Soft Condensed Matter Physics

We demonstrate a method of heterogeneous vesicle binding using membrane-anchored, single-stranded DNA that can be used over several orders of magnitude in vesicle size, as demonstrated for large 100 nm vesicles and giant vesicles several microns in diameter. The aggregation behavior is studied for a range of DNA surface concentrations and solution ionic strengths. Three analogous states of aggregation are observed on both vesicle size scales. We explain the existence of these three regimes by a combination of DNA binding favorability, vesicle collision kinetics, and lateral diffusion of the DNA within the fluid membrane. The reversibility of the DNA hybridization allows dissociation of the structures formed and can be achieved either thermally or by a reduction in the ionic strength of the external aqueous environment. Difficulty is found in fully unbinding giant vesicles by thermal dehybridization, possibly frustrated by the attractive van der Waals minimum in the intermembrane potential when brought into close contact by DNA binding. This obstacle can be overcome by the isothermal reduction of the ionic strength of the solution: this reduces the Debye screening length, coupling the effects of DNA dehybridization and intermembrane repulsion due to the increased electrostatic repulsion between the highly charged DNA backbones. † Part of the "Giacinto Scoles Festschrift".

Inspired by experimental studies of short-ranged attractive patchy particles, we study with computer simulations the phase behavior and the crystalline structures of one-patch colloids with an interaction range equal to 5% of the particle diameter. In particular, we study the effects of the patch surface coverage fraction, defined as the ratio between the attractive and the total surface of a particle. Using free-energy calculations and thermodynamic integration schemes, we evaluate the equilibrium phase diagrams for particles with patch coverage fractions of 30%, 50% and 60%. For a 60% surface coverage fraction, we observe stable lamellar crystals consisting of stacked bilayers that directly coexist with a low density fluid. Inside the coexistence region, we observe the formation of lamellar structures also in direct NVT simulations, indicating that the barrier of formation is low and experimental realization is feasible.

This study raises doubts about some fundamental ideas of electrostatics, namely the uniqueness theorems. The Poisson-Boltzmann equation (PBE) gives us very simple formula for charge density distribution (ρe) within fluids. Here we show that the old boundary conditions (BC), which are usually used to solve PBE, have serious defects. For example, Dirichlet condition (DC) assigns values to electrostatic potential (ψ) at different boundaries in an absolute sense i.e. without specifying any reference, which is meaningless and leads to violation of charge conservation principle. The Neumann condition (NC) assigns 'independent' values to ψ at different boundaries, whereas they are actually 'related' to each other through Poisson's equation in electrostatics (PES), which makes the solutions non-unique. We use BCs of mixed type to derive correct formula for ρe that addresses the above defects. A remarkable conclusion follows: the present physical interpretation of 'Debye length' (λD) as a screening length is incorrect.

Spatial confinement in nanoporous media affects the structure, thermodynamics and mobility of molecular soft matter often markedly. This article reviews thermodynamic equilibrium phenomena, such as physisorption, capillary condensation, crystallisation, self-diffusion, and structural phase transitions as well as selected aspects of the emerging field of spatially confined, non-equilibrium physics, i.e. the rheology of liquids, capillarity-driven flow phenomena, and imbibition front broadening in nanoporous materials. The observations in the nanoscale systems are related to the corresponding bulk phenomenologies. The complexity of the confined molecular species is varied from simple building blocks, like noble gas atoms, normal alkanes and alcohols to liquid crystals, polymers, ionic liquids, proteins and water. Mostly, experiments with mesoporous solids of alumina, gold, carbon, silica, and silicon with pore diameters ranging from a few up to 50 nm are presented. The observed peculiarities of nanopore-confined condensed matter are also discussed with regard to applications.
A particular emphasis is put on texture formation upon crystallisation in nanoporous media, a topic both of high fundamental interest and of increasing nanotechnological importance, e.g. for the synthesis of organic/inorganic hybrid materials by melt infiltration, the usage of nanoporous solids in crystal nucleation or in template-assisted electrochemical deposition of nano structures.

