Breakage of Tobacco Mosaic Virus by Acoustic Transients: A Hydrodynamical Model

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Abstract
Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) particles have been exposed to single pulse acoustic transients of 10−7 sec duration produced by the rapid thermal expansion following the absorption of an intense pulse of light from a Q-switched ruby laser in an optically dense media. A hydrodynamical model is proposed, which relates the observed breakage at the center of the TMV particles, as seen in electron micrographs of exposed particles, to the structure of the TMV particles and to the amplitude and form of the acoustic transient. A velocity gradient of 4 × 107 per sec, which produces a force at the center of the TMV particle of the order of the force necessary to break a carbon-carbon bond, has been found to be sufficient to break the TMV particle.

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