An improved crystal structure of C-phycoerythrin from the marine cyanobacterium Phormidium sp. A09DM

C-Phycoerythrin (PE) from Phormidium sp. A09DM has been crystallized using different conditions and its structure determined to atomic resolution (1.14 Å). In order for the pigment present, phycoerythrobilin (PEB), to function as an efficient light-harvesting molecule it must be held rigidly (Kupka and Scheer in Biochim Biophys Acta 1777:94–103, 2008) and, moreover, the different PEB molecules in PE must be arranged, relative to each other, so as to promote efficient energy transfer between them. This improved structure has allowed us to define in great detail the structure of the PEBs and their binding sites. These precise structural details will facilitate theoretical calculations of each PEB’s spectroscopic properties. It was possible, however, to suggest a model for which chromophores contribute to the different regions of absorption spectrum and propose a tentative scheme for energy transfer. We show that some subtle differences in one of these PEB binding sites in two of the 12 subunits are caused by crystal contacts between neighboring hexamers in the crystal lattice. This explains some of the differences seen in previous lower resolution structures determined at two different pH values (Kumar et al. in Photosyn Res 129:17–28, 2016)

On the Munn-Silbey approach to polaron transport with off-diagonal coupling

Improved results using a method similar to the Munn-Silbey approach have been obtained on the temperature dependence of transport properties of an extended Holstein model incorporating simultaneous diagonal and off-diagonal exciton-phonon coupling. The Hamiltonian is partially diagonalized by a canonical transformation, and optimal transformation coefficients are determined in a self-consistent manner. Calculated transport properties exhibit substantial corrections on those obtained previously by Munn and Silbey for a wide range of temperatures thanks to a numerically exact evaluation and an added momentum-dependence of the transformation matrix. Results on the diffusion coefficient in the moderate and weak coupling regime show distinct band-like and hopping-like transport features as a function of temperature.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, accpeted in Journal of Physical Chemistry B: Shaul Mukamel Festschrift (2011

Finite size effects on transport coefficients for models of atomic wires coupled to phonons

We consider models of quasi-1-d, planar atomic wires consisting of several, laterally coupled rows of atoms, with mutually non-interacting electrons. This electronic wire system is coupled to phonons, corresponding, e.g., to some substrate. We aim at computing diffusion coefficients in dependence on the wire widths and the lateral coupling. To this end we firstly construct a numerically manageable linear collision term for the dynamics of the electronic occupation numbers by following a certain projection operator approach. By means of this collision term we set up a linear Boltzmann equation. A formula for extracting diffusion coefficients from such Boltzmann equations is given. We find in the regime of a few atomic rows and intermediate lateral coupling a significant and non-trivial dependence of the diffusion coefficient on both, the width and the lateral coupling. These results, in principle, suggest the possible applicability of such atomic wires as electronic devices, such as, e.g., switches.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.

How certain is the uncertainty effect

Abstract We replicate three tasks for which Gneezy, List and Wu (Q. J. Econ. 121(4): 2006) document the so-called uncertainty effect: People value a binary lottery over non-monetary outcomes less than other people value the lottery's worse outcome. While the authors implement verbal lottery descriptions, we use a physical lottery format and also provide subjects with complete information about the goods they are to value. We observe for all three pricing tasks that subjects' willingness to pay for the lottery is significantly higher than other subjects' willingness to pay for the lottery's worse outcome