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Dust impacts on spacecraft are commonly detected by antenna instruments as transient voltage perturbations. The signal waveform is generated by the interaction between the impact-generated plasma cloud and the elements of the antenna-spacecraft system. A general electrostatic model is presented that includes the two key elements of the interaction, namely the charge recollected from the impact plasma by the spacecraft and the fraction electrons and cations that escape to infinity. The clouds of escaping electrons and cations generate induced signals, and their vastly different escape speeds are responsible for the characteristic shape of the waveforms. The induced signals are modeled numerically for the geometry of the system and the location of the impact. The model employs a Maxwell capacitance matrix to keep track of the mutual interaction between the elements of the system. A new reduced-size model spacecraft is constructed for laboratory measurements using the dust accelerator facility. The model spacecraft is equipped with four antennas: two operating in a monopole mode, and one pair configured as a dipole. Submicron-sized iron dust particles accelerated to > 20 km/s are used for test measurements, where the waveforms of each antenna are recorded. The electrostatic model provides a remarkably good fit to the data using only a handful of physical fitting parameters, such as the escape speeds of electrons and cations. The presented general model provides the framework for analyzing antenna waveforms and is applicable for a range of space missions investigating the distribution of dust particles in relevant environments., Comment: Manuscript accepted online by JGR: Space Physics on 13 August 2021

Under the most common experimental conditions, the adsorption of proteins to solid surfaces is an spontaneous process that leads to a rather compact layer of randomly oriented molecules. Due to the importance of this process for the development of catalytic surfaces, a number of existing computational and experimental approaches try to predict and control the orientation of such molecules. However, and despite their own advantages, these tend to be either too expensive computationally, or oversimplified, undermining their ability to predict the most appropriate experimental conditions to maximize the catalytic activity of adsorbed proteins. To address this current need, we present an efficient computational approach to model the behavior of proteins near surfaces in the presence of an external electric field, based on continuum electrostatics. Our model can not only estimate the overall affinity of the protein with the surface, but also their most likely orientation as a function of the potential applied. In this way, a rational selection of the potential can be performed to maximize the accessibility of the protein's active site to the solvent. The model relies on the Poisson-Boltzmann equation and was implemented in an extension of the code PyGBe that includes an external electric field, and renders the electrostatic component of the solvation free energy. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technique, we investigate the adsorption of trypsin onto a carbon electrode under potentiostatic conditions both numerically and experimentally. We found that even though the adsorption process is largely dominated by hydrophobic effects, the orientation of trypsin can be controlled through an external potential, influencing the position of the active sites, and resulting in an important change in the catalytic activity of the surface., Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures

We propose a new model for estimating the free energy of forming a molecular cavity in a solvent, by assuming this energy is dominated by the electrostatic energy associated with creating the static (interface) potential inside the cavity. The new model approximates the cavity-formation energy as that of a shell capacitor: the inner, solute-shaped conductor is held at the static potential, and the outer conductor (at the first solvation shell) is held at zero potential. Compared to cavity energies computed using free-energy pertubation with explicit-solvent molecular dynamics, the new model exhibits surprising accuracy (Mobley test set, RMSE 0.45 kcal/mol). Combined with a modified continuum model for solute-solvent van der Waals interactions, the total nonpolar model has RMSE of 0.55 kcal/mol on this test set, which is remarkable because the two terms largely cancel. The overall nonpolar model has a small number of physically meaningful parameters and compares favorably to other published models of nonpolar solvation. Finally, when the proposed nonpolar model is combined with our solvation-layer interface condition (SLIC) continuum electrostatic model, which includes asymmetric solvation-shell response, we predict solvation free energies with an RMS error of 1.35 kcal/mol relative to experiment, comparable to the RMS error of explicit-solvent FEP (1.26 kcal/mol). Moreover, all parameters in our model have a clear physical meaning, and employing reasonable temperature dependencies yields remarkable correlation with solvation entropies.

A periodic homogenization model of the electrostatic equation is constructed for a comb drive with a large number of fingers and whose mode of operation is in-plane and longitudinal. The model is obtained in the case where the distance between the rotor and the stator is of an order $\varepsilon ^{\alpha }$, $\alpha \geq 2$, where $\varepsilon$ denotes the period of distribution of the fingers. The model derivation uses the two-scale convergence technique.\ Strong convergences are also established. This allows us to find, after a proper scaling, the limit of the electrostatic force applied to the rotor in the longitudinal direction.

In this paper, we show that the quantum bound state problems are mapped to $N$ point vortices with the identical circulation or strength using the Steiljes electrostatic model with imaginary charges. We also show that these $N$ point charges or vortices, become imaginary, in a constant background field will admit a wave solution under paraxial wave approximation. Therefore, in quantum mechanics as long as paraxial approximation is valid it behaves like a wave., Comment: 8 Pages

We build on previous efforts to model CCD sensors, during illumination and collection of conversions. We use a finite summation of simple, electrostatic field models. The upgraded functionality of our framework provides specific predictions for perturbations in pixel boundary enclosures (e.g., at the backside window) and the bookkeeping capability to stack those perturbations so that they may be utilized as Greens functions -- portable calculation results that may be generically applied to a range of precision astronomy related problems that naturally including astrometric, photometric and shape transfer issues. We approach the topic of using ancillary pixel data, derived from the Greens function and the registered image, to analyze sky data and constrain object parameters of astronomical targets., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures. Submission to JINST for proceedings of "Precision Astronomy with Fully Depleted CCDs", held at Brookhaven National Laboratory, December 4-5, 2014. Included an explanatory footnote and a correction to a reference's ARXIV number

In this paper, Stieltjes electrostatic model and quantum Hamilton Jacobi formalism is analogous to each other is shown. This analogy allows, the bound state problem to mimics as $n$ unit moving imaginary charges $i\hbar$, which are placed in between the two fixed imaginary charges arising due to the classical turning points of the potential. The interaction potential between $n$ unit moving imaginary charges $i\hbar$ is given by logarithm of the wave function. For an exactly solvable potential, this system attains stable equilibrium position at the zeros of the orthogonal polynomials depending upon the interval of the classical turning points.

