Description of two-electron atoms with correct cusp conditions

New sets of functions with arbitrary large finite cardinality are constructed for two-electron atoms. Functions from these sets exactly satisfy the Kato's cusp conditions. The new functions are special linear combinations of Hylleraas- and/or Kinoshita-type terms. Standard variational calculation, leading to matrix eigenvalue problem, can be carried out to calculate the energies of the system. There is no need for optimization with constraints to satisfy the cusp conditions. In the numerical examples the ground state energy of the He atom is considered

Actin cages isolate damaged mitochondria during mitophagy.

Mitochondrial homeostasis is maintained by removing dysfunctional, ubiquitinated mitochondria from the network via PRKN-dependent mitophagy. MYO6, a unique myosin that moves towards the minus ends of actin filaments, forms a complex with PRKN and is selectively recruited to damaged mitochondria by binding to ubiquitin. On the mitochondrial surface, this myosin motor initiates the assembly of F-actin cages, which serve as a quality control mechanism to isolate dysfunctional mitochondria thereby preventing their refusion with neighboring populations. MYO6 also plays a role in the later stages of the mitophagy pathway by tethering endosomes to actin filaments facilitating mitophagosome maturation and autophagosome-lysosome fusion

Quasi-particle continuum and resonances in the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory

The quasi-particle energy spectrum of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) equations contains discrete bound states, resonances, and non-resonant continuum states. We study the structure of the unbound quasi-particle spectrum of weakly bound nuclei within several methods that do not rely on imposing scattering or outgoing boundary conditions. Various approximations are examined to estimate resonance widths. It is shown that the stabilization method works well for all HFB resonances except for very narrow ones. The Thomas-Fermi approximation to the non-resonant continuum has been shown to be very effective, especially for coordinate-space HFB calculations in large boxes that involve huge amounts of discretized quasi-particle continuum states.Comment: 12 pages,11 figures,submitted to PR

Shell corrections for finite depth potentials: Particle continuum effects

Shell corrections of finite, spherical, one-body potentials are analyzed using a smoothing procedure which properly accounts for the contribution from the particle continuum, i.e., unbound states. Since the plateau condition for the smoothed single-particle energy seldom holds, a new recipe is suggested for the definition of the shell correction. The generalized Strutinsky smoothing procedure is compared with the results of the semi-classical Wigner-Kirkwood expansion. A good agreement has been found for weakly bound nuclei in the vicinity of the proton drip line. However, some deviations remain for extremely neutron-rich systems due to the pathological behavior of the semi-classical level density around the particle threshold.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure

Soft repulsive mixtures under gravity: brazil-nut effect, depletion bubbles, boundary layering, nonequilibrium shaking

A binary mixture of particles interacting via long-ranged repulsive forces is studied in gravity by computer simulation and theory. The more repulsive A-particles create a depletion zone of less repulsive B-particles around them reminiscent to a bubble. Applying Archimedes' principle effectively to this bubble, an A-particle can be lifted in a fluid background of B-particles. This "depletion bubble" mechanism explains and predicts a brazil-nut effect where the heavier A-particles float on top of the lighter B-particles. It also implies an effective attraction of an A-particle towards a hard container bottom wall which leads to boundary layering of A-particles. Additionally, we have studied a periodic inversion of gravity causing perpetual mutual penetration of the mixture in a slit geometry. In this nonequilibrium case of time-dependent gravity, the boundary layering persists. Our results are based on computer simulations and density functional theory of a two-dimensional binary mixture of colloidal repulsive dipoles. The predicted effects also occur for other long-ranged repulsive interactions and in three spatial dimensions. They are therefore verifiable in settling experiments on dipolar or charged colloidal mixtures as well as in charged granulates and dusty plasmas.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Myosins, Actin and Autophagy.

Myosin motor proteins working together with the actin cytoskeleton drive a wide range of cellular processes. In this review, we focus on their roles in autophagy - the pathway the cell uses to ensure homeostasis by targeting pathogens, misfolded proteins and damaged organelles for degradation. The actin cytoskeleton regulated by a host of nucleating, anchoring and stabilizing proteins provides the filament network for the delivery of essential membrane vesicles from different cellular compartments to the autophagosome. Actin networks have also been implicated in structurally supporting the expanding phagophore, moving autophagosomes and enabling efficient fusion with the lysosome. Only a few myosins have so far been shown to play a role in autophagy. Non-muscle myosin IIA functions in the early stages delivering membrane for the initial formation of the autophagosome, whereas myosin IC and myosin VI are involved in the final stages providing specific membranes for autophagosome maturation and its fusion with the lysosome.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/tra.1241

Particle-unstable nuclei in the Hartree-Fock theory

Ground state energies and decay widths of particle unstable nuclei are calculated within the Hartree-Fock approximation by performing a complex scaling of the many-body Hamiltonian. Through this transformation, the wave functions of the resonant states become square integrable. The method is implemented with Skyrme effective interactions. Several Skyrme parametrizations are tested on four unstable nuclei: 10He, 12O, 26O and 28O.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Entanglement and correlation in two-nucleon systems

We examine the mode entanglement and correlation of two fermionic particles. We study the one- and two-mode entropy and a global characteristic, the one-body entanglement entropy. We consider not only angular momentum coupled states with single configuration but use the configuration interaction method. With the help of the Slater decomposition, we derive analytical expressions for the entanglement measures. We show that when the total angular momentum is zero specific single configurations describe maximally entangled states. It turns out that for a finite number of associated modes the one- and two-mode entropies have identical values. In the shell model framework, we numerically study two valence neutrons in the $sd$ shell. The one-body entanglement entropy of the ground state is close to the maximal value and the associated modes have the largest mutual information.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur