Colóquios e Seminários

Journal club: “Vibrational cooling of Rb2 and KRb molecules”

The emergence of techniques for producing cold and ultracold molecules triggered a wide research on the area in the last years, both in theory and experiment. Several theoretical proposals rely on the production of molecular ensembles in a single quantum state, thus the search for molecules in their ro-vibrational ground state has become an important experimental challenge. In our laboratory, we produce cold molecules from cold atoms via photoassociation (PA) process. For this presentation, I will talk about the latest developments of our group in the search for vibrationally cooled molecules of Rb2 and KRb. We begin discussing the basic theoretical treatment of molecules and the transitions between vibra¬tional levels. Later, we shall discuss the experimental methods, including the atomic trapping and cooling, molecular production and vibrational cooling via optical pumping. A new setup that is being developed for the experiment will be presented. Finally, I will show our previous results concerning to the pro¬duction of molecules, as well as the perspectives for reaching the fundamental vibrational state with the new experimental setup.

Café com física: “The Skyrme unification, from nuclei to neutron stars”

The Skyrme model is a low energy effective field theory of strong interactions where nuclei and baryons appear as collective excitations of pionic degrees of freedom. Proposed by Tony Skyrme in the sixties, his ideas received further support when it was discovered that in the limit of the large number of colours of QCD, an effective theory of mesons arises.

In the last years, there has been a revival of Skyrme’s ideas and new related models, some of them with BPS bounds (topological lower energy bounds), have been proposed. It is the aim of this talk to present one of them, namely, the BPS Skyrme model, and to explore the nuclear world, from nuclei to neutron stars.

Seminário do Grupo de Óptica “Uso de Terapia Fotodinâmica, Laserterapia e Biomembrana de Celulose”

As úlceras venosas são comuns na população adulta, causando significativo impacto social e econômico devido a sua natureza recorrente e ao longo periodo de cicatrização, gerando impacto sobre a qualidade de vida e a produtividade da população. São consideradas um problema de saúde publica devido a sua alta incidência e recorrência e ao longo periodo de tratamento e representam 70 a 90% do total de úlceras de membros inferiores. Nosso projeto visa, através do uso de três ferramentas (Terapia Fotodinâmica, laserterapia e biomembrana de celulose), o tratamento das úlceras venosas juntando dessa forma o controle microbiológico local e bioestimulação do processo de cicatrização.

Astro-Cosmo-Particle Journal Club: “No-hair theorem for black holes in astrophysical environments”

A proposta do programa é reunir estudantes e cientistas interessados em discutir temas relevantes na física de partículas, cosmologia e astrofísica de partículas.

Todos estão convidados a participar das reuniões, mas se recomenda a leitura do artigo com antecedência, para que se possa acompanhar a discussão.

Clique aqui para saber qual artigo será discutido no próximo encontro.

Seminário do Grupo de Óptica: “Técnicas fotônicas aplicadas à caracterização e diagnóstico do citros

Com clima diversificado e terras férteis, o Brasil tem vocação natural para o desenvolvimento agropecuário e todas as suas vertentes. Assim, o agronegócio é hoje a principal locomotiva da economia brasileira, representando cerca de um terço do nosso Produto Interno Bruto (PIB). Nesse contexto, o Brasil é o terceiro maior produtor de frutas do planeta, com destaque para a produção de laranjas. Particularmente, o país lidera a produção mundial de suco de laranja e conta com uma participação de 85% nas exportações deste produto. Porém, um dos principais fatores atuais que restringem os lucros e a expansão da citricultura é o controle fitossanitário. Atualmente, dentre as principais doenças podemos destacar o HLB. Doença bacteriana, que não têm cura, compromete a produção e desenvolvimento da fruta e leva à morte da árvore. Portanto, o monitoramento desta é fundamental para evitar danos aos frutos e a necessidade da erradicação de plantações inteiras. Assim, é incontestável a necessidade de instrumentação que permita respostas cada vez mais rápidas e economicamente viáveis, auxiliando no manejo da doença dada à necessidade competitiva do setor. Neste seminário serão exibidos alguns dos resultados obtidos a respeito da avaliação do emprego das técnicas de Espectroscopia de Fluorescência Induzida por Laser (LIFS) e Espectroscopia de Emissão Óptica com Plasma Induzido por Laser (LIBS) como ferramentas de diagnóstico do HLB, se apresentando como uma alternativa às inspeções visuais e ao PCR utilizados atualmente.

Café com física: “Ferromagnetismo: um exemplo ‘completo’ de quebra espontâne de simetria?”

