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C. Zeng

Publications and source records attributed to C. Zeng.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

A multi-cubic-kilometre neutrino telescope in the western Pacific Ocean

Next-generation neutrino telescopes with significantly improved sensitivity are required to pinpoint the sources of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux detected by IceCube and uncover the century-old puzzle of cosmic ray origins. A detector near the equator will provide a unique viewpoint of the neutrino sky, complementing IceCube and other neutrino telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere. Here we present results from an expedition to the north-eastern region of the South China Sea, in the western Pacific Ocean. A favorable neutrino telescope site was found on an abyssal plain at a depth of $\sim$ 3.5km. At depths below 3km, the sea current speed, water absorption and scattering lengths for Cherenkov light, were measured to be $v_{\mathrm{c}}<$10cm/s, $\lambda_{\mathrm{abs} }\simeq$ 27m and $\lambda_{\mathrm{sca} }\simeq$ 63m, respectively. Accounting for these measurements, we present the design and expected performance of a next-generation neutrino telescope, TRopIcal DEep-sea Neutrino Telescope (TRIDENT). With its advanced photon-detection technology and large dimensions, TRIDENT expects to observe the IceCube steady source candidate NGC 1068 with 5$\sigma$ significance within 1 year of operation. This level of sensitivity will open a new arena for diagnosing the origin of cosmic rays and probing fundamental physics over astronomical baselines.

astro-ph.HE

Hourly Warning for Strong Earthquakes

A promising perspective is presented that humans can provide hourly warning for strong land earthquakes (EQs, Ms6). Two important atmospheric electrostatic signal features are described. A table that lists 9 strong land EQs with shock time, epicenter, magnitude, weather in the region near the epicenter, precursor beginning time, and precursor duration demonstrates that at approximately several hours to one day before a strong land EQ, the weather conditions are fair near the epicenter, and an abnormal negative atmospheric electrostatic signal is very obvious. Moreover, the mechanism is explained. A method by which someone could determine the epicenter and the magnitude of a forthcoming strong EQ is suggested. Finally, the possibility of realizing hourly warning for strong land EQs in the near future is pointed out.

physics.geo-ph

The near surface vertical atmospheric electric field abnormality could be as a promising imminent precursor of major earthquakes

A promising short term precursor of major earthquakes (EQ) is very crucial in saving people and preventing huge losses. Ez, atmospheric electrostatic field vertical component, under fair air conditions, is generally oriented downwards (positive). Anomalous negative Ez signals could be used as an indicator of a great number of radioactive gases which are released from great number of rock clefts just before major earthquakes. Enhanced emission of radon radioactive decay will produce an anomalously large number of ion pairs. The positive particles will be transported downward by the fair weather electrostatic field and pile up near the surface. Finally, obviously and abnormally, an oriented upward atmospheric electric field Ez near the ground could be formed. Therefore, monitoring this Ez may be applied effectively in earthquake warning.

physics.geo-ph

Two Dimensional Crystal Tunneling Devices for THz Operation

Two dimensional (2D) crystal heterostructures are shown to possess a unique opportunity for novel THz nonlinear devices. In contrast to the oxide tunneling barrier, the uniformity of 2D insulators in the thickness control provides an ideal condition for tunneling barriers in the atomic scale. Numerical calculations based on a first principles method clearly indicate the feasibility of diode operation with barriers as thin as two monolayers of hexagonal boron nitride or molybdenum disulfide when placed between graphene-metal asymmetric electrodes. Further analysis predicts the cut-off frequencies of the proposed device over 10 THz while maintaining strong nonlinearity for zero-bias rectification. Application of the tunneling structure to hot electron transistors is also investigated, illustrating the THz operation with superior power performance. The proposed concept provides an excellent opportunity for realizing active nonlinear devices in the frequency range inaccessible thus far.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Radial standing and self-similar waves for the hyperbolic cubic NLS in 2D

In this note we propose a new set of coordinates to study the hyperbolic or non-elliptic cubic nonlinear Schrodinger equation in two dimensions. Based on these coordinates, we study the existence of bounded and continuous hyperbolically radial standing waves, as well as hyperbolically radial self-similar solutions. Many of the arguments can easily be adapted to more general nonlinearities.

nlin.PS

Emergence of highly-designable protein-backbone conformations in an off-lattice model

Despite the variety of protein sizes, shapes, and backbone configurations found in nature, the design of novel protein folds remains an open problem. Within simple lattice models it has been shown that all structures are not equally suitable for design. Rather, certain structures are distinguished by unusually high designability: the number of amino-acid sequences for which they represent the unique ground state; sequences associated with such structures possess both robustness to mutation and thermodynamic stability. Here we report that highly designable backbone conformations also emerge in a realistic off-lattice model. The highly designable conformations of a chain of 23 amino acids are identified, and found to be remarkably insensitive to model parameters. While some of these conformations correspond closely to known natural protein folds, such as the zinc finger and the helix-turn-helix motifs, others do not resemble known folds and may be candidates for novel fold design.

cond-mat.soft

High-Order Coupled Cluster Method Calculations for the Ground- and Excited-State Properties of the Spin-Half XXZ Model

In this article, we present new results of high-order coupled cluster method (CCM) calculations, based on a Néel model state with spins aligned in the $z$-direction, for both the ground- and excited-state properties of the spin-half {\it XXZ} model on the linear chain, the square lattice, and the simple cubic lattice. In particular, the high-order CCM formalism is extended to treat the excited states of lattice quantum spin systems for the first time. Completely new results for the excitation energy gap of the spin-half {\it XXZ} model for these lattices are thus determined. These high-order calculations are based on a localised approximation scheme called the LSUB$m$ scheme in which we retain all $k$-body correlations defined on all possible locales of $m$ adjacent lattice sites ($k \le m$). The ``raw'' CCM LSUB$m$ results are seen to provide very good results for the ground-state energy, sublattice magnetisation, and the value of the lowest-lying excitation energy for each of these systems. However, in order to obtain even better results, two types of extrapolation scheme of the LSUB$m$ results to the limit $m \to \infty$ (i.e., the exact solution in the thermodynamic limit) are presented. The extrapolated results provide extremely accurate results for the ground- and excited-state properties of these systems across a wide range of values of the anisotropy parameter.

cond-mat.str-el

Zero-Temperature Phase Transitions of Antiferromagnetic Ising Model of General Spin on a Triangular Lattice

We map the ground-state ensemble of antiferromagnetic Ising model of spin-S on a triangular lattice to an interface model whose entropic fluctuations are proposed to be described by an effective Gaussian free energy, which enables us to calculate the critical exponents of various operators in terms of the stiffness constant of the interface. Monte Carlo simulations for the ground-state ensemble utilizing this interfacial representation are performed to study both the dynamical and the static properties of the model. This method yields more accurate numerical results for the critical exponents. By varying the spin magnitude in the model, we find that the model exhibits three phases with a Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition at 3/2<S_{KT}<2 and a locking phase transition at 5/2 < S_L \leq 3. The phase diagram at finite temperatures is also discussed.

cond-mat