Nitrogen doping of TiO2 photocatalyst forms a second eg state in the Oxygen (1s) NEXAFS pre-edge

Close inspection of the pre-edge in oxygen near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectra of single step, gas phase synthesized titanium oxynitride photocatalysts with 20 nm particle size reveals an additional eg resonance in the VB that went unnoticed in previous TiO2 anion doping studies. The relative spectral weight of this Ti(3d)-O(2p) hybridized state with respect to and located between the readily established t2g and eg resonances scales qualitatively with the photocatalytic decomposition power, suggesting that this extra resonance bears co-responsibility for the photocatalytic performance of titanium oxynitrides at visible light wavelengths

Shape-induced anisotropy in antidot arrays from self-assembled templates

Using self-assembly of polystyrene spheres, well-ordered templates have been prepared on glass and silicon substrates. Strong guiding of self-assembly is obtained on photolithographically structured silicon substrates. Magnetic antidot arrays with three-dimensional architecture have been prepared by electrodeposition in the pores of these templates. The shape anisotropy demonstrates a crucial impact on magnetization reversal processes

Kinetics of Particles Adsorption Processes Driven by Diffusion

The kinetics of the deposition of colloidal particles onto a solid surface is analytically studied. We take into account both the diffusion of particles from the bulk as well as the geometrical aspects of the layer of adsorbed particles. We derive the first kinetic equation for the coverage of the surface (a generalized Langmuir equation) whose predictions are in agreement with recent simulation results where diffusion of particles from the bulk is explicitly considered.Comment: 4 page

Influence of heavy modes on perturbations in multiple field inflation

We investigate linear cosmological perturbations in multiple field inflationary models where some of the directions are light while others are heavy (with respect to the Hubble parameter). By integrating out the massive degrees of freedom, we determine the multi-dimensional effective theory for the light degrees of freedom and give explicitly the propagation matrix that replaces the effective sound speed of the one-dimensional case. We then examine in detail the consequences of a sudden turn along the inflationary trajectory, in particular the possible breakdown of the low energy effective theory in case the heavy modes are excited. Resorting to a new basis in field space, instead of the usual adiabatic/entropic basis, we study the evolution of the perturbations during the turn. In particular, we compute the power spectrum and compare with the result obtained from the low energy effective theory.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures; v2 substantial changes in sec.V; v3 matching the published version on JCA

Density dynamics from current auto-correlations at finite time- and length-scales

We consider the increase of the spatial variance of some inhomogeneous, non-equilibrium density (particles, energy, etc.) in a periodic quantum system of condensed matter-type. This is done for a certain class of initial quantum states which is supported by static linear response and typicality arguments. We directly relate the broadening to some current auto-correlation function at finite times. Our result is not limited to diffusive behavior, however, in that case it yields a generalized Einstein relation. These findings facilitate the approximation of diffusion constants/conductivities on the basis of current auto-correlation functions at finite times for finite systems. Pursuing this, we quantitatively confirm the magnetization diffusion constant in a spin chain which was recently found from non-equilibrium bath scenarios.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Europhys. Let

Gauge-invariant perturbations at second order in two-field inflation

We study the second-order gauge-invariant adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations in terms of the scalar fields present during inflation, along with the related fully non-linear space gradient of these quantities. We discuss the relation with other perturbation quantities defined in the literature. We also construct the exact cubic action of the second-order perturbations (beyond any slow-roll or super-horizon approximations and including tensor perturbations), both in the uniform energy density gauge and the flat gauge in order to settle various gauge-related issues. We thus provide the tool to calculate the exact non-Gaussianity beyond slow-roll and at any scale.Comment: 28 pages, no figures. v2: Added a summary subsection 4.3 with further discussion of the results. Generalized all super-horizon results of section 4 and appendix A to exact ones. Other minor textual changes and references added. Conclusions unchanged. Matches published versio

