Transmission and Goos-H\"anchen like Shifts through a Graphene Double Barrier in an Inhomogeneous Magnetic Field

We studied the transport properties of electrons in graphene as they are scattered by a double barrier potential in the presence of an inhomogeneous magnetic field. We computed the transmission coefficient and Goos-H\"anchen like shifts for our system and noticed that transmission is not allowed for certain range of energies. In particular, we found that, in contrast to the electrostatic barriers, the magnetic barriers are able to confine Dirac fermions. We also established some correlation between the electronic transmission properties of Dirac fermions with the Goos-H\"anchen like shifts, as reflected in the numerical data.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Confined Dirac Particles in Constant and Tilted Magnetic Field

We study the confinement of charged Dirac particles in 3+1 space-time due to the presence of a constant and tilted magnetic field. We focus on the nature of the solutions of the Dirac equation and on how they depend on the choice of vector potential that gives rise to the magnetic field. In particular, we select a "Landau gauge" such that the momentum is conserved along the direction of the vector potential yielding spinor wavefunctions, which are localized in the plane containing the magnetic field and normal to the vector potential. These wave functions are expressed in terms of the Hermite polynomials. We point out the relevance of these findings to the relativistic quantum Hall effect and compare with the results obtained for a constant magnetic field normal to the plane in 2+1 dimensions.Comment: 10 page

Riboswitches as targets for metabolic engineering in Bacillus subtilis

Many metabolic pathways in bacteria are modulated by metabolite-sensing riboswitches, which regulate gene expression at the level of transcription elongation or translation initiation. Riboswitches represent promising targets to modulate expression of genes and operons relevant for the biotechnological production of commercially relevant compounds. In Firmicutes, approximately 70% of all putative and validated riboswitches (are predicted to) act exclusively at the transcriptional level using a termination-antitermination mechanism. In a first attempt to interfere with purine-sensing riboswitches and deregulate purine metabolism in Bacillus subtilis, a set of synthetic small RNAs (sRNAs) targeting the purine-sensing aptamers were designed to impair ligand binding using rational design combined with in silico evolution. However, the designed sRNAs did not show any activity in vivo on the riboswitch controlling purine biosynthesis (pur operon riboswitch). The effect of the antisense RNA (asRNA) perfectly complementary to the aptamer of the pur operon riboswitch was also tested; The asRNA did not affect negatively expression of a riboswitch-regulated lacZ gene, yet similarly to the partially complementary sRNAs, the asRNA did not impair the downregulation exerted by the riboswitch in the presence of ligand. Finally, expression of the small RNAs in B. subtiliswas quantified, and the kinetic limitations for their hybridization with the aptamer and their competition with the ligand are discussed. A second metabolic engineering strategy based on editing the genome of B. subtilis with regard to transcriptional riboswitches was investigated. Removal of the riboswitches that control purine biosynthesis and riboflavin biosynthesis in B. subtilis led to auxotrophic strains. As an alternative, a rational approach was developed for engineering transcriptional riboswitches independently from the availability of their 3D structures. This approach consists in the identification and deletion of a key nucleotide sequence exclusively involved in transcription termination without affecting formation of other secondary and tertiary structures potentially involved in other roles. To demonstrate the efficacy of the approach, it was applied to derepress the purine and the riboflavin biosynthetic pathways in B. subtilis. Following the proof of concept using specialized reporter strains, the approach was implemented into a B. subtilis wild-type strain employing CRISPR-Cas genome editing. The CRISPRCas9 system displayed an efficiency of 61% in editing the genome, and the resulting purine and riboflavin production strains were characterized at the level of gene expression, metabolite synthesis, and growth. With a substantial enhancement observed at each level, the strategy established here represents a powerful tool for deregulating pathways modulated by transcriptional riboswitches. Finally, applying this strategy to derepress the purine pathway of an industrial riboflavin overproducing strain, with impaired growth, led to an increase in biomass by 53% and resulted in an enhanced total production of riboflavin in the culture

Tunneling of Massive Dirac Fermions in Graphene through Time-periodic Potential

The energy spectrum of graphene sheet with a single barrier structure having a time periodic oscillating height and subjected to magnetic field is analyzed. The corresponding transmission is studied as function of the obtained energy and the potential parameters. Quantum interference within the oscillating barrier has an important effect on quasiparticles tunneling. In particular the time-periodic electromagnetic field generates additional sidebands at energies \epsilon + l\hbar \omega (l=0,\pm 1, \cdots) in the transmission probability originating from the photon absorption or emission within the oscillating barrier. Due to numerical difficulties in truncating the resulting coupled channel equations we limited ourselves to low quantum channels, i.e. l=0,\pm 1.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, references added. Version to appear in EPJ