A supercondutividade constitui um exemplo de quebra espontânea de simetria cujos modos coletivos tem gap (massa) no espectro e o seu mecanismo engendra analogias bastante diretas com o mecanismo de Higgs de geração de massa. Historicamente, o entendimento da supercondutividade inspirou trabalhos em física de partículas, que se iniciaram com Nambu e Jona-Lasinio, e cujo desenvolvimento levou à resolução do conflito entre massas observadas e a necessidade da existência de modos não massivos (Nambu -Goldstone) em um estado proveniente de quebra espontênea de simetria. Num outro ângulo, é comum usar-se o ferromagnetismo como exemplo de quebra espontânea de simetria e suas consequências, devido à sua simplicidade e importância básica.

Nesta palestra, pretendo ilustrar o paralelismo entre algumas dessas idéias em duas áreas de pesquisa, sempre com o olhar do físico de matéria condensada. Mostrarei alguns resultados da teoria de líquidos de Fermi ferromagnéticos sobre os quais pode-se argumentar a existência de um modo massivo no ferromagnetismo (além do modo usual, não massivo). Trata-se de um modo longitudinal (de amplitude) do parâmetro de ordem e portanto um modo do tipo “Higgs”. No entanto, ilustrarei que, mesmo em regimes de interação forte, o modo de Goldstone prevalece, o que aparentemente impede completar a analogia para dizer que há um mecanismo de formação de massa no caso ferromagnético.

Seminário do Grupo de Óptica: “Desenvolvimento de sistema de localização de linfonodos sentinela”

A localização precisa de linfonodos sentinela é de fundamental importância para auxiliar no tratamento e consequente aumento de sobrevida em pacientes oncológicos submetidos à cirurgia de ressecção.

Neste contexto será apresentada uma visão geral sobre a necessidade da remoção dos linfonodos comprometidos com células cancerígenas, com a apresentação dos métodos atuais para a localização destes linfonodos e de novos métodos, como um novo protótipo, que compreende um sistema de fluorescência de campo amplo desenvolvido no IFSC, que é capaz de localizar com precisão o linfonodo sentinela possivelmente comprometido com células neoplásicas, auxiliando os cirurgiões do Hospital de Câncer de Barretos durante as cirurgias de ressecção tumoral.

Journal club: “All electron topological insulator in InAs double wells”

Topological Insulators (TI) were initially theoretically predicted in graphene and in inverted band-gap HgTe-based quantum wells. A year later, in 2007, the quantum spin hall effect (QSHE) was observed experimentally in HgTe quantum wells. More recently a QSHE system based on InAs/InSb electron/hole double quantum wells was proposed, and subsequently observed experimentally. Although much progress has been made in these systems, clear observation of edge state transport is still lacking, due to background bulk conductance.

Here we show that electrons in ordinary III-V semiconductor double wells with an in-plane modulating periodic potential and spin-orbit interaction are tunable TIs. The essential TI ingredients, namely, band inversion and the opening of an overall bulk gap in the spectrum arise, respectively, from (i) the combined effect of the double well even-odd state splitting together with the superlattice potential and (ii) the interband Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We will introduce the origins of the interband spin-orbit coupling and using the k.p-like approach we will derive an effective Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model. In addition to the analytical work we perform numerical calculations of the bands and explicitly verify the bulk-edge correspondence by considering a strip configuration and determining not only the bulk bands but also the edge states and their Dirac-like spectrum in the topological phase. Finally we will consider the effects of the intraband spin-orbit coupling, and the breaking of inversion symmetry due to the periodic superlattice potential, and discuss possible experimental implementation.

Café com física: “Bosons in Optical Lattices”

Spinless bosons in optical lattices reveal a generic quantum phase transition once the depth of the potential wells is tuned. When the on-site interaction energy is small compared to the hopping energy, the ground state is superfluid, as the bosons are delocalized and phase coherent over the whole lattice. In the opposite limit, where the on-site interaction energy dominates over the hopping energy, the ground state is a Mott insulator, as each boson is trapped in one of the respective potential minima.

In order to describe both thermodynamic and dynamic properties of this quantum phase transition we developed a Ginzburg-Landau theory [1,2]. To this end we started from the microscopic Bose-Hubbard model, applied diagrammatic techniques within a systematic strong-coupling expansion, and calculated the underlying effective action. Already the first beyond mean-field order exhibits for the boundary of the quantum phase transition in a three-dimensional cubic lattice a relative error of less than 3% when compared with most recent Quantum Monte Carlo simulations [1]. Higher orders turn out to be so accurate that they even allow for the calculation of critical exponents [3]. Furthermore, the Ginzburg-Landau theory yields excitation spectra both in the Mott and the superfluid phase, which agree qualitatively with recent experiments [4].

