36,718 research outputs found
Enhanced diffusion by reciprocal swimming
Purcell's scallop theorem states that swimmers deforming their shapes in a
time-reversible manner ("reciprocal" motion) cannot swim. Using numerical
simulations and theoretical calculations we show here that in a fluctuating
environment, reciprocal swimmers undergo, on time scales larger than that of
their rotational diffusion, diffusive dynamics with enhanced diffusivities,
possibly by orders of magnitude, above normal translational diffusion.
Reciprocal actuation does therefore lead to a significant advantage over
non-motile behavior for small organisms such as marine bacteria
On a P\'olya functional for rhombi, isosceles triangles, and thinning convex sets
Let be an open convex set in with finite width, and
let be the torsion function for , i.e. the solution of
. An upper bound is obtained for the product
of , where
is the bottom of the spectrum of the Dirichlet Laplacian
acting in . The upper bound is sharp in the limit of a thinning
sequence of convex sets. For planar rhombi and isosceles triangles with area
, it is shown that , and that this bound is sharp.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
The Moment Problem for Continuous Positive Semidefinite Linear functionals
Let be a locally convex topology on the countable dimensional
polynomial -algebra \rx:=\reals[X_1,...,X_n]. Let be a closed
subset of , and let be a finitely generated
quadratic module in \rx. We investigate the following question: When is the
cone \Pos(K) (of polynomials nonnegative on ) included in the closure of
? We give an interpretation of this inclusion with respect to representing
continuous linear functionals by measures. We discuss several examples; we
compute the closure of M=\sos with respect to weighted norm- topologies.
We show that this closure coincides with the cone \Pos(K) where is a
certain convex compact polyhedron.Comment: 14 page
Synthetic Mechanochemical Molecular Swimmer
A minimal design for a molecular swimmer is proposed that is a based on a
mechanochemical propulsion mechanism. Conformational changes are induced by
electrostatic actuation when specific parts of the molecule temporarily acquire
net charges through catalyzed chemical reactions involving ionic components.
The mechanochemical cycle is designed such that the resulting conformational
changes would be sufficient for achieving low Reynolds number propulsion. The
system is analyzed within the recently developed framework of stochastic
swimmers to take account of the noisy environment at the molecular scale. The
swimming velocity of the device is found to depend on the concentration of the
fuel molecule according to the Michaelis-Menten rule in enzymatic reactions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Adaptation kinetics in bacterial chemotaxis
Cells of Escherichia coli, tethered to glass by a single flagellum, were subjected to constant flow of a medium containing the attractant alpha-methyl-DL-aspartate. The concentration of this chemical was varied with a programmable mixing apparatus over a range spanning the dissociation constant of the chemoreceptor at rates comparable to those experienced by cells swimming in spatial gradients. When an exponentially increasing ramp was turned on (a ramp that increases the chemoreceptor occupancy linearly), the rotational bias of the cells (the fraction of time spent spinning counterclockwise) changed rapidly to a higher stable level, which persisted for the duration of the ramp. The change in bias increased with ramp rate, i.e., with the time rate of change of chemoreceptor occupancy. This behavior can be accounted for by a model for adaptation involving proportional control, in which the flagellar motors respond to an error signal proportional to the difference between the current occupancy and the occupancy averaged over the recent past. Distributions of clockwise and counterclockwise rotation intervals were found to be exponential. This result cannot be explained by a response regular model in which transitions between rotational states are generated by threshold crossings of a regular subject to statistical fluctuation; this mechanism generates distributions with far too many long events. However, the data can be fit by a model in which transitions between rotational states are governed by first-order rate constants. The error signal acts as a bias regulator, controlling the values of these constants
Defect-induced spin-glass magnetism in incommensurate spin-gap magnets
We study magnetic order induced by non-magnetic impurities in quantum
paramagnets with incommensurate host spin correlations. In contrast to the
well-studied commensurate case where the defect-induced magnetism is spatially
disordered but non-frustrated, the present problem combines strong disorder
with frustration and, consequently, leads to spin-glass order. We discuss the
crossover from strong randomness in the dilute limit to more conventional glass
behavior at larger doping, and numerically characterize the robust short-range
order inherent to the spin-glass phase. We relate our findings to magnetic
order in both BiCu2PO6 and YBa2Cu3O6.6 induced by Zn substitution.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figs, (v2) real-space RG results added; discussion
extended, (v3) final version as publishe
Coordination of flagella on filamentous cells of Escherichia coli
Video techniques were used to study the coordination of different flagella on single filamentous cells of Escherichia coli. Filamentous, nonseptate cells were produced by introducing a cell division mutation into a strain that was polyhook but otherwise wild type for chemotaxis. Markers for its flagellar motors (ordinary polyhook cells that had been fixed with glutaraldehyde) were attached with antihook antibodies. The markers were driven alternately clockwise and counterclockwise, at angular velocities comparable to those observed when wild-type cells are tethered to glass. The directions of rotation of different markers on the same cell were not correlated; reversals of the flagellar motors occurred asynchronously. The bias of the motors (the fraction of time spent spinning counterclockwise) changed with time. Variations in bias were correlated, provided that the motors were within a few micrometers of one another. Thus, although the directions of rotation of flagellar motors are not controlled by a common intracellular signal, their biases are. This signal appears to have a limited range
Are Simple Real Pole Solutions Physical?
We consider exact solutions generated by the inverse scattering technique,
also known as the soliton transformation. In particular, we study the class of
simple real pole solutions. For quite some time, those solutions have been
considered interesting as models of cosmological shock waves. A coordinate
singularity on the wave fronts was removed by a transformation which induces a
null fluid with negative energy density on the wave front. This null fluid is
usually seen as another coordinate artifact, since there seems to be a general
belief that that this kind of solution can be seen as the real pole limit of
the smooth solution generated with a pair of complex conjugate poles in the
transformation. We perform this limit explicitly, and find that the belief is
unfounded: two coalescing complex conjugate poles cannot yield a solution with
one real pole. Instead, the two complex conjugate poles go to a different
limit, what we call a ``pole on a pole''. The limiting procedure is not unique;
it is sensitive to how quickly some parameters approach zero. We also show that
there exists no improved coordinate transformation which would remove the
negative energy density. We conclude that negative energy is an intrinsic part
of this class of solutions.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
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