Self-organized Pattern Formation in Motor-Microtubule Mixtures

We propose and study a hydrodynamic model for pattern formation in mixtures of molecular motors and microtubules. The steady state patterns we obtain in different regimes of parameter space include arrangements of vortices and asters separately as well as aster-vortex mixtures and fully disordered states. Such stable steady states are observed in experiments in vitro. The sequence of patterns obtained in the experiments can be associated with smooth trajectories in a non-equilibrium phase diagram for our model.Comment: 11 pages Latex file, 2 figures include

Self-organization and Mechanical Properties of Active Filament Bundles

A phenomenological description for active bundles of polar filaments is presented. The activity of the bundle results from crosslinks, that induce relative displacements between the aligned filaments. Our generic description is based on momentum conservation within the bundle. By specifying the internal forces, a simple minimal model for the bundle dynamics is obtained, capturing generic dynamic behaviors. In particular, contracted states as well as solitary and oscillatory waves appear through dynamic instabilities. The introduction of filament adhesion leads to self-organized persistent filament transport. Furthermore, calculating the tension, homogeneous bundles are shown to be able to actively contract and to perform work against external forces. Our description is motivated by dynamic phenomena in the cytoskeleton and could apply to stress-fibers and self-organization phenomena during cell-locomotion.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Measurement of air and nitrogen fluorescence light yields induced by electron beam for UHECR experiments

Most of the Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) experiments and projects (HiRes, AUGER, TA, EUSO, TUS,...) use air fluorescence to detect and measure extensive air showers (EAS). The precise knowledge of the Fluorescence Light Yield (FLY) is of paramount importance for the reconstruction of UHECR. The MACFLY - Measurement of Air Cherenkov and Fluorescence Light Yield - experiment has been designed to perform such FLY measurements. In this paper we will present the results of FLY in the 290-440 nm wavelength range for dry air and pure nitrogen, both excited by electrons with energy of 1.5 MeV, 20 GeV and 50 GeV. The experiment uses a 90Sr radioactive source for low energy measurement and a CERN SPS electron beam for high energy. We find that the FLY is proportional to the deposited energy (E_d) in the gas and we show that the air fluorescence properties remain constant independently of the electron energy. At the reference point: atmospheric dry air at 1013 hPa and 23C, the ratio FLY/E_d=17.6 photon/MeV with a systematic error of 13.2%.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

Nonlinear force-free magnetic field extrapolations: comparison of the Grad-Rubin and Wheatland-Sturrock-Roumeliotis algorithm

We compare the performance of two alternative algorithms which aim to construct a force-free magnetic field given suitable boundary conditions. For this comparison, we have implemented both algorithms on the same finite element grid which uses Whitney forms to describe the fields within the grid cells. The additional use of conjugate gradient and multigrid iterations result in quite effective codes. The Grad-Rubin and Wheatland-Sturrock-Roumeliotis algorithms both perform well for the reconstruction of a known analytic force-free field. For more arbitrary boundary conditions the Wheatland-Sturrock-Roumeliotis approach has some difficulties because it requires overdetermined boundary information which may include inconsistencies. The Grad-Rubin code on the other hand loses convergence for strong current densities. For the example we have investigated, however, the maximum possible current density seems to be not far from the limit beyond which a force free field cannot exist anymore for a given normal magnetic field intensity on the boundary.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figure

Deterministic mechanical model of T-killer cell polarization reproduces the wandering of aim between simultaneously engaged targets

T-killer cells of the immune system eliminate virus-infected and tumorous cells through direct cell-cell interactions. Reorientation of the killing apparatus inside the T cell to the T-cell interface with the target cell ensures specificity of the immune response. The killing apparatus can also oscillate next to the cell-cell interface. When two target cells are engaged by the T cell simultaneously, the killing apparatus can oscillate between the two interface areas. This oscillation is one of the most striking examples of cell movements that give the microscopist an unmechanistic impression of the cell's fidgety indecision. We have constructed a three-dimensional, numerical biomechanical model of the molecular-motor-driven microtubule cytoskeleton that positions the killing apparatus. The model demonstrates that the cortical pulling mechanism is indeed capable of orienting the killing apparatus into the functional position under a range of conditions. The model also predicts experimentally testable limitations of this commonly hypothesized mechanism of T-cell polarization. After the reorientation, the numerical solution exhibits complex, multidirectional, multiperiodic, and sustained oscillations in the absence of any external guidance or stochasticity. These computational results demonstrate that the strikingly animate wandering of aim in T-killer cells has a purely mechanical and deterministic explanation. © 2009 Kim, Maly

