13,448 research outputs found
Bistability of persistent currents in mesoscopic rings
We study the persistent currents flowing in a mesoscopic ring threaded by a
magnetic flux and connected to a stub of finite length. Multistability
processes and Coulomb blockade are demonstrated to be present in this system.
These properties are functions of the magnetic flux crossing the ring which
plays the role that the external applied potential fulfills in the
multistability behaviour of the standard mesoscopic heterostructures.Comment: 13 pages (Revtex), 4 PostScript figures. Send e-mail to:
[email protected]
Modelization of Thermal Fluctuations in G Protein-Coupled Receptors
We simulate the electrical properties of a device realized by a G protein
coupled receptor (GPCR), embedded in its membrane and in contact with two
metallic electrodes through which an external voltage is applied. To this
purpose, recently, we have proposed a model based on a coarse graining
description, which describes the protein as a network of elementary impedances.
The network is built from the knowledge of the positions of the C-alpha atoms
of the amino acids, which represent the nodes of the network. Since the
elementary impedances are taken depending of the inter-nodes distance, the
conformational change of the receptor induced by the capture of the ligand
results in a variation of the network impedance. On the other hand, the
fluctuations of the atomic positions due to thermal motion imply an impedance
noise, whose level is crucial to the purpose of an electrical detection of the
ligand capture by the GPCR. Here, in particular, we address this issue by
presenting a computational study of the impedance noise due to thermal
fluctuations of the atomic positions within a rhodopsin molecule. In our model,
the C-alpha atoms are treated as independent, isotropic, harmonic oscillators,
with amplitude depending on the temperature and on the position within the
protein (alpha-helix or loop). The relative fluctuation of the impedance is
then calculated for different temperatures.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Proceeding of the 18-th International Conference
on Fluctuations and Noise, 19-23 September 2005, Salamanca, Spain -minor
proofreadings
Edge-functionalized and substitutional doped graphene nanoribbons: electronic and spin properties
Graphene nanoribbons are the counterpart of carbon nanotubes in
graphene-based nanoelectronics. We investigate the electronic properties of
chemically modified ribbons by means of density functional theory. We observe
that chemical modifications of zigzag ribbons can break the spin degeneracy.
This promotes the onset of a semiconducting-metal transition, or of an
half-semiconducting state, with the two spin channels having a different
bandgap, or of a spin-polarized half-semiconducting state -where the spins in
the valence and conduction bands are oppositely polarized. Edge
functionalization of armchair ribbons gives electronic states a few eV away
from the Fermi level, and does not significantly affect their bandgap. N and B
produce different effects, depending on the position of the substitutional
site. In particular, edge substitutions at low density do not significantly
alter the bandgap, while bulk substitution promotes the onset of
semiconducting-metal transitions. Pyridine-like defects induce a
semiconducting-metal transition.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Steady-state selection in driven diffusive systems with open boundaries
We investigate the stationary states of one-dimensional driven diffusive
systems, coupled to boundary reservoirs with fixed particle densities. We argue
that the generic phase diagram is governed by an extremal principle for the
macroscopic current irrespective of the local dynamics. In particular, we
predict a minimal current phase for systems with local minimum in the
current--density relation. This phase is explained by a dynamical phenomenon,
the branching and coalescence of shocks, Monte-Carlo simulations confirm the
theoretical scenario.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Microscopic structure of travelling wave solutions in a class of stochastic interacting particle systems
We obtain exact travelling wave solutions for three families of stochastic
one-dimensional nonequilibrium lattice models with open boundaries. These
solutions describe the diffusive motion and microscopic structure of (i) of
shocks in the partially asymmetric exclusion process with open boundaries, (ii)
of a lattice Fisher wave in a reaction-diffusion system, and (iii) of a domain
wall in non-equilibrium Glauber-Kawasaki dynamics with magnetization current.
For each of these systems we define a microscopic shock position and calculate
the exact hopping rates of the travelling wave in terms of the transition rates
of the microscopic model. In the steady state a reversal of the bias of the
travelling wave marks a first-order non-equilibrium phase transition, analogous
to the Zel'dovich theory of kinetics of first-order transitions. The stationary
distributions of the exclusion process with shocks can be described in
terms of -dimensional representations of matrix product states.Comment: 27 page
Peat soil burning in the Mezzano lowland (Po Plain, Italy): triggering mechanisms and environmental consequences.
The effects of peat burning on organic-rich agricultural soils of the Mezzano Lowland (NE
Italy) were evaluated on soil profiles variously affected by smoldering. Profiles were investigated for pH,
electrical conductivity, bulk density, elemental and isotopic composition of distinct carbon (and nitrogen)
fractions. The results suggest that the horizons affected by carbon loss lie at depths 10–70 cm, where the
highest temperatures are developed. We suggest that the exothermal oxidation of methane (mediated
by biological activity) plays a significant role in the triggering mechanism. In the interested soils we
estimated a potential loss of Soil Organic Carbon of approximately 110 kg m−2 within the first meter,
corresponding to 580 kg CO2 m−3. The released greenhouse gas is coupled with a loss of soil structure and
nutrients. Moreover, the process plausibly triggers mobility of metals bound in organometallic complexes.
All these consequences negatively affect the environment, the agricultural activities and possibly also
health of the local people
Exciton energy transfer in nanotube bundles
Photoluminescence is commonly used to identify the electronic structure of
individual nanotubes. But, nanotubes naturally occur in bundles. Thus, we
investigate photoluminescence of nanotube bundles. We show that their complex
spectra are simply explained by exciton energy transfer between adjacent tubes,
whereby excitation of large gap tubes induces emission from smaller gap ones
via Forster interaction between excitons. The consequent relaxation rate is
faster than non-radiative recombination, leading to enhanced photoluminescence
of acceptor tubes. This fingerprints bundles with different compositions and
opens opportunities to optimize them for opto-electronics.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Gravity in 2+1 dimensions as a Riemann-Hilbert problem
In this paper we consider 2+1-dimensional gravity coupled to N
point-particles. We introduce a gauge in which the - and
-components of the dreibein field become holomorphic and
anti-holomorphic respectively. As a result we can restrict ourselves to the
complex plane. Next we show that solving the dreibein-field: is
equivalent to solving the Riemann-Hilbert problem for the group . We
give the explicit solution for 2 particles in terms of hypergeometric
functions. In the N-particle case we give a representation in terms of
conformal field theory. The dreibeins are expressed as correlators of 2 free
fermion fields and twistoperators at the position of the particles.Comment: 32 pages Latex, 4 figures (uuencoded
Collisions of Einstein-Conformal Scalar Waves
A large class of solutions of the Einstein-conformal scalar equations in
D=2+1 and D=3+1 is identified. They describe the collisions of asymptotic
conformal scalar waves and are generated from Einstein-minimally coupled scalar
spacetimes via a (generalized) Bekenstein transformation. Particular emphasis
is given to the study of the global properties and the singularity structure of
the obtained solutions. It is shown, that in the case of the absence of pure
gravitational radiation in the initial data, the formation of the final
singularity is not only generic, but is even inevitable.Comment: 17 pages, LaTe
The 1+1-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation and its universality class
We explain the exact solution of the 1+1 dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang
equation with sharp wedge initial conditions. Thereby it is confirmed that the
continuum model belongs to the KPZ universality class, not only as regards to
scaling exponents but also as regards to the full probability distribution of
the height in the long time limit.Comment: Proceedings StatPhys 2
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