The proton shell closure at 14C

Data for the ¹⁴C(³He, d)¹⁵N and ¹⁴C(t, ⁴He)¹³B reactions are compared to DWBA calculations to measure the spectroscopic factors for $\text{p}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{and}\text{p}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>3</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$ proton transitions. Good fits are found for the stripping data, as well as to similar stripping data on ¹²C. These results lower the previous value for proton $\text{p}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>3</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$ hole strength in ¹⁴C by a factor of two, indicating that the neutron closure of the p-shell has provided a very good proton closed shell at ¹⁴C. Stripping results to low-lying positive parity states in ¹⁵N are interpreted within a Nilsson scheme, which reproduces the experimental results, but which requires a large deformation for the s-d orbitals.     

Poloidal E x B drift used as an effective rotational transform to achieve long confinement times in a toroidal electron plasma

Electron plasmas with mean densities of 5.0 x 10(6) cm(-3) have been confined for as long as 18 ms in a partially toroidal trap with a purely toroidal magnetic field (B(0)=196 G, R(o)=43 cm, a=5 cm). Confinement is limited to 2.0 ms unless feedback is employed to suppress the growth of a toroidal version of the m=1 diocotron mode. The confinement time is much longer than all characteristic single-particle drift time scales and therefore confirms the existence of an equilibrium in which the space-charge-generated E x B drift acts as an effective rotational transform.     

Forced folding and structural analysis of metastable proteins

A significant fraction of the proteins encoded by the human and other genomes appears to be significantly unfolded in vitro. This will undoubtedly hamper attempts to characterize their structure by classical crystallographic or solution NMR methods. Here we show that encapsulation of a metastable protein within the restricted volume a reverse micelle can be used to force fold the protein and allow its characterization by modern methods of NMR spectroscopy. This may have significant utility in the context of structural proteomics. In addition, variation of the inner volume of the reverse micelle can be used to probe the character of the manifold of unfolded states.     

Observation of the "self-healing" of an error field island in the large helical device

It was observed that the vacuum magnetic island produced by an external error magnetic field in the large helical device shrank in the presence of plasma. This was evidenced by the disappearance of flat regions in the electron temperature profile obtained by Thomson scattering. This island behavior depended on the magnetic configuration in which the plasmas were produced.     

An anionic siloxane polymer as a pseudostationary phase for electrokinetic chromatography

A novel polymeric pseudostationary phase for electrokinetic chromatography is introduced and characterized. Siloxane polymers are of interest for this application because of the range of chemistries that could be developed based on these backbones, and because successful development of siloxane polymers would make it possible to employ much of the stationary phase chemistry developed in the past thirty years. A commercially available water-soluble siloxane with a hydroxy-terminated alkyl group was converted to the sulfate derivative. This siloxane polymer is water-soluble, effectively eliminating this limitation associated with siloxane polymers. When employed as a pseudostationary phase, this compound provided rapid, efficient, and selective separations. The electrophoretic mobility of the polymer was less than sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and poly(sodium 10-undecenylsulfate), providing a compressed migration time range, which is the main limiting factor for this polymer. The chemical selectivity of the siloxane sulfate was somewhat different than SDS micelles. The siloxane was employed in buffers modified with a large amount of acetonitrile to separate a number of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. The addition of acetonitrile caused an apparent discontinuity in the electrophoretic mobility of the polymer, which may indicate a change in the structure with increasing organic solvent content.     

Observation of power-Law scaling for phase transitions in linear trapped ion crystals

We report an experimental confirmation of the power-law relationship between the critical anisotropy parameter and ion number for the linear-to-zigzag phase transition in an ionic crystal. Our experiment uses laser cooled calcium ions confined in a linear radio-frequency trap. Measurements for up to ten ions are in good agreement with theoretical and numeric predictions. Implications on an upper limit to the size of data registers in ion trap quantum computers are discussed.