Department of Physics

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Dynamical parametric encirclement around an Exceptional Point (EP) and corresponding asymmetric state transfer phenomenon have attracted considerable attention recently. In this context, beyond the reported time-asymmetric state dynamics around a second-order EP (EP2) in a two-level system, the investigation of similar state dynamics around a third-order EP (EP3) in a multi-state system, having comparably complex topology with rich physics, is lacking. Here, we report a fabrication-feasible few-mode supported planar optical waveguide with a customized gain–loss profile and investigate the effect of dynamical parametric encirclement around an EP3 in the presence of multiple EP2s. The cube-root branch point behaviour is established in terms of successive switching between the propagation constants of the coupled modes following an adiabatic encirclement process. Now, while considering the dynamical encirclement process, the breakdown in system adiabaticity around an EP3 leads to a unique light dynamics, where we have shown the breakdown of chirality of the device. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

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Optics Communications

Nonadiabatic modal dynamics around a third-order Exceptional Point in a planar waveguide

The microtubule is regarded as the key target for designing anticancer and neurotherapeutic drugs due to its functional importance in eukaryotic cells including neurons. The microtubule is a dynamic hollow polymer tube consisting of alpha,beta-tubulin heterodimer. Polymerization of alpha,beta-tubulin heterodimer resulted in microtubule formation. GTP plays a crucial role in microtubule polymerization. It binds at the exchangeable binding site of the beta-tubulin heterodimer, and it is one of the most crucial therapeutic hot spots for designing anticancer therapeutics. In this manuscript, we have shown using an in silico strategy and various in vitro and cellular experiments that the binding affinity to the tubulin and cancer therapeutic potential of an exchangeable GTP/GDP binding antimitotic tetrapeptide (SP: Ser-Leu-Arg-Pro) is increased through changing proline with the multifluorine substituted proline. This study showcases the importance of the proline amino acid and its pyrrolidine ring in the regulation of binding with tubulin at the GTP binding pocket.

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B

Fluorine Substituted Proline Enhances the Tubulin Binding Potential of a Tetrapeptide at the GTP Binding Pocket Causing the Inhibition of Microtubule Motility and an Antimitotic Effect

In this work, a facile and cost-effective approach to assemble metallic wires into two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) freestanding geometries by room-temperature welding is demonstrated. The low melting point of gallium (29.8 °C) enables the welding at room temperature without the aid of high-energy sources required for high-melting-point metals and alloys. The welding enables assembly of solid gallium wires into 2D and 3D geometries that could create freestanding architectures with multiple junctions along any inclined direction. These 2D and 3D freestanding metallic structures are freeze-cast in soft elastomers to obtain stretchable and soft devices: a 2D stretchable resistive and capacitive sensor patterned with parallel metal lines, a 2D stretchable capacitive sensor patterned with an interdigitated metal structure with capacitive changes on stretching in both x- and y-axes, and a 3D compressive sensor by assembly of liquid metal helices, which could sense foot pressure compression. We also developed a facile method to interconnect between soft circuits and external electronics, suppressing stress during mechanical deformation. © 2021 American Chemical Society.

ACS Applied Materials \& Interfaces

2D and 3D Structuring of Freestanding Metallic Wires Enabled by Room-Temperature Welding for Soft and Stretchable Electronics

We report a measurement of the D0 and D+ lifetimes using D0→K-π+ and D+→K-π+π+ decays reconstructed in e+e-→cc¯ data recorded by the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. The data, collected at center-of-mass energies at or near the (4S) resonance, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 72 fb-1. The results, τ(D0)=410.5±1.1(stat)±0.8(syst) fs and τ(D+)=1030.4±4.7(stat)±3.1(syst) fs, are the most precise to date and are consistent with previous determinations. © 2021 authors.

