Electrostatic attraction between cationic-anionic assemblies with surface compositional heterogeneities

Electrostatics plays a key role in biomolecular assembly. Oppositely charged biomolecules, for instance, can co-assembled into functional units, such as DNA and histone proteins into nucleosomes and actin-binding protein complexes into cytoskeleton components, at appropriate ionic conditions. These cationic-anionic co-assemblies often have surface charge heterogeneities that result from the delicate balance between electrostatics and packing constraints. Despite their importance, the precise role of surface charge heterogeneities in the organization of cationic-anionic co-assemblies is not well understood. We show here that co-assemblies with charge heterogeneities strongly interact through polarization of the domains. We find that this leads to symmetry breaking, which is important for functional capabilities, and structural changes, which is crucial in the organization of co-assemblies. We determine the range and strength of the attraction as a function of the competition between the steric and hydrophobic constraints and electrostatic interactions.Comment: JCP June/200

Non-monotoic fluctuation-induced interactions between dielectric slabs carrying charge disorder

We investigate the effect of monopolar charge disorder on the classical fluctuation-induced interactions between randomly charged net-neutral dielectric slabs and discuss various generalizations of recent results (A. Naji et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 060601 (2010)) to highly inhomogeneous dielectric systems with and without statistical disorder correlations. We shall focus on the specific case of two generally dissimilar plane-parallel slabs, which interact across vacuum or an arbitrary intervening dielectric medium. Monopolar charge disorder is considered to be present on the bounding surfaces and/or in the bulk of the slabs, may be in general quenched or annealed and may possess a finite lateral correlation length reflecting possible `patchiness' of the random charge distribution. In the case of quenched disorder, the bulk disorder is shown to give rise to an additive long-range contribution to the total force, which decays as the inverse distance between the slabs and may be attractive or repulsive depending on the dielectric constants of the slabs. We show that in the case of two dissimilar slabs the net effect due to the interplay between the disorder-induced and the pure van der Waals interactions can lead to a variety of unusual non-monotonic interaction profiles between the dielectric slabs. In particular, when the intervening medium has a larger dielectric constant than the two slabs, we find that the net interaction can become repulsive and exhibit a potential barrier, while the underlying van der Waals force is attractive. On the contrary, when the intervening medium has a dielectric constant in between that of the two slabs, the net interaction can become attractive and exhibit a free energy minimum, while the pure van der Waals force is repulsive. Therefore, the charge disorder, if present, can drastically alter the effective interaction between net-neutral objects.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

Dispersion Interactions between Optically Anisotropic Cylinders at all Separations: Retardation Effects for Insulating and Semiconducting Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes

We derive the complete form of the van der Waals dispersion interaction between two infinitely long anisotropic semiconducting/insulating thin cylinders at all separations. The derivation is based on the general theory of dispersion interactions between anisotropic media as formulated in [J. N. Munday, D. Iannuzzi, Yu. S. Barash and F. Capasso, {\sl Phys. Rev. A} {\bf 71}, 042102 (2005)]. This formulation is then used to calculate the dispersion interactions between a pair of single walled carbon nanotubes at all separations and all angles. Non-retarded and retarded forms of the interactions are developed separately. The possibility of repulsive dispersion interactions and non-monotonic dispersion interactions is discussed within the framework of the new formulation

The lamellar-to-isotropic transition in ternary amphiphilic systems

We study the dependence of the phase behavior of ternary amphiphilic systems on composition and temperature. Our analysis is based on a curvature elastic model of the surfactant film with sufficiently large spontaneous curvature and sufficiently negative saddle-splay modulus that the stable phases are the lamellar phase and a droplet microemulsion. In addition to the curvature energy, we consider the contributions to the free energy of the long-ranged van der Waals interaction and of the undulation modes. We find that for bending rigidities of order k_B T, the lamellar phase extends further and further into the water apex of the phase diagram as the phase inversion temperature is approached, in good agreement with experimental results.Comment: LaTeX2e, 11 pages with references and 2 eps figures included, submitted to Europhys. Let

Stable suspension and dispersion-induced transitions from repulsive Casimir forces between fluid-separated eccentric cylinders

