NATURE|Vol 440|23 March 2006

NEWS & VIEWS

The Fourier description of the potential is convenient for potentials such as those considered by Sto, because it allows the total Francisco J. Garcia-Vidal is in the Departamento lattice energy the energy required to bring de Fsica Terica de la Materia Condensada, all particles infinitely far apart from each other Universidad Autnoma de Madrid, to be expressed as a simple mathematical Madrid 28049, Spain. formula. The advantage of the Fourier repree-mail: fj.garcia@uam.es sentation is clearly seen when the potential not of particle pairs, but of a periodic lattice 1. Bozhevolnyi, S. I., Volkov, V. S., Devaux, E., Laluet, J.-Y. & Ebbesen, T. W. Nature 440, 508511 (2006). of particles, is considered. Such a spatial lattice 2. Lamprecht, B. et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 79, 5153 a direct, or Bravais, lattice also has a (2001). Fourier representation, known as the recipro3. Lu, J. Q. & Maradudin, A. A. Phys. Rev. B 42, 1115911165 (1990). cal lattice. 4. Novikov, I. V. & Maradudin, A. A. Phys. Rev. B 66, 035403 In the reciprocal lattice, the total energy of (2002). the system (the quantity we wish to minimize) 5. Gramotnev, D. K. & Pile, D. F. P. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 63236325 (2004). is simply the sum, up to K0, of the lattice 6. Pile, D. F. P. & Gramotnev, D. K. Opt. Lett. 30, 11861188 potentials (K) for all reciprocal-lattice vec(2005). tors K that build up the lattice. (For a three7. Bozhevolnyi, S. I., Volkov, V. S., Devaux, E. & Ebbesen, T. W. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 046802 (2005). dimensional reciprocal lattice, each K will have three wavenumber components, and so uniquely define a point in the lattice.) Whereas the term at K (0, 0, 0) represents the origin of the coordinate system and is MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS therefore the same for all types of lattices, all other allowed energy contributions, and thus the total energy of the system, depend on the exact spatial configuration of the particles in Christos N. Likos the direct lattice. Imagine now a direct lattice (call it X) for How can one find the minimum total energy of an infinite number of particles? whose reciprocal lattice all non-zero reciproA proof showing that, for certain interactions, periodic ground states exist cal-lattice vectors define points outside a provides a new perspective on this, one of the oldest questions in physics. sphere of radius K0. In this case, the total energy of the system will include only the term When deciding how particles move and inter- expresses the potential as a series of oscillating at K (0,0,0). But for all other lattices with at act, nature has an affinity for minimum values. sine and cosine terms that depend on a para- least one value of K smaller than K0, the total In newtonian mechanics, particles choose tra- meter k, the wavenumber, which represents an energy can only be larger, because the addijectories that minimize action, a quantity with inverse wavelength.) Additionally, the Fourier- tionally contributing potentials (K) are, by the dimensions energy time. In thermo- transformed potential, which is written (k), our definition, positive. So X must have the dynamics, a collection of particles at a fixed must be positive for all values of k below minimum possible energy. volume and temperature will settle into a some threshold value, K0, and zero for all Sto1 proved his point by showing that, state that minimizes the so-called free energy values above it. for a three-dimensional lattice and at the of the system, a quantity that, at absolute minimum particle density for which his 3 zero, reduces to the total energy that is, results apply, given by * K 0 /(8 2 3), the sum of all the interactions between pairs the body-centred cubic (bcc) lattice that of the particles. many metals assume indeed fulfils the Simple as such statements may seem, the above requirements. With increasing task of finding ground-state configuradensity, other lattice types join the group, tions, and proving that they do indeed miniproducing an infinite number of groundmize the energy of a system, is notoriously state configurations. Moreover, Sto difficult. The standard approach is more or demonstrated that periodic ground-state less trial and error: one chooses a number configurations are stable against arbitrary of configurations, calculates their energies, deviations from periodicity, and that aperiand picks the structure with the smallest odic unions of periodic configurations energy as the ground state. minimize energy. Writing in Physical Review Letters1, These are remarkable achievements. But why did such a clear and powerful proof Andrs Sto short-circuits this process. take so long? The answer probably lies in He demonstrates with a strikingly powerthe peculiar form of (r), which implicitly ful mathematical argument that, in certain cases, the ground-state configuration sought demands a finite potential at zero separawhen a material freezes into a regular crystion the equivalent of permitting two tal structure is a periodic one. Certain Figure 1 | Chain overlap. A snapshot from a simulation particles to overlap each other fully. In the formal criteria must be met: first, the pair- involving two self-avoiding polymers. In this case of interacting atoms, however, a strong configuration, the centres of mass of the two chains interaction potential (r), which describes (denoted by the big sphere) can fully overlap. Stos repulsive force is created between bound electron shells and their quantum-mechanthe potential energy of a two-particle results1, showing that for certain interactions periodic ical wavefunctions because of the Pauli system in terms of their separation, r, must ground states exist, deal with a similar type of exclusion principle (which holds that no possess a mathematical analogue known interaction that was long considered unphysical. two particles such as electrons may occupy as a Fourier transform. (This transform (Courtesy of Arben Jusufi.) difference of the light waves entering and leaving the ring, and therefore the degree of constructive or destructive interference between the two act as a wavelength filter for the transmitted light. The fabrication process exploits current planar technology: milling grooves onto a metal film with a focused ion beam is similar to drawing lines on a paper with a pencil. The possibilities for such techniques are huge, but there are still some problems. One is how to get external light into a CPP waveguide and extract it at the other end. Coupling to a standard single-mode optical fibre, as practised by Bozhevolnyi and colleagues1,7, might produce large losses, and other alternatives should be tested. Nevertheless, the successes already achieved in a very short period of experimental research using channel

