Chiral symmetry of QCD with twelve light flavors

We study QCD with twelve light flavors at intermediate values of the bare lattice coupling. We contrast the results for the order parameter with different theoretical models motivated by the physics of the Goldstone phase and of the symmetric phase, and we perform a model independent analysis of the meson spectrum inspired by universal properties of chiral symmetry. Our analysis favors chiral symmetry restoration.

Irradiation with water-filtered infrared A plus visible light improves cutaneous scleroderma lesions in a series of cases

Cutaneous scleroderma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the dermal and subcutaneous connective tissue leading to sclerosis. Sclerosis of the skin can lead to dysmorphism, contractures and restrictions of movement.

Nutrition with 'light and water'? In strict isolation for 10 days without food - a critical case study

In her book 'Living on Light', Jasmuheen tries to animate people worldwide to follow her drastic nutrition rules in order to boost their quality of life. Several deaths have been reported as a fatal consequence. A doctor of chemistry who believably claimed to have been 'living on light' for 2 years, except for the daily intake of up to 1.5 l of fluid containing no or almost no calories was interested in a scientific study on this phenomenon. PARTICIPANT AND METHODS: The 54-year-old man was subjected to a rigorous 10-day isolation study with complete absence of nutrition. During the study he obtained an unlimited amount of tea and mineral water but had no caloric intake. Parameters to monitor his metabolic and psychological state and vital parameters were measured regularly and the safety of the individual was ensured throughout the study. The subject agreed on these terms and the study was approved by the local ethics committee.

Integration of room temperature single electron transistor with CMOS subsystem

The single electron transistor (SET) is a charge-based device that may complement the dominant metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) technology. As the cost of scaling MOSFET to smaller dimensions are rising and the the basic functionality of MOSFET is encountering numerous challenges at dimensions smaller than 10nm, the SET has shown the potential to become the next generation device which operates based on the tunneling of electrons. Since the electron transfer mechanism of a SET device is based on the non-dissipative electron tunneling effect, the power consumption of a SET device is extremely low, estimated to be on the order of 10^-18J. The objectives of this research are to demonstrate technologies that would enable the mass produce of SET devices that are operational at room temperature and to integrate these devices on top of an active complementary-MOSFET (CMOS) substrate. To achieve these goals, two fabrication techniques are considered in this work. The Focus Ion Beam (FIB) technique is used to fabricate the islands and the tunnel junctions of the SET device. A Ultra-Violet (UV) light based Nano-Imprint Lithography (NIL) call Step-and-Flash- Imprint Lithography (SFIL) is used to fabricate the interconnections of the SET devices. Combining these two techniques, a full array of SET devices are fabricated on a planar substrate. Test and characterization of the SET devices has shown consistent Coulomb blockade effect, an important single electron characteristic. To realize a room temperature operational SET device that function as a logic device to work along CMOS, it is important to know the device behavior at different temperatures. Based on the theory developed for a single island SET device, a thermal analysis is carried out on the multi-island SET device and the observation of changes in Coulomb blockade effect is presented. The results show that the multi-island SET device operation highly depends on temperature. The important parameters that determine the SET operation is the effective capacitance Ceff and tunneling resistance Rt . These two parameters lead to the tunneling rate of an electron in the SET device, Γ. To obtain an accurate model for SET operation, the effects of the deviation in dimensions, the trap states in the insulation, and the background charge effect have to be taken into consideration. The theoretical and experimental evidence for these non-ideal effects are presented in this work.

Light Transport in PT-invariant Photonic Structures with Hidden Symmetries

We introduce a recursive bosonic quantization technique for generating classical PT photonic structures that possess hidden symmetries and higher order exceptional points. We study light transport in these geometries and we demonstrate that perfect state transfer is possible only for certain initial conditions. Moreover, we show that for the same propagation direction, left and right coherent transports are not symmetric with field amplitudes following two different trajectories. A general scheme for identifying the conservation laws in such PT-symmetric photonic networks is also presented.

A MEMS Light Modulator Based on Diffractive Nanohole Gratings

We present the design, fabrication, and testing of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) light modulator based on pixels patterned with periodic nanohole arrays. Flexure-suspended silicon pixels are patterned with a two dimensional array of 150 nm diameter nanoholes using nanoimprint lithography. A top glass plate assembled above the pixel array is used to provide a counter electrode for electrostatic actuation. The nanohole pattern is designed so that normally-incident light is coupled into an in-plane grating resonance, resulting in an optical stop-band at a desired wavelength. When the pixel is switched into contact with the top plate, the pixel becomes highly reflective. A 3:1 contrast ratio at the resonant wavelength is demonstrated for gratings patterned on bulk Si substrates. The switching time is 0.08 ms and the switching voltage is less than 15V.