A new interpretation of the special theory of relativity

Assuming the “Big Bang” theory as well as the usual axioms in the Special Theory of Relativity, the time dilations and length contractions are treated as real physical effects. This becomes possible by relating everything to the hypothetical frame,S _a , at rest relative to the “Big Bang” event. This frame in many senses plays the role of the classical aether frame. A clock's real ryhthm, as opposed to its rhythm observed by restricted methods, is then a function of its velocity relative toS _a (assuming a uniform gravitational field). It is further assumed that gravitational radiation is composed of “electromagnetic-like” waves. Therefore when a clock changes its velocity in a uniform gravitational field it must receive a different total energy due to the average frequency shift (Doppler effect), the time dilations are then caused by the change in energy due to this frequency shift. That is, not wo clocks can be in the “same” gravitational field unless they have no relative velocity, and therefore the Special Theory of Relativity is a special case of the General Theory from this viewpoint. Two feasible experimental tests, using the Mössbauer effect, are described that would decide on these viewpoints. The principle of equivalence and the “twin paradox” are also discussed.     

How big is the universe today?

If one defines the size of the present universe in terms of a hypersurface of simultaneity generated by the spatial geodesies orthogonal to our world line today, then it is finite in all expanding Big Bang Friedmann models.     

On the Gravitization of Quantum Mechanics 2: Conformal Cyclic Cosmology

The 2nd Law of thermodynamics was driven by the Big Bang being extraordinary special, with hugely suppressed gravitational degrees of freedom. This cannot have been simply the result of a conventional quantum gravity. Conformal cyclic cosmology proposes a different picture, of a classical evolution from an aeon preceding our own. The ultimate Hawking evaporation of black holes is key to the 2nd Law and requires information loss, violating unitarity in a strongly gravitational context.     

Luminescent properties of Eu2+ ions in AlN at low and high intensity of excitation

Luminescent properties of powder AlN∶Eu²⁺ phosphors were studied by excitation of 2-nd harmonic of ruby laser (hv=3·56 eV). It was shown that emission spectra of AlN∶Eu²⁺ phosphors consist of five or two overlapping bands according to the concentration of europium and the intensity of excitation. Decay times of luminescence of Eu²⁺ centres in different peaks lie between 0·9 and 1·5 μsec which is in agreement with the value of decay time of 4f⁶ 5d→47⁷ transition of Eu²⁺ ions. It is evident from the decomposition of emission spectra of Eu²⁺ centres that there exist several types of Eu²⁺ centres in AlN as was already demonstrated in the case of oxygen centres in AlN.     

Analytical study of the performance of minSIS solar cells with a back surface field

The effect of a Back Surface Field (BSF) on the performance of a minority-carrier transparent Semiconductor-Insulator-Semiconductor (minSIS) solar cell has been studied. An analytical one-dimensional model has been developed for the calculation of transport characteristics of minSIS solar cells. Short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, fill factor and efficiency are then calculated for a sputtered Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO)-SiO₂-pSi-p ⁺Si solar cell under AM1 illumination for different values ofpSi- andp ⁺ Si-layer thicknesses. It is found that for a large base thickness, the effect of BSF is not significant; however, for a small thickness all the quantities increase with BSF.     

Combined taper-and-cylinder optical fiber probes for highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering

A combined taper-and-cylinder optical fiber fabricated by simple tube-etching and modified with silver nanoparticles is developed for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensing. It has the advantages of high light transmission efficiency and large interaction areas for light and silver nanoparticles. The detection of rhodamine 6G in remote mode indicates that the sensitivity could realize 10^?13 M. The fiber SERS probe with high flexibility and sensitivity shows great potential for molecule detection in various sensing applications.     

Antimatter in the Universe: constraints from gamma-ray astronomy

We review gamma-ray observations that constrain antimatter – both baryonic and leptonic - in the Universe. Antimatter is probed through ordinary matter, with the resulting annihilation gamma-rays providing indirect evidence for its presence. Although it is generally accepted that equal amounts of matter and antimatter have been produced in the Big Bang, gamma-rays have so far failed to detect substantial amounts of baryonic antimatter in the Universe. Conversely, positrons are abundantly observed through their annihilation in the central regions of our Galaxy and, although a wealth of astrophysical sources are plausible, their very origin is still unknown. As both antimatter questions – the source of the Galactic positrons and the baryon asymmetry in the Universe - can be investigated through the low energy gamma-ray channel, the mission concept of a dedicated space telescope is sketched out.     

