199 research outputs found
Final state effects on superfluid He in the deep inelastic regime
A study of Final State Effects (FSE) on the dynamic structure function of
superfluid He in the Gersch--Rodriguez formalism is presented. The main
ingredients needed in the calculation are the momentum distribution and the
semidiagonal two--body density matrix. The influence of these ground state
quantities on the FSE is analyzed. A variational form of is used, even
though simpler forms turn out to give accurate results if properly chosen.
Comparison to the experimental response at high momentum transfer is performed.
The predicted response is quite sensitive to slight variations on the value of
the condensate fraction, the best agreement with experiment being obtained with
. Sum rules of the FSE broadening function are also derived and
commented. Finally, it is shown that Gersch--Rodriguez theory produces results
as accurate as those coming from other more recent FSE theories.Comment: 20 pages, RevTex 3.0, 11 figures available upon request, to be appear
in Phys. Rev.
Beyond the binary collision approximation for the large- response of liquid He
We discuss corrections to the linear response of a many-body system beyond
the binary collision approximation. We first derive for smooth pair
interactions an exact expression of the response , considerably
simplifying existing forms and present also the generalization for interactions
with a strong, short-range repulsion. We then apply the latter to the case of
liquid He. We display the numerical influence of the correction
around the quasi-elastic peak and in the low-intensity wings of the response,
far from that peak. Finally we resolve an apparent contradiction in previous
discussions around the fourth order cumulant expansion coefficient. Our results
prove that the large- response of liquid He can be accurately understood
on the basis of a dynamical theory.Comment: 19 p. Figs. available on reques
Description of recent large- neutron inclusive scattering data from liquid He
We report dynamical calculations for large- structure functions of liquid
He at =1.6 and 2.3 K and compare those with recent MARI data. We extend
those calculations far beyond the experimental range q\le 29\Ain in order to
study the approach of the response to its asymptotic limit for a system with
interactions having a strong short-range repulsion. We find only small
deviations from theoretical behavior, valid for smooth . We repeat an
extraction by Glyde et al of cumulant coefficients from data. We argue that
fits determine the single atom momentum distribution, but express doubt as to
the extraction of meaningful Final State Interaction parameters.Comment: 37 pages, 13 postscript fig
Momentum distributions in ^3He-^4He liquid mixtures
We present variational calculations of the one-body density matrices and
momentum distributions for ^3He-^4He mixtures in the zero temperature limit, in
the framework of the correlated basis functions theory. The ground-state wave
function contains two- and three-body correlations and the matrix elements are
computed by (Fermi)Hypernetted Chain techniques. The dependence on the ^3He
concentration (x_3) of the ^4He condensate fraction and of the
^3He pole strength (Z_F) is studied along the P=0 isobar. At low ^3He
concentration, the computed ^4He condensate fraction is not significantly
affected by the ^3He statistics. Despite of the low x_3 values, Z_F is found to
be quite smaller than that of the corresponding pure ^3He because of the strong
^3He-^4He correlations and of the overall, large total density \rho. A small
increase of along x_3 is found, which is mainly due to the decrease
of \rho respect to the pure ^4He phase.Comment: 23 pages, 7 postscript figures, Revte
Protein folding mediated by solvation: water expelling and formation of the hydrophobic core occurs after the structure collapse
The interplay between structure-search of the native structure and
desolvation in protein folding has been explored using a minimalist model.
These results support a folding mechanism where most of the structural
formation of the protein is achieved before water is expelled from the
hydrophobic core. This view integrates water expulsion effects into the funnel
energy landscape theory of protein folding. Comparisons to experimental results
are shown for the SH3 protein. After the folding transition, a near-native
intermediate with partially solvated hydrophobic core is found. This transition
is followed by a final step that cooperatively squeezes out water molecules
from the partially hydrated protein core.Comment: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 2002, Vol.99. 685-69
Energetic Components of Cooperative Protein Folding
A new lattice protein model with a four-helix bundle ground state is analyzed
by a parameter-space Monte Carlo histogram technique to evaluate the effects of
an extensive variety of model potentials on folding thermodynamics. Cooperative
helical formation and contact energies based on a 5-letter alphabet are found
to be insufficient to satisfy calorimetric and other experimental criteria for
two-state folding. Such proteinlike behaviors are predicted, however, by models
with polypeptide-like local conformational restrictions and
environment-dependent hydrogen bonding-like interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 postscripts figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press
Momentum distribution of liquid helium
We have obtained the one--body density matrix and the momentum distribution
of liquid He at K from Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC)
simulations, using trial functions optimized via the Euler Monte Carlo (EMC)
method. We find a condensate fraction smaller than in previous calculations.
