Dynamic scanning force microscopy study of self-assembled DNA-protein nanostructures

Self-assembled oligomeric nanostructures consisting of bisbiotinylated DNA fragments connected by the protein streptavidin (STV) are studied by dynamic scanning force microscopy (SFM) operating in air. A comparison of the images taken in repulsive and attractive regimes is systematically made on DNA and STV structures. Stable and reproducible SFM images are obtained in the attractive regime by using a special feedback circuit, called Q-control. On the other hand, when SFM is operating in the repulsive regime, deformation of the structures that reduce the resolution and the image quality are clearly observable. The heights of both DNA and STV have been measured as a function of the tip/molecule interaction forces. This study offers the possibility to suggest a different mechanical behavior of DNA with respect to STV. Received: 24 July 2001 / Accepted: 3 December 2001 / Published online: 4 March 2002     

MO analysis of macroscopic supercurrent flow in MgB 2

We present results from an extended magneto-optical (MO) analysis of two samples cut from high-density pellets of MgB₂. The first sample was studied in order to show that no matter how large the sample is and despite the bulk granularity, the material enters into a critical state in a crystal-like fashion. The second sample was chosen for the quantitative analysis. A numerical approach based on an inverted 2D Biot-Savart model was used to calculate the current paths across the homogeneous polycrystalline bulk, as well as in the vicinity and across some morphological defects. Local current densities in the homogeneous part were estimated as a function of the applied magnetic field at different temperatures, in three regimes: below full penetration, at full penetration and above full penetration, respectively. A hypothesis of interpretation of the apparent absence of magnetic granularity inside the polycrystalline microstructure is presented. It is related to a critical state likely reached by a network of strongly coupled Josephson junctions. Received 31 May 2001 and Received in final form 5 December 2001     

Formation on field emitters coated with fullerenes of microformations producing ordered emission images

Field emission projector studies of fullerene coatings deposited on tungsten tip field emitters reveal specific ordered patterns in the form of doublets, quadruplets, rings, disks, and other forms in the emitter images. The ways in which these types of ordered emission patterns arise and their relation to C₆₀ microformations have been established. Possible causes of the emergence of the ordered emission images are analyzed on the basis of published data and experimental results obtained. A modification of the model of field emission from the surface of microformations taking into account internal reflection of the electronic waves from the formation boundaries has been proposed.     

Higher-order <Emphasis Type="Bold">?</Emphasis> corrections in the semiclassical quantization of chaotic billiards

In the periodic orbit quantization of physical systems, usually only the leading-order ? contribution to the density of states is considered. Therefore, by construction, the eigenvalues following from semiclassical trace formulae generally agree with the exact quantum ones only to lowest order of ?. In different theoretical work the trace formulae have been extended to higher orders of ?. The problem remains, however, how to actually calculate eigenvalues from the extended trace formulae since, even with ? corrections included, the periodic orbit sums still do not converge in the physical domain. For lowest-order semiclassical trace formulae the convergence problem can be elegantly, and universally, circumvented by application of the technique of harmonic inversion. In this paper we show how, for general scaling chaotic systems, also higher-order ? corrections to the Gutzwiller formula can be included in the harmonic inversion scheme, and demonstrate that corrected semiclassical eigenvalues can be calculated despite the convergence problem. The method is applied to the open three-disk scattering system, as a prototype of a chaotic system. Received 10 September 2001 and Received in final form 3 January 2002     

Prospects for new physics observations in diffractive processes at the LHC and Tevatron

We study the double-diffractive production of various heavy systems (e.g. Higgs, dijet, and SUSY particles) at LHC and Tevatron collider energies. In each case we compute the probability that the rapidity gaps, which occur on either side of the produced system, survive the effects of soft rescattering and QCD bremsstrahlung effects. We calculate both the luminosity for different production mechanisms, and a wide variety of subprocess cross sections. The results allow numerical predictions to be readily made for the cross sections of all these processes at the LHC and the Tevatron collider. For example, we predict that the cross section for the exclusive double-diffractive production of a 120 GeV Higgs boson at the LHC is about 3 fb, and that the QCD background in the decay mode is about 4 times smaller than the Higgs signal if the experimental missing-mass resolution is 1 GeV. For completeness we also discuss production via or WW fusion. Received: 7 November 2001 / Revised version: 11 December 2001 / Published online: 25 January 2002     

Diffractive heavy vector meson production from the BFKL equation

Diffractive heavy vector meson photoproduction accompanied by proton dissociation is studied for arbitrary momentum transfer. The process is described by the non-forward BFKL equation, for which a complete analytical solution is found, giving the scattering amplitude. The impact of non-leading corrections to the BFKL equation is also analysed. Results are compared to the HERA data on production. Received: 2 July 2002 / Revised version: 29 August 2002 / Published online: 18 October 2002     

Effect of amorphization on the electronic and lattice specific heat of an Ni2B alloy

The specific heats of the Ni₂B amorphous system and of its crystal analog were studied in the temperature range 3–270 K. The data obtained permitted us to isolate the contribution due to atomic vibrations from the experimentally measured specific heat, determine the electronic density of states at the Fermi level and the temperature dependence of the characteristic Debye parameter Θ, and to calculate some average frequencies (moments) of the vibrational spectrum. The electronic density of states at the Fermi level increases under amorphization. An analysis of the temperature dependence of the lattice specific heat showed that amorphization brings about a substantial growth in the density of vibrational states at low frequencies, whereas the spectrum-averaged and rms frequencies change very little, which is in good agreement with neutron diffraction measurements.     

Study of the Surface Processes in Vapor-Phase Epitaxial GaAs: Asymmetric Trapping of Atoms at the Step

Experimental proofs of asymmetric trapping of atoms at the growth step in vapor-phase epitaxy of gallium arsenide in the GaAs–AsCl₃–H₂ system are given. The data obtained confirm the important role of the surface diffusion mass transfer in the growth of epitaxial GaAs layers on vicinals in the neighborhood of (111)A. The effective diffusion length is estimated.     

Development of high-speed video cameras for Dynamic PIV

The most promising next generation Image Velocimtry (IV) is the high-speed Dynamic PIV. It requires the development of innovative high-speed video camera sensors. We started by specifying the required performance of these new sensors, for measurements in air and water flows. These criteria founded on the most recent developments in PIV algorithms and incorporate results from a large questionnaire survey of users of high-speed video cameras in Japan. The results suggest that the followings are required: (1) frame rate of 1,000,000 fps, (2) pixel count of 1,000,000 pixels, (3) frame storage capacity of 100–200 frames for tracing a single event and 10,000 frames for turbulent measurements, (4) gray levels of 4–8 bits for PTV; 12 bits for observation. Finally, we reviewed the state of the art of high-speed video-image sensors. Currently the standard parallel-readout sensors can operate at 1 Kfps with a pixel count of approximately 1 Kpixels. The In-situ Storage Image Sensor (ISIS) developed by the authors has recently achieved frame rates of 1 Mfps.