Search results for "Symmetry Breaking"

Symmetry breaking in mass-recruiting ants: extent of foraging biases depends on resource quality.

2016

Abstract The communication involved in the foraging behaviour of social insects is integral to their success. Many ant species use trail pheromones to make decisions about where to forage. The strong positive feedback caused by the trail pheromone is thought to create a decision between two or more options. When the two options are of identical quality, this is known as symmetry breaking, and is important because it helps colonies to monopolise food sources in a competitive environment. Symmetry breaking is thought to increase with the quantity of pheromone deposited by ants, but empirical studies exploring the factors affecting symmetry breaking are limited. Here, we tested if (i) greater …

Prediction of ferroelectricity-driven Berry curvature enabling charge- and spin-controllable photocurrent in tin telluride monolayers

2019

In symmetry-broken crystalline solids, pole structures of Berry curvature (BC) can emerge, and they have been utilized as a versatile tool for controlling transport properties. For example, the monopole component of the BC is induced by the time-reversal symmetry breaking, and the BC dipole arises from a lack of inversion symmetry, leading to the anomalous Hall and nonlinear Hall effects, respectively. Based on first-principles calculations, we show that the ferroelectricity in a tin telluride monolayer produces a unique BC distribution, which offers charge- and spin-controllable photocurrents. Even with the sizable band gap, the ferroelectrically driven BC dipole is comparable to those of …

Self-organised symmetry breaking in zebrafish reveals feedback from morphogenesis to pattern formation

2019

A fundamental question in developmental biology is how the early embryo breaks initial symmetry to establish the spatial coordinate system later important for the organisation of the embryonic body plan. In zebrafish, this is thought to depend on the inheritance of maternal mRNAs [1–3], cortical rotation to generate a dorsal pole of beta-catenin activity [4–8] and the release of Nodal signals from the yolk syncytial layer (YSL) [9–12]. Recent work aggregating mouse embryonic stem cells has shown that symmetry breaking can occur in the absence of extra-embryonic tissue [19,20]. To test whether this is also true in zebrafish, we separated embryonic cells from the yolk and allowed them to deve…

Fits of the baryon magnetic moments to the quark model and spectrum-generating SU(3)

1982

We show that for theoretical as well as phenomenological reasons the baryon magnetic moments that fulfill simple group transformation properties should be taken in intrinsic rather than nuclear magnetons. A fit of the recent experimental data to the reduced matrix elements of the usual octet electromagnetic current is still not good, and in order to obtain acceptable agreement, one has to add correction terms to the octet current. We have texted two kinds of corrections: U-spin-scalar terms, which are singles out by the model-independent algebraic properties of the hadron electromagnetic current, and octet U-spin vectors, which could come from quark-mass breaking in a nonrelativistic quark …

Counter-complementarity control of the weak exchange interaction in a bent {Ni(ii)3 complex with a μ-phenoxide-μ-carboxylate double bridge

2019

We have prepared and structurally characterized a novel {Ni3} bent complex bearing a double μ-phenoxide-μ-carboxylate bridge. Both terminal Ni(ii) sites are symmetry related, offering a simplified exchange interaction scheme. DC magnetic data is consistent with a weak antiferromagnetic interaction between the central and terminal Ni(ii) ions. As expected for a Ni(ii) system, local zero-field splitting is observed, which can be experimentally established. Broken symmetry quantum chemical calculations, as well as ab initio CASSCF-SA-SOC computations that support the magnetic experimental data, were also performed. From the analysis of other reported closely related Ni(ii) systems, a counter-c…

Finite Size Effects in Thin Film Simulations

2003

Phase transitions in thin films are discussed, with an emphasis on Ising-type systems (liquid-gas transition in slit-like pores, unmixing transition in thin films, orderdisorder transitions on thin magnetic films, etc.) The typical simulation geometry then is a L xL x D system, where at the low confining L x L surfaces appropriate boundary “fields” are applied, while in the lateral directions periodic boundary conditions are used. In the z-direction normal to the film, the order parameter always is inhomogeneous, due to the boundary “fields” at the confining surfaces. When one varies the temperature T from the region of the bulk disordered phase to a temperature below the critical temperatu…

Structural symmetry breaking in octupolar tetrastyrylpyrazines and their dipole moments in equilibrium ground and Franck-Condon excited state

2018

Abstract From electrooptical absorption measurements (EOAM) follows that the dipole moment of octupolar tetrastyrylpyrazines in the equilibrium ground state is large and that the change of dipole moments upon transition to the excited Franck–Condon state is significant. Obtained results unambiguously testify to structural symmetry breaking in the studied octupolar tetrastyrylpyrazines. Molecular mechanics and semi-empirical calculations evidence that tetrastyrylpyrazines have non-planar configurations. The non-planar geometry of the molecules causes large μg values and significant change of dipole moment Δaμ after excitation. Due to large μg and Δaμ values the maxima of the first absorption…

Donor–anion interactions at the charge localization and charge ordering transitions of (TMTTF)2AsF6 probed by NEXAFS

2015

High-resolution near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) measurements at the As M-edge, F K-edge and S L-edge of the Fabre salt (TMTTF)2AsF6 were performed from room temperature (RT) to 90 K, allowing to reach the charge localization regime below Tρ ≈ 230 K and to cross the charge ordering (CO) transition at TCO ≈ 102 K. The F K-edge and S L-edge spectra exhibit several transitions which have been indexed on the basis of first-principles DFT calculations. Upon cooling from RT significant energy shifts up to +0.8 eV and -0.4 eV were observed in transitions exhibited by the F 1s and S 2p spectra respectively, while the As 3p doublet does not show a significant shift. Opposite energy…

A Discussion of Some Problems Associated with the Quantum Mechanical Treatment of Open-Shell Molecules

2003

Solvatochromy and symmetry breaking in two quadrupolar oligophenylenevinylenes

2020

Electrooptical absorption measurements (EOAM), solvatochromic dependences and quantum chemical simulations testify to large dipole moments change of two quadrupolar oligophenylenevinylenes upon transition to Franck-Condon excited state μeFC. The values of the dipole moments μg and μeFC are in the range [(4.2 - 4.9)1030] C m and (30.8 - 47.0)1030C m, respectively. The relations of dipole moments in the ground and excited states determined by EOAM correlate well with results obtained via the solvatochromic method. Calculations carried out by density functional theory (DFT) show that optimized configuration of the ground state of these molecules is not planar. The results from all methods appl…