Dielectric relaxation of a short molecule in a liquid-crystalline solvent

Dielectric relaxation measurements of 5 mole % 4-n-hexyloxycyanobenzene (I) dissolved in 4-n-pentyloxyphenyl-trans-4-n-octylcyclohexylcarboxylate (II) were carried out from 1 kHz to 10 MHz in the nematic, smectic A and smectic B phases. The relaxation frequency of I parallel to the director is about 05 MHz in the S_Bphase and increases rapidly at the transition from S_B to S_A.     

Capabilities and limits of ICP-MS for direct determination of element traces in saline solutions

An ICP-MS method for the determination of ultra-traces of 24 Elements (Li, Be, Mg, Al, Cr, Mn, Co, Zn, Cu, Ga, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Ba, Tl, Pb, Bi, U) at ng/L to μg/L levels in highly saline solutions (up to 30 g/L NaCl) was developed. Calculated to the salt content of the samples, limits of detection at the sub-μg/kg level were obtained. This allows the measurement of samples like sea water, or clinical samples like urine, serum and whole blood, with few or without sample preparation and a drastic improvement to the limits of detection. Compared to the determination in solutions of 1 g/L NaCl the limits of detection in the original sample were improved by one order of magnitude. Improvements in instrumental stability are achieved by the use of an additional gas, that is introduced to the aerosol stream and avoids salt deposition in the aerosol tube of the torch, the use of High Matrix Content (HMC) cones, that show no clogging even at NaCl-concentrations up to 50 g/L. With this setup the long term stability for measurements with changing matrix concentrations is < 10% without and < 5% with use of an internal standard for the individual samples. Cleaning up is necessary after 2 days of operation. The direct analysis of the Nearshore Seawater Reference Material NRC-CNRC CASS3 showed a good agreement with the certified and measured concentrations. Elements, that do not suffer from an isobaric overlap of matrix compounds can be determined clearly at ng/L levels. Measurement of different matrix concentrations showed, that acceptable results can be achieved with a single calibration for concentrations from 5 g/L NaCl to 30 g/L NaCl, though matrix matching shows the best results.     

Hamiltonian circle actions on symplectic manifolds and the signature

Let M be a symplectic manifold with a Hamiltonian circle action with isolated fixed points. We prove that σ (M) = b₀(M) − b₂(M) + b₄(M) − b₆(M) + … where σ (M) is the signature of M and b_i(M) is the ith Betti number of M.     

Electronic phase separation in a low-temperature tetragonal phase of lanthanum-strontium cuprates according to 139La NQR data

A nonuniform electron density distribution is observed in La_{1−x− y} Nd_ySr_xCuO₄ and La_1−x−y Eu_ySr_xCuO₄, and long-lived magnetic fluctuations in these compounds are studied. The dynamics of the magnetic fluctuations depends strongly on the magnetic properties of the rare-earth ions, which stabilize the low-temperature tetragonal phase. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 67, No. 5, 344–349 (10 March 1998)     

Energy transfer between the flavin chromophores of electron-transferring flavoprotein fromMegasphaera elsdenii as inferred from time-resolved red-edge and blue-edge fluorescence spectroscopy

Both a mode-locked argon-ion laser and synchrotron radiation were used as excitation sources to obtain time-resolved polarized fluorescence of the two FAD cofactors in electron transferring flavoprotein fromMegasphaera elsdenii. Red-edge excited and blue-edge detected fluorescence anisotropy decay curves did not contain a fast relaxation process which was observed upon mainband excitation and detection. This relaxation was assigned to homo-energy transfer between the two FAD cofactors. Failure of energy transfer as observed with edge spectroscopy on this protein excludes restricted reorientational motion of the flavins as a possible mechanism of depolarization. From the global analysis of the fluorescence anisotropy decay surface obtained at multiple excitation and detection wavelengths, the distance between and the relative orientation of the flavins could be estimated. The methodology described has general applicability in other multichromophoric biopolymers and has the potential to acquire accurate geometrical parameters in these systems.     

Numerical propagation of partially coherent laser beams through optical systems

The propagation of partially coherent beams through optical systems is computed numerically in one transverse dimension. The optical system is divided into different elementary segments, through which the propagation of light can be calculated by appropriate operators, working on the coherence function or the Wigner distribution function respectively. For the necessary changes between these two functions describing the partially coherent beams, the use of the remarkable z-transform seems to be an advantage. With this algorithm the grid and the resolution in the spatial frequency domain can be arbitrarily chosen in contrast to the usual Fourier transform, the influence of phase aberrations on the focusability of Gauss-Schell model beams is discussed as an application example of the numerical model. With the help of this tool, practical beam guiding systems can be simulated for use with multimode laser radiation.     

Quantum optical ramsey fringes and complementarity

An interferometer in which an atom traverses two identical micromaser cavities in succession is proposed. Depending on the preparation of the cavity fields, the probability for finding the atom in a definite final state displays Ramsey fringes or not. If the initial cavity fields are such that the state of the atom between the cavities can be determined, then the Ramsey fringes disappear, as is required by the principle of complementarity.     

Projector Quantum Monte Carlo without minus-sign problem

Quantum Monte Carlo techniques often suffer from the so-called minus-sign problem. This paper explores a possibility to circumvent this fundamental problem by combining the Projector Quantum Monte Carlo method with the variational principle. Results are presented for the two-dimensional Hubbard model.