1,573 research outputs found
Non-adiabatic Effects in the Dissociation of Oxygen Molecules at the Al(111) Surface
The measured low initial sticking probability of oxygen molecules at the
Al(111) surface that had puzzled the field for many years was recently
explained in a non-adiabatic picture invoking spin-selection rules [J. Behler
et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 036104 (2005)]. These selection rules tend to
conserve the initial spin-triplet character of the free O2 molecule during the
molecule's approach to the surface. A new locally-constrained
density-functional theory approach gave access to the corresponding
potential-energy surface (PES) seen by such an impinging spin-triplet molecule
and indicated barriers to dissociation which reduce the sticking probability.
Here, we further substantiate this non-adiabatic picture by providing a
detailed account of the employed approach. Building on the previous work, we
focus in particular on inaccuracies in present-day exchange-correlation
functionals. Our analysis shows that small quantitative differences in the
spin-triplet constrained PES obtained with different gradient-corrected
functionals have a noticeable effect on the lowest kinetic energy part of the
resulting sticking curve.Comment: 17 pages including 11 figures; related publications can be found at
http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/th.htm
Production of long-lived atomic vapor inside high-density buffer gas
Atomic vapor of four different paramagnetic species: gold, silver, lithium,
and rubidium, is produced and studied inside several buffer gases: helium,
nitrogen, neon, and argon. The paramagnetic atoms are injected into the buffer
gas using laser ablation. Wires with diameters 25 m, 50 m, and 100
m are used as ablation targets for gold and silver, bulk targets are used
for lithium and rubidium. The buffer gas cools and confines the ablated atoms,
slowing down their transport to the cell walls. Buffer gas temperatures between
20 K and 295 K, and densities between cm and
cm are explored. Peak paramagnetic atom densities of cm
are routinely achieved. The longest observed paramagnetic vapor density decay
times are 110 ms for silver at 20 K and 4 ms for lithium at 32 K. The
candidates for the principal paramagnetic-atom loss mechanism are impurities in
the buffer gas, dimer formation and atom loss on sputtered clusters.Comment: Some minor editorial changes and corrections, added reference
Crystal structure of the wide-spectrum binuclear zinc β-lactamase from Bacteroides fragilis
AbstractBackground: The metallo-β-lactamase from Bacteroides fragilis hydrolyzes a wide range of β-lactam antibiotics, and is not clinically susceptible to any known β-lactamase inhibitors. B. fragilis is associated with post-surgery hospital infections, and there has been a recent report of plasmid-mediated dissemination of the enzyme. Effective inhibitors are therefore urgently needed. Knowledge of the three-dimensional structure will aid in the drug design effort.Results The crystal structure of the enzyme has been determined by using multiwavelength anomalous diffraction at the zinc absorption edge and refined to 1.85 Å resolution. The structure is a four-layer α/β/β/α molecule. The active site, found at the edge of the β sandwich, contains a binuclear zinc center with several novel features. One zinc is tetrahedrally coordinated, the other has a trigonal bipyramidal coordination; a water/hydroxide molecule serves as a ligand for both metals. The residues that coordinate the two zincs are invariant in all metallo-β-lactamases that have been sequenced, except for two conservative replacements. Despite the existence of the pattern for binuclear zinc binding, the reported structure of the Bacillus cereus enzyme contains only a single zinc.Conclusion Structural analysis indicates that affinity for the penta-coordinated zinc can be modulated by neighboring residues, perhaps explaining the absence of the second zinc in the B. cereus structure. Models of bound substrates suggest that the active-site channel can accommodate a wide variety of β-lactams. We propose that the zinc cluster prepares an hydroxide, probably the hydroxide that ligates both zincs, for nucleophilic attack on the carbonyl carbon atom of the β-lactam. The resulting negatively charged tetrahedral intermediate implicated in catalysis is stabilized by an oxyanion hole formed by the side chain of the invariant Asn193 and the tetrahedral zinc
Theoretical study of molecular electronic excitations and optical transitions of C60
We report results on ab initio calculations of excited states of the
fullerene molecule by using configuration interaction (CI) approach with singly
excited determinants (SCI). We have used both the experimental geometry and the
one optimized by the density functional method and worked with basis sets at
the cc-pVTZ and aug-cc-pVTZ level. Contrary to the early SCI semiempirical
calculations, we find that two lowest electron
optical lines are situated at relatively high energies of ~5.8 eV (214 nm) and
~6.3 eV (197 nm). These two lines originate from two transitions: from HOMO to (LUMO+1) () and from (HOMO--1)
to LUMO (). The lowest molecular excitation, which is the level, is found at ~2.5 eV. Inclusion of doubly excited determinants
(SDCI) leads only to minor corrections to this picture. We discuss possible
assignment of absorption bands at energies smaller than 5.8 eV (or
larger than 214 nm).Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 9 Table
On the mutual polarization of two He-4 atoms
We propose a simple method based on the standard quantum-mechanical
perturbation theory to calculate the mutual polarization of two atoms He^4.Comment: 9 pages, 1 table; the article is revised and the calculation is
essentially refined; v4: final version, the Introduction is delete
Resonant ion-pair formation in electron recombination with HF^+
The cross section for resonant ion-pair formation in the collision of
low-energy electrons with HF^+ is calculated by the solution of the
time-dependent Schrodinger equation with multiple coupled states using a wave
packet method. A diabatization procedure is proposed to obtain the electronic
couplings between quasidiabatic potentials of ^1Sigma^+ symmetry for HF. By
including these couplings between the neutral states, the cross section for
ion-pair formation increases with about two orders of magnitude compared with
the cross section for direct dissociation. Qualitative agreement with the
measured cross section is obtained. The oscillations in the calculated cross
section are analyzed. The cross section for ion-pair formation in electron
recombination with DF^+ is calculated to determine the effect of isotopic
substitution.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure
Ultralow-power local laser control of the dimer density in alkali-metal vapors through photodesorption
Ultralow-power diode-laser radiation is employed to induce photodesorption of
cesium from a partially transparent thin-film cesium adsorbate on a solid
surface. Using resonant Raman spectroscopy, we demonstrate that this
photodesorption process enables an accurate local optical control of the
density of dimer molecules in alkali-metal vapors.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Strong fragmentation of low-energy electromagnetic excitation strength in Sn
Results of nuclear resonance fluorescence experiments on Sn are
reported. More than 50 transitions with MeV were
detected indicating a strong fragmentation of the electromagnetic excitation
strength. For the first time microscopic calculations making use of a complete
configuration space for low-lying states are performed in heavy odd-mass
spherical nuclei. The theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the
data. It is concluded that although the E1 transitions are the strongest ones
also M1 and E2 decays contribute substantially to the observed spectra. In
contrast to the neighboring even Sn, in Sn the
component of the two-phonon quintuplet built on top of
the 1/2 ground state is proved to be strongly fragmented.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Using Molecules to Measure Nuclear Spin-Dependent Parity Violation
Nuclear spin-dependent parity violation arises from weak interactions between
electrons and nucleons, and from nuclear anapole moments. We outline a method
to measure such effects, using a Stark-interference technique to determine the
mixing between opposite-parity rotational/hyperfine levels of ground-state
molecules. The technique is applicable to nuclei over a wide range of atomic
number, in diatomic species that are theoretically tractable for
interpretation. This should provide data on anapole moments of many nuclei, and
on previously unmeasured neutral weak couplings
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