A superluminal quantum-vortex model of the electron and the positron is produced from a superluminal double-helix model of the photon during electron-positron pair production. The two oppositely-charged (with Q = ±e sqrt (2/α) = 16.6e) open-helix spin-½ half-photons compose the double-helix photon. These half-photons separate and curl up their separated superluminal single-helical trajectories to form an electrically-charged superluminal closed-helix spin-½ quantum-vortex electron model and a corresponding positron model. The helical radius and the Dirac equation's zitterbewegung angular frequency of the quantum vortex electron and positron models equal the helical radius and zitterbewegung angular frequency of the two spin-½ half-photons, each of energy E = mc^2 , that composed the double-helix photon model of energy E = 2mc^2 from which the electron and positron models were produced. The photon and electron models are also compatible when a photon of energy E > 2mc^2 produces a relativistic electron-positron pair. Implications of the quantum vortex electron model for electron stability are discussed.

Batch cooling and antisolvent crystallization of copper sulfate pentahydrate using surfactant additives is investigated to understand the effect of various factors on its morphology. It has been found that nonionic surfactants have a marginal effect on this ionic compound, whereas ionic surfactants are able to modify the morphology substantially. Alcoholic antisolvents are also found to be effective habit modifiers that produce elongated crystals. It has been shown that the effects of surfactants and antisolvents can be combined by using a surfactant−antisolvent pair. The effect of surfactant is observed after a certain threshold concentration. A detailed study of the critical micellar concentration (CMC) of sodium dodecyl sulfate in copper sulfate pentahydrate solution confirmed that this threshold concentration is close to the CMC of the surfactant in copper sulfate pentahydrate solution. Evidence suggests that a concentration higher than CMC is required to maintain a surfactant reservoir in the system, leading to a change in the crystal morphology. This insight may help to predict the minimum required surfactant concentration for habit modification for an unknown system.

Solutions of most globular proteins are charge-stabilized. Charge screening, salting-in and salting-out behavior via addition of salts are available ways controlling the phase behavior of the solutions. However, multivalent salts have been found to induce even more complex effects in protein solutions. In particular, reentrant condensation is observed for several globular proteins in the presence of multivalent salts (1, 2), i.e. the protein solution is stable at low and high salt concentration but phase-separates at intermediate salt concentration. As conclusive explanation, specific ion binding to the protein residues and pH effects cause an inversion of the protein global charge.
Importantly, besides the expected amorphous aggregation at low charge-stabilization, also a liquid-liquid phase separation occurs for several proteins at intermediate salt concentration. The full phase diagram of the protein solution extends to three control parameter – temperature, protein and salt concentration. Considering the protein-ion complexes as effective particles with short-range attractions whose strength varies with the
protein charge, the full phase behavior can be explained. Interestingly, the observed lower critical solution point suggests an inportant role of hydration to the free energy of the protein solution.

An alternative to Roger Penrose's "OR" needing an obscure high energy quantum gravity using only battle-tested low energy condensed matter physics, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and the post-Bohmian weak measurement Lagrangian method of Roderick Sutherland.

(READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING THE EXAM) (Answer the following questions by filling up the provided OMR sheet by darkening the appropriate option by only " BLACK BALL POINT PEN ". Out of four options only one option is correct. +2 will be credited for each correct answer,-0.5 for each incorrect answer and 0 for no answer. Use of any electronic mean, like CALCULATOR, MOBILE or PLOTTER is STRICTLY PROHIBITED!!!) TIME: 2.5 Hours TOTAL: 50 × 2 = 100 1. The intensity (average power per unit area) of sunlight hitting the earth is about 1300 watt/m 2. Given = 8.85 × 10 C/Nm 2 and = 1.25 × 10 N/A 2. The amplitude of the electric field of the EM radiation from the sun approximately at the earth's surface is (a) 1000 dynes/Coulomb (b) 1000 Newton/Coulomb (c) 10 Newton/Coulomb (d) 10 Newton/Coulomb 2. If electric field E and magnetic field B are perpendicular in one Lorentz frame, then the angle between them in another frame (moving with an uniform velocity of 0.5c with respect to the former, is (a) (b) (c) (d) 3. Four charges are placed in the x-y plane as follows:+ (,)& (−, 0); − at (, −) & (−, −). Which of the following statements about the first non-zero moment is true? (a) It is the dipole moment and | | = 4. (b) It is the dipole moment and | | = 2. (c) It is the quadruple moment and = 12. (d) It is the dipole moment and = 4. 4. The function (−||) where = + , is (a) Analytic and continuous everywhere (b) Analytic everywhere but not continuous (c) Continuous everywhere but not analytic (d) Neither analytic nor continuous 5. Which of the following vectors is perpendicular to the surface of an ellipsoid + + = 3 at the point (, ,)? (a) ̂ + ̂ + (b) ̂ + ̂ + (c) ̂ + ̂ + (d) ̂ + ̂ +

