4,228 research outputs found
Wetting on Nanorough Surfaces
We present in this Letter a free-energy approach to the dynamics of a fluid
near a nanostructured surface. The model accounts both for the static phase
equilibrium in the vicinity of the surface (wetting angles, Cassie-Wenzel
transition) and the dynamical properties like liquid slippage at the boundary.
This method bridges the gap between phenomenological phase-field approaches and
more macroscopic lattice-Boltzmann models
Resonant X-ray diffraction studies on the charge ordering in magnetite
Here we show that the low temperature phase of magnetite is associated with
an effective, although fractional, ordering of the charge. Evidence and a
quantitative evaluation of the atomic charges are achieved by using resonant
x-ray diffraction (RXD) experiments whose results are further analyzed with the
help of ab initio calculations of the scattering factors involved. By
confirming the results obtained from X-ray crystallography we have shown that
RXD is able to probe quantitatively the electronic structure in very complex
oxides, whose importance covers a wide domain of applications.Comment: 4 pages 4 figures, accepted for publication in PR
On Quasar Masses and Quasar Host Galaxies
The mass of massive black holes in quasar cores can be deduced using the
typical velocities of Hb-emitting clouds in the Broad Line Region (BLR) and the
size of this region. However, this estimate depends on various assumptions and
is susceptible to large systematic errors. The Hb-deduced black hole mass in a
sample of 14 bright quasars is found here to correlate with the quasar host
galaxy luminosity, as determined with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This
correlation is similar to the black hole mass vs. bulge luminosity correlation
found by Magorrian et al. in a sample of 32 nearby normal galaxies. The
similarity of the two correlations is remarkable since the two samples involve
apparently different types of objects and since the black hole mass estimates
in quasars and in nearby galaxies are based on very different methods.
This similarity provides a ``calibration'' of the Hb-deduced black hole mass
estimate, suggesting it is accurate to +-0.5 on log scale. The similarity of
the two correlations also suggests that quasars reside in otherwise normal
galaxies, and that the luminosity of quasar hosts can be estimated to +-0.5 mag
based on the quasar continuum luminosity and the Hb line width. Future imaging
observations of additional broad-line active galaxies with the HST are required
in order to explore the extent, slope, and scatter of the black hole mass vs.
host bulge luminosity correlation in active galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, 7 pages, aas2pp4.st
Exponential decay for the damped wave equation in unbounded domains
We study the decay of the semigroup generated by the damped wave equation in
an unbounded domain. We first prove under the natural geometric control
condition the exponential decay of the semigroup. Then we prove under a weaker
condition the logarithmic decay of the solutions (assuming that the initial
data are smoother). As corollaries, we obtain several extensions of previous
results of stabilisation and control
Diffusion in pores and its dependence on boundary conditions
We study the influence of the boundary conditions at the solid liquid
interface on diffusion in a confined fluid. Using an hydrodynamic approach, we
compute numerical estimates for the diffusion of a particle confined between
two planes. Partial slip is shown to significantly influence the diffusion
coefficient near a wall. Analytical expressions are derived in the low and high
confinement limits, and are in good agreement with numerical results. These
calculations indicate that diffusion of tagged particles could be used as a
sensitive probe of the solid-liquid boundary conditions.Comment: soumis \`a J.Phys. Cond. Matt. special issue on "Diffusion in
Liquids, Polymers, Biophysics and Chemical Dynamics
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Peptide binding characteristics of the non-classical class Ib MHC molecule HLA-E assessed by a recombinant random peptide approach.
BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence suggests that the effect of HLA-E on Natural Killer (NK) cell activity can be affected by the nature of the peptides bound to this non-classical, MHC class Ib molecule. However, its reduced cell surface expression, and until recently, the lack of specific monoclonal antibodies hinder studying the peptide-binding specificity HLA-E. RESULTS: An in vitro refolding system was used to assess binding of recombinant HLA-E to either specific peptides or a nonamer random peptide library. Peptides eluted from HLA-E molecules refolded around the nonamer library were then used to determine a binding motif for HLA-E. Hydrophobic and non-charged amino acids were found to predominate along the peptide motif, with a leucine anchor at P9, but surprisingly there was no methionine preference at P2, as suggested by previous studies. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the results obtained with rat classical class Ia MHC molecules, RT1-A1c and RT1-Au, HLA-E appears to refold around a random peptide library to reduced but detectable levels, suggesting that this molecule's specificity is tight but probably not as exquisite as has been previously suggested. This, and a previous report that it can associate with synthetic peptides carrying a viral sequence, suggests that HLA-E, similar to its mouse counterpart (Qa-1b), could possibly bind peptides different from MHC class I leader peptides and present them to T lymphocytes.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are
Geometric optics and instability for semi-classical Schrodinger equations
We prove some instability phenomena for semi-classical (linear or) nonlinear
Schrodinger equations. For some perturbations of the data, we show that for
very small times, we can neglect the Laplacian, and the mechanism is the same
as for the corresponding ordinary differential equation. Our approach allows
smaller perturbations of the data, where the instability occurs for times such
that the problem cannot be reduced to the study of an o.d.e.Comment: 22 pages. Corollary 1.7 adde
Derivation of the Zakharov equations
This paper continues the study of the validity of the Zakharov model
describing Langmuir turbulence. We give an existence theorem for a class of
singular quasilinear equations. This theorem is valid for well-prepared initial
data. We apply this result to the Euler-Maxwell equations describing
laser-plasma interactions, to obtain, in a high-frequency limit, an asymptotic
estimate that describes solutions of the Euler-Maxwell equations in terms of
WKB approximate solutions which leading terms are solutions of the Zakharov
equations. Because of transparency properties of the Euler-Maxwell equations,
this study is led in a supercritical (highly nonlinear) regime. In such a
regime, resonances between plasma waves, electromagnetric waves and acoustic
waves could create instabilities in small time. The key of this work is the
control of these resonances. The proof involves the techniques of geometric
optics of Joly, M\'etivier and Rauch, recent results of Lannes on norms of
pseudodifferential operators, and a semiclassical, paradifferential calculus
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