On the determination of collision cross sections by nuclear Doppler shift

We report on measurements of the energy loss of ions in matter by “Inverted Doppler Shift Attenuation” (IDSA). This new method is an inversion of the “Doppler Shift Attenuation” (DSA) method for the determination of lifetimes of nuclear states. While in DSA the exact knowledge of the velocity dependent energy loss functiondE/ds is required, it is shown that in IDSA this function or the absolute collision cross section, respectively, can be determined from the Doppler spectrum of an excited nuclear fragment recoiling in matter, whose lifetime is known. No corrections or assumptions concerning the collision processes are necessary. ⁷Li^* fragments (E _γ=478 keV) from the¹⁰B(n, α)⁷Li^* reaction produce an easily observable and analysable Doppler spectrum. Here boron must be a constituent or an implanted impurity of the material to be investigated. The experimental set-up is described. An exact relativistic analysis of the Doppler spectrum is given. The measured collision cross sections turn out (a) to be proportional tov within the range 1.5 · 10⁸≦v≦4.8 · 10⁸ cm/sec, (b) are thus only due to pure “electronic” collisions, and (c) sensitively dependent on the charge distributions of the target atoms.     

Development of a compact hardware/software package for noninvasive diagnostics of skin diseases in the THz frequency range

The key elements of a mobile hardware/software package for noninvasive diagnostics of skin diseases in the THz frequency range have been designed, produced, and approved in model experiments. These elements are a compact THz oscillator based on an all-fiber femtosecond laser system and a unit for recovering electrodynamic characteristics of layered objects from scattered THz radiation spectra. Generation of 250-fs optical pulses at a wavelength of 1.03 µm with energy of 0.3 µJ and a repetition frequency of 1MHz is demonstrated and the efficiency of optical-THz conversion is found to be 5×10^?6. The proposed algorithm is constructed based on an iterative procedure and can be used for dispersive and absorbing media. It has higher operating speed in comparison with the algorithms for solving inverse problems, which are based on functional minimization methods.     

Preparation of n-ZnO/p-Si solar cells by oxidation of zinc nanoparticles: effect of oxidation temperature on the photovoltaic properties

In this study, n-ZnO/p-Si solar cells were fabricated by spraying ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) film synthesised by dissolving of high purity zinc in hydrogen peroxide H₂O₂ followed by thermal oxidation in air on p-type silicon substrates. The oxidation was carried out at different temperatures (200–500) °C. The crystalline structure of the ZnO NPs films was investigated by X-ray diffraction which indicated wurtzite structure films along (100) plane. The morphology of the NPs was studied by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The result showed an average grain size of ZnO NPs in the range of (72.7–95.8) nm and the surface roughness increasing with oxidation temperature. Three peaks located at ultraviolet, violet and green emission regions were noticed in the photoluminescence spectra of ZnO NPs. From optical studies, it was shown that the direct optical band gap is found to be in the range of (3.85–3.96) eV depended on the oxidation temperature. The synthesised ZnO films have n-type conductivity, and the mobility was in the range of (7–24) cm² V^?1 s^?1. Current–voltage I–V and capacitance–voltage C–V of ZnO NPs/Si heterojunction solar cell were investigated as function of oxidation temperature. The spectral response of n-ZnO NPs/p-Si solar cell showed two peaks of response and its maximum value approaching 0.62 mA W^?1 at λ = 800 nm. Solar cell oxidized at 500 °C gave open circuit voltage V _OC of 375 mV, short circuit current density J _SC of 25 mA cm^?2, a fill factor FF of 0.72, and conversion efficiency η of 6.79 % under illumination of 100 mW cm^?2.     

