2,404 research outputs found
Does a Simple Lattice Protein Exhibit Self-Organized Criticality?
There are many unanswered questions when it comes to protein folding. These questions are interesting because the tertiary structure of proteins determines its functionality in living organisms. How do proteins consistently reach their final tertiary structure from the primary sequence of amino acids? What explains the complexity of tertiary structures? Our research uses a simple hydrophobic-polar lattice-bound computational model to investigate self-organized criticality as a possible mechanism for generating complexity in protein folding and protein tertiary structures
Tunable Circularly Polarized Terahertz Radiation from Magnetized Gas Plasma
It is shown, by simulation and theory, that circularly or elliptically
polarized terahertz radiation can be generated when a static magnetic (B) field
is imposed on a gas target along the propagation direction of a two-color laser
driver. The radiation frequency is determined by
, where is the
plasma frequency and is the electron cyclotron frequency. With the
increase of the B field, the radiation changes from a single-cycle broadband
waveform to a continuous narrow-band emission. In high-B-field cases, the
radiation strength is proportional to . The B field
provides a tunability in the radiation frequency, spectrum width, and field
strength.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
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Composite drill stem of epoxy fiber glass reinforced with boron filaments and a retrievable core liner/sample return container for the Apollo lunar surface drill
Composite drill stem of epoxy fiber glass and boron filaments and lunar core sampling system for Apollo lunar surface dril
Laser ion acceleration using a solid target coupled with a low density layer
We investigate by particle-in-cell simulations in two and three dimensions
the laser-plasma interaction and the proton acceleration in multilayer targets
where a low density "near-critical" layer of a few micron thickness is added on
the illuminated side of a thin, high density layer. This target design can be
obtained by depositing a "foam" layer on a thin metallic foil. The presence of
the near-critical plasma strongly increases both the conversion efficiency and
the energy of electrons and leads to enhanced acceleration of proton from a
rear side layer via the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration mechanism. The
electrons of the foam are strongly accelerated in the forward direction and
propagate on the rear side of the target building up a high electric field with
a relatively flat longitudinal profile. In these conditions the maximum proton
energy is up to three times higher than in the case of the bare solid target.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to Physical Review
Laser opacity in underdense preplasma of solid targets due to quantum electrodynamics effects
We investigate how next-generation laser pulses at 10 PW 200 PW interact
with a solid target in the presence of a relativistically underdense preplasma
produced by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). Laser hole boring and
relativistic transparency are strongly restrained due to the generation of
electron-positron pairs and -ray photons via quantum electrodynamics
(QED) processes. A pair plasma with a density above the initial preplasma
density is formed, counteracting the electron-free channel produced by the hole
boring. This pair-dominated plasma can block the laser transport and trigger an
avalanche-like QED cascade, efficiently transfering the laser energy to
photons. This renders a 1--scalelength, underdense preplasma
completely opaque to laser pulses at this power level. The QED-induced opacity
therefore sets much higher contrast requirements for such pulse in solid-target
experiments than expected by classical plasma physics. Our simulations show for
example, that proton acceleration from the rear of a solid with a preplasma
would be strongly impaired.Comment: 5 figure
Unifying prospective and retrospective interval-time estimation: a fading-gaussian activation-based model of interval-timing
Hass and Hermann (2012) have shown that only variance-based processes will lead to the scalar growth of error that is characteristic of human time judgments. Secondly, a major meta-review of over one hundred studies (Block et al., 2010) reveals a striking interaction between the way in which temporal judgments are queried and cognitive load on participants’ judgments of interval duration. For retrospective time judgments, estimates under high cognitive load are longer than under low cognitive load. For prospective judgments, the reverse pattern holds, with increased cognitive load leading to shorter estimates. We describe GAMIT, a Gaussian spreading-activation model, in which the sampling rate of an activation trace is differentially affected by cognitive load. The model unifies prospective and retrospective time estimation, normally considered separately, by relating them to the same underlying process. The scalar property of time estimation arises naturally from the model dynamics and the model shows the appropriate interaction between mode of query and cognitive load
Lagrangian analysis of alignment dynamics for isentropic compressible magnetohydrodynamics
After a review of the isentropic compressible magnetohydrodynamics (ICMHD)
equations, a quaternionic framework for studying the alignment dynamics of a
general fluid flow is explained and applied to the ICMHD equations.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, submitted to a Focus Issue of New Journal of
Physics on "Magnetohydrodynamics and the Dynamo Problem" J-F Pinton, A
Pouquet, E Dormy and S Cowley, editor
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