543 research outputs found
Coupling molecular spin states by photon-assisted tunneling
Artificial molecules containing just one or two electrons provide a powerful
platform for studies of orbital and spin quantum dynamics in nanoscale devices.
A well-known example of these dynamics is tunneling of electrons between two
coupled quantum dots triggered by microwave irradiation. So far, these
tunneling processes have been treated as electric dipole-allowed
spin-conserving events. Here we report that microwaves can also excite
tunneling transitions between states with different spin. In this work, the
dominant mechanism responsible for violation of spin conservation is the
spin-orbit interaction. These transitions make it possible to perform detailed
microwave spectroscopy of the molecular spin states of an artificial hydrogen
molecule and open up the possibility of realizing full quantum control of a two
spin system via microwave excitation.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure
Full Counting Statistics of Superconductor--Normal-Metal Heterostructures
The article develops a powerful theoretical tool to obtain the full counting
statistics. By a slight extension of the standard Keldysh method we can access
immediately all correlation functions of the current operator. Embedded in a
quantum generalization of the circuit theory of electronic transport, we are
able to study the full counting statistics of a large class of two-terminal
contacts and multi-terminal structures, containing superconductors and normal
metals as elements. The practical use of the method is demonstrated in many
examples.Comment: 35 pages, contribution to "Quantum Noise", ed. by Yu.V. Nazarov and
Ya.M. Blanter, minor changes in text, references adde
Electronic Coherence Dephasing in Excitonic Molecular Complexes: Role of Markov and Secular Approximations
We compare four different types of equations of motion for reduced density
matrix of a system of molecular excitons interacting with thermodynamic bath.
All four equations are of second order in the linear system-bath interaction
Hamiltonian, with different approximations applied in their derivation. In
particular we compare time-nonlocal equations obtained from so-called
Nakajima-Zwanzig identity and the time-local equations resulting from the
partial ordering prescription of the cummulant expansion. In each of these
equations we alternatively apply secular approximation to decouple population
and coherence dynamics from each other. We focus on the dynamics of intraband
electronic coherences of the excitonic system which can be traced by coherent
two-dimensional spectroscopy. We discuss the applicability of the four
relaxation theories to simulations of population and coherence dynamics, and
identify features of the two-dimensional coherent spectrum that allow us to
distinguish time-nonlocal effects.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
Knocking down gene expression for growth hormone-releasing hormone inhibits proliferation of human cancer cell lines
Splice Variant 1 (SV-1) of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) receptor, found in a wide range of human cancers and established human cancer cell lines, is a functional receptor with ligand-dependent and independent activity. In the present study, we demonstrated by western blots the presence of the SV1 of GHRH receptor and the production of GHRH in MDA-MB-468, MDA-MB-435S and T47D human breast cancer cell lines, LNCaP prostate cancer cell line as well as in NCI H838 non-small cell lung carcinoma. We have also shown that GHRH produced in the conditioned media of these cell lines is biologically active. We then inhibited the intrinsic production of GHRH in these cancer cell lines using si-RNA, specially designed for human GHRH. The knocking down of the GHRH gene expression suppressed the proliferation of T47D, MDA-MB-435S, MDA-MB-468 breast cancer, LNCaP prostate cancer and NCI H838 non-SCLC cell lines in vitro. However, the replacement of the knocked down GHRH expression by exogenous GHRH (1–29)NH2 re-established the proliferation of the silenced cancer cell lines. Furthermore, the proliferation rate of untransfected cancer cell lines could be stimulated by GHRH (1–29)NH2 and inhibited by GHRH antagonists MZ-5-156, MZ-4-71 and JMR-132. These results extend previous findings on the critical function of GHRH in tumorigenesis and support the role of GHRH as a tumour growth factor
Antiferromagnetic spintronics
Antiferromagnetic materials are magnetic inside, however, the direction of
their ordered microscopic moments alternates between individual atomic sites.
