61,725 research outputs found
The Fusion Activity of HIV-1 gp41 Depends on Interhelical Interactions
Infection by human immunodeficiency virus type I requires the fusogenic activity of gp41, the transmembrane subunit of the viral envelope protein. Crystallographic studies have revealed that fusion-active gp41 is a "trimer-of-hairpins" in which three central N-terminal helices form a trimeric coiled coil surrounded by three antiparallel C-terminal helices. This structure is stabilized primarily by hydrophobic, interhelical interactions, and several critical contacts are made between residues that form a deep cavity in the N-terminal trimer and the C-helix residues that pack into this cavity. In addition, the trimer-of-hairpins structure has an extensive network of hydrogen bonds within a conserved glutamine-rich layer of poorly understood function. Formation of the trimer-of-hairpins structure is thought to directly force the viral and target membranes together, resulting in membrane fusion and viral entry. We test this hypothesis by constructing four series of gp41 mutants with disrupted interactions between the N- and C-helices. Notably, in the three series containing mutations within the cavity, gp41 activity correlates well with the stability of the N-C interhelical interaction. In contrast, a fourth series of mutants involving the glutamine layer residue Gln-653 show fusion defects even though the stability of the hairpin is close to wild-type. These results provide evidence that gp41 hairpin stability is critical for mediating fusion and suggest a novel role for the glutamine layer in gp41 function
Gravastars and Black Holes of Anisotropic Dark Energy
Dynamical models of prototype gravastars made of anisotropic dark energy are
constructed, in which an infinitely thin spherical shell of a perfect fluid
with the equation of state divides the whole spacetime
into two regions, the internal region filled with a dark energy fluid, and the
external Schwarzschild region. The models represent "bounded excursion" stable
gravastars, where the thin shell is oscillating between two finite radii, while
in other cases they collapse until the formation of black holes. Here we show,
for the first time in the literature, a model of gravastar and formation of
black hole with both interior and thin shell constituted exclusively of dark
energy. Besides, the sign of the parameter of anisotropy () seems to
be relevant to the gravastar formation. The formation is favored when the
tangential pressure is greater than the radial pressure, at least in the
neighborhood of the isotropic case ().Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Gen. Rel. Gra
How the Charge Can Affect the Formation of Gravastars
In recent work we physically interpreted a special gravastar solution
characterized by a zero Schwarzschild mass. In fact, in that case, none
gravastar was formed and the shell expanded, leaving behind a de Sitter or a
Minkowski spacetime, or collapsed without forming an event horizon, originating
what we called a massive non-gravitational object. This object has two
components of non zero mass but the exterior spacetime is Minkowski or de
Sitter. One of the component is a massive thin shell and the other one is de
Sitter spacetime inside. The total mass of this object is zero Schwarzschild
mass, which characterizes an exterior vacuum spacetime. Here, we extend this
study to the case where we have a charged shell. Now, the exterior is a
Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetime and, depending on the parameter
of the equation of state of the shell, and the charge, a
gravastar structure can be formed. We have found that the presence of the
charge contributes to the stability of the gravastar, if the charge is greater
than a critical value. Otherwise, a massive non-gravitational object is formed
for small charges.Comment: 17 pages and 7 figures, several typos corrected, accepted for
publication in JCA
Adsorbate Electric Fields on a Cryogenic Atom Chip
We investigate the behaviour of electric fields originating from adsorbates
deposited on a cryogenic atom chip as it is cooled from room temperature to
cryogenic temperature. Using Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency
we measure the field strength versus distance from a 1 mm square of YBCO
patterned onto a YSZ chip substrate. We find a localized and stable dipole
field at room temperature and attribute it to a saturated layer of chemically
adsorbed rubidium atoms on the YBCO. As the chip is cooled towards 83 K we
observe a change in sign of the electric field as well as a transition from a
localized to a delocalized dipole density. We relate these changes to the onset
of physisorption on the chip surface when the van der Waals attraction
overcomes the thermal desorption mechanisms. Our findings suggest that, through
careful selection of substrate materials, it may be possible to reduce the
electric fields caused by atomic adsorption on chips, opening up experiments to
controlled Rydberg-surface coupling schemes.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Design and application of gas-gap heat switches
Gas-gap heat switches can serve as an effective means of thermally disconnecting a standby cryocooler when the primary (operating) cooler is connected and vice versa. The final phase of the development and test of a cryogenic heat switch designed for loads ranging from 2 watts at 8 K, to 100 watts at 80 K are described. Achieved heat-switch on/off conductance ratio ranged from 11,000 at 8 K to 2200 at 80 K. A particularly challenging element of heat-switch design is achieving satisfactory operation when large temperatures differentials exist across the switch. A special series of tests and analyses was conducted and used in this Phase-2 activity to evaluate the developed switches for temperature differentials ranging up to 200 K. Problems encountered at the maximum levels are described and analyzed, and means of avoiding the problems in the future are presented. A comprehensive summary of the overall heat-switch design methodology is also presented with special emphasis on lessons learned over the course of the 4-year development effort
Electric field induced charge noise in doped silicon: ionization of phosphorus donors
We report low frequency charge noise measurement on silicon substrates with
different phosphorus doping densities. The measurements are performed with
aluminum single electron transistors (SETs) at millikelvin temperatures where
the substrates are in the insulating regime. By measuring the SET Coulomb
oscillations, we find a gate voltage dependent charge noise on the more heavily
doped substrate. This charge noise, which is seen to have a 1/f spectrum, is
attributed to the electric field induced tunneling of electrons from their
phosphorus donor potentials.Comment: 4 page, 3 figure
Cosmological Constraints on Radion Evolution in the Universal Extra Dimension Model
The constraints on the radion evolution in the Universal Extra Dimension
(UED) model from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Type Ia supernovae (SNe
Ia) data are studied. In the UED model, where both the gravity and standard
model fields can propagate in the extra dimensions, the evolution of the extra
dimensional volume, the radion, induces variation of fundamental constants. We
discuss the effects of variation of the relevant constants in the context of
UED for CMB power spectrum and SNe Ia data. We then use the three-year WMAP
data to constrain the radion evolution at z \sim 1100, and the 2 \sigma
constraint on \dot{\rho} / \rho_0 (\rho is a function of the radion, to be
defined in the text) is [ -8.8, 6.6] \times 10 ^{-13} yr^-1. The SNe Ia gold
sample yields a constraint on \dot{\rho} / \rho_0, for redshift between 0 and
1, to be [-4.7, 14] \times 10^{-13} yr^-1. Furthermore, the constraints from
SNe Ia can be interpreted as bounds on the evolution QCD scale parameter,
\dot{\Lambda}_{QCD} / \Lambda_{QCD, 0}, [-1.4, 2.8] \times 10^{-11} yr^-1,
without reference to the UED model.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, comments added, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Dressing a Naked Singularity: an Example
Considering the evolution of a perfect fluid with self-similarity of the
second kind, we have found that an initial naked singularity can be trapped by
an event horizon due to collapsing matter. The fluid moves along time-like
geodesics with a self-similar parameter . Since the metric
obtained is not asymptotically flat, we match the spacetime of the fluid with a
Schwarzschild spacetime. All the energy conditions are fulfilled until the
naked singularity.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure. This version corrects an error in the calculus of
the pressure and in the conclusion
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