Related papers: Microscopic mechanism for cold denaturation
Laser-induced demagnetization is theoretically studied by explicitly taking into account interactions among electrons, spins and lattice. Assuming that the demagnetization processes take place during the thermalization of the sub-systems,…
Experiments and computer simulations have shown that the melt-ing temperature of solid hydrogen drops with pressure above about 65 GPa, suggesting that a liquid state might exist at low temperatures. It has also been suggested that this low…
Compacted unsaturated swelling clay is often considered as a possible buffer material for deep nuclear waste disposal. An isotropic cell permitting simultaneous control of suction, temperature and pressure was used to study the…
Crystal faceting can emerge via two broad physical mechanisms: anisotropic attachment kinetics on growing crystals and anisotropic surface energies on near-equilibrium crystals. For the case of the ice/vapor system, anisotropic attachment…
Recent experiments have shown that sodium, a prototype simple metal at ambient conditions, exhibits unexpected complexity under high pressure. One of the most puzzling phenomena in the behaviour of dense sodium is the pressure-induced drop…
We discuss theoretically ion-atom collisions at low energy and predict the possibility of formation of cold molecular ion by photoassociation. We present results on radiative homo- and hetero-nuclear atom-ion cold collisions that reveal…
The interaction between surface patches of proteins with different surface properties has a vital role to play driving conformational changes of proteins in different salt solutions. We demonstrate the existence of ion-specific attractive…
Consistently atomistic understanding of the mechanism behind the intriguing behavior of low-dimensional systems including monatomic chains, hollow tubes, surface skins, nanocavities, nanowires, and nanograins has long been a high challenge.…
Urea, a polar molecule with a large dipole moment, not only destabilizes the folded RNA structures, but can also enhance the folding rates of large ribozymes. Unlike the mechanism of urea-induced unfolding of proteins, which is well…
Water offers a large temperature domain of stable liquid, and the characteristic hydrophobic effects are first a consequence of the temperature insensitivity of equation-of-state features of the aqueous medium, compared to other liquids. On…
Bulk water presents a large number of crystalline and amorphous ices. Hydrophobic nanoconfinement is known to affect the tendency of water to form ice and to reduce the melting temperature. However, a systematic study of the ice phases in…
The microscopic mechanisms involved in the formation/dissociation of methane hydrate confined at the nanometer scale are unraveled using advanced molecular modeling techniques combined with a mesoscale thermodynamic approach. By means of…
First shells of hydration and bulk solvent plays a crucial role in the folding of proteins. Here, the role of water in the dynamics of proteins has been investigated using a theoretical protein-solvent model and a statistical physics…
The thermal evolution of the shell correction energy is investigated for deformed nuclei using Strutinsky prescription in a self-consistent relativistic mean-field framework. For temperature independent single-particle states corresponding…
We construct a Hamiltonian for a single domain protein where the contact enthalpy and the chain entropy decrease linearly with the number of native contacts. The hydration effect upon protein unfolding is included by modeling water as ideal…
We investigate a simple model corresponding to particles driven in opposite directions and interacting via a repulsive potential. The particles move off-lattice on a periodic strip and are subject to random forces as well. We show that this…
The microstructure of snow determines its fundamental properties such as the mechanical strength, reflectivity, or the thermo-hydraulic properties. Snow undergoes continuous microstructural changes due to local gradients in temperature,…
The force induced unzipping transition of a double stranded DNA is considered from a purely thermodynamic point of view. This analysis provides us with a set of relations that can be used to test microscopic theories and experiments. The…
We present a model of the dynamical transition of atomic displacements in proteins. Increased mean-square displacement at higher temperatures is caused by softening of the vibrational force constant by electrostatic and van der Waals forces…
We investigate the temperature dependence of the pressure-induced softening in the negative thermal expansion material Zn(CN)$_2$ using neutron powder diffraction and molecular dynamics simulations. Both the simulation and experiment show…