Parity-violating electron deuteron scattering and the proton's neutral weak axial vector form factor

We report on a new measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry in quasielastic electron scattering from the deuteron at backward angles at Q2=0.038 (GeV/c)2. This quantity provides a determination of the neutral weak axial vector form factor of the nucleon, which can potentially receive large electroweak corrections. The measured asymmetry A=-3.51+/-0.57 (stat)+/-0.58 (syst) ppm is consistent with theoretical predictions. We also report on updated results of the previous experiment at Q2=0.091 (GeV/c)2, which are also consistent with theoretical predictions.     

Enhanced fusion-evaporation cross sections in neutron-rich 132Sn on 64Ni

Evaporation residue cross sections have been measured with neutron-rich radioactive 132Sn beams on 64Ni in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier. The average beam intensity was 2 x 10(4) particles per second and the smallest cross section measured was less than 5 mb. Large sub-barrier fusion enhancement was observed. Coupled-channel calculations taking into account inelastic excitation significantly underpredict the measured cross sections below the barrier. The presence of several neutron transfer channels with large positive Q values suggests that multinucleon transfer may play an important role in enhancing the fusion of 132Sn and 64Ni.     

Unusual thermal diffusion in polymer solutions

Thermal diffusion forced Rayleigh scattering results on thermal diffusion of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) in ethanol/water mixtures are presented. In water-rich solvent mixtures, PEO is found to migrate towards regions of lower temperature. This is typical for polymer solutions and corresponds to a positive Soret coefficient of PEO. In solvent mixtures with low water content, however, the polymer is found to migrate towards higher temperatures, corresponding to a negative Soret coefficient of PEO in ethanol-rich solutions. To our knowledge, this is the first observed sign change of the Soret coefficient of a polymer in solution. We also present a simple lattice model for the polymer solvent system and calculate Soret coefficients with statistical mechanics methods. The calculated values agree qualitatively with the experimental results.     

Efficient asymmetric synthesis of the vasopeptidase inhibitor BMS-189921

[reaction: see text] An efficient asymmetric synthesis of the vasopeptidase inhibitor BMS-189921 was accomplished. Two short enantioselective syntheses of the common key intermediate (S)-alpha-aminoazepinone 6b were developed. Olefin 3 was converted to 6b via asymmetric hydrogenation. Alternatively, enyne 12 was converted to racemic alpha-aminoazepinone 15b, which was transformed to 6b by a practical dynamic resolution.     

Halo structure of (14)Be

The two-neutron halo nucleus (14)Be has been investigated in a kinematically complete measurement of the fragments ((12)Be and neutrons) produced in dissociation at 35 MeV/nucleon on C and Pb targets. Two-neutron removal cross sections, neutron angular distributions, and invariant mass spectra were measured, and the contributions from electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) were deduced. Comparison with three-body model calculations suggests that the halo wave function contains a large nu(2s(1/2))(2) admixture. The EMD invariant mass spectrum exhibited enhanced strength near threshold consistent with a nonresonant soft-dipole excitation.     

Design of Civil Engineering Frame Structures Using a Monomial/Newton Hybrid Method

This paper presents an application of a monomial approximation method for solving systems of nonlinear equations to the design of civil engineering frame structures. This is accomplished by solving a set of equations representing the state known as fully-stressed design, where each member of the structure is stressed to the maximum safe allowable level under at least one of the loading conditions acting on it. The monomial approximation method is based on the process of condensation, which has its origin in geometric programming theory. A monomial/Newton hybrid method is presented which permits some of the design variables to be free in sign, while others are strictly positive. This hybrid method is well suited to the structural design application since some variables are naturally positive and others are naturally free. The proposed method is compared to the most commonly used fully-stressed design method in practice. The hybrid method is shown to find solutions that the conventional method cannot find, while doing so with less computational effort. The impact of this approach on the activity of structural design is discussed.     

The ep -->e'p eta reaction at and above the S11(1535) baryon resonance

New cross sections for the reaction e p-->e p eta are reported for total center of mass energy W = 1.5--1.86 GeV and invariant momentum transfer Q2 = 0.25--1.5 (GeV/c)(2). This large kinematic range allows extraction of important new information about response functions, photocouplings, and eta N coupling strengths of baryon resonances. Newly observed structure at W approximately 1.65 GeV is shown to come from interference between S and P waves and can be interpreted with known resonances. Improved values are derived for the photon coupling amplitude for the S11(1535) resonance.     

Measurement of internuclear distances in solid-state NMR by a background-filtered REDOR experiment

A background-filtered version of the rotational-echo double resonance (REDOR) experiment is demonstrated. The experiment combines a traditional REDOR pulse sequence with a double-cross-polarization (DCP) sequence to select only those signals coming from spin pairs of interest. The relatively inefficient DCP sequence, which transfers polarization from (1)H to (15)N and subsequently to (13)C, is improved by the use of adiabatic passages through the (-1) sideband of the Hartmann-Hahn matching condition. The result is an efficient 2D-REDOR pulse sequence that does not require a reference experiment for removal of background signals. The data produced by the experiment are ideally suited to analysis by newly developed dipolar transform methods, such as the REDOR transform. The relevant features of the experiment are demonstrated on simple labeled amino acids. Relative efficiencies of several other potential filtering methods are also compared. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.