International Journal of Modern Physics B

Environmental decoherence appears to be the biggest obstacle for successful construction of quantum mind theories. Nevertheless, the quantum physicist Henry Stapp promoted the view that the mind could utilize quantum Zeno effect to influence brain dynamics and that the efficacy of such mental efforts would not be undermined by environmental decoherence of the brain. To address the physical plausibility of Stapp's claim, we modeled the brain using quantum tunneling of an electron in a multiple-well structure such as the voltage sensor in neuronal ion channels and performed Monte Carlo simulations of quantum Zeno effect exerted by the mind upon the brain in the presence or absence of environmental decoherence. The simulations unambiguously showed that the quantum Zeno effect breaks down for timescales greater than the brain decoherence time. To generalize the Monte Carlo simulation results for any n-level quantum system, we further analyzed the change of brain entropy due to the mind probing actions and proved a theorem according to which local projections cannot decrease the von Neumann entropy of the unconditional brain density matrix. The latter theorem establishes that Stapp's model is physically implausible but leaves a door open for future development of quantum mind theories provided the brain has a decoherence-free subspace.

We propose a theoretical framework which can treat the nonresonant and the resonant inelastic light scattering on an equal footing in the form of correlation function, employing Keldysh–Schwinger functional integral formalism. The interference between the nonresonant and the resonant process can be also incorporated in this framework. This approach is applied to the magnetic Raman scattering of two-dimensional antiferromagnetic insulators. The entire set of the scattering cross-sections are obtained at finite temperature, the result for the resonant part agrees with the one obtained by the conventional Fermi golden rule at zero temperature. The interference contribution is shown to be very sensitive to the scattering geometry and the band structure.

We have here an insight into the features of molecular structures of bio-polymers with α-helix structure using infrared spectrum and elucidated theoretically, its relationship with bio-functions. In this case, we analyzed first the features of molecular structure of collagen and collected further the infrared spectrum of absorption of collagen and bovine serum albumin containing α-helix conformation in 400–4000 cm^-1 as well as their changes of strength of infrared absorption with varying temperatures using Fourier Transform–Infrared (FT-IR) spectrometers in the region of 15–95°C. The results show that there is a new band of 1650 cm^-1 close to the amide-I band of 1666 cm^-1 or 1670 cm^-1 in these bio-polymers, its strength decreases exponentially with increasing temperature of the systems, which can be expressed by exp[-(0.437 + 8.987 × 10^-6 T²)], but 1666 cm^-1 band increases linearly with increasing temperature. We calculated the energy spectrum of the protein molecules with α-helix conformation using the Soliton Theory of bio-energy transport, which are basically same with the experimental results measured by us. From these results and soliton theory we can conclude that the nonlinear soliton excitation, corresponding to 1650 cm^-1 band and the exciton excitation, is related to 1666 cm^-1 band, exists in the collagen and bovine serum albumin. In the meanwhile, these results also verified that the soliton theory of bio-energy transport along α-helix bio-polymers is appropriate to the protein molecules with α-helix conformation. Therefore, the studied results are helpful to elucidate the relationship between the molecular structure and bio-function of these bio-polymers.

We develop entanglement perturbation theory (EPT) for infinite Quasi-1D quantum systems. The spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with ferromagnetic nearest neighbor (NN) and antiferromagnetic next nearest neighbor (NNN) interactions with an easy-plane anisotropy is studied as a prototypical system. The obtained phase diagram is compared with a recent prediction [Phys. Rev. B 81, 094430 (2010)] that dimer and Néel orders appear alternately as the XXZ anisotropy Δ approaches the isotropic limit Δ = 1. The first and second transitions (across dimer, Néel and dimer phases) are detected with improved accuracy at Δ ≈ 0.722 and 0.930. The third transition (from dimer to Néel phases), previously predicted to be at Δ ≈ 0.98, is not detected at this Δ in our method, strongly indicating that the second Néel phase is absent.

