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Ultra high field (UHF) brain MRI has proved its value by providing enhanced SNR, contrast, and higher resolution derived from the higher magnetic field (B0). Nonetheless, with the increased B0 of UHF MRI, the transmit RF magnetic field (B1+) inhomogeneity also became one of the critical issues requiring attention. As the effective wavelength of RF becomes comparable or smaller than the dimension of the brain at B0 larger than 7 Tesla, the increased B1+ inhomogeneity of UHF MRI results in poor SNR and uneven contrast. While parallel transmission techniques (PTx) and high permittivity material (HPM) structures for the mitigation of B1+ inhomogeneity have been suggested, the associated complexity in PTx and restricted volume of homogenization with HPM approach still remain as challenges. In this work, we address the B1+ inhomogeneity in the notion of mode-shaping. Treating a brain phantom as a dielectric potential-well resonator, we apply a phantom-conformal HPM potential-well in combination with a low-index potential barrier (air), to achieve the homogeneity of B1+ in the region of interest (ROI). Based on the electromagnetic simulations using a realistic brain model at 7T, we show that the proposed HPM structure reduces both the average deviation of B1+ in axial slices by 54% and peak SAR by 42%, respectively.

A supertube is a supersymmetric configuration in string theory which occurs when a pair of branes spontaneously polarizes and generates a new dipole charge extended along a closed curve. The dipole charge of a codimension-2 supertube is characterized by the U-duality monodromy as one goes around the supertube. For multiple codimension-2 supertubes, their monodromies do not commute in general. In this paper, we construct a supersymmetric solution of five-dimensional supergravity that describes two supertubes with such non-Abelian monodromies, in a certain perturbative expansion. In supergravity, the monodromies are realized as the multi-valuedness of the scalar fields, while in higher dimensions they correspond to non-geometric duality twists of the internal space. The supertubes in our solution carry NS5 and 5$_2^2$ dipole charges and exhibit the same monodromy structure as the SU(2) Seiberg-Witten geometry. The perturbative solution has $\mathrm{AdS}_2\times S^2$ asymptotics and vanishing four-dimensional angular momentum. We argue that this solution represents a microstate of four-dimensional black holes with a finite horizon and that it provides a clue for the gravity realization of a pure-Higgs branch state in the dual quiver quantum mechanics., Comment: 47 pages + 12 pages, 5 figures; v2: references added, minor corrections; v3: minor modifications, JHEP published version

We study a new class of supersymmetric solutions in five-dimensional supergravity representing multi-center configurations of codimension-2 branes along arbitrary curves. Codimension-2 branes are produced in generic situations out of ordinary branes of higher codimension by the supertube effect and, when they are exotic branes, spacetime generally becomes non-geometric. The solutions are characterized by a set of harmonic functions on $\mathbb{R}^3$ with non-trivial monodromies around codimension-2 branch-point singularities. The solutions can be regarded as generalizations of the Bates-Denef/Bena-Warner multi-center solutions with codimension-3 centers to include codimension-2 ones. We present some explicit examples of solutions with codimension-2 centers, and discuss their relevance for the black microstate (non-)geometry program., Comment: 26 pages + 7 pages, 2 figures; v2: minor corrections, a reference added, JHEP published

We investigate the native defects, the Mo substitutional impurities of the group-VB and -VIIB elements, and the S substitutional impurities of the group-VA and -VIIA elements in single-layer MoS2, through density-functional theory calculations. It is found that the S-vacancy (V_S) and S-interstitial (S_i) are low in formation energy, about ~1 eV, in Mo- and S-rich conditions, respectively, but the carrier doping ability of the V_S and S_i is found to be poor, as they are deep level defects. The V, Nb, and Ta (group-VB) and Re (group-VIIB) impurities are found to be easily incorporated in single-layer MoS2, as Mo substitutional defects, where the V, Nb, and Ta are shallow acceptors and the Re is the only shallow donor among the considered. The unintentional n-type doping in single-layer MoS2 exfoliated from the naturally grown MoS2 bulk materials is suggested to originate from the Re impurity.