2,403 research outputs found
Spontaneous breaking of rotational symmetry in superconductors
We show that homogeneous superconductors with broken spin/isospin symmetry
lower their energy via a transition to a novel superconducting state where the
Fermi-surfaces are deformed to a quasi-ellipsoidal form at zero total momentum
of Cooper pairs. In this state, the gain in the condensation energy of the
pairs dominates over the loss in the kinetic energy caused by the lowest order
(quadrupole) deformation of Fermi-surfaces from the spherically symmetric form.
There are two energy minima in general, corresponding to the deformations of
the Fermi-spheres into either prolate or oblate forms. The phase transition
from spherically symmetric state to the superconducting state with broken
rotational symmetry is of the first order.Comment: 5 pages, including 3 figures, published versio
Molecular regulation of GLUT-4 targeting in 3T3-L1 adipocytes
Insulin stimulates glucose transport in muscle and adipose tissue by triggering the movement of the glucose transporter GLUT-4 from an intracellular compartment to the cell surface. Fundamental to this process is the intracellular sequestration of GLUT-4 in nonstimulated cells. Two distinct targeting motifs in the amino and carboxy termini of GLUT-4 have been previously identified by expressing chimeras comprised of portions of GLUT-4 and GLUT-1, a transporter isoform that is constitutively targeted to the cell surface, in heterologous cells. These motifs-FQQ1 in the NH terminus and LL in the COOH terminus-resemble endocytic signals that have been described in other proteins. In the present study we have investigated the roles of these motifs in GLUT-4 targeting in insulin-sensitive cells. Epitope-tagged GLUT-4 constructs engineered to differentiate between endogenous and transfected GLUT-4 were stably expressed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Targeting was assessed in cells incubated in the presence or absence of insulin by subcellular fractionation. The targeting of epitope-tagged GLUT-4 was indistinguishable from endogenous GLUT-4. Mutation of the FQQI motif (F to A) caused GLUT-4 to constitutively accumulate at the cell surface regardless of expression level. Mutation of the dileucine motif (LL to AA) caused an increase in cell surface distribution only at higher levels of expression, but the overall cell surface distribution of this mutant was less than that of the amino-terminal mutants. Both NH- and COOH-terminal mutants retained insulin-dependent movement from an intracellular to a cell surface locale, suggesting that neither of these motifs is involved in the insulin-dependent redistribution of GLUT-4. We conclude that the phenylalanine-based NH-terminal and the dileucine-based COOH-terminal motifs play important and distinct roles in GLUT-4 targeting in 3T3-L1 adipocytes
Anisotropic multi-gap superfluid states in nuclear matter
It is shown that under changing density or temperature a nucleon Fermi
superfluid can undergo a phase transition to an anisotropic superfluid state,
characterized by nonvanishing gaps in pairing channels with singlet-singlet
(SS) and triplet-singlet (TS) pairing of nucleons (in spin and isospin spaces).
In the SS pairing channel nucleons are paired with nonzero orbital angular
momentum. Such two-gap states can arise as a result of branching from the
one-gap solution of the self-consistent equations, describing SS or TS pairing
of nucleons, that depends on the relationship between SS and TS coupling
constants at the branching point. The density/temperature dependence of the
order parameters and the critical temperature for transition to the anisotropic
two-gap state are determined in a model with the SkP effective interaction. It
is shown that the anisotropic SS-TS superfluid phase corresponds to a
metastable state in nuclear matter.Comment: Prepared with RevTeX4, 7p., 5 fi
Exact Solution of the Munoz-Eaton Model for Protein Folding
A transfer-matrix formalism is introduced to evaluate exactly the partition
function of the Munoz-Eaton model, relating the folding kinetics of proteins of
known structure to their thermodynamics and topology. This technique can be
used for a generic protein, for any choice of the energy and entropy
parameters, and in principle allows the model to be used as a first tool to
characterize the dynamics of a protein of known native state and equilibrium
population. Applications to a -hairpin and to protein CI-2, with
comparisons to previous results, are also shown.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX 4. To be published in Phys. Rev. Let
Four-particle condensate in strongly coupled fermion systems
Four-particle correlations in fermion systems at finite temperatures are
investigated with special attention to the formation of a condensate. Instead
of the instability of the normal state with respect to the onset of pairing
described by the Gorkov equation, a new equation is obtained which describes
the onset of quartetting. Within a model calculation for symmetric nuclear
matter, we find that below a critical density, the four-particle condensation
(alpha-like quartetting) is favored over deuteron condensation (triplet
pairing). This pairing-quartetting competition is expected to be a general
feature of interacting fermion systems, such as the excition-biexciton system
in excited semiconductors. Possible experimental consequences are pointed out.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, 2 figures, uses psfig.sty (included), to be
published in Phys. Rev. Lett., tentatively scheduled for 13 April 1998
(Volume 80, Number 15
The Nucleon Spectral Function at Finite Temperature and the Onset of Superfluidity in Nuclear Matter
Nucleon selfenergies and spectral functions are calculated at the saturation
density of symmetric nuclear matter at finite temperatures. In particular, the
behaviour of these quantities at temperatures above and close to the critical
temperature for the superfluid phase transition in nuclear matter is discussed.
