EPJ B Highlight - Between extinction and survival of endangered populations

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Published on Tuesday, 11 July 2017 18:00

Lifetime simulation of biological populations reveals dramatic population fluctuations before extinction

Populations of endangered species reach a critical point in their life where they either survive or evolve towards extinction. Therefore, efforts to predict and even prevent the extinction of biological species require a thorough understanding of the underlying mechanisms. In a new study published in EPJ B, Hatem Barghathi and colleagues from Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA, have investigated how environmental disturbance at random times could cause strong fluctuations in the number of individuals in biological populations. This, in turn, makes extinction easier, even for large populations. They found that environmental disorder can lead to a period of slow population increase interrupted by sudden population collapses. These findings also have implications for solving the opposite problem when attempting to predict, control and eradicate population of viruses in epidemics.

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EPJ B Highlight - Autonomous machines edge towards greater independence

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Published on Wednesday, 17 May 2017 18:18

Physicists are providing a greater level of autonomy for self-taught systems by combining how they respond to their learning as they evolve

Cars that can drive autonomously have recently made headlines. In the near future, machines that can learn autonomously will become increasingly present in our lives. The secret to efficient learning for these machines is to define an iterative process to map out the evolution of how key aspects of these systems change over time. In a study published in EPJ B, Agustín Bilen and Pablo Kaluza from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina show that these smart systems can evolve autonomously to perform a specific and well-defined task over time. Applications range from nanotechnology to biological systems, such as biological signal transduction networks, genetic regulatory networks with adaptive responses, or genetic networks in which the expression level of certain genes in a network oscillates from one state to another.

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EPJ B Highlight - Potential new applications stem from controlling particles’ spin configurations

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Published on Wednesday, 12 April 2017 11:43

Physicists prove important constraints for fermion gases with spin population imbalance

Fermions are ubiquitous elementary particles. They span from electrons in metals, to protons and neutrons in nuclei and to quarks at the sub-nuclear level. Further, they possess an intrinsic degree of freedom called spin with only two possible configurations, either up or down. In a new study published in EPJ B, theoretical physicists explore the possibility of separately controlling the up and down spin populations of a group of interacting fermions. Their detailed theory describing the spin population imbalance could be relevant, for instance, to the field of spintronics, which exploits polarised spin populations.

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EPJB Colloquium: The continuous-time random walk, fifty years on

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Published on Friday, 17 March 2017 16:31

This Colloquium paper published in EPJ B by R. Kutner and J. Masoliver revisits the most significant achievements and future possibilities for continuous-time random walk (CTRW), a versatile and widely applied formalism.

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EPJ B Highlight - The secrets of vibration-enhanced conductivity in graphene

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Published on Tuesday, 07 March 2017 17:36

Physicists define a smart way of inducing large-amplitude vibrations in graphene models, which could open the door for novel electronic applications

Graphene, the one-atom-thick material made of carbon atoms, still holds some unexplained qualities, which are important in connection with electronic applications where high-conductivity matters, ranging from smart materials that collectively respond to external stimuli in a coherent, tunable fashion, to light-induced, all-optical networks. Materials like graphene can exhibit a particular type of large-amplitude, stable vibrational modes that are localised, referred to as Discrete Breathers (DBs). The secret to enhancing conductivity by creating DBs lies in creating the external constraints to make atoms within the material oscillate perpendicular to the direction of the graphene sheet. Simulations-based models describing what happens at the atomic level are not straightforward, making it necessary to determine the initial conditions leading to the emergence of DBs. In a new paper published in EPJ B, Elham Barani from the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, and colleagues from Russia, Iran and Singapore use a systematic approach to identify the initial conditions that lend themselves to exciting DBs in graphene, ultimately opening the door to understanding the keys to greater conductivity.

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EPJ B Highlight - Tortoise electrons trying to catch up with hare photons give graphene its conductivity

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Published on Wednesday, 14 December 2016 15:14

Collective electron interaction, mediated by photons across space-time under a weak magnetic field, explains the special conductivity of the one-atom-thick material

How electrons interact with other electrons at quantum scale in graphene affects how quickly they travel in the material, leading to its high conductivity. Now, Natália Menezes and Cristiane Morais Smith from the Centre for Extreme Matter and Emergent Phenomena at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and a Brazilian colleague, Van Sergio Alves, have developed a model attributing the greater conductivity in graphene to the accelerating effect of electrons interacting with photons under a weak magnetic field. Their findings have been published in EPJ B.

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EPJ B Highlight - When crystal vibrations‘ inner clock drives superconductivity

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Published on Wednesday, 09 November 2016 10:42

Tweaking equations to drive greater superconductivity-inducing crystal vibrations proves theoretical possibility of creating higher temperature superconductors

Superconductivity is like an Eldorado for electrons, as they flow without resistance through a conductor. However, it only occurs below a very low critical temperature. Physicists now believe they can enhance superconductivity - the idea is to externally drive its underlying physical phenomena by changing how ions vibrating in the crystal lattice of the conductor material, called phonons, interact with electron flowing in the material. Andreas Komnik from the University of Heidelberg and Michael Thorwart from the University of Hamburg, Germany, adapted the simplest theory of superconductivity to reflect the consequences of externally driving the occurrence of phonons. Their main result, published in EPJ B, is a simple formula explaining how it is theoretically possible to raise the critical temperature using phonon driving.

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EPJ B Special issue dedicated to the Volker Heine Award

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Published on Friday, 04 November 2016 15:11

EPJ B, in partnership with the Ψk conference, is honoured to introduce this monthly issue with five articles written by the finalists of the Volker Heine Award 2015.

The Ψk conference is the foremost event in the field of electronic structure and computation in condensed matter, and the Volker Heine award is one of its highlights. Being intended for young researchers, the award aims at helping their career by exposing their work in a prestigious international conference, and adding a modest point to their Curriculum Vitae.

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EPJ B Colloquium: First-principles dynamics of electrons and phonons

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Published on Friday, 04 November 2016 14:36

First-principles calculations combining density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory can provide microscopic insight into the dynamics of electrons and phonons in materials. In this EPJ B Colloquium, Marco Bernardi, winner of the Psi’K young investigator award, reviews this theoretical and computational framework, focusing on perturbative treatments of scattering, dynamics, and transport of electrons and phonons. The article examines applications of these first-principles calculations in electronics, lighting, spectroscopy, and renewable energy.

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EPJ B Highlight - Supersonic phenomena, the key to extremely low heat loss nano-electronics

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Published on Tuesday, 25 October 2016 14:21

Supersonic solitary waves in nano-electronics crystals show potentials for electric charge or matter transport and energy storage with extremely low heat dissipation

Freak waves, as well as other less striking localised excitations, occur in nature at every scale. The current theory and models of such waves can be applied to physics and, among others, to oceanography, nonlinear optics and lasers, acoustics, plasmas, cosmological relativity and neuro-dynamics. However, they could also play a significant role at the quantum scale in nano-electronics. In a recent study, Manuel G. Velarde from the Pluridisciplinary Institute of the University Complutense of Madrid, Spain, and colleagues, performed computer simulations to compare two types of localised excitations in nano-electronics. Their findings, published in a recent study in EPJ B, confirm that such localised excitations are natural candidates for energy storage and transport. These, in turn, could lead to applications such as transistors with extremely low heat dissipation not using silicon.

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