel Method

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based inorganic/organic hybrids films were prepared on polyimide sheets by the sol-gel method using silanol-terminated PDMS and titanium tetraisopropoxide as starting materials. The effect of heat-treatment temperature on the surface property of the hybrid films was examined in terms of contact angle of water and Tapping-Mode Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). AFM phase images showed the presence of domains, 200–500 nm in size, on the surface of these films after heat-treatment below 300°C. These regions were more hydrophilic than the rest of the area. The domains disappeared at 300°C and the surface became homogeneous surface of the peak to valley value, about 10 nm. It is also uniformly hydrophobic and a maximum contact angle (about 115°C) was obtained.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">CP</Emphasis> violation due to multi-Froggatt–Nielsen fields

We study how to incorporate CP violation in the Froggatt–Nielsen (FN) mechanism. To this end, we introduce non-renormalizable interactions with a flavor democratic structure to the fermion mass generation sector. It is found that at least two iso-singlet scalar fields with a discrete symmetry imposed are necessary to generate CP violation due to the appearance of the relative phase between their vacuum expectation values. In the simplest model, the ratios of quark masses and the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa (CKM) matrix including the CP violating phase are determined by the CKM element |V_us| and the ratio of two vacuum expectation values of FN fields, R=|R|e^iα (a magnitude and a phase). It is demonstrated how the angles φ_i (i=1,...,3) of the unitarity triangle and the CKM off-diagonal elements |V_ub| and |V_cb| are predicted as a function of |V_us|, |R| and α. Although the predicted value of the CP violating phase does not agree with the experimental data within the simplest model, the basic idea of our scenario would be promising if one wants to construct a more realistic model of flavor and CP violation. PACS 11.30.Er; 12.60.-i     

Effect of Composition on Surface Properties of Polydimethylsiloxane-based Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Films

Surface properties of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based inorganic/organic hybrids films prepared from silanol-terminated PDMS and titanium tetra-isopropoxide (TIP) were investigated with an aim at the application to the thermal-fixation roll for electro-photographic printers. The 300°C-treated hybrid film with the PDMS/TIP molar ratio of 0.5 exerted a relatively high contact angle of water as 115°C. It was found by using Tapping-Mode Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) that the hybrid film surface changed from lamella structure to sea-island structure with the increase of PDMS content when heat-treated at 150°C, and became homogenous surface over 300°C. The phase-shift detected by AFM was negative shift, showing that hybrid surface became more hydrophobic as the PDMS/TIP molar ratios of 0.35 and 4.0 exhibited excellent toner-offset property of showing no adhesion of toners, suggesting their practical use in the photographic printers.     

First-order electroweak phase transition powered by additional F-term loop effects in an extended supersymmetric Higgs sector

We investigate the one-loop effect of new charged scalar bosons on the Higgs potential at finite temperatures in the supersymmetric standard model with four Higgs doublet chiral superfields as well as a pair of charged singlet chiral superfields. In this model, the mass of the lightest Higgs boson h is determined only by the D-term in the Higgs potential at the tree-level, while the triple Higgs boson coupling for hhh can receive a significant radiative correction due to nondecoupling one-loop contributions of the additional charged scalar bosons. We find that the same nondecoupling mechanism can also contribute to realize stronger first order electroweak phase transition than that in the minimal supersymmetric standard model, which is definitely required for a successful scenario of electroweak baryogenesis. Therefore, this model can be a new candidate for a model in which the baryon asymmetry of the Universe is explained at the electroweak scale.     

Finite element approach to acoustic transmission-radiation systems and application to horn and silencer design

The present paper deals with acoustical systems with an opening to semi-infinite space for sound radiation. The approach is a combination of the finite element method and the analytical method. The finite element approach is used for the hollow internal space, while the analytical approach is utilized for the open semi-infinite space. The semi-infinite space is expressed in terms of an integral with respect to the opening surface (Green's theorem). Compatibility conditions are then introduced for the interface boundary. The region to which the finite element analysis is to be applied is thus greatly reduced at the expense of additional numerical integration. A computer program is developed and, for numerical demonstration, calculations of some characteristics of conical and exponential horns, and of a practical speaker device with central post and silencers are considered. Comparisons with the measured results confirm the validity of the approach.     

Orbital ferromagnetism and anomalous Hall effect in antiferromagnets on the distorted fcc lattice

The Berry phase due to the spin wave function gives rise to the orbital ferromagnetism and anomalous Hall effect in the noncoplanar antiferromagnetic ordered state on face-centered-cubic (fcc) lattice once the crystal is distorted perpendicular to the (1,1,1) or (1,1,0) plane. The relevance to the real systems gamma-FeMn and NiS2 is also discussed.     

Noncommutative geometry and non-Abelian Berry phase in the wave-packet dynamics of Bloch electrons

Motivated by a recent proposal on the possibility of observing a monopole in the band structure, and by an increasing interest in the role of Berry phase in spintronics, we studied the adiabatic motion of a wave packet of Bloch functions, under a perturbation varying slowly and incommensurately to the lattice structure. We show, using only the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, that the effective wave-packet dynamics is conveniently described by a set of equations of motion (EOM) for a semiclassical particle coupled to a non-Abelian gauge field associated with a geometric Berry phase.

Our EOM can be viewed as a generalization of the standard Ehrenfest's theorem, and their derivation was asymptotically exact in the framework of linear response theory. Our analysis is entirely based on the concept of local Bloch bands, a good starting point for describing the adiabatic motion of a wave packet. One of the advantages of our approach is that the various types of gauge fields were classified into two categories by their different physical origin: (i) projection onto specific bands, (ii) time-dependent local Bloch basis. Using those gauge fields, we write our EOM in a covariant form, whereas the gauge-invariant field strength stems from the noncommutativity of covariant derivatives along different axes of the reciprocal parameter space. On the other hand, the degeneracy of Bloch bands makes the gauge fields non-Abelian.

For the purpose of applying our wave-packet dynamics to the analyses on transport phenomena in the context of Berry phase engineering, we focused on the Hall-type and polarization currents. Our formulation turned out to be useful for investigating and classifying various types of topological current on the same footing. We highlighted their symmetries, in particular, their behavior under time reversal (T) and space inversion (I). The result of these analyses was summarized as a set of cancellation rules. We also introduced the concept of parity polarization current, which may embody the physics of orbital current. Together with charge/spin Hall/polarization currents, this type of orbital current is expected to be a potential probe for detecting and controlling Berry phase.