plasmons to mould the flow of light hint at bright prospects ahead.

Going to ground

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NATURE|Vol 440|23 March 2006

CELL DIVISION

Running rings around the spindle

When cells divide, each chromosome is duplicated and one copy is passed to each daughter cell. The details of how these duplicated chromosomes are separated are still being puzzled out, but elsewhere in this issue, Georjana Barnes and colleagues (Nature 440, 565569; 2006) add a large piece to the jigsaw. During cell division, an array of tiny filaments called microtubules spreads from the poles of the cell to the central plane, where the duplicated chromosomes congregate. This microtubule structure the mitotic spindle is responsible for dragging the two copies of the chromosome apart into the two regions that will form the daughter cells. Microtubules are linear polymers of the protein tubulin of diameter 24 nm that grow or shrink as tubulin monomers are added to or lost from their ends. During chromosome segregation, the microtubules depolymerize, and thus shorten, from the end nearest the central plane of the cell. So, as the spindle shrinks, the attached chromosomes are carried towards the pole. The chromosomes stick to the depolymerizing ends of the spindle microtubules through specialized protein complexes known as kinetochores. But if these ends are continually dissolving as the microtubules pull back, how do the chromosomes stay attached? The answer lies with a subcomplex in the kinetochore, called the Dam1 complex, which assembles into rings and paired helices that encircle the ends of depolymerizing microtubules (pictured). Barnes et al. used real-time imaging to watch the Dam1 complex on dynamic microtubules in vitro. They labelled the Dam1 complex and the microtubules with different coloured fluorophores. As the the ring along the microtubule. The authors demonstrated that turnover of Dam1-complex subunits was not taking place and that the ring structure is sliding intact along the depolymerizing microtubule. Finally, Barnes and colleagues showed that the Dam1 complex can function as a coupling device to move objects along the microtubules. These experiments relied on the strong bonds formed between streptavidin and biotin molecules. Streptavidincoated microbeads were recruited to the microtubules using a biotin-labelled Dam1 complex. As the microtubules depolymerized, the Dam1 complex slid along the spindle away from the shrinking ends, bearing its cargo of beads. It will be interesting to find out whether chromosomes are transported in the same way.
Deepa Nath
G. BARNES ET AL.