Finally, we discuss three intriguing examples how the quantum phase transition of bosons in optical lattices can be tuned. In the first example we consider a spinor Bose gas loaded into a three-dimensional cubic optical lattice, where the different superfluid phases of spin-1 bosons are tunable due to the presence of an external magnetic field [5]. Then we deal with interacting bosons in an optical lattice with a periodic modulation of the s-wave scattering length, so the location of the quantum phase boundary turns out to depend quite sensitively on both driving amplitude and frequency [6]. Afterwards, we study the Bose-Hubbard model for the optical Kagome superlattice, where the delicate interplay between onsite repulsion and artificial symmetry breaking yields an anisotropic superfluid density, whose directional dependence is tunable by several system parameters [7,8].

[1] F.E.A. dos Santos and A. Pelster, Phys. Rev. A 79, 013614 (2009) [2] B. Bradlyn, F.E.A. dos Santos, and A. Pelster, Phys. Rev. A 79, 01361 (2009) [3] D. Hinrichs, A. Pelster, and M. Holthaus, Applied Physics B 113, 57 (2013) [4] T.D. Grass, F.E.A. dos Santos, and A. Pelster, Phys. Rev. A 84, 013613 (2011) [5] M. Mobarak and A. Pelster, Laser Phys. Lett. 10, 115501 (2013) [6] T. Wang, X.-F. Zhang, F.E.A. dos Santos, S. Eggert, and A. Pelster, Phys. Rev. A 90, 013633 (2014) [7] T. Wang, X.-F. Zhang, S. Eggert, and A. Pelster, Phys. Rev. A 87, 063615 (2013) [8] X.-F. Zhang, T. Wang, S. Eggert, and A. Pelster, Phys. Rev. B 92, 014512 (2015)

Seminário especial: “Developing tools for algal biotechnology”

Alison Smith´s key publications

1. Grant MAA, Kazamia E, Cicuta P, Smith AG (2014) Direct exchange of vitamin B12 is demonstrated by modelling the growth dynamics of algal-bacterial coculture. ISME J doi: 10.1038/ismej.2014.9.

2. Davey MP, Horst I, Duong GH, Tomsett EV, Litvinenko A, Howe CJ, Smith AG (2014) Triacylglyceride production and autophagous responses in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii depend on resource allocation and carbon source. Eukaryotic Cell 13: 392-400; doi:10.1128/EC.00178-13

3. Kazamia E, Aldridge DA and Smith AG (2012) Synthetic ecology- a way forward for sustainable algal biofuel production? J Biotechnol 162: 163-169

4. Stephenson AL, Kazamia E, Dennis JS, Howe CJ, Scott SA and Smith AG (2010) Life-cycle assessment of potential algal biodiesel production in the United Kingdom: comparison of raceways and air-lift tubular bioreactors. Energy & Fuels 24: 4062–4077

Journal club: “Chiral Majorana edge states in HgTe quantum wells”

HgTe-based quantum wells (QWs) recently attracted a lot of attention for the realization of a two-dimensional topological insulator with protected helical edge states. Another class of topological systems are topological superconductors (TSCs) with Majorana edge states. In this paper, we show how proximity induced s-wave superconductivity in the bulk of HgTe-QWs and in the presence of a Zeeman field can exhibit a TSC with chiral Majorana edge states. We calculate the topological invariants and the corresponding Majorana edge states explicitly within a four-band model accounting for inversion symmetry breaking terms due to the Rashba spin–orbit coupling and bulk inversion asymmetry present in these QWs.

L. Weithofer and P. Recher

New Journal of Physics 15 (2013) 085008 (19pp)

Seminário do Grupo de Óptica: “Desenvolvimento de um sistema portátil de espectroscopia”

A análise de espectros e tempos de vida de fluorescência em tecidos biológicos vem sendo apresentada como uma técnica com grande potencial para a caracterização tecidual com finalidade diagnóstica. Além de medidas rápidas e não-invasivas, ela permite uma avaliação do tecido in situ, sem a necessidade de remoção e processamento da amostra biológica. No caso de lesões cutâneas, podem haver lesões benignas com aspectos clínicos semelhantes aos de malignas, o que torna o diagnóstico clínico mais complexo. O prognóstico do paciente, assim como a modalidade terapêutica, depende do tipo histológico e da evolução da lesão. Nesse contexto, técnicas auxiliares de diagnóstico são de grande relevância para melhorar o planejamento e o sucesso do tratamento. Nesta primeira etapa do projeto, um dos primeiros sistemas portáteis de espectroscopia de tempo de vida de fluorescência do mundo foi desenvolvido e caracterizado. Esse sistema foi adaptado de um sistema comercial de bancada para uma maleta metálica, de modo a facilitar o transporte e viabilizar medidas clínicas. Também serão apresentados alguns dos resultados preliminares de diferenciação entre áreas da pele expostas e não-expostas ao sol em voluntários jovens, nos quais não se esperava uma grande diferenciação.

