Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Properties of Metallic Helimagnets(2012) Ho, Kwan-yuet; Kirkpatrick, Theodore R; Physics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates various aspects of helimagnets. Helimagnets are magnets with spins aligned in helical order at low temperatures. It exists in materials of crystal structure lacking the spatial inversion symmetry. The helical order is due to the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) mechanism. Examples of helimagnets include MnSi, FeGe and Fe1-xCoxSi. A field theory appropriate for such magnets is used to derive the phase diagram in a mean-field approximation. The helical phase, the conical phase, the columnar phase and the non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) region in the paramagnetic phase are discussed. It is shown that the orientation of the helical vector along an external magnetic field within the conical phase occurs via two distinct phase transitions. The columnar phase, believed to be a Skyrmion lattice, is found to exist as Abrikosov Skyrmions near the helimagnetic phase boundary, and the core-to-core distance is estimated. The Goldstone modes that result from the long-range order in the various phases are determined, and their consequences for electronic properties, in particular, the specific heat, single-particle relaxation rate and the electrical conductivity, are derived. In addition, Skyrmion gases and lattices in helimagnets are studied, and the size of a Skyrmion in various phases is estimated. For isolated Skyrmions, the long distance tail is related to the magnetization correlation functions and exhibits power-law decay if the phase spontaneously breaks a continuous symmetry, but decays exponentially otherwise. The size of a Skyrmion is found to depend on a number of length scales. These length scales are related to the strength of DM interaction, the temperature, and the external magnetic field.Item Protein folding and amyloid formation in various environments(2008-11-21) O'Brien, Edward Patrick; Thirumalai, Devarajan; Brooks, Bernard; Chemical Physics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Understanding and predicting the effect of various environments that differ in terms of pH and the presence of cosolutes and macromolecules on protein properties is a formidable challenge. Yet this knowledge is crucial in understanding the effect of cellular environments on a protein. By combining thermodynamic theories of solution condition effects with statistical mechanics and computer simulations we develop a molecular perspective of protein folding and amyloid formation that was previously unobtainable. The resulting Molecular Transfer Model offers, in some instances, quantitatively accurate predictions of cosolute and pH effects on various protein properties. We show that protein denatured state properties can change significantly with osmolyte concentration, and that residual structure can persist at high denaturant concentrations. We study the single molecule mechanical unfolding of proteins at various pH values and varying osmolyte and denaturant concentrations. We find that the the effect of varying solution conditions on a protein under tension can be understood and qualitatively predicted based on knowledge of that protein's behavior in the absence of force. We test the accuracy of FRET inferred denatured state properties and find that currently, only qualitative estimates of denatured state properties can be obtained with these experimental methods. We also explore the factors governing helix formation in peptides confined to carbon nanotubes. We find that the interplay of the peptide's sequence and dimensions, the nanotube's diameter, hydrophobicity and chemical heterogeneity, lead to a rich diversity of behavior in helix formation. We determine the structural and thermodynamic basis for the dock-lock mechanism of peptide deposition to a mature amyloid fibril. We find multiple basins of attraction on the free energy surface associated with structural transitions of the adding monomer. The models we introduce offer a better understanding of protein folding and amyloid formation in various environments and take us closer to understanding and predicting how the complex environment of the cell can effect protein properties.