Though we do not explicitly include long--range correlations in our
calculations, we get a momentum distribution at long wavelength which is
compatible with the presence of long--range correlations in the exact wave
function. We have also studied He, using fixed--node DMC, with nodes and
trial functions provided by the EMC. In particular, we analyze the momentum
distribution with respect to the discontinuity as well as the
singular behavior, at the Fermi surface. We also show that an approximate
factorization of the one-body density matrix
holds, with and respectively the density matrix of the
ideal Fermi gas and the density matrix of a Bose He.Comment: 10 pages, REVTeX, 12 figure
The role of a disulfide bridge in the stability and folding kinetics of Arabidopsis thaliana cytochrome c6A
Cytochrome c 6A is a eukaryotic member of the Class I cytochrome c family possessing a high structural homology with photosynthetic cytochrome c 6 from cyanobacteria, but structurally and functionally distinct through the presence of a disulfide bond and a heme mid-point redox potential of + 71 mV (vs normal hydrogen electrode). The disulfide bond is part of a loop insertion peptide that forms a cap-like structure on top of the core α-helical fold. We have investigated the contribution of the disulfide bond to thermodynamic stability and (un)folding kinetics in cytochrome c 6A from Arabidopsis thaliana by making comparison with a photosynthetic cytochrome c 6 from Phormidium laminosum and through a mutant in which the Cys residues have been replaced with Ser residues (C67/73S). We find that the disulfide bond makes a significant contribution to overall stability in both the ferric and ferrous heme states. Both cytochromes c 6A and c 6 fold rapidly at neutral pH through an on-pathway intermediate. The unfolding rate for the C67/73S variant is significantly increased indicating that the formation of this region occurs late in the folding pathway. We conclude that the disulfide bridge in cytochrome c 6A acts as a conformational restraint in both the folding intermediate and native state of the protein and that it likely serves a structural rather than a previously proposed catalytic role. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Single-molecule experiments in biological physics: methods and applications
I review single-molecule experiments (SME) in biological physics. Recent
technological developments have provided the tools to design and build
scientific instruments of high enough sensitivity and precision to manipulate
and visualize individual molecules and measure microscopic forces. Using SME it
is possible to: manipulate molecules one at a time and measure distributions
describing molecular properties; characterize the kinetics of biomolecular
reactions and; detect molecular intermediates. SME provide the additional
information about thermodynamics and kinetics of biomolecular processes. This
complements information obtained in traditional bulk assays. In SME it is also
possible to measure small energies and detect large Brownian deviations in
biomolecular reactions, thereby offering new methods and systems to scrutinize
the basic foundations of statistical mechanics. This review is written at a
very introductory level emphasizing the importance of SME to scientists
interested in knowing the common playground of ideas and the interdisciplinary
topics accessible by these techniques. The review discusses SME from an
experimental perspective, first exposing the most common experimental
methodologies and later presenting various molecular systems where such
techniques have been applied. I briefly discuss experimental techniques such as
atomic-force microscopy (AFM), laser optical tweezers (LOT), magnetic tweezers
(MT), biomembrane force probe (BFP) and single-molecule fluorescence (SMF). I
then present several applications of SME to the study of nucleic acids (DNA,
RNA and DNA condensation), proteins (protein-protein interactions, protein
folding and molecular motors). Finally, I discuss applications of SME to the
study of the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of small systems and the
experimental verification of fluctuation theorems. I conclude with a discussion
of open questions and future perspectives.Comment: Latex, 60 pages, 12 figures, Topical Review for J. Phys. C (Cond.
Matt
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