NνDEx-100 conceptual design report

Observing nuclear neutrinoless double beta (0vββ) decay would be a revolutionary result in particle physics.Observing such a decay would prove that the neutrinos are their own antiparticles,help to study the absolute mass of neutrinos,explore the origin of their mass,and may explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in our universe by lepton number violation.We propose developing a time projection chamber (TPC) using high-pressure ^(82)SeF_(6) gas and Topmetal silicon sensors for readout in the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of82Se,called the NvDEx experiment.Besides being located at CJPL with the world’s thickest rock shielding,NvDEx combines the advantages of the high Qββ(2.996 MeV) of82Se and the TPC’s ability to distinguish signal and background events using their different topological characteristics.This makes NvDEx unique,with great potential for low-background and high-sensitivity 0 vββsearches.NvDEx-100,a NvDEx experiment phase with 100 kg of SeF_(6)gas,is being built,with plans to complete installation at CJPL by 2025.This report introduces 0 vββ physics,the NvDEx concept and its advantages,and the schematic design of NvDEx-100,its subsystems,and background and sensitivity estimation.

Wafer-scale 30°twisted bilayer graphene epitaxially grown on Cu_(0.75)Ni_(0.25)(111)

Twisted bilayer graphene(TBG) has been extensively studied because of its novel physical properties and potential application in electronic devices.Here we report the synthesis and characterization of 300 TBG naturally grown on Cu_(0.75)Ni_(0.25)(111) film and investigate the electronic structure by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.Compared with other substrates,our TBG with a wafer scale is acquired with a shorter growth time.The Fermi velocity and energy gap of Dirac cones of TBG are comparable with those of a monolayer on Cu_(0.85)Ni_(0.15)(111).The signature of moré lattices has not been observed in either the low-energy electron diffraction patterns or the Fermi surface map within experimental resolution,possibly due to different Cu and Ni contents in the substrates enhancing the different couplings between the substrate and the first/second layers and hindering the formation of a quasiperiodic structure.

High-resolution ARPES endstation for in situ electronic structure investigations at SSRF

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy(ARPES)is one of the most powerful experimental techniques in condensed matter physics.Synchrotron ARPES,which uses photons with high flux and continuously tunable energy,has become particularly important.However,an excellent synchrotron ARPES system must have features such as a small beam spot,super-high energy resolution,and a user-friendly operation interface.A synchrotron beamline and an endstation(BL03 U)were designed and constructed at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility.The beam spot size at the sample position is 7.5(V)μm×67(H)μm,and the fundamental photon range is 7-165 eV;the ARPES system enables photoemission with an energy resolution of 2.67 meV at21.2 eV.In addition,the ARPES system of this endstation is equipped with a six-axis cryogenic sample manipulator(the lowest temperature is 7 K)and is integrated with an oxide molecular beam epitaxy system and a scanning tunneling microscope,which can provide an advanced platform for in situ characterization of the fine electronic structure of condensed matter.

Nanotechnologies Applied in Biomedical Vaccines

Vaccination, one of the most effective strategies to prevent infectious diseases, is the administration of antigenic materials to stimulate an individual＇s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a specific pathogen. Though it is so advantageous for diseases control and prevention, vaccines still have some limitations. Nanotechnology is an approach to prepare a novel biomedicine-vaccine with the vaccine consumption and side effects significantly decreased. Regulation is the most important criterion for the development of nanovaccines. All marketing products have to meet the requirement of regulation. The fast track designation potentially aids in the development and expedites the review of nanovaccines that show promises in an unmet medical need. Here, some successful nanovaccine products are introduced---Inflexal^（R） V, Epaxal^（R）, Gardasil^TM and Cervarix^TM have been widely used for the clinical applications, which are delivered in the form of either virosomes or virus-like particles. Vaccines based on nanotechnology may overcome their original disadvantages and lead to the development of painless, safer and more effective products. In this study, nanotechnology is shown to be a good strategy to make a perfect vaccination system through advanced skills and strict regulation requirements.

Hypocalcemia: a reversible cause of T wave alternans and heart failure

We have read with great interest the recent article “Cellular mechanism of cardiac alternans： an unresolved chicken or egg problem” by Zang and Xia （2014）, published in Journal of Zhejiang University- SCIENCE B （Biomedicine ＆ Biotechnology）. The authors proposed that both calcium handling and electrical components of cardiac cells could be the cellular mechanism of cardiac alternans, and identifying the main mechanism of cardiac alternans could help to cure targeted patients with heart failure. Here,

Investigation of the room-temperature photoelectron spectroscopy of type-Ⅱ Weyl semimetal candidate WTe_(2)

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides have novel physical properties and great potential for applications.Among them,WTe2,which has an extremely large unsaturated magnetoresistance and is theoretically predicted to be a type-Ⅱ Weyl semimetal,has been extensively studied.Here,we systematically probe the electronic structure of WTe_(2) at room temperature using high-resolution angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy(ARPES).We find that temperature-driven chemical potential shift and Lifshitz transition,which is equivalent to low-energy band structures shift downward by around 50 meV,compared to the results at low temperatures.Our ARPES experimental results match well with previous theoretical calculations,implying the possible existence of type-Ⅱ Weyl points near the Γ-X axis.Also,as expected,there exists a dominantly electron-like Fermi surface instead of the one with compensated electrons and holes.Meanwhile,our ARPES results show that the flat band(FB) lying below the Fermi level(EF) becomes closer to the Fermi level at room temperature,which might start to dominate the transport behavior and lead to the disappearance of the unsaturated giant magnetoresistance effect.These findings not only reveal the electronic structure features of WTe_(2) at room temperature,but also provide new insights into the development of room-temperature topological quantum devices.