Comment on evidence for surface-initiated homogeneous nucleation

International audienceWe investigate theoretical, laboratory, and atmospheric evidence for a recently proposed hypothesis: homogeneous ice nucleation initiates at the surface, not in the volume, of supercooled water drops. Using existing thermodynamic arguments, laboratory experiments, and atmospheric data, we conclude that ice embryo formation at the surface cannot be confirmed or disregarded. Ice nucleation rates measured as a function of drop size in an air ambient could help distinguish between volume and surface nucleation rates

Thomas-Fermi-Poisson theory of screening for latterally confined and unconfined two-dimensional electron systems in strong magnetic fields

We examine within the self-consistent Thomas-Fermi-Poisson approach the low-temperature screening properties of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) subjected to strong perpendicular magnetic fields. Numerical results for the unconfined 2DEG are compared with those for a simplified Hall bar geometry realized by two different confinement models. It is shown that in the strongly non-linear screening limit of zero temperature the total variation of the screened potential is related by simple analytical expressions to the amplitude of an applied harmonic modulation potential and to the strength of the magnetic field.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

Ab initio Study of Exciton Transfer Dynamics from a Core-Shell Semiconductor Quantum-Dot to a Porphyrin-Sensitizer

The observed resonance energy transfer in nanoassemblies of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots and pyridyl-substituted free-base porphyrin molecules [Zenkevich et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 109 (2005) 8679] is studied computationally by ab initio electronic structure and quantum dynamics approaches. The system harvests light in a broad energy range and can transfer the excitation from the dot through the porphyrin to oxygen, generating singlet oxygen for medical applications. The geometric structure, electronic energies, and transition dipole moments are derived by density functional theory and are utilized for calculating the Förster coupling between the excitons residing on the quantum dot and the porphyrin. The direction and rate of the irreversible exciton transfer is determined by the initial photoexcitation of the dot, the dot–porphyrin coupling and the interaction to the electronic subsystem with the vibrational environment. The simulated electronic structure and dynamics are in good agreement with the experimental data and provide real-time atomistic details of the energy transfer mechanism. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Electronic Processes at the Breakdown of the Quantum Hall Effect

Microscopic processes giving the energy gain and loss of a two-dimensional electron system in long-range potential fluctuations are studied theoretically at the breakdown of the quantum Hall effect in the case of even-integer filling factors. The Coulomb scattering within a broadened Landau level is proposed to give the gain, while the phonon scattering to give the loss. The energy balance equation shows that the electron temperature T_e and the diagonal conductivity sigma_{xx} exhibit a bistability above the lower critical electric field E_{c1}. Calculated values of E_{c1} as well as T_e and sigma_{xx} at E_{c1} are in agreement with the observed values in their orders of magnitude.Comment: 4 pages, 2 Postscript figures, submitted to the Journal of the Physical Society of Japa

Quantum Hall fluctuations and evidence for charging in the quantum Hall effect

We find that mesoscopic conductance fluctuations in the quantum Hall regime in silicon MOSFETs display simple and striking patterns. The fluctuations fall into distinct groups which move along lines parallel to loci of integer filling factor in the gate voltage-magnetic field plane. Also, a relationship appears between the fluctuations on quantum Hall transitions and those found at low densities in zero magnetic field. These phenomena are most naturally attributed to charging effects. We argue that they are the first unambiguous manifestation of interactions in dc transport in the integer quantum Hall effect.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX including 4 postscript bitmapped figure

Magnetometry of low-dimensional electron and hole systems

Copyright © 2009 Institute of PhysicsThe high-magnetic-field, low-temperature magnetic properties of low-dimensional electron and hole systems reveal a wealth of fundamental information. Quantum oscillations of the thermodynamic equilibrium magnetization yield the total density of states, a central quantity in understanding the quantum Hall effect in 2D systems. The magnetization arising from non-equilibrium circulating currents reveals details, not accessible with traditional measurements, of the vanishingly small longitudinal resistance in the quantum Hall regime. We review how the technique of magnetometry has been applied to these systems, the most important discoveries that have been made, and their theoretical significance

УЧЕТ ЭЛЕКТРОДИНАМИЧЕСКОГО ДЕЙСТВИЯ ТОКОВ КОРОТКОГО ЗАМЫКАНИЯ ПРИ ПРОЕКТИРОВАНИИ ГИБКИХ ТОКОПРОВОДОВ 6−10 кВ СИСТЕМ ЭЛЕКТРОСНАБЖЕНИЯ

The paper shows a vital importance of electrodynamic affect account in respect of relatively small short-circuit-currents on flexible current-conducting wires of electric supply systems at long short-circuit duration. Insufficient electrodynamic stability of flexible current-conducting wires of type design has been revealed. While using simplified and numerical methods for calculation of wire dynamics optimum parameters of flexible current-conducting wires have been determined.Показана актуальность учета электродинамического действия сравнительно небольших токов короткого замыкания на гибкие токопроводы систем электроснабжения при больших продолжительностях КЗ. Выявлена недостаточная электродинамическая стойкость типовых конструкций гибких токопроводов. С использованием упрощенных и численных методов расчета динамики проводов определены оптимальные параметры гибких токопроводов

Thermodynamic Selection of Steric Zipper Patterns in the Amyloid Cross-β Spine

At the core of amyloid fibrils is the cross-β spine, a long tape of β-sheets formed by the constituent proteins. Recent high-resolution x-ray studies show that the unit of this filamentous structure is a β-sheet bilayer with side chains within the bilayer forming a tightly interdigitating “steric zipper” interface. However, for a given peptide, different bilayer patterns are possible, and no quantitative explanation exists regarding which pattern is selected or under what condition there can be more than one pattern observed, exhibiting molecular polymorphism. We address the structural selection mechanism by performing molecular dynamics simulations to calculate the free energy of incorporating a peptide monomer into a β-sheet bilayer. We test filaments formed by several types of peptides including GNNQQNY, NNQQ, VEALYL, KLVFFAE and STVIIE, and find that the patterns with the lowest binding free energy correspond to available atomistic structures with high accuracy. Molecular polymorphism, as exhibited by NNQQ, is likely because there are more than one most stable structures whose binding free energies differ by less than the thermal energy. Detailed analysis of individual energy terms reveals that these short peptides are not strained nor do they lose much conformational entropy upon incorporating into a β-sheet bilayer. The selection of a bilayer pattern is determined mainly by the van der Waals and hydrophobic forces as a quantitative measure of shape complementarity among side chains between the β-sheets. The requirement for self-complementary steric zipper formation supports that amyloid fibrils form more easily among similar or same sequences, and it also makes parallel β-sheets generally preferred over anti-parallel ones. But the presence of charged side chains appears to kinetically drive anti-parallel β-sheets to form at early stages of assembly, after which the bilayer formation is likely driven by energetics