Transition from inspiral to plunge for braneworld EMRI

In the present article, we discuss the late inspiral and then the transition regime to the plunge phase of a secondary, less massive compact object into a more massive braneworld black hole, in the context of an extreme-mass-ratio inspiral. We obtain the approximate expressions for fluxes due to slowly evolving constants of motion, such as the energy and the angular momentum, in the presence of the tidal charge inherited from the higher spacetime dimensions for an extreme-mass-ratio system. These expressions for fluxes are further used to introduce dissipative effects while modeling the inspiral to the plunge phase through the transition regime. Within our setup, we provide a qualitative understanding of how the additional tidal charge present in the braneworld scenario may affect the timescale of the late inspiral to the plunge, in particular, by enhancing the time scale of the transition regime. Finally, we provide an estimate for the tidal charge from the higher dimensions, using the observable aspects of the transition regime from the late inspiral to the plunge by the gravitational wave detectors.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

PLIC: protein–ligand interaction clusters

Most of the biological processes are governed through specific protein–ligand interactions. Discerning different components that contribute toward a favorable protein– ligand interaction could contribute significantly toward better understanding protein function, rationalizing drug design and obtaining design principles for protein engineering. The Protein Data Bank (PDB) currently hosts the structure of ∼68 000 protein–ligand complexes. Although several databases exist that classify proteins according to sequence and structure, a mere handful of them annotate and classify protein–ligand interactions and provide information on different attributes of molecular recognition. In this study, an exhaustive comparison of all the biologically relevant ligand-binding sites (84 846 sites) has been conducted using PocketMatch: a rapid, parallel, in-house algorithm. PocketMatch quantifies the similarity between binding sites based on structural descriptors and residue attributes. A similarity network was constructed using binding sites whose PocketMatch scores exceeded a high similarity threshold (0.80). The binding site similarity network was clustered into discrete sets of similar sites using the Markov clustering (MCL) algorithm. Furthermore, various computational tools have been used to study different attributes of interactions within the individual clusters. The attributes can be roughly divided into (i) binding site characteristics including pocket shape, nature of residues and interaction profiles with different kinds of atomic probes, (ii) atomic contacts consisting of various types of polar, hydrophobic and aromatic contacts along with binding site water molecules that could play crucial roles in protein–ligand interactions and (iii) binding energetics involved in interactions derived from scoring functions developed for docking. For each ligand-binding site in each protein in the PDB, site similarity information, clusters they belong to and description of site attributes are provided as a relational database—protein–ligand interaction clusters (PLIC)

Microscopic origin of low frequency noise in MoS₂ field-effect transistors

We report measurement of low frequency 1/f noise in molybdenum di-sulphide (MoS2) field-effect transistors in multiple device configurations including MoS2 on silicon dioxide as well as MoS2-hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) heterostructures. All as-fabricated devices show similar magnitude of noise with number fluctuation as the dominant mechanism at high temperatures and density, although the calculated density of traps is two orders of magnitude higher than that at the SiO2 interface. Measurements on the heterostructure devices with vacuum annealing and dual gated configuration reveals that along with the channel, metal-MoS2 contacts also play a significant role in determining noisemagnitude in these devices