It is shown how the singularity in the thermodynamic T-matrix at the critical
temperature for superfluidity (Thouless criterion) reflects in the selfenergy
and correspondingly in the spectral function. The real part of the on-shell
selfenergy (optical potential) shows an anomalous behaviour for momenta near
the Fermi momentum and temperatures close to the critical temperature related
to the pairing singularity in the imaginary part. For comparison the selfenergy
derived from the K-matrix of Brueckner theory is also calculated. It is found,
that there is no pairing singularity in the imaginary part of the selfenergy in
this case, which is due to the neglect of hole-hole scattering in the K-matrix.
From the selfenergy the spectral function and the occupation numbers for finite
temperatures are calculated.Comment: LaTex, 23 pages, 21 PostScript figures included (uuencoded), uses
prc.sty, aps.sty, revtex.sty, psfig.sty (last included
Monte Carlo simulation of a mammographic test phantom
A test phantom, including a wide range of mammographic tissue equivalent materials and test details, was imaged on a digital mammographic system. In order to quantify the effect of scatter on the contrast obtained for the test details, calculations of the scatter-to-primary ratio (S/P) have been made using a Monte Carlo simulation of the digital mammographic imaging chain, grid and test phantom. The results show that the S/P values corresponding to the imaging conditions used were in the range 0.084-0.126. Calculated and measured pixel values in different regions of the image were compared as a validation of the model and showed excellent agreement. The results indicate the potential of Monte Carlo methods in the image quality-patient dose process optimisation, especially in the assessment of imaging conditions not available on standard mammographic unit
Thermodynamics of - condensate in asymmetric nuclear matter
We study the neutron-proton pairing in nuclear matter as a function of
isospin asymmetry at finite temperatures and the saturation density using
realistic nuclear forces and Brueckner-renormalized single particle spectra.
Our computation of the thermodynamic quantities shows that while the difference
of the entropies of the superconducting and normal phases anomalously changes
its sign as a function of temperature for arbitrary asymmetry, the grand
canonical potential does not; the superconducting state is found to be stable
in the whole temperature-asymmetry plane. The pairing gap completely disappears
for density-asymmetries exceeding .Comment: 7 pages, including 3 figures, uses revte
Pairing properties of nucleonic matter employing dressed nucleons
A survey of pairing properties of nucleonic matter is presented that includes
the off-shell propagation associated with short-range and tensor correlations.
For this purpose, the gap equation has been solved in its most general form
employing the complete energy and momentum dependence of the normal self-energy
contributions. The latter correlations include the self-consistent calculation
of the nucleon self-energy that is generated by the summation of ladder
diagrams. This treatment preserves the conservation of particle number unlike
approaches in which the self-energy is based on the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock
approximation. A huge reduction in the strength as well as temperature and
density range of - pairing is obtained for nuclear matter as
compared to the standard BCS treatment. Similar dramatic results pertain to
pairing of neutrons in neutron matter.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure
Phi-values in protein folding kinetics have energetic and structural components
Phi-values are experimental measures of how the kinetics of protein folding
is changed by single-site mutations. Phi-values measure energetic quantities,
but are often interpreted in terms of the structures of the transition state
ensemble. Here we describe a simple analytical model of the folding kinetics in
terms of the formation of protein substructures. The model shows that
Phi-values have both structural and energetic components. In addition, it
provides a natural and general interpretation of "nonclassical" Phi-values
(i.e., less than zero, or greater than one). The model reproduces the
Phi-values for 20 single-residue mutations in the alpha-helix of the protein
CI2, including several nonclassical Phi-values, in good agreement with
experiments.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
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