xx stage of the preparation and development of the school, and we would like to thank them warmly on behalf of all students and lecturers. We also thank the former director François David for his help during the early stages of preparation, and the school scientific council for encouraging us in preparing a session on this topic.

Researchers in many fields including cell biology, neuroscience, biomedicine and bioengineering continue to face significant challenges that emerge from the astonishing complexity of living organisms. While a strict mechanistic view of human functioning is becoming a less dominant paradigm there remain myriad questions and difficulties when attempting to bridge the whole with its parts. For example; what is a brain, where does consciousness reside, and what is the unifying intelligence holding the "container" for biological development as the source of self-regulation, self-assembly, maintenance, emergent properties and dynamic biological order? We have reached an unprecedented level of technology where significant amounts of previously unproven information is now measurable under laboratory conditions, together with access to accumulated human knowledge, understanding and experience outside of specialist scientific communities. Yet acknowledgment of many large and still unanswered questions such as those above is noticeably avoided in many published scientific papers. An example which will be covered in some depth is the regular omission of any mention of the role of water in molecular processes, despite all life being predominantly composed of it. When taken in totality the wealth of extensively researched data and experimental and theoretical evidence provides considerable insight into the complex forces and interactions which in together produce the means and energy for life across all scales. A holistic approach from the biophysical perspective stresses is necessary to take a global, systemic, dynamic, self-organizing and energetic view to gain insight into optimal human functioning far beyond the mere absence of disease. Human health emerges from a comprehensively interconnected and unified web, where physiological and psychological subsystems are optimally synchronized and coherent with each other, and across all scales of their environment, in a highly coordinated way. Dysfunction, disease and the effects of aging arise when there is breakdown in this synchronized flow of coherent energy and information.

Density functional theory based on full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (FP-LAPW) method is used to investigate the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of Fe 3Àx Mn x Z (Z¼ Al, Ge, Sb) Heusler alloys, where 0 r x r 3. Alloys with x r 1 are found to exhibit a ferromagnetic phase, whereas the rest have shown ferrimagnetic phase. The total spin magnetic moment shows a trend consistent with generalized Slater-Pauling type behavior. Alloys with x 4 0:75 are found to be half metallic with indirect band gaps along G2X symmetry line for stoichiometric and direct band gaps for nonstoichiometric alloys. We found that Mn rich composition of Fe 3Àx Mn x Z alloys has high spin polarization.

Spatial confinement in nanoporous media affects the structure, thermodynamics and mobility of molecular soft matter often markedly. This article reviews thermodynamic equilibrium phenomena, such as physisorption, capillary condensation, crystallisation, self-diffusion, and structural phase transitions as well as selected aspects of the emerging field of spatially confined, non-equilibrium physics, i.e. the rheology of liquids, capillarity-driven flow phenomena, and imbibition front broadening in nanoporous materials. The observations in the nanoscale systems are related to the corresponding bulk phenomenologies. The complexity of the confined molecular species is varied from simple building blocks, like noble gas atoms, normal alkanes and alcohols to liquid crystals, polymers, ionic liquids, proteins and water. Mostly, experiments with mesoporous solids of alumina, gold, carbon, silica, and silicon with pore diameters ranging from a few up to 50 nm are presented. The observed peculi...

