Meson-meson interactions and the equation of state for dense nucleons

The effect of the interaction among mesons upon the equation of state for a high-density system of nucleons is studied, and it is found that such interactions do not significantly alter the asymptotic behaviour of the equation of state.     

Comparison of microscopic calculations of solid neutron star matter

At the Urbana Workshop on “dense neutron matter” it was agreed that each group involved should check the many-body techniques so far employed on a test problem, outlined by H. A. Bethe. This paper reports the results using the t-matrix and variational approaches. Satisfactory agreement is obtained. Comparison with the results of other groups is discussed.     

Effect of bond‐length alternation on the dipole hyperpolarizability of phenol blue

Phenol blue is a merocyanine dye that may exist in resonance between two extreme forms, a neutral keto form and a zwitterionic, charge‐separated eno form. The keto form is stable in the gas phase, while the eno form can be stabilized by solvents. In this work, the bond‐length alternation is used to monitor the change of the dipole hyperpolarizability of phenol blue continuously from the extreme eno to the other extreme keto forms. Intermediate structures were found to give the largest value for the first dipole hyperpolarizability. These values are compatible with the experimental results in different solvents and suggest that phenol blue undergoes structural changes in polar solvents. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.; DOI 10.1002/qua.10120     

CHEMILUMINESCENCE OF SOYBEAN SEEDS: SPECTRAL ANALYSIS, TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE AND EFFECT OF INHIBITORS

Abstract— The spontaneous light emission of soybean seeds is enhanced 4–8 times during the first minute after water imbibition. Other solvents are also effective. The temperature dependence of soybean chemiluminescence identifies two reactions with activation energies of 20 and 68 kJ/mol corresponding to the lipoxygenase reaction and to the autoxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, respectively. Free radical scavengers and lipoxygenase inhibitors decrease soybean photoemission. The singlet oxygen probe 1,4-diazabicyclo-[2,2,2]-octane (DABCO) increases soybean photoemission. The emission spectra of soybean seeds under a variety of conditions show bands between 450 and 720 nm with 50–70% of the emission over 600 nm. The experimental evidence is consistent with singlet oxygen being one of the emitting species, however, due to the complexity of the system it is likely that other chemiluminescent species are also formed.     

Rayleigh and Raman light scattering in hydrogen-bonded acetonitrile–water

The structure, vibrational frequencies, light scattering activities and binding energies of CH₃CNH₂O are obtained from ab initio methods. The hydrogen NH bond distance is calculated as 2.06 Å, the dipole moment as 5.77 D and our best estimate for the binding energy is 3.5 kcal mol^–1 (14.7 kJ mol^–1), after correcting for zero-point vibrations. The calculated average dipole polarizability is 39.67 au and the anisotropy is fairly large, corresponding to 21.78 au. The changes in intramolecular vibrational frequencies are analyzed. The scattering activities and depolarization of the Rayleigh and Raman light scattered are calculated. In the Raman case the depolarization due to the intense NC stretching vibration is increased by 20% after the hydrogen bond. For the OH symmetric stretch of water there is a large redshift of 75 cm^–1 and a great intensification of the Raman scattering activity by a factor of 2 and a considerable increase of the depolarization by a factor of nearly 4.From the Proceedings of the 28th Congreso de Químicos Teóricos de Expresión Latina (QUITEL 2002)     

Modulation of the spontaneous curvature and bending rigidity of lipid membranes by interfacially adsorbed amphipathic peptides

Amphipathic alpha-helical peptides are often ascribed an ability to induce curvature stress in lipid membranes. This may lead directly to a bending deformation of the host membrane, or it may promote the formation of defects that involve highly curved lipid layers present in membrane pores, fusion intermediates, and solubilized peptide-micelle complexes. The driving force is the same in all cases: peptides induce a spontaneous curvature in the host lipid layer, the sign of which depends sensitively on the peptide's structural properties. We provide a quantitative account for this observation on the basis of a molecular-level method. To this end, we consider a lipid membrane with peptides interfacially adsorbed onto one leaflet at high peptide-to-lipid ratio. The peptides are modeled generically as rigid cylinders that interact with the host membrane through a perturbation of the conformational properties of the lipid chains. Through the use of a molecular-level chain packing theory, we calculate the elastic properties, that is, the spontaneous curvature and bending stiffness, of the peptide-decorated lipid membrane as a function of the peptide's insertion depth. We find a positive spontaneous curvature (preferred bending of the membrane away from the peptide) for small penetration depths of the peptide. At a penetration depth roughly equal to half-insertion into the hydrocarbon core, the spontaneous curvature changes sign, implying negative spontaneous curvature (preferred bending of the membrane toward the peptide) for large penetration depths. Despite thinning of the membrane upon peptide insertion, we find an increase in the bending stiffness. We discuss these findings in terms of how the peptide induces elastic stress.     