Ile-Phe Dipeptide Self-Assembly: Clues to Amyloid Formation

AbstractPeptidic self-assembled nanostructures are said to have a wide range of applications in nanotechnology, yet the mechanistic details of hierarchical self-assembly are still poorly understood. The Phe-Phe recognition motif of the Alzheimer’s Aβ peptide is the smallest peptide able to assemble into higher-order structures. Here, we show that the Ile-Phe dipeptide analog is also able to self-associate in aqueous solution as a transparent, thermoreversible gel formed by a network of fibrillar nanostructures that exhibit strong birefringence upon Congo red binding. Besides, a second dipeptide Val-Phe, differing only in a methyl group from the former, is unable to self-assemble. The detailed analysis of the differential polymeric behavior of these closely related molecules provides insight into the forces triggering the first steps in self-assembly processes such as amyloid formation

Prediction of "hot spots" of aggregation in disease-linked polypeptides

BACKGROUND: The polypeptides involved in amyloidogenesis may be globular proteins with a defined 3D-structure or natively unfolded proteins. The first class includes polypeptides such as β2-microglobulin, lysozyme, transthyretin or the prion protein, whereas β-amyloid peptide, amylin or α-synuclein all belong to the second class. Recent studies suggest that specific regions in the proteins act as "hot spots" driving aggregation. This should be especially relevant for natively unfolded proteins or unfolded states of globular proteins as they lack significant secondary and tertiary structure and specific intra-chain interactions that can mask these aggregation-prone regions. Prediction of such sequence stretches is important since they are potential therapeutic targets. RESULTS: In this study we exploited the experimental data obtained in an in vivo system using β-amyloid peptide as a model to derive the individual aggregation propensities of natural amino acids. These data are used to generate aggregation profiles for different disease-related polypeptides. The approach detects the presence of "hot spots" which have been already validated experimentally in the literature and provides insights into the effect of disease-linked mutations in these polypeptides. CONCLUSION: The proposed method might become a useful tool for the future development of sequence-targeted anti-aggregation pharmaceuticals

Primordial fluctuations and non-Gaussianities from multifield DBI Galileon inflation

We study a cosmological scenario in which the DBI action governing the motion of a D3-brane in a higher-dimensional spacetime is supplemented with an induced gravity term. The latter reduces to the quartic Galileon Lagrangian when the motion of the brane is non-relativistic and we show that it tends to violate the null energy condition and to render cosmological fluctuations ghosts. There nonetheless exists an interesting parameter space in which a stable phase of quasi-exponential expansion can be achieved while the induced gravity leaves non trivial imprints. We derive the exact second-order action governing the dynamics of linear perturbations and we show that it can be simply understood through a bimetric perspective. In the relativistic regime, we also calculate the dominant contribution to the primordial bispectrum and demonstrate that large non-Gaussianities of orthogonal shape can be generated, for the first time in a concrete model. More generally, we find that the sign and the shape of the bispectrum offer powerful diagnostics of the precise strength of the induced gravity.Comment: 34 pages including 9 figures, plus appendices and bibliography. Wordings changed and references added; matches version published in JCA

Super Weyl invariance: BPS equations from heterotic worldsheets

It is well-known that the beta functions on a string worldsheet correspond to the target space equations of motion, e.g. the Einstein equations. We show that the BPS equations, i.e. the conditions of vanishing supersymmetry variations of the space-time fermions, can be directly derived from the worldsheet. To this end we consider the RNS-formulation of the heterotic string with (2,0) supersymmetry, which describes a complex torsion target space that supports a holomorphic vector bundle. After a detailed account of its quantization and renormalization, we establish that the cancellation of the Weyl anomaly combined with (2,0) finiteness implies the heterotic BPS conditions: At the one loop level the geometry is required to be conformally balanced and the gauge background has to satisfy the Hermitean Yang-Mills equations.Comment: 1+31 pages LaTeX, 5 figures; final version, discussion relation Weyl invariance and (2,0) finiteness extended, typos correcte