WE DO NOT WANT US TO KNOW THAT WE ARE GODS

ALL HUMANS ARE GODS IF EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OF OUR MINDS IS A HOAX (ILLUSION) AND IT IS THEN US TALKING HUMANS CREATE IT EVERY MICROSECOND, AND WE DO. WE PLANTED THE HOAX SO THAT WE WILL WAKE UP THIS TIME DUE TO THE INTERNET

In this manuscript we report pH induced micellar transition in aqueous solution of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in the presence of three weakly polar aromatic additives viz. p-toluic acid, p-cresol and p-toluidine scrutinized by viscosity, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements. Interaction between these additives and CTAB micelles changes the size and shape of the micelles. Variation in pH alters the charge on the polar group and leads to protonation/deprotonation of acidic/basic group of the additives. Depending upon the pH of solution additives interact with CTAB micelles and accordingly change the solution behavior/aggregation characteristics. Morphological changes of surfactant aggregates as a function of additive concentration and pH were monitored by SANS measurements. NMR studies reveal a pH dependent location of the additive molecules in the micelles.

This research was funded by, and implemented within, a UK national research organisation, while the author was the KE and Impact Evaluation Manager responsible for assessing impact on a £15m UK government-funded research programme.

This work was also submitted as the authors MBA dissertation which was accepted and awarded in 2009.

ABSTRACT: A methodology and methods ‘toolbox’ is proposed for conducting impact research and assessment from within research programmes. The emphasis is upon how to clarify and assess the wider impacts from the early stages onwards.

The approach explicitly acknowledges, and attempts to address, the known issues and challenges of impact assessment while drawing upon the resources and opportunities available to research managers and researchers within such programmes.

The study has two triangulating foundations. Firstly, it examines the academic literature to help identify and design the pilot methodology and methods. Secondly it trials these in a real programme to both test and improve them.

The study was conducted over one year within one leading UK research organisation, where two research programmes (and around 60 research projects of £15m total value) were being assessed for their impacts. The study draws upon actual impact management experience and reflection, prospective (ex ante) and retrospective (ex post) assessments, participatory contributions from leading researchers undergoing assessment, and consultation with external users. The findings of this study outline the pilot and its first iteration. Recommendations are made for improvement to the methodology and methods.

A subsequent follow-on bid to UK government incorporating the impacts identified from implementing this methodology, successfully led to a further £15m of government funding.

It is expected the pilot methodology and methods will be applicable to other organisations, conducting and funding such research programmes, required to research and assess the wider research impacts.

Although primary focus of implemetation trials was upon research in physical sciences, technology, high-tech engineering, computing/IT, and environment, the wider literature study, the methodology design and justification, the methods proposed and used, and the resulting general recommendations and lessons are expected to apply more broadly to many other research areas, where the impact is to be found more widely in the society, economy, government or public sector or within organizations, policies, professions or the public.

Interest in this work is expected from research programme managers, impact managers and assessors, management consultants advising in this area, and government funding managers, all seeking to embed a developing approach to understand, capture, and enhance wider impact.

S. M. Morris, D. J. Gardiner, F. Castles, P. J. W. Hands, T. W. Wilkinson, and H. J. Coles

Official link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3670041
PDF: http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~fc252/APL_99_253502_2011.PDF

We demonstrate a fast-switching (sub-millisecond) phase grating based upon a polymer stabilized short-pitch chiral nematic liquid crystal that is electrically addressed using in-plane electric fields. The combination of the short-pitch and the polymer stabilization enables the diffraction pattern to be switched “on” and “off” reversibly in 600 µs. Results are presented on the far-field diffraction pattern along with the intensity of the diffraction orders as a function of the applied electric field and the response times.

We report electro-optical behavior of a dye doped nematic liquid crystal. The dye doped cells have shown some improvement in some parameters important for the display devices such as threshold voltage (V th ), splay elastic constant, rotational viscosity and response time. The suppression of screening effect improves the threshold voltage for the doped sample. PACS: 64.70.M−, 42.79.Kr

Why there's No velocity higher than Light Velocity C =300000 km/sec? Because • The Matter is created from light beams coherence (according to Young Experiment-The Main Hypothesis) • The Time is created as the Matter Changing measurement • Our body (matter) is produced by the same method, from this light beams coherence • Our bodies are connected with specific Light velocity and specific time rate because our bodies are produced by specific Light Beams coherence

International Journal of Recent advances in Physics (IJRAP) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal, addresses the impacts and challenges of Physics. The journal documents practical and theoretical results which make a fundamental contribution for the development of Physics.