Café com física: “MERDA – the fingerprint of life history”

The principle is well established in particle physics that, intrinsic in every particle, is information that is influenced by the physical nature of the particle, as well as its history. In a multi-particle system, every particle represents an information-rich entity that contributes in some definable way to the properties of the entire system. This same lens can be used to view microbes that inhabit the human body. All environmentally exposed surfaces of animals are saturated with microbes. The gut houses the vast majority (about 1014) of microbes associated with humans, because it is rich in the elements that support microbial life – high water and nutritional content. Like physical particles, each microbe in the gut ecosystem possesses information – there is a history as to how it got there, it has specific properties that are allowing it to stay and even proliferate there, etc.. Microbes of the gut are not a random assemblage. There are about 1000 different abundant microbial species in the typical gut, and many more species occurring in low numbers along the very long tail of the decay curve descending from 1014. Many of the most abundant microbes in the gut are initially aquired when the largely sterile baby transits the birth canal. Other usually rarer microbes derive from the diet, transmission between individuals, and the environment. Some may become long time residents of the gut, and others may just pass through. Since bacteria have the ability to replicate in the gut, the relative representation of a particular type of bacterium is defined by properties including metabolic capabilities of that microbe, and their compatibility with the environmental conditions within the gut. Environmental conditions within the gut are determined by such factors as diet, supportive or antagonistic factors produced by other resident microbes, and supportive and antagonistic factors secreted into the gut by the host. Host determinants of the microbial population composition and structure include rate of mucous secretion, rate of secretion of antimicrobial defense factors in the mucous, pH changes along the length of the gut, glucose and other nutrient content of the host secretions into the gut, temperature, water content, and many other factors. Factors that influence what the host secretes into the gut include age and state of development of the host immune system, sex of the host, diseases of the host (e.g., gut inflammation, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, etc.), relative activity of the host, and other factors that affect gut contraction rates and transit time. Other factors that influence the population structure within the gut include the rate of nutrient consumption by the host in relationship to the ability of that host to digest and absorb the nutritional content, such that excess consumption leads to a surplus of nutrients in the gut available to the microbial community. The main point is that the composition of gut microbes is highly unique to each person or animal, and depends on the specific properties of both the microbe as well as the host. Each microbe within the population conveys information about the history of the animal (such as the identity of its mother), about its diet and rate of consumption/over consumption, about its health, about its history of antibiotic use or intestinal disease, and many other traits. That is, gut flora are a highly specific historic and metabolic fingerprint of each animal. With the development of “Next Generation” DNA sequencing, we now have the ability to identify and enumerate about 99.9999% of the microbes in the gut of each animal. Based on a growing body of data, we are just beginning to develop the bioinformatic tools and rules necessary to correlate the microbial content of the gut with health. In the near future, analysis of gut flora (feces) will be a relatively painless and rapid means for comprehensively understanding the health and natural history of humans and animals. The objective is to reach a point where we understand the information content of each of the 1014 particles that constitute the human gut community.

Café com física: “MERDA – the fingerprint of life history”