Three-body calculations of elastic Deuteron-helium-4-scattering with faddeev equations

The Faddeev equations are applied to the Deuteron-⁴He system. For the interactions between the particles squarewell potentials are used. In order to solve the Faddeev equations, thet-matrix is approximated by one separable term. The phaseshifts of the elastic Deuteron-⁴He scattering are calculated. It is shown, that the separable approximation by only one term is insufficient for such calculations.     

A high efficiency label-free photonic biosensor based on vertically stacked ring resonators

In this paper we propose an optical biosensor based on two vertically stacked Silicon on Insulator (SOI) micro-ring resonators interacting with a microfluidic ring channel. This device behaves as a resonant optical coupler and it is very sensitive to the variation of the coupling coefficient between the two vertically stacked ring resonators. A ring microfluidic channel is proposed in the coupling region between the two vertically stacked ring resonators. The inner walls of the channel are funzionalized in order to the trap a specific biological species. Assuming a biotin-streptavidin system, the straptividin trapping gives rise to a change of the biological thickness of about 3 nm. This thickness increase of the deposited layer leads to a consequent change in the coupling strength between the two rings. These theoretical predictions have been validated by using both 3D Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) and 3D full-vectorial Finite Element Method (FEM) approaches. Moreover, by appropriately choosing the design parameters of the micro-resonant structure, we evaluate a sensitivity of the spectral response to the streptavidin adlayer variation of about 20% nm^?1 for TE polarization and 34% nm^?1 for TM polarization, which represents an important achievement to obtain selective SOI bio-sensors with ultra-high resolution.     

Ortho-m meta-, para-directional effects in muonium addition to benzoic acid in water

Isomeric free radicals formed by Mu adding to o/m/p positions of benzoic acid in water were detected by LCR and the corresponding resonance positions and proton hyperfine coupling constants were obtained. There was an isotope effect of the ‘second kind’ for these Mu-radicals in the range of 1.26–1.32. The ‘fractional’ formation rate constants per site are 2.7×10⁹, 0.45×10⁹ and 0.85×10⁹ M^?1s^?1 respectively. Ortho-addition dominates by a large factor, which is in accord with the electron-withdrawing character of the ?COOH group.     

Heat capacity of oxides in the Bi2O3-SiO2 system

The high-temperature heat capacity of Bi₄Si₃O₁₂, Bi₂SiO₅, and Bi₁₂SiO₂₀ has been investigated. It has been found that there is a correlation between the specific heat C _p ⁰ (298 K) and the composition of oxides in the Bi₂O₃-SiO₂ system.     

Observation of Conformational Exchange in Cyclosporin in Media of Varying Polarity by NMR Spectroscopy

The molecule of peptide cyclosporin A experiences chemical exchange in polar solvents. In apolar media, such as chloroform or benzene, this transformation is suppressed, but still leads to formation of a small fraction of a minor conformer. To elucidate the nature of this phenomenon, the peptide was dissolved in mixed solvents chloroform–DMSO and water–DMSO. Analysis of ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance and two-dimensional exchange spectroscopy spectra showed that the conformational exchange proceeds at a low rate of \(\sim\) 10^?1 s^?1 at the room temperature and involves passing over a high free energy barrier. Thus the situation resembles the exchange process in chloroform, associated with cis–trans isomerization of peptide bonds, but in the presence of DMSO transformation occurs at several sites independently, and the energy difference between arising conformers is small, 10²–10³ kJ/mol.     

TheN-Δ transition form factor and anomalousΨ-decays into octet-decuplet baryon-antibaryon Pairs

We develop a Generalized-Vector-Meson Dominance Model (GVDM) for the invariantN-Δ transition form factors which incorporates the correct largeq ² power behaviour of QCD and describes the available lowq ² space-like data. We then use this GVDM transition form factor in the time-like region to calculate theSU (3) singlet and octet contributions to Ψ-decays into octet-decuplet baryon-antibaryon pairs. The results are compared to recent data on Ψ-decays into octet-decuplet baryon-antibaryon pairs.     

