Fluctuations of Complex Networks: Electrical Properties of Single Protein Nanodevices

We present for the first time a complex network approach to the study of the electrical properties of single protein devices. In particular, we consider an electronic nanobiosensor based on a G-protein coupled receptor. By adopting a coarse grain description, the protein is modeled as a complex network of elementary impedances. The positions of the alpha-carbon atoms of each amino acid are taken as the nodes of the network. The amino acids are assumed to interact electrically among them. Consequently, a link is drawn between any pair of nodes neighboring in space within a given distance and an elementary impedance is associated with each link. The value of this impedance can be related to the physical and chemical properties of the amino acid pair and to their relative distance. Accordingly, the conformational changes of the receptor induced by the capture of the ligand, are translated into a variation of its electrical properties. Stochastic fluctuations in the value of the elementary impedances of the network, which mimic different physical effects, have also been considered. Preliminary results concerning the impedance spectrum of the network and its fluctuations are presented and discussed for different values of the model parameters.Comment: 16 Pages and 10 Figures published in SPIE Proceedings of the II International Symposium on Fluctuation and Noise, Maspalomas,Gran Canaria,Spain, 25-28 May 200

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

Nonequilibrium nuclear-electron spin dynamics in semiconductor quantum dots

We study the spin dynamics in charged quantum dots in the situation where the resident electron is coupled to only about 200 nuclear spins and where the electron spin splitting induced by the Overhauser field does not exceed markedly the spectral broadening. The formation of a dynamical nuclear polarization as well as its subsequent decay by the dipole-dipole interaction is directly resolved in time. Because not limited by intrinsic nonlinearities, almost complete nuclear polarization is achieved, even at elevated temperatures. The data suggest a nonequilibrium mode of nuclear polarization, distinctly different from the spin temperature concept exploited on bulk semiconductorsComment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Nominally forbidden transitions in the interband optical spectrum of quantum dots

We calculate the excitonic optical absorption spectra of (In,Ga)As/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots by adopting an atomistic pseudopotential approach to the single-particle problem followed by a configuration-interaction approach to the many-body problem. We find three types of allowed transitions that would be naively expected to be forbidden. (i) Transitions that are parity forbidden in simple effective mass models with infinite confining wells (e.g. 1S-2S, 1P-2P) but are possible by finite band-offsets and orbital-mixing effects; (ii) light-hole--to--conduction transitions, enabled by the confinement of light-hole states; and (iii) transitions that show and enhanced intensity due to electron-hole configuration mixing with allowed transitions. We compare these predictions with results of 8-band k.p calculations as well as recent spectroscopic data. Transitions in (i) and (ii) explain recently observed satellites of the allowed P-P transitions.Comment: Version published in Phys. Rev.

Factorization and Scaling in Hadronic Diffraction

In standard Regge theory with a pomeron intercept a(0)=1+\epsilon, the contribution of the tripe-pomeron amplitude to the t=0 differential cross section for single diffraction dissociation has the form d\sigma/dM^2(t=0) \sim s^{2\epsilon}/(M^2)^{1+\epsilon}. For \epsilon>0, this form, which is based on factorization, does not scale with energy. From an analysis of p-p and p-pbar data from fixed target to collider energies, we find that such scaling actually holds, signaling a breakdown of factorization. Phenomenologically, this result can be obtained from a scaling law in diffraction, which is embedded in the hypothesis of pomeron flux renormalization introduced to unitarize the triple pomeron amplitude.Comment: 39 pages, Latex, 16 figure