The principle is well established in particle physics that, intrinsic in every particle, is information that is influenced by the physical nature of the particle, as well as its history. In a multi-particle system, every particle represents an information-rich entity that contributes in some definable way to the properties of the entire system. This same lens can be used to view microbes that inhabit the human body. All environmentally exposed surfaces of animals are saturated with microbes. The gut houses the vast majority (about 1014) of microbes associated with humans, because it is rich in the elements that support microbial life – high water and nutritional content. Like physical particles, each microbe in the gut ecosystem possesses information – there is a history as to how it got there, it has specific properties that are allowing it to stay and even proliferate there, etc.. Microbes of the gut are not a random assemblage. There are about 1000 different abundant microbial species in the typical gut, and many more species occurring in low numbers along the very long tail of the decay curve descending from 1014. Many of the most abundant microbes in the gut are initially aquired when the largely sterile baby transits the birth canal. Other usually rarer microbes derive from the diet, transmission between individuals, and the environment. Some may become long time residents of the gut, and others may just pass through. Since bacteria have the ability to replicate in the gut, the relative representation of a particular type of bacterium is defined by properties including metabolic capabilities of that microbe, and their compatibility with the environmental conditions within the gut. Environmental conditions within the gut are determined by such factors as diet, supportive or antagonistic factors produced by other resident microbes, and supportive and antagonistic factors secreted into the gut by the host. Host determinants of the microbial population composition and structure include rate of mucous secretion, rate of secretion of antimicrobial defense factors in the mucous, pH changes along the length of the gut, glucose and other nutrient content of the host secretions into the gut, temperature, water content, and many other factors. Factors that influence what the host secretes into the gut include age and state of development of the host immune system, sex of the host, diseases of the host (e.g., gut inflammation, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, etc.), relative activity of the host, and other factors that affect gut contraction rates and transit time. Other factors that influence the population structure within the gut include the rate of nutrient consumption by the host in relationship to the ability of that host to digest and absorb the nutritional content, such that excess consumption leads to a surplus of nutrients in the gut available to the microbial community. The main point is that the composition of gut microbes is highly unique to each person or animal, and depends on the specific properties of both the microbe as well as the host. Each microbe within the population conveys information about the history of the animal (such as the identity of its mother), about its diet and rate of consumption/over consumption, about its health, about its history of antibiotic use or intestinal disease, and many other traits. That is, gut flora are a highly specific historic and metabolic fingerprint of each animal. With the development of “Next Generation” DNA sequencing, we now have the ability to identify and enumerate about 99.9999% of the microbes in the gut of each animal. Based on a growing body of data, we are just beginning to develop the bioinformatic tools and rules necessary to correlate the microbial content of the gut with health. In the near future, analysis of gut flora (feces) will be a relatively painless and rapid means for comprehensively understanding the health and natural history of humans and animals. The objective is to reach a point where we understand the information content of each of the 1014 particles that constitute the human gut community.

Seminário especial: “Technology developments in Cryo-TEM as well as applications”

During this seminar, the following topics will be dealt with:

• Overview of recent technology developments in Cryo-TEM allowing for an efficient workflow for high resolution protein structure determination

• New contrast enhancements mechanisms for cryo-TEM: the FEI Volta Phase Plate

• Addressing biological questions with cryo-TEM applications

• Utilizing Cryo-TEM as a national resource at a synchrotron for protein structure determination

Seminário do Grupo de Óptica: “Avaliação da Terapia Fotodinâmica em Células de Melanoma Murino”

De acordo com os últimos dados do INCA (Instituto Nacional do Câncer), 6.000 novos casos de câncer melanoma surgiram em 2014. Este é o tipo de câncer mais perigoso, porque possui uma alta taxa de metástase levando em muitos casos ao óbito. Atualmente, o melanoma é resistente à maioria dos tratamentos quimioterápicos e radioterápicos e por isso é estudado novos métodos de tratamentos. Nesse contexto, a terapia fotodinâmica é uma alternativa ao tratamento com o a vantagem de não ser invasiva. Um dos grandes desafios para terapia é superar a alta produção de melanina pelos melanócitos, que impede a penetração da luz e, portanto, a ativação do fotosensibilizador. Neste estudo foi investigada a morte celular do melanoma murino em modelo de monocamada através da avaliação de viabilidade celular usando diferentes fluências de luz. Além disso, foi observada a captação do fotossensibilizador, Photodithazine (PDZ), pelas células melanóticas em diferentes tempos, e a sua co-localização com organelas celulares. Assim buscamos um melhor entendimento do mecanismo de atuação deste fotosensibilizador e a sua ação contra o câncer melanoma.

Seminário do Grupo de Óptica: “Entanglement and exotic superfluidity”

Exotic superfluids are characterized by the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism. In fermionic systems superfluidity is achieved by pairing of particles while magnetization is induced by an imbalanced population of two species of fermions. This exotic coexistence, first investigated by Fulde and Ferrell and Larkin and Ovchinnikov (FFLO), is predicted to show distinct properties in comparison to a conventional BCS superfluid. Experimentally, the FFLOstate has been investigated in cold atoms experiments by several groups (Ketterle, Hulet, Törmä). From the theoretical point of view, the Hubbard model has been used to investigate the FFLO properties and to predict the regimes where the FFLO state appears. In this talk we will discuss theoretical results for the 1D Hubbard lattice with spinimbalanced populations. In particular, we have obtained an analytical expression for the critical polarization below which the FFLO state emerges and depicted the phase diagram as a function of interaction and particle density. We have also investigated i) the effects of the experimental harmonic trap, ii) the local magnetization, iii)the behavior of entanglement, and iv) the spinflip channels which favor the pairing protection. We find that beyond the FFLOstate regime the spinflip processes trigger a breaking pairs avalanche, leading the system to the normal (non superfluid) polarized phase.