Physical Review Letters

Precise Measurement of the D0 and D+ Lifetimes at Belle II

The preparation of Zinc oxide/polystyrene (ZnO/PS) composite scintillator was carried out with different percentages of ZnO varying from 5 to 50% (w/w) on the quartz substrate. The enhanced absorbance is observed at ~ 385 nm for low % (w/w) of ZnO, which is red-shifted to 390 nm for higher ZnO % (w/w) composite samples. The pristine polystyrene sample showed excitation at ~271 nm, equivalent to the measured bandgap of polystyrene. A photoluminescence emission of 385 nm in ZnO/PS composite is observed, which is equivalent to the measured ZnO bandgap ~3.22 eV. Alpha excited radioluminescence, obtained using 5.2 MeV alpha particles from 239Pu, showed emission at ~387 nm together with polystyrene emission at ~ 430 nm. The scintillation characteristics for the composite samples are investigated using the pulse height spectrum after coupling the composite films with a photomultiplier tube (PMT) and multichannel analyzer (MCA). The significant increase in pulse height is observed for 5% (w/w) or more ZnO in PS. This is clearly discernible in contrast to polystyrene without ZnO. The integrated counts increase linearly up to 20% (w/w) ZnO and showed reduction for 50% (w/w) ZnO/PS sample. The reduction in the counts is attributed to the reduced transmittance for higher % (w/w) ZnO in PS matrix. The maximum detection efficiency and minimum detectable activity (MDA) are ~23% and ~0.4 Bq, respectively, for 50% (w/w) ZnO/PS. Further, a linear response is observed with activity for all scintillating samples. These findings suggest that ZnO/PS composite materials may be a good candidate for efficient monitoring of alpha radioactivity with high sensitivity and very low MDA. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing

Zinc oxide/polystyrene composite based scintillator for alpha particle monitoring

The original version of this Article contained errors in Affiliation 2 and 3, which were incorrectly given as ‘Department of Solar Energy and Environment Physics, Swiss Institute of Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 8499000 MidreshetBen Gurion, Israel’ and ‘University of Bordeaux, ISM UMR CNRS 5255, Bordeaux INP, ENSCBP, 16 Avenue PeyBerland, Bordeaux 33607, Pessac, France’. The correct affiliations are listed below: Affiliation 2 ‘University of Bordeaux, ISM UMR CNRS 5255, Bordeaux INP, ENSCBP, 16 Avenue Pey Berland, Bordeaux 33607, Pessac, France’ Affiliation 3 ‘Nano Functional Materials Technology Centre, Materials Science Research Centre and Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India’ These errors have now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the Article. © 2021, The Author(s).

Scientific Reports

Author Correction: Growth of sillenite Bi12FeO20 single crystals: structural, thermal, optical, photocatalytic features and first principle calculations (Scientific Reports, (2020), 10, 1, (22052), 10.1038/s41598-020-78598-3)

Several measures of quantum correlations such as Leggett–Garg and Bell-type inequalities have been extensively studied in the context of neutrino oscillations. However, these analyses are performed under the assumption of standard model (SM) interactions of neutrinos. In this work, we study new physics effects on l1-norm based measure of quantum coherence which quantifies the quantumness embedded in the system and is also intrinsically related to various measures of quantum correlations. Moreover, it is considered to be a resource theoretical tool which can be utilized in quantum algorithms and quantum channel discrimination. The new physics effects are incorporated in a model independent way by using the effective Lagrangian for the neutral current non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI). Bounds on the NSI parameters are extracted from a recent global analysis of oscillation experiments including COHERENT (coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering experiment) data. In the context of upcoming DUNE experimental setup, we find that the most favourable combination of LMA-Light sector of θ12 (i.e., θ12&lt; 45 ∘) with normal mass ordering decreases the coherence in the system in comparison to the SM prediction for all values of neutrino energy E and CP violating phase δ (except in the narrow region around E∼ 2 GeV). On the other hand, a large enhancement in the value of coherence parameter in the entire (E- δ) plane is possible for the dark octant of θ12 (θ12&gt; 45 ∘) with inverted ordering. For almost all values of CP violating phase, the enhancement is more protuberant in the region around E∼ 4 GeV where maximum neutrino flux is expected in the DUNE experiment. Therefore for the normal mass ordering, the SM interaction provides favourable conditions for quantum information tasks while the NSI favours inverted ordering scenario for such tasks. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