Using an exact numerical method for finite nonplanar objects, we demonstrate a stable mechanical suspension of a silica cylinder within a metallic cylinder separated by ethanol, via a repulsive Casimir force between the silica and the metal. We investigate cylinders with both circular and square cross sections, and show that the latter exhibit a stable orientation as well as a stable position, via a method to compute Casimir torques for finite objects. Furthermore, the stable orientation of the square cylinder is shown to undergo an unusual 45 degrees transition as a function of the separation lengthscale, which is explained as a consequence of material dispersion.Comment: Published in Physical Review Letters. Vol. 101, page, 190404 (2008

Hydrodynamic Processes and Inlet Dynamics of Chilka, A Tropical Lagoon on East Coast of India

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Measurements of the Casimir-Lifshitz force in fluids: the effect of electrostatic forces and Debye screening

In this work, we present detailed measurements of the Casimir-Lifshitz force between two gold surfaces (a sphere and a plate) immersed in ethanol and study the effect of residual electrostatic forces, which are dominated by static fields within the apparatus and can be reduced with proper shielding. Electrostatic forces are further reduced by Debye screening through the addition of salt ions to the liquid. Additionally, the salt leads to a reduction of the Casimir-Lifshitz force by screening the zero-frequency contribution to the force; however, the effect is small between gold surfaces at the measured separations and within experimental error. An improved calibration procedure is described and compared to previous methods. Finally, the experimental results are compared to Lifshitz's theory and found to be consistent for the materials used in the experiment.Comment: 11 figures. PRA in pres

Effective pair potentials for spherical nanoparticles

An effective description for spherical nanoparticles in a fluid of point particles is presented. The points inside the nanoparticles and the point particles are assumed to interact via spherically symmetric additive pair potentials, while the distribution of points inside the nanoparticles is taken to be spherically symmetric and smooth. The resulting effective pair interactions between a nanoparticle and a point particle, as well as between two nanoparticles, are then given by spherically symmetric potentials. If overlap between particles is allowed, the effective potential generally has non-analytic points, but for each effective potential the expressions for different overlapping cases can be written in terms of one analytic auxiliary potential. Effective potentials for hollow nanoparticles (appropriate e.g. for buckyballs) are also considered, and shown to be related to those for solid nanoparticles. Finally, explicit expressions are given for the effective potentials derived from basic pair potentials of power law and exponential form, as well as from the commonly used London-Van der Waals, Morse, Buckingham, and Lennard-Jones potential. The applicability of the latter is demonstrated by comparison with an atomic description of nanoparticles with an internal face centered cubic structure.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures. Unified description of overlapping and nonoverlapping particles added, as well as a comparison with an idealized atomic descriptio

Charge Fluctuation Forces Between Stiff Polyelectrolytes in Salt Solution: Pairwise Summability Re-examined

We formulate low-frequency charge-fluctuation forces between charged cylinders - parallel or skewed - in salt solution: forces from dipolar van der Waals fluctuations and those from the correlated monopolar fluctuations of mobile ions. At high salt concentrations forces are exponentially screened. In low-salt solutions dipolar energies go as $R^{-5}$ or $R^{-4}$; monopolar energies vary as $R^{-1}$ or $\ln{R}$, where $R$ is the minimal separation between cylinders. However, pairwise summability of rod-rod forces is easily violated in low-salt conditions. Perhaps the most important result is not the derivation of pair potentials but rather the demonstration that some of these expressions may not be used for the very problems that originally motivated their derivation.Comment: 8 pages and 1 fig in ps forma

REDD+ on the rocks? Conflict over forest and politics of justice in Vietnam

In Vietnam, villagers involved in a REDD+ (reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) pilot protect areas with rocks which have barely a tree on them. The apparent paradox indicates how actual practices differ from general ideas about REDD+ due to ongoing conflict over forest, and how contestations over the meaning of justice are a core element in negotiations over REDD+. We explore these politics of justice by examining how the actors involved in the REDD+ pilot negotiate the particular subjects, dimensions, and authority of justice considered relevant, and show how politics of justice are implicit to practical decisions in project implementation. Contestations over the meaning of justice are an important element in the practices and processes constituting REDD+ at global, national and local levels, challenging uniform definitions of forest justice and how forests ought to be managed