A number of features of living systems, reversible interactions and weak bonds underlying motor-dynamics; gel-sol transitions; cellular connected fractal organization; asymmetry in interactions and organization; quantum coherent phenomena; to name some, can have a natural accounting via physical interactions, which we therefore seek to incorporate by expanding the horizons of “chemistry-only” approaches to the origins of life. It is suggested that the magnetic “face” of the minerals from the inorganic world, recognized to have played a pivotal role in initiating Life, may throw light on some of these issues. A magnetic environment in the form of rocks in the Hadean Ocean could have enabled the accretion and therefore an ordered confinement of super-paramagnetic colloids within a structured phase. A moderate H-field can help magnetic nanoparticles to not only overcome thermal fluctuations but also harness them. Such controlled dynamics brings in the possibility of accessing quantum effects, which together with frustrations in magnetic ordering and hysteresis (a natural mechanism for a primitive memory) could throw light on the birth of biological information which, as Abel argues, requires a combination of order and complexity. This scenario gains strength from observations of scale-free framboidal forms of the greigite mineral, with a magnetic basis of assembly. And greigite’s metabolic potential plays a key role in the mound scenario of Russell and coworkers-an expansion of which is suggested for including magnetism.

In this paper, we present a method for determining the area in which an airplane that has feared
to crash in open waters can be found. We then utilize our models to help plan for future aircraft
disasters by finding areas of high search priority so that we can optimize search flight
formations. Our models first take a continuous approach to solve for the differential equations
that describe the motion of the plane as it crashes. Then, to account for the ocean's surface
currents, a discrete method is used to track the motion of the wreckage after crashing at a
location near the plane's loss of signal. With both combined, our model takes advantage of
fundamental theorems in both Physics and Calculus in order to find areas of high search priority.
Specifically, we use the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus to assess that solving the problem at
its bounds will give us a solution within the bounds.
Our physical crash model finds that the area of uncertainty for a plane crash is proportional to the
time between the lost signal and the crash multiplied by the difference in its maximum and
minimum velocities. This means that the more we know about when a crash takes place, the less
the area of uncertainty. We show results of different areas of uncertainty for different aircraft.
The ocean current model used in this paper attempts to emulate circulatory currents, called gyre
currents. We find that the closer a crash is to the center of a gyre, the more likely it is for the
crash debris to drift outward radially. We also find that the further a crash site is from the gyre
center, the likelier it is to spread out along a curve. Our ocean current model has the capability to
resemble an arbitrary surface current, and to potentially represent real-time surface currents from
ocean sensors and be expanded for underwater currents.
We combine the data to determine areas of search priority and search patrol. A test comparison
case is presented with the Air France flight 447 crash as the leading example. With this, we
construct a plan to aid in future search and rescue missions with a primary emphasis on ensuring
the safety of possible survivors.

The many-particle Langevin equation, written in local coordinates, is used to derive a Brownian
dynamics simulation algorithm to study the dynamics of colloids moving on curved manifolds. The
predictions of the resulting algorithm for the particular case of free particles diffusing along a circle
and on a sphere are tested against analytical results, as well as with simulation data obtained by means
of the standard Brownian dynamics algorithm developed by Ermak and McCammon [J. Chem. Phys.
69, 1352 (1978)] using explicitly a confining external field. The latter method allows constraining
the particles to move in regions very tightly, emulating the diffusion on the manifold. Additionally,
the proposed algorithm is applied to strong correlated systems, namely, paramagnetic colloids along
a circle and soft colloids on a sphere, to illustrate its applicability to systems made up of interacting
particles.

