arXiv subjects

K. Schmidt

Publications and source records attributed to K. Schmidt.

44 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

X-Ray Powder Diffraction from Sub-Micron Crystals of Photosystem-1 Membrane Protein

We demonstrate that powder diffraction data can be collected from sub-micron crystals of a mbrane protein with nearly two orders of magnitude more atoms than the molecules commonly used for powder diffraction. The crystals of photosystem-1 protein were size-selected using a 500 nm pore- size filter and delivered to a soft x-ray beam with a photon energy of 1.5 keV using a dynamically focused micro-jet developed for the serial crystallography experiment at beamline 9.0.1. The 10-micron jet places many such randomly oriented crystals in the x-ray beam simultaneously resulting in a powder diffraction pattern which extends to 28 angstrom resolution with just 200 seconds of x-ray exposure. The use of the jet for particle delivery allows for a thin sample, appropriate for the soft x-rays used, and continuously refreshes the crystals so that radiation damage is not possible. The small size of the crystals requires the use of lower energy photons for increased scattering strength and increased spacing between powder rings. The powder patterns obtained in this way, from abundant nano-crystals, could be used to provide low resolution molecular envelopes if phased using techniques such as compressive sensing which do not require atomic resolution data. The results also serve to test our aerojet injector system, with future application to femtosecond diffraction in Free Electron X-ray Laser schemes, and for Serial Crystallography using a single-file beam of aligned hydrated molecules.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2008

How Sensitive are Di-Leptons from Rho Mesons to the High Baryon Density Region?

We show that the measurement of di-leptons might provide only a restricted view into the most dense stages of heavy ion reactions. Thus, possible studies of meson and baryon properties at high baryon densities, as e.g. done at GSI-HADES and envisioned for FAIR-CBM, might observe weaker effects than currently expected in certain approaches. We argue that the strong absorption of resonances in the high baryon density region of the heavy ion collision masks information from the early hot and dense phase due to a strong increase of the total decay width because of collisional broadening. To obtain additional information, we also compare the currently used approaches to extract di-leptons from transport simulations - i.e. shining, only vector mesons from final baryon resonance decays and instant emission of di-leptons and find a strong sensitivity on the method employed in particular at FAIR and SPS energies. It is shown explicitly that a restriction to rho meson (and therefore di-lepton) production only in final state baryon resonance decays provide a strong bias towards rather low baryon densities. The results presented are obtained from UrQMD v2.3 calculations using the standard set-up.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Gas Dynamic Virtual Nozzle for Generation of Microscopic Droplet Streams

As shown by Ganan-Calvo and co-workers, a free liquid jet can be compressed in iameter through gas-dynamic forces exerted by a co-flowing gas, obviating the need for a solid nozzle to form a microscopic liquid jet and thereby alleviating the clogging problems that plague conventional droplet sources of small diameter. We describe in this paper a novel form of droplet beam source based on this principle. The source is miniature, robust, dependable, easily fabricated, and eminently suitable for delivery of microscopic liquid droplets, including hydrated biological samples, into vacuum for analysis using vacuum instrumentation. Monodisperse, single file droplet streams are generated by triggering the device with a piezoelectric actuator. The device is essentially immune to clogging.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2007

Dose, exposure time, and resolution in Serial X-ray Crystallography

The resolution of X-ray diffraction microscopy is limited by the maximum dose that can be delivered prior to sample damage. In the proposed Serial Crystallography method, the damage problem is addressed by distributing the total dose over many identical hydrated macromolecules running continuously in a single-file train across a continuous X-ray beam, and resolution is then limited only by the available molecular and X-ray fluxes and molecular alignment. Orientation of the diffracting molecules is achieved by laser alignment. We evaluate the incident X-ray fluence (energy/area) required to obtain a given resolution from (1) an analytical model, giving the count rate at the maximum scattering angle for a model protein, (2) explicit simulation of diffraction patterns for a GroEL-GroES protein complex, and (3) the frequency cut off of the transfer function following iterative solution of the phase problem, and reconstruction of an electron density map in the projection approximation. These calculations include counting shot noise and multiple starts of the phasing algorithm. The results indicate counting time and the number of proteins needed within the beam at any instant for a given resolution and X-ray flux. We confirm an inverse fourth power dependence of exposure time on resolution, with important implications for all coherent X-ray imaging. We find that multiple single-file protein beams will be needed for sub-nanometer resolution on current third generation synchrotrons, but not on fourth generation designs, where reconstruction of secondary protein structure at a resolution of 0.7 nm should be possible with short exposures.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2003

