1,615 research outputs found
The dynamics of thin vibrated granular layers
We describe a series of experiments and computer simulations on vibrated
granular media in a geometry chosen to eliminate gravitationally induced
settling. The system consists of a collection of identical spherical particles
on a horizontal plate vibrating vertically, with or without a confining lid.
Previously reported results are reviewed, including the observation of
homogeneous, disordered liquid-like states, an instability to a `collapse' of
motionless spheres on a perfect hexagonal lattice, and a fluctuating,
hexagonally ordered state. In the presence of a confining lid we see a variety
of solid phases at high densities and relatively high vibration amplitudes,
several of which are reported for the first time in this article. The phase
behavior of the system is closely related to that observed in confined
hard-sphere colloidal suspensions in equilibrium, but with modifications due to
the effects of the forcing and dissipation. We also review measurements of
velocity distributions, which range from Maxwellian to strongly non-Maxwellian
depending on the experimental parameter values. We describe measurements of
spatial velocity correlations that show a clear dependence on the mechanism of
energy injection. We also report new measurements of the velocity
autocorrelation function in the granular layer and show that increased
inelasticity leads to enhanced particle self-diffusion.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
Non-equilibrium two-phase coexistence in a confined granular layer
We report the observation of the homogenous nucleation of crystals in a dense
layer of steel spheres confined between two horizontal plates vibrated
vertically. Above a critical vibration amplitude, two-layer crystals with
square symmetry were found to coexist in steady state with a surrounding
granular liquid. By analogy to equilibrium hard sphere systems, the phase
behavior can be explained through entropy maximization. However, dramatic
non-equilibrium effects are present, including a significant difference in the
granular temperatures of the two phases.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTex4 forma
Charge-Mediated Recognition of N-Terminal Tryptophan in Aqueous Solution by a Synthetic Host
The molecular recognition of peptides and proteins in aqueous solution by designed molecules remains an elusive goal with broad implications for basic biochemical research and for sensors and separations technologies. This paper describes the recognition of N-terminal tryptophan in aqueous solution by the synthetic host cucurbit[8]uril (Q8). Q8 is known to form 1:1:1 heteroternary complexes with methyl viologen (MV) and a second aromatic guest. Here, the complexes of Q8·MV with (i) the four natural aromatic α-amino acids, (ii) four singly charged tryptophan derivatives, and (iii) four tryptophan-containing tripeptides were characterized by isothermal titration calorimetry, mass spectrometry, and UV−visible, fluorescence, and 1H NMR spectroscopy. We find that Q8·MV binds Trp−Gly−Gly with high affinity (Ka = 1.3 × 105 M-1), with 6-fold specificity over Gly−Trp−Gly, and with 40-fold specificity over Gly−Gly−Trp. Analysis of the nine indole-containing compounds suggests that peptide recognition is mediated by the electrostatic charge(s) proximal to the indole, and that the mode of binding is consistent for these compounds. Complex formation is accompanied by the growth of a visible charge-transfer band and the quenching of indole fluorescence. These optical properties, combined with the stability and selectivity of this system, are promising for applications in sensing and separating specific peptides
Supramolecular Chemistry: A Capstone Course
A fourth-year capstone course offers students an opportunity to integrate topics covered in the core disciplinary courses, to learn an advanced interdisciplinary topic, and to approach unfamiliar problems and literature. This article describes a fourth-year capstone course designed to incorporate components of faculty lectures, student seminars, and original, hands-on research projects in order to cover the topic of supramolecular chemistry in one semester with unusual depth. This approach should be applicable to other advanced topics in chemistry
Renormalization constants of local operators for Wilson type improved fermions
Perturbative and non-perturbative results are presented on the
renormalization constants of the quark field and the vector, axial-vector,
pseudoscalar, scalar and tensor currents. The perturbative computation, carried
out at one-loop level and up to second order in the lattice spacing, is
performed for a fermion action, which includes the clover term and the twisted
mass parameter yielding results that are applicable for unimproved Wilson
fermions, as well as for improved clover and twisted mass fermions. We consider
ten variants of the Symanzik improved gauge action corresponding to ten
different values of the plaquette coefficients. Non-perturbative results are
obtained using the twisted mass Wilson fermion formulation employing two
degenerate dynamical quarks and the tree-level Symanzik improved gluon action.
The simulations are performed for pion masses in the range of 480 MeV to 260
MeV and at three values of the lattice spacing, a, corresponding to beta=3.9,
4.05, 4.20. For each renormalization factor computed non-perturbatively we
subtract its perturbative O(a^2) terms so that we eliminate part of the cut-off
artifacts. The renormalization constants are converted to MS-bar at a scale of
mu=2 GeV. The perturbative results depend on a large number of parameters and
are made easily accessible to the reader by including them in the distribution
package of this paper, as a Mathematica input file.Comment: 36 pages, 11 figures and 6 tables. The results are included in
electronic form (Mathematica files
Self similar Barkhausen noise in magnetic domain wall motion
A model for domain wall motion in ferromagnets is analyzed. Long-range
magnetic dipolar interactions are shown to give rise to self-similar dynamics
when the external magnetic field is increased adiabatically. The power spectrum
of the resultant Barkhausen noise is of the form , where
can be estimated from the critical exponents for interface
depinning in random media.Comment: 7 pages, RevTex. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
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