Biased lattice gases with correlated equilibrium states

The approach to and structure of the equilibrium state is studied for a 7-bit lattice gas with biased forward and backward transition rates by means of mean field theory and computer simulations. If the rate constants obey the factorizability and the detailed balance conditions, the occupations of different velocity directions are uncorrelated, anH-theorem is valid, and a nonuniversal equilibrium state exists that depends explicitly on the transition rates. In case the above conditions are not satisfied, theH-theorem is no longer valid, and mean field theory also predicts nontrivial velocity correlations in postcollision states. The simulations are mainly concentrated on the time dependence of pre- and postcollision velocity correlations on a single node, and on slowly increasing fluctuations that might indicate metastable behavior.     

Fundamental limitations to gain enhancement in periodic media and waveguides

A common strategy to compensate for losses in optical nanostructures is to add gain material in the system. By exploiting slow-light effects it is expected that the gain may be enhanced beyond its bulk value. Here we show that this route cannot be followed uncritically: inclusion of gain inevitably modifies the underlying dispersion law, and thereby may degrade the slow-light properties underlying the device operation and the anticipated gain enhancement itself. This degradation is generic; we demonstrate it for three different systems of current interest (coupled-resonator optical waveguides, Bragg stacks, and photonic crystal waveguides). Nevertheless, a small amount of added gain may be beneficial.     

Rotational Motion of a Solute Molecule in a Highly Viscous Liquid Studied byC NMR: 1,3-Dibromoadamantane in Polymeric Chlorotrifluoroethene

The viscosity-dependent retarding effect of a polymeric solvent on the rotation of small solute molecules is investigated by¹³C NMR relaxation measurements. It is found that the relaxation data of 1,3-dibromoadamantane in highly viscous polymeric chlorotrifluoroethene can be explained neither by isotropic nor by realistic anisotropic tumbling in a single environment. The experimental data are rationalized in terms of fast exchange between at least two environments with correlation times differing by up to two orders of magnitude. The study shows that a uniform retardation of molecular tumbling by a polymeric solvent, desirable for shifting the NMR observation window in studies of intramolecular mobility, is not always feasible.     

Diffusion Lattice Boltzmann Scheme on a Orthorhombic Lattice

We present a diffusion lattice Boltzmann (DLB) scheme which is derived from first principles. As opposed to the traditional lattice BGK schemes the DLB is valid for orthorhombic lattices and it has two eigenvalues of the collision operator. It is shown that the diffusion coefficient depends only on one eigenvalue of the collision operator. Hence, the DLB scheme can be optimized with means of the additional eigenvalue of the collision operator and with different lattice spacing along the principal axes. The properties of the DLB scheme concerning consistency, stability, and accuracy are studied with eigenmode analysis. This analysis shows that the DLB scheme is consistent with diffusion for a wide range of diffusion coefficients, it has unconditional stability, and that it has third-order accuracy. Furthermore, it is shown that accuracy is improved by setting the additional eigenvalue to zero and by densifying the lattice spacing along the direction of the density gradient.     

Accurate measurement of one-bond H-X heteronuclear dipolar couplings in MAS solid-state NMR

The accurate experimental determination of dipolar-coupling constants for one-bond heteronuclear dipolar couplings in solids is a key for the quantification of the amplitudes of motional processes. Averaging of the dipolar coupling reports on motions on time scales up to the inverse of the coupling constant, in our case tens of microseconds. Combining dipolar-coupling derived order parameters that characterize the amplitudes of the motion with relaxation data leads to a more precise characterization of the dynamical parameters and helps to disentangle the amplitudes and the time scales of the motional processes, which impact relaxation rates in a highly correlated way. Here. we describe and characterize an improved experimental protocol--based on REDOR--to measure these couplings in perdeuterated proteins with a reduced sensitivity to experimental missettings. Because such effects are presently the dominant source of systematic errors in experimental dipolar-coupling measurements, these compensated experiments should help to significantly improve the precision of such data. A detailed comparison with other commonly used pulse sequences (T-MREV, phase-inverted CP, R18(2)(5), and R18(1)(7)) is provided.     

Ultrafast magnon generation in an Fe film on Cu(100)

We report on a combined experimental and theoretical study of the spin-dependent relaxation processes in the electron system of an iron film on Cu(100). Spin-, time-, energy- and angle-resolved two-photon photoemission shows a strong characteristic dependence of the lifetime of photoexcited electrons on their spin and energy. Ab?initio calculations as well as a many-body treatment corroborate that the observed properties are determined by relaxation processes involving magnon emission. Thereby we demonstrate that magnon emission by hot electrons occurs on the femtosecond time scale and thus provides a significant source of ultrafast spin-flip processes. Furthermore, engineering of the magnon spectrum paves the way for tuning the dynamic properties of magnetic materials.     

Accurate determination of wavenumbers for iodine molecular lines in the red spectral region

The hyperfine structure of various absorption lines of molecular iodine with wavenumbers between 12980 and 13890 cm^–1 has been resolved using Doppler-free polarization spectroscopy. The wavenumbers of theo-component of 17 rovibrational lines of I₂ due to the transitionB ³ _ou ⁺ –X¹ _g ⁺ with even rotational quantum numbers have been determined with an accuracy of 0.001 cm^–1. A comparison of the centers of gravity of these 17 lines with the values of the iodine atlas of Gerstenkorn et al. yields a difference of thus corroborating the data of the iodine atlas in the red region within limits of error.     

Protein recognition using synthetic surface-targeted agents

The design of synthetic agents to disrupt protein-protein interactions has received relatively little attention in recent years. In this review we describe strategies for targeting different types of protein surfaces using mimetics of protein secondary or tertiary structure. In this way strong and selective binding to a protein surface has be achieved and disruption of clinically important protein-protein interactions has been demonstrated in models of human disease.