分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We study charge-swapping Q-balls, a kind of composite Q-ball where positive and negative charges co-exist and swap with time, in models with a logarithmic potential that arises naturally in supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model. We show that charge-swapping Q-balls can be copiously generated in the Affleck-Dine fragmentation process in the early universe. We find that the charge-swapping Q-balls with the logarithmic potential are extremely stable. By performing long time, parallelized lattice simulations with absorbing boundary conditions, we find that the lifetimes of such objects with low multipoles are at least $4.6 \times 10^5/m$ in 3+1D and $2.5 \times 10^7/m$ in 2+1D, where $m$ is the mass scale of the scalar field. We also chart the attractor basin of the initial conditions to form these charge-swapping Q-balls.
分类: 药物科学 >> 结构生物学 提交时间: 2024-04-17
摘要: The adenosine A3 receptor (A3AR) belongs to a subfamily of G protein-coupled receptors and is an important therapeutic target for conditions including inflammation and cancer. The clinical compounds CF101 and CF102 are potent and selective A3AR agonists, but the structural basis of their recognition was unknown. Here we present the cryogenic electron microscopy structures of the full-length human A3AR bound to CF101 and CF102 at 3.3-3.2 Å resolution in complex with heterotrimeric Gi protein. These agonists bind within the orthosteric pocket, with their adenine components engaging in conserved interactions while their substituted 3-iodobenzyl groups exhibit different orientations. Swapping extracellular loop 3 (ECL3) of A3AR onto other adenosine receptor subtypes enabled CF101/CF102 binding and receptor activaton, and mutations in key residues, including His3.37, Ser5.42 and Ser6.52 that form a unique subpocket in A3AR, abolished receptor activation, highlighting these structural elements are critical for ligand selectivity. Compared to inactive A2AAR, the A3AR structures reveal conserved mechanism of receptor activation, including an outward shift of TM6. These structures provide key insights into molecular recognition and signaling mechanisms of A3AR, which should aid rational design of subtype-selective ligands targeting this important class of adenosine receptors.
分类: 药物科学 >> 结构生物学 提交时间: 2024-02-24
摘要: The orphan receptor GPR30, previously classified as a G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER), has been a subject of debate regarding its ligand specificity. Through an integrative approach combining structure elucidation, biochemical binding, and cell signaling assays, we demonstrate that estrogen does not directly bind to or activate GPR30. Cryo-EM structures of GPR30 reveal an unexpected hydrophilic ligand-binding pocket, with striking differences from classical hydrophobic steroid-binding sites, inconsistent with estrogen binding. We further confirmed hydrophilic agonists like Lys05 as true activators of GPR30, providing structural insights into their binding mechanism and receptor activation. Our findings necessitate a paradigm shift in defining GPR30’s role in estrogen signaling, indicating that its activation occurs through mechanisms independent of estrogen binding. This study opens new avenues for developing targeted GPR30 ligands and reinterpreting its role in estrogen-mediated processes.
分类: 光学 >> 量子光学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: The second-order topological photonic crystal with 0D corner state provides a new way to investigate cavity quantum electrodynamics and develop topological nanophotonic devices with diverse functionalities. Here, we report on the optimization and robustness of topological corner state in the second-order topological photonic crystal both in theory and in experiment. The topological nanocavity is formed based on the 2D generalized Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. The quality factor of corner state is optimized theoretically and experimentally by changing the gap between two photonic crystals or just modulating the position or size of the airholes surrounding the corner. The fabricated quality factors are further optimized by the surface passivation treatment which reduces surface absorption. A maximum quality factor of the fabricated devices is about 6000, which is the highest value ever reported for the active topological corner state. Furthermore, we demonstrate the robustness of corner state against strong disorders including the bulk defect, edge defect, and even corner defect. Our results lay a solid foundation for the further investigations and applications of the topological corner state, such as the investigation of strong coupling regime and the development of optical devices for topological nanophotonic circuitry.
分类: 光学 >> 量子光学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Strong exciton-plasmon interaction between the layered two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors and gap plasmons shows a great potential to implement cavity quantum-electrodynamics in ambient condition. However, achieving a robust plasmon-exciton coupling with nanocavity is still very challenging, because the layer area is usually small with conventional approaches. Here, we report on a robust strong exciton-plasmon coupling between the gap mode of bowtie and the excitons in MoS$_2$ layers with gold-assisted mechanical exfoliation and the nondestructive wet transfer techniques for large-area layer. Benefiting from the ultrasmall mode volume and strong in-plane field, the estimated effective exciton number contributing to the coupling is largely reduced. With a corrected exciton transition dipole moment, the exciton numbers are extracted with 40 for the case of monolayer and 48 for 8 layers. Our work paves a way to realize the strong coupling with 2D materials with few excitons at room temperature.
分类: 光学 >> 量子光学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We report on controllable cavity modes through controlling the backscattering by two identical scatterers. Periodic changes of the backscattering coupling between two degenerate cavity modes are observed with the angle between two scatterers and elucidated by a theoretical model using two-mode approximation and numerical simulations. The periodically appearing single-peak cavity modes indicate mode degeneracy at diabolical points. Then interactions between single quantum dots and cavity modes are investigated. Enhanced emission of a quantum dot with a six-fold intensity increase is obtained in a microdisk at a diabolical point. This method to control cavity modes allows large-scale integration, high reproducibility and fexible design of the size, location, quantity and shape for scatterers, which can be applied for integrated photonic structures with scatterer-modified light-matter interaction.
分类: 光学 >> 量子光学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Chiral quantum optics has attracted considerable interest in the field of quantum information science. Exploiting the spin-polarization properties of quantum emitters and engineering rational photonic nanostructures has made it possible to transform information from spin to path encoding. Here, compact chiral photonic circuits with deterministic circularly polarized chiral routing and beamsplitting are demonstrated using two laterally adjacent waveguides coupled with quantum dots. Chiral routing arises from the electromagnetic field chirality in waveguide, and beamsplitting is obtained via the evanescent field coupling. The spin- and position-dependent directional spontaneous emission are achieved by spatially selective micro-photoluminescence measurements, with a chiral contrast of up to 0.84 in the chiral photonic circuits. This makes a significant advancement for broadening the application scenarios of chiral quantum optics and developing scalable quantum photonic networks.
分类: 光学 >> 量子光学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Slow light in topological valley photonic crystal structures offers new possibilities to enhance light-matter interaction. We report a topological cavity based on slow light topological edge mode for broadband Purcell enhancement. The topological edge modes with large group indices over 100 can be realized with a bearded interface between two topologically distinct valley photonic crystals, featuring the greatly enhanced Purcell factor because of the increased local density of states. In the slow light regime, the topological cavity supports much more cavity modes with higher quality factor than that in the fast light regime, which is both demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. We demonstrate the cavity enables the broadband Purcell enhancement together with substantial Purcell factor, benefiting from dense cavity modes with high quality factor in a wide spectral range. It has great benefit to the realization of high-efficiency quantum-dot-based single-photon sources and entangled-photon sources with less restriction on spectral match. Such topological cavity could serve as a significant building block toward the development of photonic integrated circuits with embedded quantum emitters.