microtubules shortened during depolymerization, the Dam1 complex could clearly be seen progressing along the microtubules. This movement could be explained either by a sliding mechanism, in which the Dam1 complex is continually associated with the microtubule lattice, or by a turnover mechanism, with new subunits of the Dam1 complex rapidly incorporating into existing rings as old subunits leave, thus propelling

the same quantum state), and the atomic-pair potential diverges steeply towards infinity as r approaches zero. And at the mesoscopic scale that between the microscopic and the macroscopic the rigid core of colloidal particles ensures that they just bounce off each other at low separations, and also do not overlap. Neither the atomic nor the mesoscopic potentials even possess a Fourier transform; for a long time, finite interactions of the type considered by Sto1 were simply considered unphysical. But effective potentials between the centres of mass of entities such as block copolymers2, polymer chains or dendrimers can indeed remain finite at zero separation (Fig. 1). Theory3 and simulation4 have shown that the effective potential between two chains has a gaussian form, and calculations have shown that its ground-state configuration is facecentred cubic (fcc) at low densities and bcc at high densities5,6. Fourier transformation does not change a gaussian form, so (k) is positive in this case. There is, however, no value of K0 above which (k) is zero, so Stos result is not valid here. Nevertheless, his work joins a rapidly growing body of research7, spurred on by developments in soft-matter physics, on the properties of bounded interaction potentials in one-component systems, in which the properties of (k) are used to obtain information on the ground-state configuration or the topology of the phase diagram. A potential (k) that vanishes above a
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threshold seems difficult to realize physically. Sto shows that the requirement for this to occur leads to an interaction potential that shows oscillatory behaviour combined with a power-law decay at large values of r. This is strikingly similar to the RKKY (Ruderman KittelKasuyaYosida), or Friedel, potential810 that arises as an effective interaction potential between ions when the effect of free electrons is incorporated as a statistical average. For metals of valency Z, the ion density is related to Stos minimum density by * 2/(3Z), so that exceeds * by 48% for Z 1 and trails it by 26% for Z 2. So unfortunately there is no happy agreement between the real and the Sto densities that would hint at why certain metals crystallize into the bcc structure. The power laws governing the behaviour of the RKKY and Sto potentials at large values of r are slightly different, and effective ion potentials also include a steeply repulsive region at small values of r (ref. 10) that is absent in Stos interaction. So the long- and short-range parts of the potential must be considered independently. Sto provides us with a suitable reference frame to deal with the former. In the late 1970s, a celebrated and controversial article11 was published entitled Should all crystals be bcc?. It contained a theory of freezing that involved density waves modulated density profiles at the set of reciprocal lattice vectors K as parameters in a mathematical expression for the free energy. On the basis
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that the bcc crystal is the only spatial configuration that combines the shortest reciprocallattice vectors lying on the surface of a sphere, it was concluded that the stablest crystals should all be bcc. This argument, although brilliant, was flawed in making certain simplifying assumptions. Stos work comes from a very different direction to again put the bcc lattice in a distinctive position among all Bravais lattices. In this way, it recasts the question of why crystals form as they do in a fresh and thought-provoking way.
Christos N. Likos is at the Institut fr Theoretische Physik II, Heinrich-HeineUniversitt Dsseldorf, Universittsstrae 1, D-40225 Dsseldorf, Germany. e-mail: likos@thphy.uni-duesseldorf.de
1. Sto, A. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 265501 (2005). 2. Pierleoni, C., Addison, C., Hansen, J.-P. & Krakoviack, V. Phys. Rev. Lett. (in the press); preprint available at www.arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0601417 (2006). 3. Krger, B., Schfer, L. & Baumgrtner, A. J. Phys. (Paris) 50, 3191 (1989). 4. Louis, A. A., Bolhuis, P. G., Hansen, J.-P. & Meijer, E. J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 25222525 (2000). 5. Stillinger, F. H. J. Chem. Phys. 65, 39683974 (1976). 6. Stillinger, F. H. Phys. Rev. B 20, 299302 (1979). 7. Mladek, B. M., Gottwald, D., Kahl, G., Neumann, M. & Likos, C. N. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 045701 (2006). 8. Ashcroft, N. W. & Mermin, N. D. Solid State Physics (Holt Saunders, Philadelphia, 1976). 9. Ziman, J. M. Principles of the Theory of Solids (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1972). 10. Hafner, J. From Hamiltonians to Phase Diagrams (Springer, Berlin, 1987). 11. Alexander, S. & McTague, J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 41, 702705 (1978).