Tuning the structural and physical properties of Cr2Ti3Se8 by lithium intercalation: a study of the magnetic properties, investigation of ion mobility with NMR spectroscopy and electronic band structure calculations

The room temperature intercalation of Cr2Ti3Se8 with butyl lithium yields a phase mixture of the starting material and of the new trigonal phase with composition Li0.4Cr0.5Ti0.75Se2. The phase pure fully intercalated trigonal phase is obtained at elevated temperature (80 degrees C) with the final composition Li0.62Cr0.5Ti0.75Se2. The line profile analysis (LPA) of the powder patterns shows that pronounced strain occurs in the intercalated material. The deintercalation of the material is realized by treatment of the fully intercalated sample with distilled water leading to the composition Li0.15Cr0.5Ti0.75Se2. The intercalation is accompanied by an electron transfer from the guest Li to the host material, and as a consequence significant changes of the interatomic distances are observed. The local environment and the dynamics of the Li+ ions in the fully intercalated sample were studied with 7Li magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR investigations. These reveal different environments of transition metal neighbors for the Li sites and a high mobility of the Li ions. Magnetic measurements show that in the pristine material antiferromagnetic interactions are dominating (theta = -113.5 K) with no long-range order at low temperatures. The magnetic ground state is characterized by a spin-glass behavior. With increasing Li content the antiferromagnetic character vanishes progressively, and the fully intercalated phase exhibits a positive Weiss constant (theta = 12 K) indicating dominating ferromagnetic exchange interactions; i.e., the magnetic properties can be significantly altered by lithiation. The interpretation of our experimental findings is supported by the results of accompanying band structure calculations done within the framework of local spin density functional theory. These demonstrate in particular the role of the charge transfer between the constituents as a function of the Li concentration and its impact on the exchange coupling.     

The Role of Reduced Graphite Oxide in Transition Metal Oxide Nanocomposites Used as Li Anode Material: An Operando Study on CoFe2O4/rGO

A composite consisting of CoFe₂O₄ spinel nanoparticles and reduced graphite oxide (rGO) is studied as an anode material during Li uptake and release by applying synchrotron operando X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and operando X‐ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), yielding a comprehensive picture of the reaction mechanisms. In the early stages of Li uptake, a monoxide is formed as an intermediate phase containing Fe²⁺ and Co²⁺ ions; this observation is in contrast to reaction pathways proposed in the literature. In the fully discharged state, metallic Co and Fe nanoparticles are embedded in an amorphous Li₂O matrix. During charge, metallic Co and Fe are oxidized simultaneously to Co²⁺ and Fe³⁺, respectively, thus enabling a high and stable capacity to be achieved. Here, evidence is presented that the rGO acts as a support for the nanoparticles and prevents the particles from contact loss. The operando investigations are complemented by TEM, Raman spectroscopy, galvanostatic cycling, and cyclic voltammetry.     

Rb Bose-Einstein condensate with tunable interaction: A quantum many body approach

We present a quantum many body approach with van der Waal type of interaction to achieve ⁸⁵Rb Bose-Einstein condensate with tunable interaction which has been produced by magnetic field induced Feshbach resonance in the JILA experiment.     

Differential capacitance of the electric double layer: mean-field modeling approaches

Electrolytes screen the charges carried by an electrode through the formation of a diffuse double layer. The corresponding differential capacitance reflects the change of the surface charge density with the applied surface potential. Mean-field modeling of the differential capacitance is an attempt to qualitatively explain experimental findings such as the camel-to-bell shape transition in terms of physical factors including the ion size and concentration, nonelectrostatic ion–ion interactions, electrostatic ion–ion correlations, and the influence of the electrode curvature. We highlight the central role of the lattice gas model as a conceptual tool to describe concentrated electrolytes and ionic liquids, and we briefly summarize how extensions and generalizations of this model give rise to concepts known as ‘overscreening’ and ‘underscreening’.