Smith-Purcell Radiation in the Sub-mm Wavelength Region

Spontaneous Smith-Purcell radiation at wavelengths of 100 and 220m has been observed. The angles of observation were 17° and 28° and the electron beam energies 1.9 and 1.56MeV, respectively. The radiated power was about 320nW at 17° and 92nW at 28°. These values are in reasonable agreement with what is theoretically expected if the emission process is due to the acceleration of image charges induced on the grating surface by the electrons of the beam.     

Constructing irregular surfaces to enclose macromolecular complexes for mesoscale modeling using the discrete surface charge optimization (DISCO) algorithm

Salt-mediated electrostatics interactions play an essential role in biomolecular structures and dynamics. Because macromolecular systems modeled at atomic resolution contain thousands of solute atoms, the electrostatic computations constitute an expensive part of the force and energy calculations. Implicit solvent models are one way to simplify the model and associated calculations, but they are generally used in combination with standard atomic models for the solute. To approximate electrostatics interactions in models on the polymer level (e.g., supercoiled DNA) that are simulated over long times (e.g., milliseconds) using Brownian dynamics, Beard and Schlick have developed the DiSCO (Discrete Surface Charge Optimization) algorithm. DiSCO represents a macromolecular complex by a few hundred discrete charges on a surface enclosing the system modeled by the Debye-Hückel (screened Coulombic) approximation to the Poisson-Boltzmann equation, and treats the salt solution as continuum solvation. DiSCO can represent the nucleosome core particle (>12,000 atoms), for example, by 353 discrete surface charges distributed on the surfaces of a large disk for the nucleosome core particle and a slender cylinder for the histone tail; the charges are optimized with respect to the Poisson-Boltzmann solution for the electric field, yielding a approximately 5.5% residual. Because regular surfaces enclosing macromolecules are not sufficiently general and may be suboptimal for certain systems, we develop a general method to construct irregular models tailored to the geometry of macromolecules. We also compare charge optimization based on both the electric field and electrostatic potential refinement. Results indicate that irregular surfaces can lead to a more accurate approximation (lower residuals), and the refinement in terms of the electric field is more robust. We also show that surface smoothing for irregular models is important, that the charge optimization (by the TNPACK minimizer) is efficient and does not depend on the initial assigned values, and that the residual is acceptable when the distance to the model surface is close to, or larger than, the Debye length. We illustrate applications of DiSCO's model-building procedure to chromatin folding and supercoiled DNA bound to Hin and Fis proteins. DiSCO is generally applicable to other interesting macromolecular systems for which mesoscale models are appropriate, to yield a resolution between the all-atom representative and the polymer level.     

Low-energy effects in brane worlds: Liennard–Wiechert potentials and Hydrogen Lamb shift

Testing extra dimensions at low-energies may lead to interesting effects. In this work a test point charge is taken to move uniformly in the 3D subspace of a (3 + n)-brane embedded in a (3 + n + 1)-space with n compact and one warped infinite spatial extra dimensions. We found that the electromagnetic potentials of the point charge match standard Liennard–Wiechert’s at large distances but differ from them close to it. These are finite at the position of the charge and produce finite self-energies. We also studied a localized Hydrogen atom and take the deviation from the standard Coulomb potential as a perturbation. This produces a Lamb shift that is compared with known experimental data to set bounds for the parameter of the model. This work provides details and extends results reported in a previous Letter. We are pleased to dedicate this work to Professor Octavio Obregón on occasion of his 60th birthday. H. A. Morales-Técotl is an associate member of the Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste Italy.     

Lattice Dynamics at Zone-Center of Sulphide and Selenide Spinels

A rigid-ion model is used to calculate the force constants and effective dynamical charges of sulphide and selenide spinels. The Raman and infrared phonon modes of normal cubic sulphide spinels MCr2S4 （M = Mn, Co, Fe, Hg, Zn, and Cd） and selenide spinels MCr2Se4 （M = Hg, Zn, and Cd） are calculated at the first Brillouin zone-centre using above model, The significant outcome of the present work is （i） the interatomic interaction between Cr-S （Se） dominates over the Cr-S（Se） and S-S（Se-Se） type of interatomic interactions, （ii） the effective dynamical charges of the bivalent metal ions are nearly zero, and （iii） the selenide spinels are less ionic than the sulphide spinels and the ionicity decreases as MnCr2S4 〉 FeCr2S4 〉 CoCr2S4 〉 and CdOr2C4 〉 ZnCr2C4 〉 HgCr2C4 （C = S and Se）. The zone-center phonon frequencies, calculated using these parameters, are found to be in very good agreement with the observed results.     

Squeezing transfer from vibrations to a cavity field in an ion-trap laser

We present a novel way to produce squeezed light in an optical cavity. The main idea is to transfer vibrational squeezing from the motion of a trapped ion to the photons in a cavity. We use the dipolar coupling of the motion of a three-level ion with one cavity mode and two different kind of pumps. The first pump is an oscillating electric field that drives the ion into a vibrational squeezed state. The second pump consists of two lasers resonant with the ionic levels that makes the transfer possible.     

新型MIp~+-Al_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)As/p-n-n~+-GaAs太阳电池的设计与I-V特性理论分析

为充分利用太阳光的短波部分,将AlxGa1-xAs设计为电池的又一个光伏工作层,并引入固定负电荷,建立界面感应势垒,形成MIp -AlGaAs感应结,有效降低界面对光生电子的复合。以制作工艺简单的p -AlGaAs／p-GaAs界面,将感应结与p／n-GaAs部分连接起来,构成新型高效率复合结构MIp -Al0.3Ga0.7As／p-n-n -GaAs太阳电池。其I-V特性理论研究绐果表明,选择合适的负电荷面密度数和Al0.3Ga0.7As层的掺杂浓度,即:建立合适高度的感应势垒,可显著降低界面复合速度近8个数量级。优化设计得到的整个电池的效率为31.5％,较传统的窗口层电池有明显提高。     

A DFT study of determination of the reactive sites of the acetylcholine and its agonists: In the gas phase and dielectric medium

The reactive behavior of acetylcholine and its agonist molecules have been investigated using B3LYP hybrid density functional method at the 6‐311++G** basis set level, in the gas phase and aqueous phase. The calculations have been performed to obtain optimized geometries, relative reactivities, net atomic charges, HOMO, and LUMO energies. The solvent effect has been analyzed by using the continuum model (IPCM) and, the obtained results have shown that the all molecules have been stabilized more by solvent dielectric constant. For Ach and its analogues, it has been very well known that esteratic site and quaternary ammonium group which have reflected the difference in biological activity have been the two of the most important active site for interactions between molecule and its receptor. The structures of these analogues have provided an essential foundation for subsequent structure‐activity analysis of ligand binding at acetylcholine receptors, neuronal uptake inhibitors and transporters. Molecular modeling predictions will be important initial steps toward the development of novel pharmaceuticals in the fight acetylcholine‐related neurological disorders. This work is therefore expected to facilitate the design and development of new biologically active Ach analogues to treat Ach‐related neurological disorders and, specially is used to qualitative understanding of the reactivity and related properties and, so on can be used to a preselection of new ligands which at the moment is taken essentially from empirical knowledge. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011     

On the Pointwise Limit of Vector Charges with the Saks Property

The well-known theorem about the density of the space of probability charges with the Saks property in the space of all probability charges in the pointwise topology is proved in the vector case. New features are the uniform Saks property for the family of charges and sufficient conditions for the pointwise limit of a sequence of charges to have the Saks property.