International Journal of Modern Physics B

Using a density functional approach calculation, the structural and electronic properties of Mg₈Ni₅, Mg₈Ni₄Al, Mg₈Ni₄Ca and Mg₈Ni₄Mn clusters are investigated. The Al-, Ca-, Mn-doping in MgNi clusters lengthen $d_{\mathrm{\text{(Mg–Ni)}}}$, also increase the Mulliken charge, and improve magnetic moment on most shell atoms, so that the doping is helpful for hydrogen storage. The reaction heats of hydrogenation, the enthalpies of formation, the desorption energies show that the Mg₈Ni₄Mn, Mg₈Ni₅, Mg₈Ni₄Al clusters have a good property of hydrogen storage materials with relatively higher reaction heat of hydrogenation, and that their hydrides have a smaller desorption energy. So the Mg₈Ni₄M (M = Ni, Al, Ca, Mn) clusters are some preferred candidates of H storage. These results indicate the advantage of small size and suitable metal-doped MgNi clusters on hydrogenation and dehydrogenation.

In a magnetic field two-dimensional (2D) electron systems host, with quenched kinetic energy, a variety of many-body correlation phenomena, such as interaction-driven new states and associated collective excitations over them. In a magnetic field, the two-body operators pertinent to the 2D Coulomb interaction obey a crossing relation, with which the Coulomb interaction is also cast into the form of manifest exchange interaction. It is shown that active use of this direct/exchange duality of the interaction allows one to develop, within the framework of the single-mode approximation, a new efficient algorithm for handling a wide class of collective excitations. The utility of our algorithm is demonstrated by studying some examples of inter- and intra-Landau-level collective excitations in graphene and in conventional electron systems.

The rates of chemical reactions are not absolute but their magnitude depends upon the relative speeds of the moving observers. This has been proved by unifying basic theories of chemical kinetics, which are transition state theory, collision theory, RRKM and Marcus theory, with the special theory of relativity. Boltzmann constant and energy spacing between permitted quantum levels of molecules are quantum mechanically proved to be Lorentz variant. The relativistic statistical thermodynamics has been developed to explain quasi-equilibrium existing between reactants and activated complex. The newly formulated Lorentz transformation of the rate constant from Arrhenius equation, of the collision frequency and of the Eyring and Marcus equations renders the rate of reaction to be Lorentz variant. For a moving observer moving at fractions of the speed of light along the reaction coordinate, the transition state possess less kinetic energy to sweep translation over it. This results in the slower transformation of reactants into products and in a stretched time frame for the chemical reaction to complete. Lorentz transformation of the half-life equation explains time dilation of the half-life period of chemical reactions and proves special theory of relativity and presents theory in accord with each other. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the present theory, the enzymatic reaction of methylamine dehydrogenase and radioactive disintegration of Astatine into Bismuth are considered as numerical examples.

We study the stability and the dynamics of many-soliton molecules in dispersion-managed (DM) optical fibers with focus on five-and seven-soliton molecules by analytical and numerical means. In particular we calculate the binding force, pulse durations and equilibrium separations using a variational approach. Predicted pulse shapes are in good agreement with those found by numerical simulations of the underlying nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Within limitations, soliton molecules with up to seven solitons possibly allow to encode three bits of data per clock period.

Spiral waves were observed in the biological experiment on rat brain cortex with the application of carbachol and bicuculline which can block inhibitory coupling from interneurons to pyramidal neurons. To simulate the experimental spiral waves, a two-dimensional neuronal network composed of pyramidal neurons and inhibitory interneurons was built. By decreasing the percentage of active inhibitory interneurons, the random-like spatial patterns change to spiral waves and to random-like spatial patterns or nearly synchronous behaviors. The spiral waves appear at a low percentage of inhibitory interneurons, which matches the experimental condition that inhibitory couplings of the interneurons were blocked. The spiral waves exhibit a higher order or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) characterized by spatial structure function than both random-like spatial patterns and nearly synchronous behaviors, which shows that changes of the percentage of active inhibitory interneurons can induce spatial coherence resonance-like behaviors. In addition, the relationship between the coherence degree and the spatial structures of the spiral waves is identified. The results not only present a possible and reasonable interpretation to the spiral waves observed in the biological experiment on the brain cortex with disinhibition, but also reveal that the spiral waves exhibit more ordered degree in spatial patterns.

Based on a class of chaotic system composed of hidden attractors, in which the equilibrium points are described by a circular function, complete synchronization between two identical systems, pattern formation and synchronization of network is investigated, respectively. A statistical factor of synchronization is defined and calculated by using the mean field theory, the dependence of synchronization on bifurcation parameters discussed in numerical way. By setting a chain network, which local kinetic is described by hidden attractors, synchronization approach is investigated. It is found that the synchronization and pattern formation are dependent on the coupling intensity and also the selection of coupling variables. In the end, open problems are proposed for readers’ extensive guidance and investigation.

The increase of the use of the Internet networks favors the spread of viruses. In this paper, we studied the spread of viruses in the scale-free network with different topologies based on the Susceptible–Infected–External (SIE) model. It is found that the network structure influences the virus spreading. We have shown also that the nodes of high degree are more susceptible to infection than others. Furthermore, we have determined a critical maximum value of node degree $(K_c)$, below which the network is more resistible and the computer virus cannot expand into the whole network. The influence of network size is also studied. We found that the network with low size is more effective to reduce the proportion of infected nodes.

