Anomalies in the Cosmic Microwave Background and Their Non-Gaussian Origin in Loop Quantum Cosmology

Anomalies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) refer to features that have been observed, mostly at large angular scales, and which show some tension with the statistical predictions of the standard ΛCDM model. In this work, we focus our attention on power suppression, dipolar modulation, a preference for odd parity, and the tension in the lensing parameter AL. Though the statistical significance of each individual anomaly is inconclusive, collectively they are significant, and could indicate new physics beyond the ΛCDM model. In this article, we present a brief, but pedagogical introduction to CMB anomalies and propose a common origin in the context of loop quantum cosmology.

Novel ripple reduction method using three-level inverters with unipolar PWM

This paper proposes a novel method to reduce voltage and current ripple for the inverters by using three-level inverters with unipolar pulse width modulation (PWM) (3LFB-2U). A simple technique of switching signal generation by using carrier-based dipolar modulation of three-phase three-level inverters is extended to single-phase inverters that can be done by generating all possible switching patterns of the single-phase three-level inverters. Moreover, the concept of carrier-based dipolar modulation and the construction of reference voltages from desired output voltage and added zero voltage to control unipolar switching is also shown. The research results reveal that the proposed method can reduce the voltage and current ripple. Furthermore, the voltage and current harmonics can reduce by 27.80% and 1.79%, respectively less than two-level inverters without a loss of a simple modulation to generate the switching signals.

Six-Pulse RIDME Sequence to Avoid Background Artifacts

Relaxation induced dipolar modulation enhancement (RIDME) is a valuable method for measuring nanometer-scale distances between electron spin centers. Such distances are widely used in structural biology to study biomolecular structures and track their conformational changes. Despite significant improvements of RIDME in recent years, the background analysis of primary RIDME signals remains to be challenging. In particular, it was recently shown that the five-pulse RIDME signals contain an artifact which can hinder the accurate extraction of distance distributions from RIDME time traces [as reported by Ritsch et al. (Phys Chem Chem Phys 21: 9810, 2019)]. Here, this artifact, as well as one additionally identified artifact, are systematically studied on several model compounds and the possible origins of both artifacts are discussed. In addition, a new six-pulse RIDME sequence is proposed that eliminates the artifact with the biggest impact on the extracted distance distributions. The efficiency of this pulse sequence is confirmed on several examples.

DEER and RIDME Measurements of the Nitroxide-Spin Labelled Copper-Bound Amine Oxidase Homodimer from Arthrobacter Globiformis

In the study of biological structures, pulse dipolar spectroscopy (PDS) is used to elucidate spin–spin distances at nanometre-scale by measuring dipole–dipole interactions between paramagnetic centres. The PDS methods of Double Electron Electron Resonance (DEER) and Relaxation Induced Dipolar Modulation Enhancement (RIDME) are employed, and their results compared, for the measurement of the dipolar coupling between nitroxide spin labels and copper-II (Cu(II)) paramagnetic centres within the copper amine oxidase from Arthrobacter globiformis (AGAO). The distance distribution results obtained indicate that two distinct distances can be measured, with the longer of these at c.a. 5 nm. Conditions for optimising the RIDME experiment such that it may outperform DEER for these long distances are discussed. Modelling methods are used to show that the distances obtained after data analysis are consistent with the structure of AGAO.

Nanomolar Pulse Dipolar EPR Spectroscopy in Proteins Using Commercial Labels and Hardware

The study of complex biomolecular assemblies implicated in human health and disease is increasingly performed under native conditions. Pulse Dipolar Electron paramagnetic resonance (PDEPR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool that provides highly precise geometric constraints in frozen solution, however the drive towards <i>in cellulo</i> EPR is limited by the currently achievable concentration sensitivity in the low μM regime. Achieving PDEPR at physiologically relevant sub-μM concentrations is currently very challenging. Recently, relaxation induced dipolar modulation enhancement (RIDME) measurements using a combination of nitroxide and double-histidine Cu^II based spin labels allowed measuring 500 nM concentration of a model protein. Herein, we demonstrate Cu^II-Cu^IIRIDME and nitroxide-nitroxide PELDOR measurements down to 500 and 100 nM protein concentration, respectively. This is possible using commercial instrumentation and spin labels. These results herald a transition towards routine sub-μM PDEPR measurements at short to intermediate distances (~1.5-3.5 nm), without the necessity of specialized instrumentation or spin-labelling protocols, particularly relevant for applications in near physiological conditions.

Nanomolar Pulse Dipolar EPR Spectroscopy in Proteins Using Commercial Labels and Hardware

The study of complex biomolecular assemblies implicated in human health and disease is increasingly performed under native conditions. Pulse Dipolar Electron paramagnetic resonance (PDEPR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool that provides highly precise geometric constraints in frozen solution, however the drive towards <i>in cellulo</i> EPR is limited by the currently achievable concentration sensitivity in the low μM regime. Achieving PDEPR at physiologically relevant sub-μM concentrations is currently very challenging. Recently, relaxation induced dipolar modulation enhancement (RIDME) measurements using a combination of nitroxide and double-histidine Cu^II based spin labels allowed measuring 500 nM concentration of a model protein. Herein, we demonstrate Cu^II-Cu^IIRIDME and nitroxide-nitroxide PELDOR measurements down to 500 and 100 nM protein concentration, respectively. This is possible using commercial instrumentation and spin labels. These results herald a transition towards routine sub-μM PDEPR measurements at short to intermediate distances (~1.5-3.5 nm), without the necessity of specialized instrumentation or spin-labelling protocols, particularly relevant for applications in near physiological conditions.

Evidence for anisotropy of cosmic acceleration

Observations reveal a “bulk flow” in the local Universe which is faster and extends to much larger scales than are expected around a typical observer in the standard ΛCDM cosmology. This is expected to result in a scale-dependent dipolar modulation of the acceleration of the expansion rate inferred from observations of objects within the bulk flow. From a maximum-likelihood analysis of the Joint Light-curve Analysis catalogue of Type Ia supernovae, we find that the deceleration parameter, in addition to a small monopole, indeed has a much bigger dipole component aligned with the cosmic microwave background dipole, which falls exponentially with redshift z: q0 = qm + qd.n̂ exp(-z/S). The best fit to data yields qd = −8.03 and S = 0.0262 (⇒d ∼ 100 Mpc), rejecting isotropy (qd = 0) with 3.9σ statistical significance, while qm = −0.157 and consistent with no acceleration (qm = 0) at 1.4σ. Thus the cosmic acceleration deduced from supernovae may be an artefact of our being non-Copernican observers, rather than evidence for a dominant component of “dark energy” in the Universe.