In block copolymer-mediated synthesis of gold nanoparticles, block copolymers are known to control the nucleation and growth of the nanoparticles, which in turn decides the synthesis output (formation rate, yield, shape, size and stability). Herein, we have examined the block copolymer concentration-dependence on the recently developed high-yield synthesis of gold nanoparticles. We show that the gold nanoparticles with same size distribution, yield and stability can be synthesized even the block copolymer concentration decreased by three orders. These high-yield gold nanoparticles with very low capping agent thus can be efficiently used for their applications such as bio-sensing and drug delivery.

This work presents a study of the dc electrical resistance of a recently discovered hierarchical two-dimensional system which has a complex topology consisting of a distribution of disordered macroscopic loops with no characteristic size and a distribution of several types of contacts between loops. In addition to its intrinsic interest in the important context of low-dimensional systems and crumpled systems, the structures under study are of relevance in a number of areas including soft condensed matter and packing of DNA in viral capsids. In the particular case discussed here, the loops are made of layers of graphite with a height of tens of nanometers deposited on a substrate of cellulose. Experiments with these systems indicate an anomalous electrical resistance of sub-diffusive type. The results reported here are explained with scaling arguments and computer simulation. A comparison with the dc electrical properties of percolation clusters is made, and some other experimental issues as future prospects are commented.

Raman investigation of isostructural polycrystalline M II Ga 2 (S, Se) 4 compounds with M II = Pb, Sr, Eu, Yb and Ca was performed. We observed that the effect of M II atomic mass on the phonon frequencies is negligible and that the vibrations are essentially influenced by the sizes of the M II cations. As the effects of cation substitution are small we concluded that the orthorhombic thiogallates M II Ga 2 S 4 exhibit nearly the same phonon energies: about 280 cm −1 (∼35 meV) and 360 cm −1 (∼45 meV) for the most intense vibration modes. The substitution of S atoms by heavier Se atoms causes the shift of the Raman spectrum to lower frequencies. The orthorhombic M II Ga 2 Se 4 compounds present phonon energy at about 185 cm −1 (∼23 meV) for the most intense vibration mode. Results confirm that a molecular model is more adequate to describe the vibrations of these compounds than the factor-group analysis.

We introduce a comprehensive numerical framework to generically infer the emergent macroscopic properties of uniaxial nematic and cholesteric phases from that of their microscopic constituent mesogens. This approach, based on the full numerical resolution of the Poniewierski-Stecki equations in the weak chirality limit, may expediently handle a wide range of particle models through the use of Monte-Carlo sampling for all virial-type integrals. Its predictions in terms of equilibrium cholesteric structures are found to be in excellent agreement with previous full-functional descriptions, thereby demonstrating the quantitative validity of the perturbative treatment of chirality for pitch lengths as short as a few dozen particle diameters. Furthermore, the use of the full angle-dependent virial coefficients in the Onsager-Parsons-Lee formalism increases its numerical efficiency by several orders of magnitude over that of these previous methods. The comparison of our results with numerical simulations however reveals some shortcomings of the Parsons-Lee approximation for systems of strongly non-convex particles, notwithstanding the accurate inclusion of their full effective molecular volume. Further potential limitations of our theory in terms of phase symmetry assumptions are also examined, and prospective directions for future improvements discussed.

Aqueous micellar solutions of a nonionic surfactant p-tert-octylphenoxy polyethylene (9.5) ether, Triton X-100 (TX-100) in the presence of cinnamic acid and its hydroxyl derivatives viz. p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid and sinapic acid were examined by cloud point (CP), viscosity, dynamic light scattering (DLS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements. These solubilizates influence the CP, viscosity and micelle size of TX-100 depending on their hydrophobicity. Cinnamic acid, a biomedically useful compound displayed maximum growth in the micelles and was therefore studied in detail. We found that an increase in the cinnamic acid concentration, a decrease in pH and the presence of sodium chloride all favour the micellar growth at low temperature. The location of cinnamic acid in micelles was elucidated from 1H NMR. SANS study showed that ellipsoidal micelles transform into rod-like on solubilization of cinnamic acid which otherwise change to spherical ones in alkaline medium.

