Decay of fermionic quasiparticles in one-dimensional quantum liquids.

The low-energy properties of one-dimensional quantum liquids are commonly described in terms of the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory, in which the elementary excitations are free bosons. To this approximation, the theory can be alternatively recast in terms of free fermions. In both approaches, small perturbations give rise to finite lifetimes of excitations. We evaluate the decay rate of fermionic excitations and show that it scales as the eighth power of energy, in contrast to the much faster decay of bosonic excitations. Our results can be tested experimentally by measuring the broadening of power-law features in the density structure factor or spectral functions.

Conductance of a helical edge liquid coupled to a magnetic impurity.

Transport in an ideal two-dimensional quantum spin Hall device is dominated by the counterpropagating edge states of electrons with opposite spins, giving the universal value of the conductance, 2e(2)/h. We study the effect on the conductance of a magnetic impurity, which can backscatter an electron from one edge state to the other. In the case of isotropic Kondo exchange we find that the correction to the electrical conductance caused by such an impurity vanishes in the dc limit, while the thermal conductance does acquire a finite correction due to the spin-flip backscattering.

Thrombotic microangiopathy in patients with phosphatidylserine dependent antiprothrombin antibodies and antiphospholipid syndrome.

Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is a rare disorder characterized by microvascular thrombosis. TMA has been reported in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies and/or antiphospholipid syndrome but its pathogenesis is not clarified. We present two patients with TMA associated with IgG phosphatidylserine dependent antiprothrombin antibodies (aPS/PT). CASE 1: A 44-year-old Japanese female with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and positive lupus anticoagulant (LA) was started on ticlopidine after having stroke. Four weeks later she developed TMA. IgG/M/A anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) were negative, but strong positive IgG aPS/PT were detected. CASE 2: A 32-year-old Russian female with SLE was admitted because of hypertension, renal insufficiency and proteinuria at 14 weeks of pregnancy. She developed TMA after surgical abortion. IgG aPS/PT and LA were strongly positive but IgG/M/A aCL were negative. Neither case had von Willebrand factor cleaving protease (ADAMTS-13), suggesting that TMA in those patients was associated with thrombophilia rather than insufficient ADAMTS-13. Both patients were successfully treated with a series of plasma exchange.

Density of states in coupled chains with off-diagonal disorder

We compute the density of states rho(varepsilon) in N coupled chains with random hopping. At zero energy, rho(varepsilon) shows a singularity that strongly depends on the parity of N. For odd N, rho(varepsilon) approximately 1/|varepsilonln (3)varepsilon|, with and without time-reversal symmetry. For even N, rho(varepsilon) approximately |lnvarepsilon| in the presence of time-reversal symmetry, while there is a pseudogap, rho(varepsilon) approximately |varepsilonlnvarepsilon|, in the absence of time-reversal symmetry.

Localization and delocalization in dirty superconducting wires

We present Fokker-Planck equations that describe transport of heat and spin in dirty unconventional superconducting quantum wires. Four symmetry classes are distinguished, depending on the presence or absence of time-reversal and spin-rotation invariance. In the absence of spin-rotation symmetry, heat transport is anomalous in that the mean conductance decays like 1/sqrt[L] instead of exponentially fast for large enough length L of the wire. The Fokker-Planck equations in the presence of time-reversal symmetry are solved exactly and the mean conductance for quasiparticle transport is calculated for the crossover from the diffusive to the localized regime.

Oxetin, a new antimetabolite from an actinomycete. Fermentation, isolation, structure and biological activity.

A new amino acid-antimetabolite, oxetin, was isolated from a fermentation broth of a Streptomyces sp. OM-2317, a soil isolate. The chemical structure was elucidated as (2R,3S)-3-amino-2-oxetane carboxylic acid by analysis of the spectral data and by X-ray diffraction methods. The antibiotic is the first natural product possessing an oxetane ring. Certain microorganisms were inhibited by oxetin only when cultivated in minimal media. The inhibitory action was reversed by several amino acids such as L-isoleucine, L-methionine, L-valine and L-glutamine. It also exhibited herbicidal activity and inhibited glutamine synthetase from spinach leaves.