Recent experiments at free-electron laser X-ray sources have been able to resolve the intensity distributions about Bragg peaks in nanocrystals of large biomolecules. Information derived from small shifts in the peak positions augment the Bragg samples of the particle intensity with samples of its gradients. Working on the assumption that the nanocrystal is entirely generated by lattice translations of a particle, an algorithm is developed that reconstructs the particle from intensities and intensity gradients.

The microscopically complicated real world exhibits behavior that often yields to simple yet quantitatively accurate descriptions. Predictions are possible despite large uncertainties in microscopic parameters, both in physics and in multiparameter models in other areas of science. We connect the two by analyzing parameter sensitivities in a prototypical continuum theory (diffusion) and at a self-similar critical point (the Ising model).

Unconventional superconductivity (SC) is said to occur when Cooper pair formation is dominated by repulsive electron-electron interactions, so that the symmetry of the pair wave function is other than an isotropic s-wave. The strong, on-site, repulsive electron- electron interactions that are the proximate cause of such SC are more typically drivers of commensurate magnetism. Indeed, it is the suppression of commensurate antiferromagnetism (AF) that usually allows this type of unconventional superconductivity to emerge.

We report on controlling the spontaneous emission (SE) rate of a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) monolayer coupled with a planar photonic crystal (PPC) nanocavity. Spatially resolved photoluminescence (PL) mapping shows strong variations of emission when the MoS2 monolayer is on the PPC cavity, on the PPC lattice, on the air gap, and on the unpatterned gallium phosphide substrate.

To establish the mechanism of unconventional superconductivity in Sr 2RuO4, a prerequisite is direct information concerning the momentum-space structure of the energy gaps Δi(k), and in particular whether the pairing strength is stronger ("dominant") on the quasi-one-dimensional (α and β) or on the quasi-two-dimensional (γ) Fermi surfaces. We present scanning tunneling microscopy measurements of the density of states spectra in the superconducting state of Sr 2RuO4 for 0.1Tc < T < Tc and analyze them along with published thermodynamic data using a simple phenomenological model.

Recently, many numerical evidences of fractional Chern insulator, i.e., the fractional quantum Hall states on lattices, are proposed when a Chern band is partially filled. Some trial wave functions of fractional Chern insulators can be obtained by mapping the fractional quantum Hall wave functions defined in the continuum onto the lattice through the Wannier state representation in which the single particle Landau orbits in the Landau levels are identified with the one-dimensional Wannier states of the Chern bands with Chern number C=1.

Time-dependent density-functional methods are used to compute excitation energies and, via the adiabatic-connection fluctuation-dissipation theorem, ground-state correlation energies of atoms, ions, and the H2 molecule at various bond lengths. Various exchange-correlation potentials vxc and exchange-correlation kernels fxc are tested. Accurate exchange-correlation potentials are found to be essential for getting accurate energies.

Structural rearrangements control a wide range of behavior in amorphous materials, and visualizing these atomic-scale rearrangements is critical for developing and refining models for how glasses bend, break, and melt. It is difficult, however, to directly image atomic motion in disordered solids. We demonstrate that using aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, we can excite and image atomic rearrangements in a two-dimensional silica glass - revealing a complex dance of elastic and plastic deformations, phase transitions, and their interplay.

The genome of bacteria is organized and compacted by the action of nucleoid-associated proteins. These proteins are often present in tens of thousands of copies and bind with low specificity along the genome. DNA-bound proteins thus potentially act as roadblocks to the progression of machinery that moves along the DNA. In this study, we have investigated the effect of histone-like protein from strain U93 (HU), one of the key proteins involved in shaping the bacterial nucleoid, on DNA helix stability by mechanically unzipping single dsDNA molecules.

The nucleosome, the fundamental packing unit of chromatin, has a distinct chirality: 147 bp of DNA are wrapped around the core histones in a left-handed, negative superhelix. It has been suggested that this chirality has functional significance, particularly in the context of the cellular processes that generate DNA supercoiling, such as transcription and replication. However, the impact of torsion on nucleosome structure and stability is largely unknown.