Some observations on the renormalization of membrane rigidity by long-range interactions

We consider the renormalization of the bending and Gaussian rigidity of model membranes induced by long-range interactions between the components making up the membrane. In particular we analyze the effect of a finite membrane thickness on the renormalization of the bending and Gaussian rigidity by long-range interactions. Particular attention is paid to the case where the interactions are of a van der Waals type.Comment: 11 pages RexTex, no figure

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

Extraction Characteristics of Alumina from Gujrat Bauxites

ALUMINIUM has been termed the versatile metal of the 20th century since it finds applications right from the kitchen to the spaceship. The growing popularity of this metal has been attributed to its outstanding physical and chemical properties, viz. lightness, high strength of its alloys, high electrical and thermal conductivity, good workability and the most important of all-its resistance to corrosion. Aluminium and its alloys find extensive applications in road transport, railways and aviation due to their good strength for relatively low weight. Aluminium also finds applications in chemical & food processing plants. Owing to its good electrical conductivity it finds use in electrical industries . Its strength, brightness, durab-ility and capacity to take anodic coatings and colours are the most important properties for its use for archite-ctural purposes

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

Dependences of the Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a cavity wall on atomic and material properties

The Casimir-Polder and van der Waals interactions between an atom and a flat cavity wall are investigated under the influence of real conditions including the dynamic polarizability of the atom, actual conductivity of the wall material and nonzero temperature of the wall. The cases of different atoms near metal and dielectric walls are considered. It is shown that to obtain accurate results for the atom-wall interaction at short separations, one should use the complete tabulated optical data for the complex refractive index of the wall material and the accurate dynamic polarizability of an atom. At relatively large separations in the case of a metal wall, one may use the plasma model dielectric function to describe the dielectric properties of wall material. The obtained results are important for the theoretical interpretation of experiments on quantum reflection and Bose-Einstein condensation.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, iopart.cls is used, to appear in J. Phys. A (special issue: Proceedings of QFEXT05, Barcelona, Sept. 5-9, 2005

Body-assisted van der Waals interaction between two atoms

Using fourth-order perturbation theory, a general formula for the van der Waals potential of two neutral, unpolarized, ground-state atoms in the presence of an arbitrary arrangement of dispersing and absorbing magnetodielectric bodies is derived. The theory is applied to two atoms in bulk material and in front of a planar multilayer system, with special emphasis on the cases of a perfectly reflecting plate and a semi-infinite half space. It is demonstrated that the enhancement and reduction of the two-atom interaction due to the presence of a perfectly reflecting plate can be understood, at least in the nonretarded limit, by using the method of image charges. For the semi-infinite half space, both analytical and numerical results are presented.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

Universal behavior of dispersion forces between two dielectric plates in the low-temperature limit

The universal analytic expressions in the limit of low temperatures (short separations) are obtained for the free energy, entropy and pressure between the two parallel plates made of any dielectric. The analytical proof of the Nernst heat theorem in the case of dispersion forces acting between dielectrics is provided. This permitted us to formulate the stringent thermodynamical requirement that must be satisfied in all models used in the Casimir physics.Comment: 6 pages, iopart.cls is used, to appear in J. Phys. A (special issue: Proceedings of QFEXT05, Barcelona, Sept. 5-9, 2005

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

Field theoretic calculation of the surface tension for a model electrolyte system

We carry out the calculation of the surface tension for a model electrolyte to first order in a cumulant expansion about a free field theory equivalent to the Debye-H\"uckel approximation. In contrast with previous calculations, the surface tension is calculated directly without recourse to integrating thermodynamic relations. The system considered is a monovalent electrolyte with a region at the interface, of width h, from which the ionic species are excluded. In the case where the external dielectric constant epsilon_0 is smaller than the electrolyte solution's dielectric constant epsilon we show that the calculation at this order can be fully regularized. In the case where h is taken to be zero the Onsager-Samaras limiting law for the excess surface tension of dilute electrolyte solutions is recovered, with corrections coming from a non-zero value of epsilon_0/epsilon.Comment: LaTeX, 14 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Van der Waals interaction between microparticle and uniaxial crystal with application to hydrogen atoms and multiwall carbon nanotubes

The Lifshitz theory of the van der Waals force is extended for the case of an atom (molecule) interacting with a plane surface of an uniaxial crystal or with a long solid cylinder or cylindrical shell made of isotropic material or uniaxial crystal. For a microparticle near a semispace or flat plate made of an uniaxial crystal the exact expressions for the free energy of the van der Waals and Casimir-Polder interaction are presented. An approximate expression for the free energy of microparticle- cylinder interaction is obtained which becomes precise for microparticle-cylinder separations much smaller than cylinder radius. The obtained expressions are used to investigate the van der Waals interaction between hydrogen atoms (molecules) and graphite plates or multiwall carbon nanotubes. To accomplish this the behavior of graphite dielectric permittivities along the imaginary frequency axis is found using the optical data for the complex refractive index of graphite for the ordinary and extraordinary rays. It is shown that the position of hydrogen atoms inside multiwall carbon nanotubes is energetically preferable compared with outside.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Minor corrections are made and new references added. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.