Tomography--cross-sectional imaging based on measuring radiation transmitted through an object along different directions--enables non-invasive imaging of hidden stationary objects, such as internal ...bodily organs, from their sequentially measured projections. Here we adapt tomographic methods to visualize--in one laser shot--the instantaneous structure and evolution of a laser-induced object propagating through a transparent Kerr medium. We reconstruct 'movies' of a laser pulse's diffraction, self-focusing and filamentation from phase 'streaks' imprinted onto probe pulses that cross the main pulse's path simultaneously at different angles. Multiple probes are generated and detected compactly and simply, making the system robust, easy to align and adaptable to many problems. Our technique could potentially visualize, for example, plasma wakefield accelerators, optical rogue waves or fast ignitor pulses, light-velocity objects, whose detailed space-time dynamics are known only through intensive computer simulations.
Legumes have an intrinsic capacity to accommodate both symbiotic and endophytic bacteria within root nodules. For the symbionts, a complex genetic mechanism that allows mutual recognition and plant ...infection has emerged from genetic studies under axenic conditions. In contrast, little is known about the mechanisms controlling the endophytic infection. Here we investigate the contribution of both the host and the symbiotic microbe to endophyte infection and development of mixed colonised nodules in Lotus japonicus. We found that infection threads initiated by Mesorhizobium loti, the natural symbiont of Lotus, can selectively guide endophytic bacteria towards nodule primordia, where competent strains multiply and colonise the nodule together with the nitrogen-fixing symbiotic partner. Further co-inoculation studies with the competent coloniser, Rhizobium mesosinicum strain KAW12, show that endophytic nodule infection depends on functional and efficient M. loti-driven Nod factor signalling. KAW12 exopolysaccharide (EPS) enabled endophyte nodule infection whilst compatible M. loti EPS restricted it. Analysis of plant mutants that control different stages of the symbiotic infection showed that both symbiont and endophyte accommodation within nodules is under host genetic control. This demonstrates that when legume plants are exposed to complex communities they selectively regulate access and accommodation of bacteria occupying this specialized environmental niche, the root nodule.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Metre-scale plasma wakefield accelerators have imparted energy gain approaching 10 gigaelectronvolts to single nano-Coulomb electron bunches. To reach useful average currents, however, the enormous ...energy density that the driver deposits into the wake must be removed efficiently between shots. Yet mechanisms by which wakes dissipate their energy into surrounding plasma remain poorly understood. Here, we report picosecond-time-resolved, grazing-angle optical shadowgraphic measurements and large-scale particle-in-cell simulations of ion channels emerging from broken wakes that electron bunches from the SLAC linac generate in tenuous lithium plasma. Measurements show the channel boundary expands radially at 1 million metres-per-second for over a nanosecond. Simulations show that ions and electrons that the original wake propels outward, carrying 90 percent of its energy, drive this expansion by impact-ionizing surrounding neutral lithium. The results provide a basis for understanding global thermodynamics of multi-GeV plasma accelerators, which underlie their viability for applications demanding high average beam current.
An intense laser pulse focused onto a plasma can excite nonlinear plasma waves. Under appropriate conditions, electrons from the background plasma are trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated to ...ultra-relativistic velocities. This scheme is called a laser wakefield accelerator. In this work, we present results from a laser wakefield acceleration experiment using a petawatt-class laser to excite the wakefields as well as nanoparticles to assist the injection of electrons into the accelerating phase of the wakefields. We find that a 10-cm-long, nanoparticle-assisted laser wakefield accelerator can generate 340 pC, 10 ± 1.86 GeV electron bunches with a 3.4 GeV rms convolved energy spread and a 0.9 mrad rms divergence. It can also produce bunches with lower energies in the 4–6 GeV range.