To further improve the sensitivity temperature characteristics of pressure sensor, a kind of pressure sensor taking nanopolysilicon thin films as piezoresistors is proposed in this paper. On the basis of the microstructure analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) tests, the preparing process of nanopolysilicon thin films is optimized. The effects of film thickness and annealing temperature on the micro-structure of nanopolysilicon thin films were studied, respectively. In order to realize the measurement of external pressure, four nanopolysilicon thin films resistors were arranged at the edges of square silicon diaphragm connected to a Wheatstone bridge, and the chip of the sensor was designed and fabricated on a $〈100〉$ orientation silicon wafer by microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. Experimental result shows that when $I$ = 6.80 mA, the sensitivity of the sensor PS-1 is 0.308 mV/kPa, and the temperature coefficient of sensitivity (TCS) is about −1742 ppm/${}^{\circ }$C in the range of −40–140${}^{\circ }$C. It is possible to obviously improve the sensitivity temperature characteristics of pressure sensor by the proposed sensors.

A systematic density functional theory study is performed to investigate the lattice parameters, the internal positional parameter $x_{\mathrm{\text{O}}48f}$ and bond length of RE₂Sn₂O₇(RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu) pyrochlores. To analyze the structural stability in extreme conditions and verify whether bond strength varies inversely to bond length in rare-earth stannate pyrochlores, the structural parameter and bonding strength under hydrostatic pressure are studied. The tight connection between the different bond length contraction and the variation of 48$f$ oxygen positional parameter $x$ is also discovered. We calculated the bond length and the bulk modulus of RE₂Sn₂O₇ and found that the $〈$RE–O${}_{48f}〉$ bond plays a predominant role in determining the bulk modulus. Meanwhile, the present calculations suggest that the “bimodal effect” also exists in rare-earth stannate pyrochlores.

Intensity enhancement of the attosecond pulse generation from the high-order harmonic spectra has been theoretically investigated through solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation. It is found that with the introduction of the down-chirped pulse, the temporal frequency of the down-chirp region is decreased. As a result, the ionized electrons can receive much more energy during its acceleration in this region, showing the extension of the harmonic cutoff. Moreover, due to the multi-harmonic emission events contribute to the higher harmonics, the intensity of the harmonic cutoff from the down-chirped pulse is 1.5 orders of magnitude higher than those from the chirp-free pulse. Further, by properly introducing the asymmetric inhomogeneous effect, the plasmonic enhancement of the laser intensity in the negative direction is larger than that in the positive direction. As a consequence, the ionized electron from the down-chirp region with the negative amplitude can obtain the additional acceleration, thus leading to the further extension of the harmonic cutoff. Especially when the spatial position of the inhomogeneous field is chosen to be the negative value, due to the improved enhancement of the laser intensity, not only the harmonic cutoff is extended but also the harmonic yield is near-stable, showing a 175 eV supercontinuum with the single short quantum path contribution. Finally, by directly superposing the selected harmonics, three attosecond XUV pulses with the full widths at half maximum of 38, 35 and 36 as can be obtained, which are nearly 1.5 orders of magnitude enhancement compared with the chirp-free homogeneous field case.

The air transportation network across a certain area, a typical multilayer complex system, is composed of a number of individual airlines, each of which forms a single layer. A central problem in airline merging is the minimal number of layers, denoted by $n_{\mathrm{\text{ml}}}$, that is needed for the merged network to function nearly as well as the fully aggregated network. For this purpose, we monitor several structural measures during the network aggregation process in which $n_{\mathrm{\text{ml}}}$ is gradually increased. For China Air Transportation Network (CATN), we identify a common, sharp transition point yielding $n_{\mathrm{\text{ml}}}=9$. Whereas, for European Air Transportation Networks (EATN) there is no clear signal of such a transition point. The transition point of CATN is confirmed by means of the Wasserstein distance and the relative entropy. Our results indicate that there is still room in the optimization of CATN while for EATN, it seems better to keep the present structure.

This paper investigates how acupuncture at ST 36 modulates the brain functional network. 20 channel EEG signals from 15 healthy subjects are respectively recorded before, during and after acupuncture. The correlation between two EEG channels is calculated by using Pearson’s coefficient. A data-driven approach is applied to determine the threshold, which is performed by considering the connected set, connected edge and network connectivity. Based on such thresholding approach, the functional network in each acupuncture period is built with graph theory, and the associated functional connectivity is determined. We show that acupuncturing at ST 36 increases the connectivity of the EEG-based functional network, especially for the long distance ones between two hemispheres. The properties of the functional network in five EEG sub-bands are also characterized. It is found that the delta and gamma bands are affected more obviously by acupuncture than the other sub-bands. These findings highlight the modulatory effects of acupuncture on the EEG-based functional connectivity, which is helpful for us to understand how it participates in the cortical or subcortical activities. Further, the data-driven threshold provides an alternative approach to infer the functional connectivity under other physiological conditions.