52,465 research outputs found
Modulation of HU-DNA interactions by salt concentration and applied force.
HU is one of the most abundant proteins in bacterial chromosomes and participates in nucleoid compaction and gene regulation. We report experiments using DNA stretching that study the dependence of DNA condensation by HU on force, salt and HU concentration. Previous experiments at sub-physiological salt levels revealed that low concentrations of HU could compact DNA, whereas larger HU concentrations formed a DNA-stiffening complex. Here we report that this bimodal binding behavior depends sensitively on salt concentration. Only the compaction mode was observed for 150 mM and higher NaCl levels, i.e. for physiological salt concentrations. Similar results were obtained for the more physiological salt K-glutamate. Real-time studies of dissociation kinetics revealed that HU unbound slowly (minutes to hours under the conditions studied) but completely for salt concentrations at or above 100 mM NaCl; the lifetime of HU complexes was observed to increase with the HU concentration at which the complexes were formed, and to decrease with salt concentration. Higher salt levels of 300 mM NaCl completely eliminated observable HU binding to DNA. Finally, we observed that the dissociation kinetics depend on force applied to the DNA: increased applied force in the sub-piconewton range accelerates dissociation, suggesting a mechanism for DNA tension to regulate chromosome structure and gene expression
Giant enhanced optical nonlinearity of colloidal nanocrystals with a graded-index host
The effective linear and third-order nonlinear optical properties of metallic
colloidal crystal immersed in a graded-index host fluid are investigated
theoretically. The local electric fields are extracted self-consistently based
on the layer-to-layer interactions, which are readily given by the Lekner
summation method. The resultant optical absorption and nonlinearity enhancement
show a series of sharp peaks, which merge in a broadened resonant band. The
sharp peaks become a continuous band for increasing packing density and number
of layers. We believe that the sharp peaks arise from the in-plane dipolar
interactions and the surface plasmon resonance, whereas the continuous band is
due to the presence of the gradient in the host refractive index. These results
have not been observed in homogeneous and randomly-dispersed colloids, and thus
would be of great interest in optical nanomaterial engineering.Comment: Submitted to Applied Physics Letter
Temperature-dependent Cross Sections for Charmonium Dissociation in Collisions with Pions and Rhos in Hadronic Matter
Meson-charmonium dissociation reactions governed by the quark interchange are
studied with temperature-dependent quark potentials. Quark-antiquark
relative-motion wave functions and masses of charmonia and charmed mesons are
determined by the central spin-independent part of the potentials or by the
central spin-independent part and a smeared spin-spin interaction. The
prominent temperature dependence of the masses is found. Based on the
potentials, the wave functions, and the meson masses, we obtain
temperature-dependent cross sections for fifteen pion-charmonium and
rho-charmonium dissociation reactions. The numerical cross sections are
parametrized for future applications in hadronic matter. The particular
temperature dependence of the J/psi bound state leads to unusual behavior of
the cross sections for endothermic J/psi dissociation reactions. The quantum
numbers of psi' and chi_c can not make their difference in mass in the
temperature region 0.6T_c < T < T_c, but can make the psi' dissociation
different from the chi_c dissociation.Comment: 52 pages, 23 figures, 6 table
Competition between Phase Separation and Spin Density Wave or Charge Density Wave Order: Role of Long-Range Interactions
Recent studies of pairing and charge order in materials such as FeSe,
SrTiO, and 2H-NbSe have suggested that momentum dependence of the
electron-phonon coupling plays an important role in their properties. Initial
attempts to study Hamiltonians which either do not include or else truncate the
range of Coulomb repulsion have noted that the resulting spatial non-locality
of the electron-phonon interaction leads to a dominant tendency to phase
separation. Here we present Quantum Monte Carlo results for such models in
which we incorporate both on-site and intersite electron-electron interactions.
We show that these can stabilize phases in which the density is homogeneous and
determine the associated phase boundaries. As a consequence, the physics of
momentum dependent electron-phonon coupling can be determined outside of the
trivial phase separated regime.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
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