Challenges and solutions for the analysis of<i>in situ</i>,<i>in crystallo</i>micro-spectrophotometric data

Combining macromolecular crystallography within crystallomicro-spectrophotometry yields valuable complementary information on the sample, including the redox states of metal cofactors, the identification of bound ligands and the onset and strength of undesired photochemistry, also known as radiation damage. However, the analysis and processing of the resulting data differs significantly from the approaches used for solution spectrophotometric data. The varying size and shape of the sample, together with the suboptimal sample environment, the lack of proper reference signals and the general influence of the X-ray beam on the sample have to be considered and carefully corrected for. In the present article, how to characterize and treat these sample-dependent artefacts in a reproducible manner is discussed and theSLS-APEin situ,in crystallooptical spectroscopy data-analysis toolbox is demonstrated.</jats:p

Kinematics of Nearby Subdwarf Stars

We present an analysis of the space motions of 742 subdwarf stars based on the sample of Carney et al. (1994, CLLA). Hipparcos parallaxes, TYC2+HIP proper motions and Tycho2 proper motions were combined with radial velocities and metallicities from CLLA. The kinematical behavior is discussed in particular in relation to their metallicities. The majority of these sample stars have metal abundances of [Fe/H] >-1 and represent the thick disk population. The halo component, with [Fe/H] <-1.6, is characterized by a low mean rotation velocity and a radially elongated velocity ellipsoid. In the intermediate metallicity range (-1.6 < [Fe/H] <-1), we find a significant number of subdwarfs with disklike kinematics. We interpret this population of stars as a metal-weak thick disk population.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic

Conical defects in growing sheets

A growing or shrinking disc will adopt a conical shape, its intrinsic geometry characterized by a surplus angle $se$ at the apex. If growth is slow, the cone will find its equilibrium. Whereas this is trivial if $se <= 0$, the disc can fold into one of a discrete infinite number of states if $se$ is positive. We construct these states in the regime where bending dominates, determine their energies and how stress is distributed in them. For each state a critical value of $se$ is identified beyond which the cone touches itself. Before this occurs, all states are stable; the ground state has two-fold symmetry.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX, RevTeX style. New version corresponds to the one published in PR

On Approximately Symmetric Informationally Complete Positive Operator-Valued Measures and Related Systems of Quantum States

We address the problem of constructing positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) in finite dimension $n$ consisting of $n^2$ operators of rank one which have an inner product close to uniform. This is motivated by the related question of constructing symmetric informationally complete POVMs (SIC-POVMs) for which the inner products are perfectly uniform. However, SIC-POVMs are notoriously hard to construct and despite some success of constructing them numerically, there is no analytic construction known. We present two constructions of approximate versions of SIC-POVMs, where a small deviation from uniformity of the inner products is allowed. The first construction is based on selecting vectors from a maximal collection of mutually unbiased bases and works whenever the dimension of the system is a prime power. The second construction is based on perturbing the matrix elements of a subset of mutually unbiased bases. Moreover, we construct vector systems in \C^n which are almost orthogonal and which might turn out to be useful for quantum computation. Our constructions are based on results of analytic number theory.Comment: 29 pages, LaTe

Off shell behaviour of the in medium nucleon-nucleon cross section

The properties of nucleon-nucleon scattering inside dense nuclear matter are investigated. We use the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock model to determine on-shell and half off-shell in-medium transition amplitudes and cross sections. At finite densities the on-shell cross sections are generally suppressed. This reduction is, however, less pronounced than found in previous works. In the case that the outgoing momenta are allowed to be off energy shell the amplitudes show a strong variation with momentum. This description allows to determine in-medium cross sections beyond the quasi-particle approximation accounting thereby for the finite width which nucleons acquire in the dense nuclear medium. For reasonable choices of the in-medium nuclear spectral width, i.e. $\Gamma\leq 40$ MeV, the resulting total cross sections are, however, reduced by not more than about 25% compared to the on-shell values. Off-shell effect are generally more pronounced at large nuclear matter densities.Comment: 31 pages Revtex, 12 figures, typos corrected, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Fingerprinting redox and ligand states in haemprotein crystal structures using resonance Raman spectroscopy

