2,408 research outputs found
Efficient Single Photon Absorption by Optimized Superconducting Nanowire Geometries
We report on simulation results that shows optimum photon absorption by
superconducting nanowires can happen at a fill-factor that is much less than
100%. We also present experimental results on high performance of our
superconducting nanowire single photon detectors realized using NbTiN on
oxidized silicon.Comment: \copyright 2013 IEEE. Submitted to "Numerical Simulation of
Optoelectronic Devices - NUSOD 2013" on 19-April-201
Pulling a polymer out of a potential well and the mechanical unzipping of DNA
Motivated by the experiments on DNA under torsion, we consider the problem of
pulling a polymer out of a potential well by a force applied to one of its
ends. If the force is less than a critical value, then the process is activated
and has an activation energy proportinal to the length of the chain. Above this
critical value, the process is barrierless and will occur spontaneously. We use
the Rouse model for the description of the dynamics of the peeling out and
study the average behaviour of the chain, by replacing the random noise by its
mean. The resultant mean-field equation is a nonlinear diffusion equation and
hence rather difficult to analyze. We use physical arguments to convert this in
to a moving boundary value problem, which can then be solved exactly. The
result is that the time required to pull out a polymer of segments
scales like . For models other than the Rouse, we argue that Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. To appear in PhysicalReview
Hierarchical Chain Model of Spider Capture Silk Elasticity
Spider capture silk is a biomaterial with both high strength and high
elasticity, but the structural design principle underlying these remarkable
properties is still unknown. It was revealed recently by atomic force
microscopy that, an exponential force--extension relationship holds both for
capture silk mesostructures and for intact capture silk fibers [N. Becker et
al., Nature Materials 2, 278 (2003)]. In this Letter a simple hierarchical
chain model was proposed to understand and reproduce this striking observation.
In the hierarchical chain model, a polymer is composed of many structural
motifs which organize into structural modules and supra-modules in a
hierarchical manner. Each module in this hierarchy has its own characteristic
force. The repetitive patterns in the amino acid sequence of the major
flagelliform protein of spider capture silk is in support of this model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Will be formally published in PR
Ordered and periodic chaos of the bounded one dimensinal multibarrier potential
Numerical analysis indicates that there exists an unexpected new ordered
chaos for the bounded one-dimensional multibarrier potential. For certain
values of the number of barriers, repeated identical forms (periods) of the
wavepackets result upon passing through the multibarrier potential.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 1 Table. Some former text removed and other
introduce
Topological interactions in systems of mutually interlinked polymer rings
The topological interaction arising in interlinked polymeric rings such as
DNA catenanes is considered. More specifically, the free energy for a pair of
linked random walk rings is derived where the distance between two segments
each of which is part of a different ring is kept constant. The topology
conservation is imposed by the Gauss invariant. A previous approach (M.Otto,
T.A. Vilgis, Phys.Rev.Lett. {\bf 80}, 881 (1998)) to the problem is refined in
several ways. It is confirmed, that asymptotically, i.e. for large
where is average size of single random walk ring, the effective
topological interaction (free energy) scales .Comment: 16 pages, 3 figur
Sequence Effects on DNA Entropic Elasticity
DNA stretching experiments are usually interpreted using the worm-like chain
model; the persistence length A appearing in the model is then interpreted as
the elastic stiffness of the double helix. In fact the persistence length
obtained by this method is a combination of bend stiffness and intrinsic bend
effects reflecting sequence information, just as at zero stretching force. This
observation resolves the discrepancy between the value of A measured in these
experiments and the larger ``dynamic persistence length'' measured by other
means. On the other hand, the twist persistence length deduced from
torsionally-constrained stretching experiments suffers no such correction. Our
calculation is very simple and analytic; it applies to DNA and other polymers
with weak intrinsic disorder.Comment: LaTeX; postscript available at
http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/~nelson/index.shtm
Semiclassical form factor for spectral and matrix element fluctuations of multi-dimensional chaotic systems
We present a semiclassical calculation of the generalized form factor which
characterizes the fluctuations of matrix elements of the quantum operators in
the eigenbasis of the Hamiltonian of a chaotic system. Our approach is based on
some recently developed techniques for the spectral form factor of systems with
hyperbolic and ergodic underlying classical dynamics and f=2 degrees of
freedom, that allow us to go beyond the diagonal approximation. First we extend
these techniques to systems with f>2. Then we use these results to calculate
the generalized form factor. We show that the dependence on the rescaled time
in units of the Heisenberg time is universal for both the spectral and the
generalized form factor. Furthermore, we derive a relation between the
generalized form factor and the classical time-correlation function of the Weyl
symbols of the quantum operators.Comment: some typos corrected and few minor changes made; final version in PR
Detecting entanglement of random states with an entanglement witness
The entanglement content of high-dimensional random pure states is almost
maximal, nevertheless, we show that, due to the complexity of such states, the
detection of their entanglement using witness operators is rather difficult. We
discuss the case of unknown random states, and the case of known random states
for which we can optimize the entanglement witness. Moreover, we show that
coarse graining, modeled by considering mixtures of m random states instead of
pure ones, leads to a decay in the entanglement detection probability
exponential with m. Our results also allow to explain the emergence of
classicality in coarse grained quantum chaotic dynamics.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; minor typos correcte
Bending and Base-Stacking Interactions in Double-Stranded Semiflexible Polymer
Simple expressions for the bending and the base-stacking energy of
double-stranded semiflexible biopolymers (such as DNA and actin) are derived.
The distribution of the folding angle between the two strands is obtained by
solving a Schr\"{o}dinger equation variationally. Theoretical results based on
this model on the extension versus force and extension versus degree of
supercoiling relations of DNA chain are in good agreement with the experimental
observations of Cluzel {\it et al.} [Science {\bf 271}, 792 (1996)], Smith {\it
et al.} [{\it ibid.} {\bf 271}, 795 (1996)], and Strick {\it et al.} [{\it
ibid.} {\bf 271}, 1835 (1996)].Comment: 8 pages in Revtex format, with 4 EPS figure
- …