""We report the high-yield synthesis of gold nanoparticles in block copolymer-mediated synthesis where the nanoparticles have been synthesized from hydrogen tetrachloroaureate (III) hydrate (HAuCl4.3H2O) using P85 (EO26PO39EO26) block copolymers in aqueous solution at room temperature. The formation of gold nanoparticles in these systems has been confirmed by UV-visible spectroscopy. The yield of nanoparticles simply does not increase with the increase in the gold salt concentration, which is limited by the gold ions reduction. Therefore, we have used the presence of additional reductant (tri-sodium citrate) to enhance the yield by manifold. The size distribution of the nanoparticles has been obtained by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and the average size is found to increase with
the yield.""

In this work, our prime focus is to study the one to one correspondence between the conduction phenomena in electrical wires with impurity and the scattering events responsible for particle production during stochastic inflation and reheating implemented under a closed quantum mechanical system in early universe cosmology. In this connection, we also present a derivation of quantum corrected version of the Fokker–Planck equation without dissipation and its fourth-order corrected analytical solution for the probability distribution profile responsible for studying the dynamical features of the particle creation events in the stochastic inflation and reheating stage of the universe. It is explicitly shown from our computation that quantum corrected Fokker–Planck equation describes the particle creation phenomena better for Dirac delta type of scatterer. In this connection, we additionally discuss Itô, Stratonovich prescription and the explicit role of finite temperature effective potential for solving the probability distribution profile. Furthermore, we extend our discussion of particle production phenomena to describe the quantum description of randomness involved in the dynamics. We also present computation to derive the expression for the measure of the stochastic nonlinearity (randomness or chaos) arising in the stochastic inflation and reheating epoch of the universe, often described by Lyapunov Exponent. Apart from that, we quantify the quantum chaos arising in a closed system by a more strong measure, commonly known as Spectral Form Factor using the principles of random matrix theory (RMT). Finally, we discuss the role of out of time order correlation function (OTOC) to describe quantum chaos in early universe cosmology.

We examine the scaling with activity of the emergent length scales that control the nonequilib-rium dynamics of an active nematic liquid crystal, using two popular hydrodynamic models that have been employed in previous studies. In both models we find that the chaotic spatio-temporal dynamics in the regime of fully developed active turbulence characterized by the continual creation and annihilation of topological defects is controlled by a single active scale determined by the balance of active and elastic stresses, regardless of whether the active stress is extensile or contractile in nature. The observed scaling of the kinetic energy and enstropy with activity is also consistent with our single-length scale argument and simple dimensional analysis. Our results provide a unified understanding of apparent discrepancies in the previous literature and demonstrate that the essential physics is robust to the choice of model.

The evolution of the interaction and the resultant structure in the mixed system of anionic silica nanoparticles (Ludox LS30) and non-ionic surfactant decaethylene glycol monododecylether (C12E10), undergoing phase separation, have been studied using small-angle neutron scattering and dynamic light scattering. The measurements have been carried out for a fixed concentration of nanoparticle (1 wt. %) with varying concentration of surfactant (0 to 1 wt. %), in the absence and presence of an electrolyte. It is found that the micelles of non-ionic surfactant adsorb on the nanoparticle in the absence of electrolyte (form stable system), whereas these micelles become non-adsorbing in the presence of electrolyte (show phase separation). The phase separation arises because of C12E10 micelles, causing depletion interaction between nanoparticles and leading to their aggregation. The interaction is modeled by double Yukawa potential accounting for attractive depletion as well as repulsive electrostatic forces. Both the interactions (attraction and repulsion) are found to be of long-range. The nanoparticle aggregation (phase separation) is governed by the increase in the magnitude and the range of the depletion attraction with the increase in the surfactant concentration. The nanoparticle aggregates formed are quite large in size (order of micron) and are characterized by the surface fractal having simple cubic packing of nanoparticles within the aggregates.