An exact, analytic solution for a simple electrostatic model applicable to biomolecular recognition is presented. In the model, a layer of high dielectric constant material (representative of the solvent, water) whose thickness may vary separates two regions of low dielectric constant material (representative of proteins, DNA, RNA, or similar materials), in each of which is embedded a point charge. For identical charges, the presence of the screening layer always lowers the energy compared to the case of point charges in an infinite medium of low dielectric constant. Somewhat surprisingly, the presence of a sufficiently thick screening layer also lowers the energy compared to the case of point charges in an infinite medium of high dielectric constant. For charges of opposite sign, the screening layer always lowers the energy compared to the case of point charges in an infinite medium of either high or low dielectric constant. The behavior of the energy leads to a substantially increased repulsive force between charges of the same sign. The repulsive force between charges of opposite signs is weaker than in an infinite medium of low dielectric constant material but stronger than in an infinite medium of high dielectric constant material. The presence of this behavior, which we name asymmetric screening, in the simple system presented here confirms the generality of the behavior that was established in a more complicated system of an arbitrary number of charged dielectric spheres in an infinite solvent., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures

Probably the most fundamental processes for biological systems is their ability to create themselves through the use of cell division and cell differentiation. In this work a simple physical model is proposed for biological cell division. The model consists of a positive ionic gradient across the cell membrane, and concentration of charge at the nodes of the spindle and on the chromosomes. A simple calculation, based on Coulomb's Law, shows that under such circumstances a chromosome will tend to break up to its constituent chromatids and that the chromatids will be separated by a distance that is an order of thirty percent of the distance between the spindle nodes. Further repulsion between the nodes will tend to stretch the cell and eventually break the cell membrane between the separated chromatids, leading to cell division. The importance of this work is in continuing the understanding of the electromagnetic basis of cell division and providing it with an analytical model. A central implication of this and other studies is to give theoretical support to the notion that cell division can be manipulated by electromagnetic means. Requirements on the ingredients of more sophisticated models for biological cell division will also discussed. Keywords: Charge Separation, Cell Division, Mitosis, Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Year: 2006

An analysis of the stability of a duplex containing G.A mispairs or G.A/A.G tandem during DNA melting has revealed that duplex stability depends on both DNA sequences and on the conformations of the G.A mispairs. The thermodynamics of single pair opening for G(anti).A(syn) and G(anti).A(anti) conformations adopted by G.A mispairs is found to strongly correlate with that of the canonical base pairs, while for sheared conformation a significant difference is observed.

We introduce an electrostatic model including charge transfer, which is shown to account for the observed B-site ordering in Pb-based perovskite alloys. The model allows charge transfer between A-sites and is a generalization of Bellaiche and Vanderbilt's purely electrostatic model. The large covalency of Pb^{2+} compared to Ba^{2+} is modeled by an environment dependent effective A-site charge. Monte Carlo simulations of this model successfully reproduce the long range compositional order of both Pb-based and Ba-based complex A(BB^{'}B^{''})O_3 perovskite alloys. The models are also extended to study systems with A-site and B-site doping, such as (Na_{1/2}La_{1/2})(Mg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3})O_3, (Ba_{1-x}La_{x})(Mg_{(1+x)/3}Nb_{(2-x)/3})O_3 and (Pb_{1-x}La_{x})(Mg_{(1+x)/3}Ta_{(2-x)/3})O_3. General trends are reproduced by purely electrostatic interactions, and charge transfer effects indicate that local structural relaxations can tip the balance between different B-site orderings in Pb based materials., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures

The ${\bm E}\times{\bm B}$ drift motion of charged test particle dynamics in the Scrape Off Layer (SOL)is analyzed to investigate a transport control strategy based on Hamiltonian dynamics. We model SOL turbulence using a 2D non-linear fluid code based on interchange instability which was found to exhibit intermittent dynamics of the particle flux. The effect of a small and appropriate modification of the turbulent electric potential is studied with respect to the chaotic diffusion of test particle dynamics. Over a significant range in the magnitude of the turbulent electrostatic field, a three-fold reduction of the test particle diffusion coefficient is achieved.

We present a simple ionic model which successfully reproduces the various types of compositional long-range order observed in a large class of complex insulating perovskite alloys. The model assumes that the driving mechanism responsible for the ordering is simply the electrostatic interaction between the different ionic species. A possible new explanation for the anomalous long-range order observed in some Pb relaxor alloys, involving the proposed existence of a small amount of Pb^4+ on the B sublattice, is suggested by an analysis of the model., Comment: 4 pages, two-column style with 1 postscript figure embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf macros. Also available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#lb_order