122,447 research outputs found
Unified perspective on proteins: A physics approach
We study a physical system which, while devoid of the complexity one usually
associates with proteins, nevertheless displays a remarkable array of
protein-like properties. The constructive hypothesis that this striking
resemblance is not accidental leads not only to a unified framework for
understanding protein folding, amyloid formation and protein interactions but
also has implications for natural selection.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, to appear on Phys. Rev.
Multi-Agent Complex Systems and Many-Body Physics
Multi-agent complex systems comprising populations of decision-making
particles, have many potential applications across the biological,
informational and social sciences. We show that the time-averaged dynamics in
such systems bear a striking resemblance to conventional many-body physics. For
the specific example of the Minority Game, this analogy enables us to obtain
analytic expressions which are in excellent agreement with numerical
simulations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter
On sphere-filling ropes
What is the longest rope on the unit sphere? Intuition tells us that the
answer to this packing problem depends on the rope's thickness. For a countably
infinite number of prescribed thickness values we construct and classify all
solution curves. The simplest ones are similar to the seamlines of a tennis
ball, others exhibit a striking resemblance to Turing patterns in chemistry, or
to ordered phases of long elastic rods stuffed into spherical shells.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure
Planar metamaterial with transmission and reflection that depend on the direction of incidence
We report that normal incidence reflection and transmission of circularly polarized electromagnetic waves from and through planar split-ring microwave metamaterials with chiral symmetry breaking depends on the incidence direction and handedness of circular polarization. The effect has a resonant nature and is linked to the lack of mirror symmetry in the metamaterial pattern leading to a polarization-sensitive excitation of electric and magnetic dipolar responses in the meta-molecules. It has striking phenomenological resemblance with the reflective circular dichroism of high-temperature "anyon" superconductors
Infrared studies of a La_(0.67)Ca_(0.33)MnO_3 single crystal: Optical magnetoconductivity in a half-metallic ferromagnet
The infrared reflectivity of a La_(0.67)Ca_(0.33)MnO_3 single crystal is studied over a broad range of temperatures (78–340 K), magnetic fields (0–16 T), and wave numbers (20–9000cm^(-1)). The optical conductivity gradually changes from a Drude-like behavior to a broad peak feature near 5000cm-1 in the ferromagnetic state below the Curie temperature T_C=307K. Various features of the optical conductivity bear striking resemblance to recent theoretical predictions based on the interplay between the double exchange interaction and the Jahn-Teller electron-phonon coupling. A large optical magnetoconductivity is observed near T_C
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