It is crucial to assign the correct redox and ligand states to crystal structures of proteins with an active redox centre to gain valid functional information and prevent the misinterpretation of structures. Single-crystal spectroscopies, particularly when appliedin situat macromolecular crystallography beamlines, allow spectroscopic investigations of redox and ligand states and the identification of reaction intermediates in protein crystals during the collection of structural data. Single-crystal resonance Raman spectroscopy was carried out in combination with macromolecular crystallography on Swiss Light Source beamline X10SA using cytochromec′ fromAlcaligenes xylosoxidans. This allowed the fingerprinting and validation of different redox and ligand states, identification of vibrational modes and identification of intermediates together with monitoring of radiation-induced changes. This combined approach provides a powerful tool to obtain complementary data and correctly assign the true oxidation and ligand state(s) in redox-protein crystals.</jats:p

Perspectives on Interstellar Dust Inside and Outside of the Heliosphere

Measurements by dust detectors on interplanetary spacecraft appear to indicate a substantial flux of interstellar particles with masses exceeding 10^{-12}gram. The reported abundance of these massive grains cannot be typical of interstellar gas: it is incompatible with both interstellar elemental abundances and the observed extinction properties of the interstellar dust population. We discuss the likelihood that the Solar System is by chance located near an unusual concentration of massive grains and conclude that this is unlikely, unless dynamical processes in the ISM are responsible for such concentrations. Radiation pressure might conceivably drive large grains into "magnetic valleys". If the influx direction of interstellar gas and dust is varying on a ~10 yr timescale, as suggested by some observations, this would have dramatic implications for the small-scale structure of the interstellar medium.Comment: 13 pages. To appear in Space Science Review

Theory of structural response to macroscopic electric fields in ferroelectric systems

We have developed and implemented a formalism for computing the structural response of a periodic insulating system to a homogeneous static electric field within density-functional perturbation theory (DFPT). We consider the thermodynamic potentials E(R,eta,e) and F(R,eta,e) whose minimization with respect to the internal structural parameters R and unit cell strain eta yields the equilibrium structure at fixed electric field e and polarization P, respectively. First-order expansion of E(R,eta,e) in e leads to a useful approximation in which R(P) and eta(P) can be obtained by simply minimizing the zero-field internal energy with respect to structural coordinates subject to the constraint of a fixed spontaneous polarization P. To facilitate this minimization, we formulate a modified DFPT scheme such that the computed derivatives of the polarization are consistent with the discretized form of the Berry-phase expression. We then describe the application of this approach to several problems associated with bulk and short-period superlattice structures of ferroelectric materials such as BaTiO3 and PbTiO3. These include the effects of compositionally broken inversion symmetry, the equilibrium structure for high values of polarization, field-induced structural phase transitions, and the lattice contributions to the linear and the non-linear dielectric constants.Comment: 19 pages, with 15 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX4 and epsf macros. Also available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/sai_pol/index.htm

Rhomboid family member 2 regulates cytoskeletal stress-associated Keratin 16.

Keratin 16 (K16) is a cytoskeletal scaffolding protein highly expressed at pressure-bearing sites of the mammalian footpad. It can be induced in hyperproliferative states such as wound healing, inflammation and cancer. Here we show that the inactive rhomboid protease RHBDF2 (iRHOM2) regulates thickening of the footpad epidermis through its interaction with K16. K16 expression is absent in the thinned footpads of irhom2-/- mice compared with irhom2+/+mice, due to reduced keratinocyte proliferation. Gain-of-function mutations in iRHOM2 underlie Tylosis with oesophageal cancer (TOC), characterized by palmoplantar thickening, upregulate K16 with robust downregulation of its type II keratin binding partner, K6. By orchestrating the remodelling and turnover of K16, and uncoupling it from K6, iRHOM2 regulates the epithelial response to physical stress. These findings contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying hyperproliferation of the palmoplantar epidermis in both physiological and disease states, and how this 'stress' keratin is regulated

Detecting Physics At The Post-GUT And String Scales By Linear Colliders

The ability of linear colliders to test physics at the post-GUT scale is investigated. Using current estimates of measurements available at such accelerators, it is seen that soft breaking masses can be measured with errors of about (1-20)%. Three classes of models in the post-GUT region are examined: models with universal soft breaking masses at the string scale, models with horizontal symmetry, and string models with Calabi-Yau compactifications. In each case, linear colliders would be able to test directly theoretical assumptions made at energies beyond the GUT scale to a good accuracy, distinguish between different models, and measure parameters that are expected to be predictions of string models.Comment: Latex, 21 pages, no figure