High-precision measurement of the half-life of $^{62}$Ga

The beta-decay half-life of 62Ga has been studied with high precision using on-line mass separated samples. The decay of 62Ga which is dominated by a 0+ to 0+ transition to the ground state of 62Zn yields a half-life of T_{1/2} = 116.19(4) ms. This result is more precise than any previous measurement by about a factor of four or more. The present value is in agreement with older literature values, but slightly disagrees with a recent measurement. We determine an error weighted average value of all experimental half-lives of 116.18(4) ms.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2001

Observation of two-magnon bound states in the two-leg ladders of (Ca,La)14Cu24O41

Phonon-assisted 2-magnon absorption is studied at T=4 K in the spin-1/2 two-leg ladders of Ca_14-x La_x Cu_24 O_41 (x=5 and 4) for polarization of the electrical field parallel to the legs and the rungs, respectively. Two peaks at about 2140 and 2800 1/cm reflect van-Hove singularities in the density of states of the strongly dispersing 2-magnon singlet bound state, and a broad peak at about 4000 1/cm is identified with the 2-magnon continuum. Two different theoretical approaches (Jordan-Wigner fermions and perturbation theory) describe the data very well for J_parallel = 1050 - 1100 1/cm and J_parallel / J_perp = 1 - 1.1. A striking similarity of the high-energy continuum absorption of the ladders and of the undoped high T_c cuprates is observed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1996

The rp-process and new measurements of beta-delayed proton decay of light Ag and Cd isotopes

Recent network calculations suggest that a high temperature rp-process could explain the abundances of light Mo and Ru isotopes, which have long challenged models of p-process nuclide production. Important ingredients to network calculations involving unstable nuclei near and at the proton drip line are $β$-halflives and decay modes, i.e., whether or not $β$-delayed proton decay takes place. Of particular importance to these network calculation are the proton-rich isotopes $^{96}$Ag, $^{98}$Ag, $^{96}$Cd and $^{98}$Cd. We report on recent measurements of $β$-delayed proton branching ratios for $^{96}$Ag, $^{98}$Ag, and $^{98}$Cd at the on-line mass separator at GSI.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv1993

Poincaré maps of Duffing--type oscillators and their reduction to circle maps. I. Analytic results

Bifurcation diagrams and plots of Lyapunov exponents in the $r$--$Ω$ --plane for Duffing--type oscillators $$\ddot x +2r\dot x +V'(x,Ωt) =0$$ exhibit a regular pattern of repeating selfsimilar ``tongues'' with complex internal structure. We demonstrate here that this behaviour is easily understood qualitatively and quantitatively from the Poincaré map of the system in action--angle variables. This map approaches the {\it one dimensional} form $$φ_{n+1} = A + C \e^{-r T} \cos φ_n, \ \ T= π/ Ω$$ provided $\e^{-r T}$ (but not necessarily $C \e^{- r T}$), $r$ and $Ω$ are small. We derive asymptotic (for $r$, $Ω$ small) formulae for $A$ and $C$ for a special class of potentials $V$. We argue that these special cases contain all the information needed to treat the general case of potentials which obey $V'' \ge 0$ at all times. The essential tools of the derivation are the use of action--angle variables, the adiabatic approximation and the introduction of a nonoscillating reference solution of Duffing's equation, with respect to which the action-angle variables have to be determined. These allow the explicit construction of the Poincaré map in powers of $\e^{-rT}$. To first order, we obtain the $φ$--map, which survives asymptotically. To {\it second} order we obtain the two--dimensional $I$--$φ$--map. In $I$--direction it contracts by a factor $\e^{-rT}$ upon each iteration.

chao-dyn↗