35,425 research outputs found
Elastic precursor of the transformation from glycolipid-nanotube to -vesicle
By the combination of optical tweezer manipulation and digital video
microscopy, the flexural rigidity of single glycolipid "nano" tubes has been
measured below the transition temperature at which the lipid tubules are
transformed into vesicles. Consequently, we have found a clear reduction of the
rigidity obviously before the transition as temperature increasing. Further
experiments of infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and differential scanning
calorimetry (DSC) have suggested a microscopic change of the tube walls,
synchronizing with the precursory softening of the nanotubes.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Pattern formation by lateral inhibition with feedback: a mathematical model of Delta-Notch intercellular signalling
In many developing tissues, adjacent cells diverge in character so as to create a fine-grained pattern of cells in contrasting states of differentiation. It has been proposed that such patterns can be generated through lateral inhibition—a type cells–cell interaction whereby a cell that adopts a particular fate inhibits its immediate neighbours from doing likewise. Lateral inhibition is well documented in flies, worms and vertebrates. In all of these organisms, the transmembrane proteins Notch and Delta (or their homologues) have been identified as mediators of the interaction—Notch as receptor, Delta as its ligand on adjacent cells. However, it is not clear under precisely what conditions the Delta-Notch mechanism of lateral inhibition can generate the observed types of pattern, or indeed whether this mechanism is capable of generating such patterns by itself. Here we construct and analyse a simple and general mathematical model of such contact-mediated lateral inhibition. In accordance with experimental data, the model postulates that receipt of inhibition (i.e. activation of Notch) diminishes the ability to deliver inhibition (i.e. to produce active Delta). This gives rise to a feedback loop that can amplify differences between adjacent cells. We investigate the pattern-forming potential and temporal behavior of this model both analytically and through numerical simulation. Inhomogeneities are self-amplifying and develop without need of any other machinery, provided the feedback is sufficiently strong. For a wide range of initial and boundary conditions, the model generates fine-grained patterns similar to those observed in living systems
S and P-wave heavy-light mesons in lattice NRQCD
The mass spectrum of S and P-wave mesons containing a single heavy quark is
computed in the quenched approximation, using NRQCD up to third order in the
inverse heavy quark mass expansion. Previous results found third order
contributions which are as large in magnitude as the total second order
contribution for the charmed S-wave spin splitting. The present work considers
variations such as anisotropic lattices, Landau link tadpole improvement, and a
highly-improved light quark action, and finds that the second order correction
to the charmed S-wave spin splitting is about 20% of the leading order
contribution, while the third order correction is about 20%(10%) for
D^*-D(D_s^*-D_s). Nonleading corrections are very small for the bottom meson
spectrum, and are statistically insignificant for the P-wave charmed masses.
The relative orderings among P-wave charmed and bottom mesons, and the sizes of
the mass splittings, are discussed in light of experimental data and existing
calculations.Comment: 21 pages including 6 figures, changed method of fitting correlators,
this version to be published in Phys Rev
Attractive instability of oppositely charged membranes induced by charge density fluctuations
We predict the conditions under which two oppositely charged membranes show a
dynamic, attractive instability. Two layers with unequal charges of opposite
sign can repel or be stable when in close proximity. However, dynamic charge
density fluctuations can induce an attractive instability and thus facilitate
fusion. We predict the dominant instability modes and timescales and show how
these are controlled by the relative charge and membrane viscosities. These
dynamic instabilities may be the precursors of membrane fusion in systems where
artificial vesicles are engulfed by biological cells of opposite charge
Mathematical Analysis and Simulations of the Neural Circuit for Locomotion in Lamprey
We analyze the dynamics of the neural circuit of the lamprey central pattern
generator (CPG). This analysis provides insights into how neural interactions
form oscillators and enable spontaneous oscillations in a network of damped
oscillators, which were not apparent in previous simulations or abstract phase
oscillator models. We also show how the different behaviour regimes
(characterized by phase and amplitude relationships between oscillators) of
forward/backward swimming, and turning, can be controlled using the neural
connection strengths and external inputs.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter
Geometric Phases, Symmetries of Dynamical Invariants, and Exact Solution of the Schr\"odinger Equation
We introduce the notion of the geometrically equivalent quantum systems
(GEQS) as quantum systems that lead to the same geometric phases for a given
complete set of initial state vectors. We give a characterization of the GEQS.
These systems have a common dynamical invariant, and their Hamiltonians and
evolution operators are related by symmetry transformations of the invariant.
If the invariant is -periodic, the corresponding class of GEQS includes a
system with a -periodic Hamiltonian. We apply our general results to study
the classes of GEQS that include a system with a cranked Hamiltonian
. We show that the cranking operator also belongs
to this class. Hence, in spite of the fact that it is time-independent, it
leads to nontrivial cyclic evolutions and geometric phases. Our analysis allows
for an explicit construction of a complete set of nonstationary cyclic states
of any time-independent simple harmonic oscillator. The period of these cyclic
states is half the characteristic period of the oscillator.Comment: Accepted for publication in J. Phys.
Newton-Hooke spacetimes, Hpp-waves and the cosmological constant
We show explicitly how the Newton-Hooke groups act as symmetries of the
equations of motion of non-relativistic cosmological models with a cosmological
constant. We give the action on the associated non-relativistic spacetimes and
show how these may be obtained from a null reduction of 5-dimensional
homogeneous pp-wave Lorentzian spacetimes. This allows us to realize the
Newton-Hooke groups and their Bargmann type central extensions as subgroups of
the isometry groups of the pp-wave spacetimes. The extended Schrodinger type
conformal group is identified and its action on the equations of motion given.
The non-relativistic conformal symmetries also have applications to
time-dependent harmonic oscillators. Finally we comment on a possible
application to Gao's generalization of the matrix model.Comment: 21 page
Dynamics of electrons in the quantum Hall bubble phases
In Landau levels N > 1, the ground state of the two-dimensional electron gas
(2DEG) in a perpendicular magnetic field evolves from a Wigner crystal for
small filling of the partially filled Landau level, into a succession of bubble
states with increasing number of guiding centers per bubble as the filling
increases, to a modulated stripe state near half filling. In this work, we show
that these first-order phase transitions between the bubble states lead to
measurable discontinuities in several physical quantities such as the density
of states and the magnetization of the 2DEG. We discuss in detail the behavior
of the collective excitations of the bubble states and show that their spectra
have higher-energy modes besides the pinned phonon mode. The frequencies of
these modes, at small wavevector k, have a discontinuous evolution as a
function of filling factor that should be measurable in, for example, microwave
absorption experiments.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. Corrected typos in eqs. (38),(39),(40
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