Azopolymers are well known organic materials for polarization holographic recording due to the induced anisotropy under illumination with polarized light. They possess all the desirable characteristics of the known polarization-sensitive materials, as high sensitivity and reversibility, but excel them substantially in the magnitude of the photoinduced birefringence. This makes possible to record reversible polarization gratings with high diffraction efficiency. In this paper results of experimental investigations on the reversibility properties of birefringence photoinduced in azopolymers are reported, depending on the conditions of subsequent optical and thermal treatment. Thin films of different polymers were prepared in order to examine the kinetics of multiple recording and erasure of birefringence in different types of azopolymers. The reversibility of the polarization recording has been studied using two different method of erasure-by increased temperature and on illumination with circularly polarized light.

A semiflexible harmonic chain model with extensible bonds is introduced and applied to the
stretching of semiflexible polymers or filaments. The semiflexible harmonic chain model allows to study
effects from bending rigidity, bond extension, discrete chain structure, and finite length of a semiflexible
polymer in a unified manner. The interplay between bond extension and external force can be described by
an effective inextensible chain with increased stretching force, which leads to apparently reduced persistence
lengths in force-extension relations. We obtain force-extension relations for strong- and weak-stretching
regimes which include the effects of extensible bonds, discrete chain structure, and finite polymer length.We
discuss the associated characteristic force scales and calculate the crossover behaviour of the force-extension
curves. Strong stretching is governed by the discrete chain structure and the bond extensibility. The linear
response for weak stretching depends on the relative size of the contour length and the persistence length
which affects the behaviour of very rigid filaments such as F-actin. The results for the force-extension
relations are corroborated by transfer matrix and variational calculations.

Inspired by the Penrose-Hameroff thesis, we are intuitively led to examine an intriguing correspondence of 'induction' (by fields), with the complex phenomenon of (metabolism-sustained) consciousness: Did sequences of associated induction patterns in field-susceptible biomatter have simpler beginnings?

The formation of high concentration gold nanoparticles at room temperature is reported in block copolymer-mediated synthesis where the nanoparticles have been synthesized from hydrogen tetrachloroaureate (III) hydrate (HAuCl4.3H2O) using block copolymer P85 (EO26PO39EO26) in aqueous solution. The formation of gold nanoparticles in these systems has been characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). We show that the presence of additional reductant (trisodium citrate) can enhance nanoparticle concentration by manyfold, which does not work in absence of either of these (additional reductant and block copolymer). The stability of gold nanoparticles with increasing concentration has also been examined.

We demonstrate spontaneous evolution of various self-assembled phases from a homogeneous aqueous dispersion of high aspect ratio Montmorillonite (MMT, platelet di-ameter~250 nm and thickness 1 nm) nanoclay platelets based on the observations made over a period of 4 years. The phase diagram for this system in salt-free suspensions in normal pH conditions using rheology, light scattering, and dilution experiments was established, and we have noticed that these suspensions do undergo nontrivial phase evolution yielding formation of equilibrium fluids and gels and aging dynamics. This observation showed that the yield stress dependence on the concentration of clay followed a power-law behavior similar to low aspect ratio Laponite nanoclay dispersions. During the initial period, all dispersions formed stable sols, and with aging network-like structures were found to form via two routes not reported hitherto: one for below gelation concentration by phase separation and another for above the same, through equilibrium gelation resembling the Laponite nanoclay system, where existence of patchy colloids, equilibrium gels, and empty liquids was observed experimentally.

The energy-resolved momentum densities of the valence band of a thin polycrystalline aluminium film have been measured using electron momentum spectroscopy (EMS). The spectrometer used for these measurements has estimated energy and momentum resolutions of 0.9 eV and 0.10 atomic units respectively. The valence band of aluminium was clearly resolved, resembling very closely that of a free-electron parabola. The measurement has been compared to linear muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) calculations for spherically averaged crystalline aluminium. A comparison has also been made between the experiment and Monte Carlo simulations which take into account additional elastic and inelastic scattering events not considered in the LMTO calculations. The final agreement obtained between the measurement and theory for the dispersion and relative intensities of the aluminium valence band is excellent when lifetime broadening of the band is allowed for.

Computational thermodynamics using density functional theory ab initio codes is a powerful tool for calculating phase diagrams. The method is usually applied at the standard pressure of p = 1 bar and where the Gibbs energy is assumed to be equal to the Helmholtz energy. In this work, we have calculated the Gibbs energy in order to study the release