The resulting zero net magnetic moment makes magnetism in antiferromagnets
invisible on the outside. It also implies that if information was stored in
antiferromagnetic moments it would be insensitive to disturbing external
magnetic fields, and the antiferromagnetic element would not affect
magnetically its neighbors no matter how densely the elements were arranged in
a device. The intrinsic high frequencies of antiferromagnetic dynamics
represent another property that makes antiferromagnets distinct from
ferromagnets. The outstanding question is how to efficiently manipulate and
detect the magnetic state of an antiferromagnet. In this article we give an
overview of recent works addressing this question. We also review studies
looking at merits of antiferromagnetic spintronics from a more general
perspective of spin-ransport, magnetization dynamics, and materials research,
and give a brief outlook of future research and applications of
antiferromagnetic spintronics.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Graphene plasmonics
Two rich and vibrant fields of investigation, graphene physics and
plasmonics, strongly overlap. Not only does graphene possess intrinsic plasmons
that are tunable and adjustable, but a combination of graphene with noble-metal
nanostructures promises a variety of exciting applications for conventional
plasmonics. The versatility of graphene means that graphene-based plasmonics
may enable the manufacture of novel optical devices working in different
frequency ranges, from terahertz to the visible, with extremely high speed, low
driving voltage, low power consumption and compact sizes. Here we review the
field emerging at the intersection of graphene physics and plasmonics.Comment: Review article; 12 pages, 6 figures, 99 references (final version
available only at publisher's web site
Conformational rearrangements in the transmembrane domain of CNGA1 channels revealed by single-molecule force spectroscopy
Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels are activated by binding of cyclic nucleotides. Although structural studies have identified the channel pore and selectivity filter, conformation changes associated with gating remain poorly understood. Here we combine single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) with mutagenesis, bioinformatics and electrophysiology to study conformational changes associated with gating. By expressing functional channels with SMFS fingerprints in Xenopus laevis oocytes, we were able to investigate gating of CNGA1 in a physiological-like membrane. Force spectra determined that the S4 transmembrane domain is mechanically coupled to S5 in the closed state, but S3 in the open state. We also show there are multiple pathways for the unfolding of the transmembrane domains, probably caused by a different degree of \u3b1-helix folding. This approach demonstrates that CNG transmembrane domains have dynamic structure and establishes SMFS as a tool for probing conformational change in ion channels
The emergence of altruism as a social norm
Expectations, exerting influence through social norms, are a very strong candidate to explain how complex societies function. In the Dictator game (DG), people expect generous behavior from others even when they cannot enforce any sharing of the pie. Here we assume that people donate following their expectations, and that they update their expectation after playing a DG by reinforcement learning to construct a model that explains the main experimental results in the DG. Full agreement with the experimental results is reached when some degree of mismatch between expectations and donations is added into the model. These results are robust against the presence of envious agents, but affected if we introduce selfish agents that do not update their expectations. Our results point to social norms being on the basis of the generous behavior observed in the DG and also to the wide applicability of reinforcement learning to explain many strategic interactions
The gating mechanism in cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channels
Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels mediate transduction in several sensory neurons. These channels use the free energy of CNs' binding to open the pore, a process referred to as gating. CNG channels belong to the superfamily of voltage-gated channels, where the motion of the \uce\ub1-helix S6 controls gating in most of its members. To date, only the open, cGMP-bound, structure of a CNG channel has been determined at atomic resolution, which is inadequate to determine the molecular events underlying gating. By using electrophysiology, site-directed mutagenesis, chemical modification, and Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy, we demonstrate that opening of CNGA1 channels is initiated by the formation of salt bridges between residues in the C-linker and S5 helix. These events trigger conformational changes of the \uce\ub1-helix S5, transmitted to the P-helix and leading to channel opening. Therefore, the superfamily of voltage-gated channels shares a similar molecular architecture but has evolved divergent gating mechanisms
Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at = 2.76 TeV
The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb
collisions at TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is
presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the
longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The
pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than
those measured at RHIC.Comment: 17 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 12,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388
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