551 research outputs found
Investigation of the Thermostability of Bovine Submaxillary Mucin (BSM) and its Impact on Lubrication
AbstractBovine Submaxillary Mucin (BSM) generates thin film layers via spontaneous adsorption onto hydrophobic surfaces such as Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). A characteristic feature of mucin is its tribological- or lubricating properties. Circular dichroismspectroscopyrevealed that BSM is thermally stable over a wide range of temperatures (5–85°C) in its conformation, and Pin-on-Disk tribometry at low speeds showed negligible influence on lubricating properties. Employing the Mini Traction Machine, BSM was found to retain comparable lubricating properties after heating to 80°C and subsequent cooling. Random coiled secondary- and lack of tertiary structure in BSM is believed to contribute to the heat tolerance observed with regards to its conformational and lubrication properties
Quasiparticle properties in a density functional framework
We propose a framework to construct the ground-state energy and density
matrix of an N-electron system by solving selfconsistently a set of
single-particle equations. The method can be viewed as a non-trivial extension
of the Kohn-Sham scheme (which is embedded as a special case). It is based on
separating the Green's function into a quasi-particle part and a background
part, and expressing only the background part as a functional of the density
matrix. The calculated single-particle energies and wave functions have a clear
physical interpretation as quasiparticle energies and orbitals.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Real-space local polynomial basis for solid-state electronic-structure calculations: A finite-element approach
We present an approach to solid-state electronic-structure calculations based
on the finite-element method. In this method, the basis functions are strictly
local, piecewise polynomials. Because the basis is composed of polynomials, the
method is completely general and its convergence can be controlled
systematically. Because the basis functions are strictly local in real space,
the method allows for variable resolution in real space; produces sparse,
structured matrices, enabling the effective use of iterative solution methods;
and is well suited to parallel implementation. The method thus combines the
significant advantages of both real-space-grid and basis-oriented approaches
and so promises to be particularly well suited for large, accurate ab initio
calculations. We develop the theory of our approach in detail, discuss
advantages and disadvantages, and report initial results, including the first
fully three-dimensional electronic band structures calculated by the method.Comment: replacement: single spaced, included figures, added journal referenc
Superconductivity in the two dimensional Hubbard Model.
Quasiparticle bands of the two-dimensional Hubbard model are calculated using
the Roth two-pole approximation to the one particle Green's function. Excellent
agreement is obtained with recent Monte Carlo calculations, including an
anomalous volume of the Fermi surface near half-filling, which can possibly be
explained in terms of a breakdown of Fermi liquid theory. The calculated bands
are very flat around the (pi,0) points of the Brillouin zone in agreement with
photoemission measurements of cuprate superconductors. With doping there is a
shift in spectral weight from the upper band to the lower band. The Roth method
is extended to deal with superconductivity within a four-pole approximation
allowing electron-hole mixing. It is shown that triplet p-wave pairing never
occurs. Singlet d_{x^2-y^2}-wave pairing is strongly favoured and optimal
doping occurs when the van Hove singularity, corresponding to the flat band
part, lies at the Fermi level. Nearest neighbour antiferromagnetic correlations
play an important role in flattening the bands near the Fermi level and in
favouring superconductivity. However the mechanism for superconductivity is a
local one, in contrast to spin fluctuation exchange models. For reasonable
values of the hopping parameter the transition temperature T_c is in the range
10-100K. The optimum doping delta_c lies between 0.14 and 0.25, depending on
the ratio U/t. The gap equation has a BCS-like form and (2*Delta_{max})/(kT_c)
~ 4.Comment: REVTeX, 35 pages, including 19 PostScript figures numbered 1a to 11.
Uses epsf.sty (included). Everything in uuencoded gz-compressed .tar file,
(self-unpacking, see header). Submitted to Phys. Rev. B (24-2-95
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