Accuracy of typical approximations in classical models of intermolecular polarization

One of the largest limitations of standard molecular-mechanics force fields is the neglect of intermolecular polarization. Several attempts to cure this problem have been made, but the results have not always been fully satisfactory. In this paper, we present a quantitative study of the fundamental approximations that underlie polarization models for classical force fields. The induced charge density of a large set of molecular dimers is compared to supermolecular calculations for a hierarchy of simplified models. We study the effect of the Pauli principle, the local inhomogeneity of the electric field, the intramolecular coupling of the polarization response, and the fact that the induced density is a continuous function. We show that standard point-polarizability models work rather well, despite their lack of all these effects, because (1) there is a systematic error cancellation between the neglect of effects of the Pauli principle and the locally inhomogeneous electric field, and (2) the lack of intramolecular coupling and the use of a dipole expansion of the induced density have only minor effects on the polarization. However, the cancellation in (1) is not perfect, and therefore polarizable force-fields could be improved if both effects are explicitly treated.     

Size dependent fragmentation of argon clusters in the soft x-ray ionization regime

Photofragmentation of argon clusters of average size ranging from 10 up to 1000 atoms is studied using soft x-ray radiation below the 2p threshold and multicoincidence mass spectroscopy technique. For small clusters (=10), ionization induces fast fragmentation with neutral emission imparting a large amount of energy. While the primary dissociation takes place on a picosecond time scale, the fragments undergo slow degradation in the spectrometer on a microsecond time scale. For larger clusters ( >or=100) we believe that we observe the fragmentation pattern of multiply charged species on a time-scale which lasts a few hundred nanoseconds. The reason for these slower processes is the large number of neutral atoms which act as an efficient cooling bath where the excess energy ("heat") dissipates among all degrees of freedom. Further degradation of the photoionic cluster in spectrometer then takes place on the microsecond time scale, similar to small clusters.     

Cationic agents for DNA compaction

Fluorescence microscopy was used to investigate the conformational changes of individual T4 DNA molecules induced by different compacting agents, namely the cationic surfactants, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and chloride (CTAC), iron(III), lysozyme, and protamine sulfate. A protocol for establishing size estimates is suggested to obtain reproducible results. Observations show that in the presence of lysozyme and protamine sulfate, DNA molecules exhibit a conformational change from an elongated coil structure to compact globules, usually interpreted as a first-order transition. The maximum degree of compaction that is attained when iron(III) or CTAB (CTAC) are used as compacting agents is considerably smaller, and intermediate structures (less elongated coils) are visible even for high concentrations of these agents. Dynamic light scattering experiments were carried out, for some of the systems, to assess the reliability of size estimates from fluorescence microscopy.     

Electron paramagnetic resonance and density-functional theory studies of Cu(II)-bis(oxamato) complexes

In this work we present the investigation of the influence of electronic and structural variations induced by varying the N,N'-bridge on the magnetic properties of Cu(II)- bis(oxamato) complexes. For this study the complexes [Cu(opba)] (2-) ( 1, opba = o-phenylene- bis(oxamato)), [Cu(nabo)] (2-) ( 2, nabo = 2,3-naphthalene- bis(oxamato)), [Cu(acbo)] (2-) ( 3, acbo = 2,3-anthrachinone- bis(oxamato)), [Cu(pba)] (2-) ( 4, pba = propylene- bis(oxamato)), [Cu(obbo)] (2-) ( 5, obbo = o-benzyl- bis(oxamato)), and [Cu(npbo)] (2-) ( 6, npbo = 1,8-naphthalene- bis(oxamato)), and the respective structurally isomorphic Ni(II) complexes ( 8- 13) have been prepared as ( (n)Bu 4N) (+) salts. The new complex ( (n)Bu 4N) 2[Cu(R-bnbo)].2H 2O ( 7, R-bnbo = (R)-1,1'-binaphthalene-2,2'- bis(oxamato)) was synthesized and is the first chiral complex in the series of Cu(II)-bis(oxamato) complexes. The molecular structure of 7 has been determined by single crystal X-ray analysis. The Cu(II) ions of the complexes 1- 7 are eta (4)(kappa (2) N, kappa (2) O) coordinated with a more or less distorted square planar geometry for 1- 6 and a distorted tetrahedral geometry for 7. Using pulsed Electron Nuclear Double Resonance on complex 6, detailed information about the relative orientation of the hyperfine ( A) and nuclear quadrupole tensors ( Q) of the coordinating nitrogens with respect to the g tensor were obtained. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance studies in the X, Q, and W-band at variable temperatures were carried out to extract g and A values of N ligands and Cu ion for 1- 7. The hyperfine values were interpreted in terms of spin population on the corresponding atoms. The obtained trends of the spin population for the monomeric building blocks were shown to correlate to the trends obtained in the dependence of the exchange interaction of the corresponding trinuclear complexes on their geometry.     

Magnetic field dependence of photo-CIDNP MAS NMR on photosynthetic reaction centers of Rhodobacter sphaeroides WT

Photochemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (photo-CIDNP) is observed in frozen and quinone depleted photosynthetic reaction centers of the purple bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides wild type (WT) by (13)C solid-state NMR at three different magnetic fields. All light-induced signals appear to be emissive at all three fields. At 4.7 T (200 MHz proton frequency), the strongest enhancement of NMR signals is observed, which is more than 10 000 above the Boltzmann polarization. At higher fields, the enhancement factor decreases. At 17.6 T, the enhancement factor is about 60. The field dependence of the enhancement appears to be the same for all nuclei. The observed field dependence is in line with simulations that assume two competing mechanisms of polarization transfer from electrons to nuclei, three-spin mixing (TSM) and differential decay (DD). These simulations indicate a ratio of the electron spin density on the special pair cofactors is 3:2 in favor of the L-BChl during the radical cation state. The good agreement of simulations with the experiments raises expectations that artificial solid reaction centers can be tuned to show photo-CIDNP in the near future.     

Nonbranching weak and starshaped strong solutions for Hele-Shaw dynamics

We consider multidimensional weak and strong Hele-Shaw dynamics (t) of an advancing/receding viscous fluid injected/removed through a single finite point into/from a bounded domain (0). A class of weak solutions is shown to preserve local uniqueness in both directions. Then we also consider strong solutions (t), and show that if (0) is starshaped with respect to a small ball centered on the point of injection, then the evolution (t) exists for all time.Received: 5 March 2004     

The Deregulated Electricity Market Viewed as a Bilevel Programming Problem

In this paper, we present a bilevel programming formulation of a deregulated electricity market. By examining the electricity market in this format, we achieve two things. First, the relation of the deregulated electricity market to general economic models that can be formulated as bilevel programming problems (e.g. Stackelberg leader-follower games and principal-agency models) becomes clear. Secondly, it provides an explanation of the reason why the so-called “folk theorems” can be proven to be false for electricity networks. The interpretation of the deregulated electricity market as a bilevel program also indicates the magnitude of the error that can be made if the electricity market model studied does not take into account the physical constraints of the electric grid, or oversimplifies the electricity network to a radial network.