Binding of similarly charged plates with counterions only

Similarly and highly charged plates in the presence of multivalent counterions attract each other and form electrostatically bound states. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we obtain the interplate pressure in the global parameter space. The equilibrium plate separation, where the pressure changes from attractive to repulsive, exhibits a novel unbinding transition. A systematic and asymptotically exact strong-coupling field theory yields the bound state from a competition between counterion entropy and electrostatic attraction, in agreement with simple scaling arguments and simulations.     

Electrostatistics of counter-ions at and between planar charged walls: From Poisson-Boltzmann to the strong-coupling theory

The European Physical Journal E - The Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) approach gives asymptotically exact counter-ion density profiles around macroscopic charged objects and forces between macroscopic...     

Identification of archaeal proteins that affect the exosome function in vitro

Background  

The archaeal exosome is formed by a hexameric RNase PH ring and three RNA binding subunits and has been shown to bind and degrade RNA in vitro. Despite extensive studies on the eukaryotic exosome and on the proteins interacting with this complex, little information is yet available on the identification and function of archaeal exosome regulatory factors.     

The quadrupole moment of the 535 keV state of 133La

The quadrupole moment of the 535 keV $\text{3}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$ state of ¹³³La has been derived from a time-differential perturbed angular correlation measurement in an environment of La metal. The effective electric gradient is known from a nuclear quadrupole resonance measurement with the ground state of ¹³⁹La. The result Q = 0.35 ± 0.03 b does not confirm a proposed shape isomerism.     

Time-dependent electric quadrupole interactions in (NH4)3HfF7

Spinrotation spectra of polycrystalline (NH₄)₃HfF₇ in which radioactive¹⁸¹Hf was incorporated have been measured in the temperature range from ?196 °C to + 70 °C. The spectra were interpretated on the base of the stochastic model of M. Blume. It was assumed that reorientations of the [HfF₇]^3? polyhedra take place at random. The resulting fluctuation rates can be understood as to be caused by an activation process. The activation energy was determined to 0.324(12) eV in agreement with NMR measurements on¹⁹F in this compound.     

Viscous compressible hydrodynamics at planes,spheres and cylinders with finite surface slip

We consider the linearized time-dependent Navier-Stokes equation including finite compressibility and viscosity. We first constitute the Green's function, from which we derive the flow profiles and response functions for a plane, a sphere and a cylinder for arbitrary surface slip length. For high driving frequency the flow pattern is dominated by the diffusion of vorticity and compression, for low frequency compression propagates in the form of sound waves which are exponentially damped at a screening length larger than the sound wave length. The crossover between the diffusive and propagative compression regimes occurs at the fluid's intrinsic frequency w \omega ∼ c ² r₀ \rho_{0}^{}/h \eta , with c the speed of sound, r₀ \rho_{0}^{} the fluid density and h \eta the viscosity. In the propagative regime the hydrodynamic response function of spheres and cylinders exhibits a high-frequency resonance when the particle size is of the order of the sound wave length. A distinct low-frequency resonance occurs at the boundary between the propagative and diffusive regimes. Those resonant features should be detectable experimentally by tracking the diffusion of particles, as well as by measuring the fluctuation spectrum or the response spectrum of trapped particles. Since the response function depends sensitively on the slip length, in principle the slip length can be deduced from an experimentally measured response function.     

Dynamics of DNA: Experimental controversies and theoretical insights

Recent experimental advances using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) have given unprecedented information about the small-scale kinetics of large biopolymers in solution. However some of the first studies in this direction yielded conflicting results for the mean squared displacement of the tagged end-point of a DNA chain, deviating from traditional theories of polymer dynamics. Spurred by this controversy, we have developed a hydrodynamic mean-field theory for single semiflexible polymers which points to a resolution of the differing experimental observations. The theory precisely captures, without fitting parameters, one set of recent FCS results, reproducing the experimental dynamics over five decades in time and three decades of chain lengths. The success of the theory makes it an excellent candidate for a variety of biophysical contexts where the internal fluctuations of semiflexible polymers play a role.     

Impact of loop statistics on the thermodynamics of RNA folding

Loops are abundant in native RNA structures and proliferate close to the unfolding transition. By including a statistical weight approximately l(-c) for loops of length l in the recursion relation for the partition function, we show that the heat capacity depends sensitively on the presence and value of the exponent c, even for a short explicit tRNA sequence. For long homo-RNA, we analytically calculate the critical temperature and critical exponents which exhibit a nonuniversal dependence on c.     

Specific ion adsorption and surface forces in colloid science

Mean-field theories that include nonelectrostatic interactions acting on ions near interfaces have been found to accommodate many experimentally observed ion specific effects. However, it is clear that this approach does not fully account for the liquid molecular structure and hydration effects. This is now improved by using parametrized ionic potentials deduced from recent nonprimitive model molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in a generalized Poisson-Boltzmann equation. We investigate how ion distributions and double layer forces depend on the choice of background salt. There is a strong ion specific double layer force set up due to unequal ion specific short-range potentials acting between ions and surfaces.