The measurements of correlation times of molecules adsorbed on silica gel,alumina and charcoal using NOESY and MAS NMR

The correlation times (τ_c) and cross relaxation rates of toluene, dimethylformamide, tetrahydrofuran, water-acetone and water-dioxane adsorbed on silica gel, alumina and charcoal were obtained by measurements of the integrated intensities of cross and diagonal peaks in their NOESY spectra. The (τ_c) of the above mentioned systems is in the range of 10^?6?10^?9 s, much longer than that in the liquid (10^?12?10^?14 s). It was found that intramolecular rotation of toluene adsorbed on charcoal is slower than that on SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and the inversion of α and β protons in tetrahydrofuran is very fast (τ_c = 1.76×10^?9 s). The cross relaxation plays an important role in the relaxation of molecules adsorbed on solid surfaces with low electron densities.     

Spin transition in iron(II) complexes induced by heat,pressure, light,and nuclear decay

The phenomenon of temperature-dependent spin transition will be introduced and the numerous chemical and physical influences affecting the spin transition characteristics will be discussed. We shall mainly concentrate on the spin crossover system [Fe(2-pic)₃]X₂·Sol (2-pic=2-aminomethylpyridine; X=Cl, Br; Sol=C₂H₅OH, CH₃OH) and demonstrate how the behaviour of the spin transition⁵T_2g(O_h)?¹A_1g(O_h) is influenced by substituting the metalion, the non-coordinating anions X, the crystal solvent molecules Sol and by isotopic exchange with H/D and¹⁴N/¹⁵N. It will also be shown that the spin transition is very susceptible to pressure. A quantitative spin state conversion from low spin to high spin can also be achieved by illuminating the crystals of a spin crossover system at sufficiently low temperatures. The metastable quintet state can be trapped with practically infinite lifetimes. Several examples for this “Light-Induced Excited Spin State Trapping” (LIESST) will be given. Finally, the occurrence of short-lived anomalous spin quintet states following the⁵⁷Co(EC)⁵⁷Fe nuclear decay, which have been observed in the Mössbauer emission spectra of⁵⁷Co-doped complex compounds, will be discussed with particular references to the LIESST effect.     

Corrosion processes and their inhibition as studied by Mössbauer conversion and other electron spectroscopies

To study corrosion processes of iron and steel and measures of their inhibition, a detailed knowledge of the phase composition and of phase transformations in very thin layers close to the attacked surface of the material is necessary. The information depths of integral (ICEMS) and depth selective (DCEMS) conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy are well suited for such investigations, but some effort is necessary if technical samples, i.e. nonenriched in⁵⁷Fe, are to be studied. In many cases of practical importance, full information on the corroded surfaces cannot be got from Mössbauer spectra only, and a combination with Auger and photoelectron spectroscopies, in-including scanning and sputter options, is found to be most informative. This is demonstrated by three examples. The high corrosion resistance of stainless steel X1 CrNiSi 18 15 against boiling HNO₃ is found to be due to a SiO₂ layer formed on the surface and growing with duration of exposure. Nearly no iron oxides are formed, although the composition of the alloy close to the metal surface is slightly influenced. Transformer sheet steel (Fe?3%Si), commercially available after a thermal pretreatment, is covered by an insulating layer containing iron oxides and a large amount of Fe₂SiO₄. By the method combination it was found that a very thick layer below the metallic surface is also modified by the pretreatment. There, one finds pure α-iron containing clusters of SiO₂ which have been formed by internal oxidation. The passivation of iron and steel (DIN 1623) in sulphate solution and in a phosphate buffer was studied in detail. Phase composition and thickness of the passive layer, as thin as a few nm only, were analyzed in dependence on the applied anodic potential and the duration of the passivating procedure. From the experiments, a model of the passive layer was derived, which is a modification of a p-i-n junction proposed elsewhere. The real passivation is ascribed to a layer, only a few monolayers thick, which has a highly disordered structure and provides the transition from cubic to orthorhombic structure. Some thermodynamical considerations show that immediately on an iron substrate, an oxide layer should always contain a high concentration of Fe²⁺ forming an equilibrium oxide. The absence of Fe²⁺ in Mössbauer spectra is interpreted by the assumption that this layer may be extremely thin, i.e. a few monolayers only.