Superfluidity in the Solar Interior: Implications for Solar Eruptions and Climate

Efforts to understand unusual weather or abrupt changes in climate have been plagued by deficiencies of the standard solar model (SSM) [1]. Although it assumes that our primary source of energy began as a homogeneous ball of hydrogen (H) with a steady, well-behaved H-fusion reactor at its core, observations instead reveal a very heterogeneous, dynamic Sun. As examples, the upward acceleration and departure of H+ ions from the surface of the quiet Sun and abrupt climatic changes, including geomagnetic reversals and periodic magnetic storms that eject material from the solar surface are not explained by the SSM. The present magnetic fields are probably deep-seated remnants of very ancient origin. These could have been generated from two mechanisms. These are (1) Bose-Einstein condensation [2] of iron-rich, zero-spin material into a rotating, superfluid, superconductor surrounding the solar core and/or (2) superfluidity and quantized vortices in nucleon-paired Fermions at the core [3]

Resonance Interaction Induced by Metal Surfaces Catalyses Atom Pair Breakage

We present the theory for retarded resonance interaction between two identical atoms at arbitrary positions near a metal surface. The dipole-dipole resonance interaction force that binds isotropically excited atom pairs together in free space may turn repulsive close to an ideal (totally reflecting) metal surface. On the other hand, close to an infinitely permeable surface it may turn more attractive. We illustrate numerically how the dipole-dipole resonance interaction between two oxygen atoms near a metal surface may provide a repulsive energy of the same order of magnitude as the ground-state binding energy of an oxygen molecule. As a complement we also present results from density-functional theory.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

A Correspondence Principle

A single mathematical theme underpins disparate physical phenomena in classical, quantum and statistical mechanical contexts. This mathematical “correspondence principle”, a kind of wave–particle duality with glorious realizations in classical and modern mathematical analysis, embodies fundamental geometrical and physical order, and yet in some sense sits on the edge of chaos. Illustrative cases discussed are drawn from classical and anomalous diffusion, quantum mechanics of single particles and ideal gases, quasicrystals and Casimir forces. Permission to reproduce: Republished from Physica A, 2016, 443, 495-517. With permission from Elsevier. Copyright 201

Two sides of the coin. Part 2. Colloid and surface science meets real biointerfaces

Part 1 revisited developments in lipid and surfactant self assembly over the past 40 years [1]. New concepts emerged. Here we explore how these developments can be used to make sense of and bring order to a range of complex biological phenomena. Together with Part 1, this contribution is a fundamental revision of intuition at the boundaries of Colloid Science and Biological interfaces from a perspective of nearly 50 years. We offer new insights on a unified treatment of self assembly of lipids, surfactants and proteins in the light of developments presented in Part 1. These were in the enabling disciplines in molecular forces, hydration, oil and electrolyte specificity; and in the role of non Euclidean geometries-across the whole gammut of physical, colloid and surface chemistry, biophysics and membrane biology and medicine. It is where the early founders of the cell theory of biology and the physiologists expected advances to occur as D'Arcy Thompson predicted us 100 years ago

Retardation turns the van der Waals attraction into Casimir repulsion already at 3 nm

Casimir forces between surfaces immersed in bromobenzene have recently been measured by Munday et al. Attractive Casimir forces were found between gold surfaces. The forces were repulsive between gold and silica surfaces. We show the repulsion is due to retardation effects. The van der Waals interaction is attractive at all separations. The retardation driven repulsion sets in already at around 3 nm. To our knowledge retardation effects have never been found at such a small distance before. Retardation effects are usually associated with large distances

Effect of salt identity on the phase diagram for a globularprotein in aqueous electrolyte solution

Monte Carlo simulations are used to establish the potential of mean force between two globular proteins in an aqueous electrolyte solution. This potential includes nonelectrostatic contributions arising from dispersion forces first, between the globular proteins, and second, between ions in solution and between each ion and the globular protein. These latter contributions are missing from standard models. The potential of mean force, obtained from simulation, is fitted to an analytic equation. Using our analytic potential of mean force and Barker-Henderson perturbation theory, we obtain phase diagrams for lysozyme solutions that include stable and metastable fluid-fluid and solid-fluid phases when the electrolyte is 0.2 M NaSCN or NaI or NaCl. The nature of the electrolyte has a significant effect on the phase diagram