Engineering long-range interactions between ultracold atoms with light

Ultracold temperatures in dilute quantum gases opened the way to an exquisite control of matter at the quantum level. Here we focus on the control of ultracold atomic collisions using a laser to engineer their interactions at large interatomic distances. We show that the entrance channel of two colliding ultracold atoms can be coupled to a repulsive collisional channel by the laser light so that the overall interaction between the two atoms becomes repulsive: this prevents them to come close together and to undergo inelastic processes, thus protecting the atomic gases from unwanted losses. We illustrate such an optical shielding mechanism with 39K and 133Cs atoms colliding at ultracold temperature (<1 microkelvin). The process is described in the framework of the dressed-state picture and we then solve the resulting stationary coupled Schrödinger equations. The role of spontaneous emission and photoinduced inelastic scattering is also investigated as possible limitations of the shielding efficiency. We predict an almost complete suppression of inelastic collisions over a broad range of Rabi frequencies and detunings from the 39K D2 line of the optical shielding laser, both within the [0, 200 MHz] interval. We found that the polarization of the shielding laser has a minor influence on this efficiency. This proposal could easily be formulated for other bialkali-metal pairs as their long-range interaction are all very similar to each other.

Hydrophobic Mismatch Controls the Mode of Membrane-Mediated Interactions of Transmembrane Peptides

Various cellular processes require the concerted cooperative action of proteins. The possibility for such synchronization implies the occurrence of specific long-range interactions between the involved protein participants. Bilayer lipid membranes can mediate protein–protein interactions via relatively long-range elastic deformations induced by the incorporated proteins. We considered the interactions between transmembrane peptides mediated by elastic deformations using the framework of the theory of elasticity of lipid membranes. An effective peptide shape was assumed to be cylindrical, hourglass-like, or barrel-like. The interaction potentials were obtained for membranes of different thicknesses and elastic rigidities. Cylindrically shaped peptides manifest almost neutral average interactions—they attract each other at short distances and repel at large ones, independently of membrane thickness or rigidity. The hourglass-like peptides repel each other in thin bilayers and strongly attract each other in thicker bilayers. On the contrary, the barrel-like peptides repel each other in thick bilayers and attract each other in thinner membranes. These results potentially provide possible mechanisms of control for the mode of protein–protein interactions in membrane domains with different bilayer thicknesses.

Objective and probabilistic long-range forecasts of summertime air temperatures in South Korea based on Gaussian processes

We propose the objective long-range forecasting model based on Gaussian processes (OLRAF-GP), focusing on summertime near-surface air temperatures in June (1-month lead), July (2-month lead), and August (3-month lead). The predictors were objectively selected based on their relationships with the target variables, either from observations (GP-OBS) or from observations and dynamical climate model results from APEC Climate Center multi-model ensemble (APCC MME) for the period with no observed data (GP-MME). The performances of the OLRAF-GP models were compared with the model with pre-determined predictors from observations (GP-PD). Both GP-MME and GP-OBS outperformed GP-PD in June (Heidke skill score; HSS = 0.46, 0.72, and 0.16 for mean temperature) and July (HSS = 0.53, 0.3, and 0.07 for mean temperature). Furthermore, GP-MME mostly outperformed GP-OBS and GP-PD in August (HSS = 0.52, 0.28, and 0.5, respectively, for mean temperature), implying larger contributions of the additional predictors from MME. OLRAF-GP models, especially GP-MME, are expected to better forecast summertime temperatures in regions where existing models have been struggling. We find that the physical processes associated with the notable predictors are aligned with those in previous studies, such as the attribution of the La Niña conditions in the previous winter, the related Indian Ocean capacitor effect, and the impacts of wintertime Polar/Eurasia pattern. These results imply that the mechanisms of the objectively selected predictors can be physically meaningful, and their inclusion can improve model performance and efficiency.

Field canalization using anisotropic 2D plasmonics

Optical devices capable of suppressing diffraction nature of light are of great technological importance to many nanophotonic applications. One important technique to achieve diffractionless optics is to exploit field canalization effect. However, current technological platforms based on metamaterial structures typically suffer from strict loss-confinement trade-off, or lack dynamic reconfigurability over device operations. Here we report an integrated canalization platform that can alleviate this performance trade-off. It is found that by leveraging material absorption of anisotropic 2D materials, the dispersion of this class of materials can flatten without increasing propagation losses and compromising confinement. The realization of such plasmon canalization can be considered using black phosphorus (BP), where topological transition from elliptic to hyperbolic curves can be induced by dynamically leveraging material absorption of BP. At the transition point, BP film can support long range, deeply subwavelength, near-diffractionless field propagation, exhibiting diffraction angle of 5.5°, propagation distance of 10λspp, and λspp < λ0/300.