The Hodgkin–Huxley neuron model is used to describe the local dynamics of nodes in a two-dimensional regular network with nearest-neighbor connections. Multi-armed spiral waves emerge when a group of spiral waves rotate the same core synchronously. Here we have numerically investigated how multi-armed spiral waves are formed in such a system. Under the appropriate conditions, multi-armed spiral waves were able to develop as a result of adjusting the conductance of ion channels of particular neurons in the network. In a realistic neuron model, it can be practiced by blocking potassium of ion channels embedded in the membrane of neurons. For example, decreasing the potassium channel conductance in some neurons with a certain transient period can lead to the development of a group of double spirals in a localized area of the network. Furthermore, decreasing the excitability and the external forcing current to zero led to the growth of these double spirals and the formation of a stable multi-armed spiral wave that occupied the network under inhomogeneity.

The ideas of Mitus et al. are exploited to define the liquid state as a state of matter, in which particles perform locally ordered motion. The presence of the liquid phase is accounted for by a stochastic term in the Hamiltonian, which simulates this property of a liquid. The Bogoliubov–Lee–Huang theory of He II, recently modified by use of effective temperature scale and more stringent reduction procedure (DHSET theory) is extended, by incorporating this term into the ⁴He Hamiltonian. The resulting thermodynamics accounts for effects, which are beyond the scope of other He I and He II theories, e.g., the atomic momentum distribution and excitation spectrum have the form of diffused bands, similarly as in He II; the He I, theoretical heat capacity C_V(T) is a convex function, with a minimum at T_min > T_λ, which qualitatively simulates experimental He I heat capacity. Other thermodynamic functions are similar to those of DHSET theory.

Correlating Shannon's maximum informational entropy variational principle with the constant value of Onicescu's informational energy, the uncertainty relations for canonical systems with SL(2R) invariance are obtained.

The constant value of Onicescu's informational energy corresponds, through transitivity manifolds of the SL(2R) group, to the ergodic theorem and, in particular case of a linear oscillator, to a quantification condition. Specifying de Broglie's idea by a periodic field in a complex coordinate, it is proved that the oscillator synchronization group of the same ensemble is still an achievement of the SL(2R) (Barbilian's group). Integrally invoking the invariant functions through the simultaneous action of the two isomorphic SL(2R) groups, the uncertainty relations and Stoler group of synchronization among oscillators from different ensembles (i.e., the second quantification when the annihilation and creation operators refer to a linear oscillator) are obtained. Barbilian's group parameters are interpreted by means of a variational principle as field amplitudes of a stationary vacuum metric.

In the presence of magnetic field, we have employed a spin-dependent correlation function to investigate the properties of liquid ³He using the variational method based on the cluster expansion of the energy. It has been indicated that at all relevant magnetic fields and densities, the inclusion of spin-dependency for the correlation function leads to the lower magnitudes for the kinetic, magnetic and potential energies, and therefore the total energy of this system. We have seen that the spin–spin correlation affects the system to be less magnetized compared to the case in which we consider the spin-independent correlation, especially at low densities. In the case of spin–spin correlation function, our results show a maximum in the magnetic susceptibility, and therefore a meta-magnetic instability for the system for the magnetic fields in the range 50 T ≤ B ≤ 60 T. This behavior has not been observed in the case of spin-independent correlation.

In this paper, some structural and electronic properties of V- and Co-doped single-walled ZnO nanotube (8,0), such as cohesive energy, geometric structure, density of states and band structure were investigated using first principles calculations. Our results showed that, first, the pure SWZnONT(8,0) can be stable and second, doped SWZnONTs(8,0) by V and Co atoms are more stable than pure SWZnONT(8,0) and TM impurities distort the structure of nanotubes around the TM impurities. The electronic results showed that pure SWZnONT(8,0) have a direct band gap about 1.443 eV and it is semiconductor. While with substituting V and Co instead of Zn in nanotube, a transition occurs from semiconducting to metallic and half-metallic states which these doped nanotubes as well as their magnetic properties are qualified for using in spintronic devices.