Related papers: Unfolding Large Biomolecules
We study ions in a nanotrap, where the electrodes are nanomechanical resonantors. The ions play the role of a quantum optical system which acts as a probe and control, and allows entanglement with or between nanomechanical resonators.
Fluid-structure interactions between active and passive components are important for many biological systems to function. A particular example is chromatin in the cell nucleus, where ATP-powered processes drive coherent motions of the…
A continuously operated electrostatic trap for polar molecules is demonstrated. The trap has a volume of ~0.6 cm^3 and holds molecules with a positive Stark shift. With deuterated ammonia from a quadrupole velocity filter, a trap density of…
In living cells, molecular motors create activity that enhances the diffusion of particles throughout the cytoplasm, and not just ones attached to the motors. We demonstrate initial steps toward creating artificial cells that mimic this…
We examine the properties of cold ions confined by a Paul trap in a linear crystal configuration, a system of considerable current interest due to its application to practical quantum computation. Using a combination of theoretical and…
Quantifying the outcomes of cells collisions is a crucial step in building the foundations of a kinetic theory of living matter. Here, we develop a mechanical theory of such collisions by first representing individual cells as extended…
We numerically examine the dynamics of a probe particle driven at a constant force through an assembly of particles with competing long-range repulsion and short-range attraction that forms a bubble or stripe state. In the bubble regime, we…
Biofilms are complex, self-organized consortia of microorganisms that produce a functional, protective matrix of biomolecules. Physically, the structure of a biofilm can be described as an entangled polymer network which grows and changes…
We provide a detailed theoretical and conceptual study of a planned experiment to excite Rydberg states of ions trapped in a Paul trap. The ultimate goal is to exploit the strong state dependent interactions between Rydberg ions to…
We investigate the physics of an optically-driven micromotor of biological origin. A single, live red blood cell, when placed in an optical trap folds into a rod-like shape. If the trapping laser beam is circularly polarized, the folded RBC…
We propose an efficient method to produce multi-particle entangled states of ions in an ion trap for which a wide range of interesting effects and applications have been suggested. Our preparation scheme exploits the collective vibrational…
We propose to realize quantized discrete kinks with cold trapped ions. We show that long-lived solitonlike configurations are manifested as deformations of the zigzag structure in the linear Paul trap, and are topologically protected in a…
The phase behaviour and dynamics of molecular ionic liquids are studied using primitive models and extensive computer simulations. The models account for size disparity between cation and anion, charge location on the cation, and…
Throughout the evolution of biological species on Earth, cells and organs have developed many complex structures and processes to ensure their interactions with individual chemical molecules (small and macromolecular) and nanoscale objects…
Cellular biology exists embedded in a world dominated by random dynamics and chance. Many vital molecules and pieces of cellular machinery diffuse within cells, moving along random trajectories as they collide with the other biomolecular…
Computation of biological processes creates great promise for everyday life and great challenges for physical scientists. Simulations of molecular dynamics appeal to biologists as a natural extension of structural biology. Once biologists…
We present a detailed method for accumulating Ca$^{+}$ ions controllably in a linear Paul trap. The ions are generated by pulsed laser ablation and dynamically loaded into the ion trap by switching the trapping potential on and off. The…
For several decades, ions have been trapped by radio frequency (RF) and neutral particles by optical fields. We implement the experimental proof-of-principle for trapping an ion in an optical dipole trap. While loading, initialization and…
We demonstrate the operation of a dual-frequency Paul trap and characterize its performance by storing either electrons or calcium ions while applying two quadrupole fields simultaneously which oscillate at $\Omega_\textrm{fast} = 2\pi…
In this paper we consider two problems in diagnostics of trapped ion crystals in which an analysis of the ions' collective oscillatory motion yield potentially useful results. When one of the ions in a linear crystal undergoes a collision,…