Wildfire smoke in the Siberian Arctic in summer: source characterization and plume evolution from airborne measurements

We present airborne measurements of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O<sub>3</sub>), equivalent black carbon (EBC) and ultra fine particles over North-Eastern Siberia in July 2008 performed during the YAK-AEROSIB/POLARCAT experiment. During a "golden day" (11 July 2008) a number of biomass burning plumes were encountered with CO mixing ratio enhancements of up to 500 ppb relative to a background of 90 ppb. Number concentrations of aerosols in the size range 3.5–200 nm peaked at 4000 cm<sup>−3</sup> and the EBC content reached 1.4 μg m<sup>−3</sup>. These high concentrations were caused by forest fires in the vicinity of the landing airport in Yakutsk where measurements in fresh smoke could be made during the descent. We estimate a combustion efficiency of 90 ± 3% based on CO and CO<sub>2</sub> measurements and a CO emission factor of 65.5 ± 10.8 g CO per kilogram of dry matter burned. This suggests a potential increase in the average northern hemispheric CO mixing ratio of 3.0–7.2 ppb per million hectares of Siberian forest burned. For BC, we estimate an emission factor of 0.52 ± 0.07 g BC kg<sup>−1</sup>, comparable to values reported in the literature. The emission ratio of ultra-fine particles (3.5–200 nm) was 26 cm<sup>−3</sup> (ppb CO)<sup>−1</sup>, consistent with other airborne studies. <br><br> The transport of identified biomass burning plumes was investigated using the FLEXPART Lagrangian model. Based on sampling of wildfire plumes from the same source but with different atmospheric ages derived from FLEXPART, we estimate that the e-folding lifetimes of EBC and ultra fine particles (between 3.5 and 200 nm in size) against removal and growth processes are 5.1 and 5.5 days respectively, supporting lifetime estimates used in various modelling studies

PT-symmetric models in curved manifolds

We consider the Laplace-Beltrami operator in tubular neighbourhoods of curves on two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, subject to non-Hermitian parity and time preserving boundary conditions. We are interested in the interplay between the geometry and spectrum. After introducing a suitable Hilbert space framework in the general situation, which enables us to realize the Laplace-Beltrami operator as an m-sectorial operator, we focus on solvable models defined on manifolds of constant curvature. In some situations, notably for non-Hermitian Robin-type boundary conditions, we are able to prove either the reality of the spectrum or the existence of complex conjugate pairs of eigenvalues, and establish similarity of the non-Hermitian m-sectorial operators to normal or self-adjoint operators. The study is illustrated by numerical computations.Comment: 37 pages, PDFLaTeX with 11 figure

Annihilation of low energy antiprotons in silicon

The goal of the AE$\mathrm{\bar{g}}$IS experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN, is to measure directly the Earth's gravitational acceleration on antimatter. To achieve this goal, the AE$\mathrm{\bar{g}}$IS collaboration will produce a pulsed, cold (100 mK) antihydrogen beam with a velocity of a few 100 m/s and measure the magnitude of the vertical deflection of the beam from a straight path. The final position of the falling antihydrogen will be detected by a position sensitive detector. This detector will consist of an active silicon part, where the annihilations take place, followed by an emulsion part. Together, they allow to achieve 1$$ precision on the measurement of $\bar{g}$ with about 600 reconstructed and time tagged annihilations. We present here, to the best of our knowledge, the first direct measurement of antiproton annihilation in a segmented silicon sensor, the first step towards designing a position sensitive silicon detector for the AE$\mathrm{\bar{g}}$IS experiment. We also present a first comparison with Monte Carlo simulations (GEANT4) for antiproton energies below 5 MeVComment: 21 pages in total, 29 figures, 3 table

Prospects for measuring the gravitational free-fall of antihydrogen with emulsion detectors

The main goal of the AEgIS experiment at CERN is to test the weak equivalence principle for antimatter. AEgIS will measure the free-fall of an antihydrogen beam traversing a moir\'e deflectometer. The goal is to determine the gravitational acceleration g for antihydrogen with an initial relative accuracy of 1% by using an emulsion detector combined with a silicon micro-strip detector to measure the time of flight. Nuclear emulsions can measure the annihilation vertex of antihydrogen atoms with a precision of about 1 - 2 microns r.m.s. We present here results for emulsion detectors operated in vacuum using low energy antiprotons from the CERN antiproton decelerator. We compare with Monte Carlo simulations, and discuss the impact on the AEgIS project.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, 3 table