European Physical Journal Plus

New physics effects on quantum coherence in neutrino oscillations

Quantum non-Markovianity of channels can be produced by mixing Markovian channels, as observed recently by various authors. We consider an analogous question of whether singularities of the channel can be produced by mixing nonsingular channels, i.e., ones that lack them. Here we answer the question in the negative in the context of qubit Pauli channels. On the other hand, mixing channels with a singularity can lead to the elimination of singularities in the resultant channel. We distinguish between two types of singular channels, which lead under mixing to broadly quite different properties of the singularity in the resultant channel. The connection to non-Markovianity (in the sense of completely positive indivisibility) is pointed out. These results impose nontrivial restrictions on the experimental realization of noninvertible quantum channels by a process of channel mixing. © 2021 American Physical Society.

Physical Review A

Singularities, mixing, and non-Markovianity of Pauli dynamical maps

Aim: The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of sewage sludge and saline water irrigation on micronutrients concentration in pearl millet- wheat cropping system. Methodology: The trial was conducted during 2017-2019 at Soil Research Farm, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Haryana in a factorial random block design with three replications. There were three salinity levels of irrigation water, i.e., canal water (0.35 dS m-1), 8 and 10 dS m-1 EC of saline water; and five fertilization levels, i.e., control (no fertilizer), sewage sludge(5 t ha-1), SS (5 t ha-1) + 50% RDF, SS (5 t ha-1) + 75% RDF and 100 % RDF. However, sewage sludge was applied in Rabi seasons only. Results: Based on pooled analysis of two years, micronutrients (Fe, Mn and Cu) concentration in grain and stover/straw of pearl millet and wheat crops significantly reduced on application of saline water irrigation (ECiw 8 and 10 dS m-1) whereas, Zn concentration was non significantly affected with salinity levels. However, highest concentration of Fe, Mn and Cu was recorded with canal water irrigation. There was a significant increase in micronutrients (Fe, Mn and Cu) concentration in both crops with sewage sludge application in comparison of RDF and control treatments but in case of zinc treatment SS (5 t ha-1) + 75% RDF and 100% RDF were at par with each other. Among treatments, significantly higher concentration of micronutrients was recorded with SS (5 t ha-1) + 75% RDF treatment being at par with SS (5 t ha-1) + 50% RDF. Interpretation: Salinity affects micronutrient availability adversely. However, zinc content was not affected significantly. In such case, sewage sludge application may prove a feasible option that serves as a supplement of nutrients as well as sorting out the problem of dumping waste. © 2020 Triveni Enterprises, Lucknow (India).

Journal of Environmental Biology

Micronutrients accumulation under pearl millet-wheat cropping system in response of salinity levels amended with sewage sludge

Hybrid metal halide perovskites, typically known for their photovoltaic applications, have recently gained traction as a potential energy-storage material due to their promising gravimetric capacities as lithium-ion battery electrode materials. Here we investigate the effect of tuning the layering properties of the quasi two-dimensional Ruddlesden Popper (RP) layered perovskite series (BA)2(MA)n-1PbnX3n+1 (BA-butylammonium, MA-methylammonium, X-halide (I- and Br-)) from n = 1 to n = 4 and the equivalent bulk crystal structure MAPbX3. The interaction between the insertion of lithium ions and the layering arrangement of the perovskite structure are studied electrochemically and compared to a reported three-stage energy storage mechanism in bulk perovskites. The layering structure that optimises both capacity and stability is determined to be n = 4, providing a compromise between the number of active layers and the lithium ion access between them provided by the BA organic chain, thus demonstrating initial and stabilised gravimetric capacities of 575.5 mA h g-1 and 89.9 mA h g-1 respectively. The effect of changing the halide within the perovskite structure is investigated and demonstrates a greater gravimetric capacity for the lighter bromide species compared to the commonly used iodide. Finally, high molarity electrolytes and tailored cut-off potentials are used to improve the stability of the RP layered perovskite electrodes. © 2021 The Royal Society of Chemistry.