Analyzing Heat Capacity Profiles of Peptide-Containing Membranes: Cluster Formation of Gramicidin A

AbstractThe analysis of peptide and protein partitioning in lipid membranes is of high relevance for the understanding of biomembrane function. We used statistical thermodynamics analysis to demonstrate the effect of peptide mixing behavior on heat capacity profiles of lipid membranes with the aim to predict peptide aggregation from cP-profiles. This analysis was applied to interpret calorimetric data on the interaction of the antibiotic peptide gramicidin A with lipid membranes. The shape of the heat capacity profiles was found to be consistent with peptide clustering in both gel and fluid phase. Applying atomic force microscopy, we found gramicidin A aggregates and established a close link between thermodynamics data and microscopic imaging. On the basis of these findings we described the effect of proteins on local fluctuations. It is shown that the elastic properties of the membrane are influenced in the peptide environment

The Beurling--Malliavin Multiplier Theorem and its analogs for the de Branges spaces

Let $\omega$ be a non-negative function on $\mathbb{R}$. We are looking for a non-zero $f$ from a given space of entire functions $X$ satisfying $$(a) \quad|f|\leq \omega\text{\quad or\quad(b)}\quad |f|\asymp\omega.$$ The classical Beurling--Malliavin Multiplier Theorem corresponds to $(a)$ and the classical Paley--Wiener space as $X$. We survey recent results for the case when $X$ is a de Branges space \he. Numerous answers mainly depend on the behaviour of the phase function of the generating function $E$.Comment: Survey, 25 page

Mesoscale Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction: Geometrical tailoring of the magnetochirality

Crystals with broken inversion symmetry can host fundamentally appealing and technologically relevant periodical or localized chiral magnetic textures. The type of the texture as well as its magnetochiral properties are determined by the intrinsic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), which is a material property and can hardly be changed. Here we put forth a method to create new artificial chiral nanoscale objects with tunable magnetochiral properties from standard magnetic materials by using geometrical manipulations. We introduce a mesoscale Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction that combines the intrinsic spin-orbit and extrinsic curvature-driven DMI terms and depends both on the material and geometrical parameters. The vector of the mesoscale DMI determines magnetochiral properties of any curved magnetic system with broken inversion symmetry. The strength and orientation of this vector can be changed by properly choosing the geometry. For a specific example of nanosized magnetic helix, the same material system with different geometrical parameters can acquire one of three zero-temperature magnetic phases, namely, phase with a quasitangential magnetization state, phase with a periodical state and one intermediate phase with a periodical domain wall state. Our approach paves the way towards the realization of a new class of nanoscale spintronic and spinorbitronic devices with the geometrically tunable magnetochirality

Extraction of Kaon Formfactors from K^- -> mu^- nu_mu gamma Decay at ISTRA+ Setup

The radiative decay K->mu nu gamma has been studied at ISTRA+ setup in a new kinematical region. About 22K events of K^- -> mu^- nu_mu gamma have been observed. The sign and value of Fv-Fa have been measured for the first time. The result is Fv-Fa=0.21(4)(4).Comment: 11 pages, 21 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Search for Heavy Neutrino in K->mu nu_h(nu_h-> nu gamma) Decay at ISTRA+ Setup

Heavy neutrino nu_h with m_h < 300MeV/c^2 can be effectively searched for in kaon decays. We put upper limits on mixing matrix element |U_mu_h}|^2 for radiatively decaying nu_h from K->mu nu_h (nu_h -> nu gamma) decay chain in the following parameter region: 30MeV/c^2 < m_h < 80MeV/c^2; 10^{-11}sec < tau_h < 10^{-9}sec. For the whole region |U_{mu h}|^2 < 5 x 10^{-5} for Majorana type of nu_h and | U_{\mu h}|^2 < 8 x 10^{-5} for the Dirac case.Comment: Published in Phys. Lett.

Литолитическая и комбинированная терапия уратного литиаза

The estimation of efficacy of a medication «Trometamol-N» in complex therapy of urate and mixed urolithiasis, with application of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), low intensive laser irradiation is done. It was established that after such therapy dissolution of urate and mixed stones has been observed.Проведена оценка эффективности препарата Трометамол-Н в комплексной терапии уратного и смешанного уролитиаза с применением экстрокорпоральной ударноволновой литотрипсии, низкоинтенивного магнитолазерного излучения. Установлено, что на фоне проводимой терапии отмечается растворение уратных и смешанных конкрементов

Fine structure of excitons in Cu2_2O

Three experimental observations on 1s-excitons in Cu$_2$O are not consistent with the picture of the exciton as a simple hydrogenic bound state: the energies of the 1s-excitons deviate from the Rydberg formula, the total exciton mass exceeds the sum of the electron and hole effective masses, and the triplet-state excitons lie above the singlet. Incorporating the band structure of the material, we calculate the corrections to this simple picture arising from the fact that the exciton Bohr radius is comparable to the lattice constant. By means of a self-consistent variational calculation of the total exciton mass as well as the ground-state energy of the singlet and the triplet-state excitons, we find excellent agreement with experiment.Comment: Revised abstract; 10 pages, revtex, 3 figures available from G. Kavoulakis, Physics Department, University of Illinois, Urban

Polarized interacting exciton gas in quantum wells and bulk semiconductors

We develop a theory to calculate exciton binding energies of both two- and three-dimensional spin polarized exciton gases within a mean field approach. Our method allows the analysis of recent experiments showing the importance of the polarization and intensity of the excitation light on the exciton luminescence of GaAs quantum wells. We study the breaking of the spin degeneracy observed at high exciton density $(5 \ \ 10^{10} cm ^2)$. Energy level splitting betwen spin +1 and spin -1 is shown to be due to many-body inter-excitonic exchange while the spin relaxation time is controlled by intra-exciton exchange.Comment: Revtex, 4 figures sent by fax upon request by e-mai

Auger decay of degenerate and Bose-condensed excitons in Cu2_2O

We study the non-radiative Auger decay of excitons in Cu$_2$O, in which two excitons scatter to an excited electron and hole. The exciton decay rate for the direct and the phonon-assisted processes is calculated from first principles; incorporating the band structure of the material leads to a relatively shorter lifetime of the triplet state ortho excitons. We compare our results with the Auger decay rate extracted from data on highly degenerate triplet excitons and Bose-condensed singlet excitons in Cu$_2$O.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, figures available from G. Kavoulaki

Quantum saturation and condensation of excitons in Cu2_2O: a theoretical study

Recent experiments on high density excitons in Cu$_2$O provide evidence for degenerate quantum statistics and Bose-Einstein condensation of this nearly ideal gas. We model the time dependence of this bosonic system including exciton decay mechanisms, energy exchange with phonons, and interconversion between ortho (triplet-state) and para (singlet-state) excitons, using parameters for the excitonic decay, the coupling to acoustic and low-lying optical phonons, Auger recombination, and ortho-para interconversion derived from experiment. The single adjustable parameter in our model is the optical-phonon cooling rate for Auger and laser-produced hot excitons. We show that the orthoexcitons move along the phase boundary without crossing it (i.e., exhibit a ``quantum saturation''), as a consequence of the balance of entropy changes due to cooling of excitons by phonons and heating by the non-radiative Auger two-exciton recombination process. The Auger annihilation rate for para-para collisions is much smaller than that for ortho-para and ortho-ortho collisions, explaining why, under the given experimental conditions, the paraexcitons condense while the orthoexcitons fail to do so.Comment: Revised to improve clarity and physical content 18 pages, revtex, figures available from G. Kavoulakis, Physics Department, University of Illinois, Urban