The Use of Multi-Pass Time-of-Flight Mass Analyzers for Nuclear-Decay Spectroscopy of Mass Identified Nuclei

The masses of ions of some keV can be determined in multi-pass time-of-flight mass analyzers [1,2] with high precision. The mass accuracies thus achieved are sufficient to determine the proton and neutron numbers for most short-lived and stable nuclei [3,5]. Recording α- or γ-radiation of the investigated nuclei in delayed coincidence to the ion arrival, one thus can perform nuclear spectroscopy of selected nuclei. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

High-Order Leap-Frog Based Discontinuous Galerkin Method for the Time-Domain Maxwell Equations on Non-Conforming Simplicial Meshes

A high-order leap-flog based non-dissipative discontinuous Galerkin timedomain method for solving Maxwell's equations is introduced and analyzed. The proposed method combines a centered approximation for the evaluation of fluxes at the interface between neighboring elements, with a Nth-order leap-frog time scheme. Moreover, the interpolation degree is defined at the element level and the mesh is refined locally in a non-conforming way resulting in arbitrary level hanging nodes. The method is proved to be stable under some CFL-like condition on the time step. The convergence of the semi-discrete approximation to Maxwell's equations is established rigorously and bounds on the global divergence error are provided. Numerical experiments with highorder elements show the potential of the method.     

Measurement of indoor Rn using CR-39 under a thin film geometry

In this work an assembly for indoor ²²²Rn measurement is presented. This assembly is made up of two acrylic plates (14 cm×14 cm) separated by a distance of 4 mm. To prevent radon daughters from outside entering the assembly (and produce alpha particle tracks striking the CR-39 detector placed in the central region of one of these plates), the borders of these plates were progressively closed, leaving open only a rectangular aperture of 5 mm×4 mm. The size of this opening was determined experimentally, by exposing in two indoor environments assemblies with different apertures as follows: (i) all borders open; (ii) two borders closed; (iii) three borders closed; (iv) four borders closed but one containing a 6 cm×4 mm opening; (v) four borders closed but one containing a 2.5 cm×4 mm opening and (vi) four borders closed but one containing a 0.5 cm×4 mm opening. Track density shows a noticeable decrease between assembly (i) and assembly (iii), remaining constant for smaller openings. Only ²²²Rn, a noble gas, should enter the assembly independently of the opening size.     

Parameter accuracy analysis of weak-value amplification process in the presence of noise

We theoretically introduce the statistical uncertainty of photon number and phase error to discuss the precision of parameters to be measured based on weak measurements. When the photon counting scheme is used, we discuss the relative accuracy of the system in the presence of phase error by using the orthogonal and nonorthogonal pre-and postselected states, respectively. When using the measurement scheme of pointer shift, we discuss the measurement accuracy in the presence of phase error, pointer resolution, and statistical uncertainty. These results give a guide way to get the smallest relative precision and deepen our understanding about weak measurement.     

A novel method for the determination of diffusion coefficients in amorphous poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)

A novel approach is proposed for the determination of the diffusion coefficient of certain drugs in amorphous poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), which can be a reliable alternative to the conventional permeation based measurements. The method requires the preparation of PHB films with various concentrations of the drug and if the latter absorbs in the visible wavelength range, its concentration gradient in the polymer film as well as the time dependence of the latter can be analyzed quantitatively by following changes in color. Color can be converted into concentration with the help of adequate calibration and thus the dependence of additive concentration on space (x) and time (t), i.e. the c(x,t) function, can be determined relatively easily. The fitting of the numerical solution of Fick's second law onto the measured values provides directly the targeted diffusion coefficient. The comparison of diffusion coefficients obtained by the proposed approach to values published in the literature proved that the new method provides reliable results and requires reasonable time and effort at the same time.     

Determination of mechanical properties by instrumented indentation

The paper reviews the current state of the depth-sensing indentation (sometimes called nanoindentation), where the information on material behaviour and properties is obtained from the indenter load and depth, measured continuously during loading and unloading. It is shown how the contact parameters and principal characteristics are determined using pointed or spherical indenters. Indentation tests can be used for the measurement of hardness and elastic modulus, and also of the yield stress and for the construction of stress–strain diagrams, for the determination of the work of indentation and its components. Most devices use monotonic loading and unloading, but some also enable measurement under a small harmonic signal added to the basic monotonously increasing load. This makes possible continuous measurement of contact stiffness and the study of dynamic properties and the determination of properties of coatings. One section is devoted to the measurement on viscoelastic-plastic materials, where the delayed deforming must be considered during the measurement as well as in data evaluation. Instrumented indentation can also be used for the study of creep under high temperatures. The paper also discusses the errors arising in depth-sensing measurements and informs briefly about some other possibilities of the method.     

A study of the precision and accuracy of peak quantification in comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography in time

Simulated chromatographic data were used to determine the precision and accuracy in the estimation of peak volumes (i.e., peak sizes) in comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography in time (LC × LC). Peak volumes were determined both by summing the areas in the second dimension chromatograms and by fitting the second dimension areas to a Gaussian peak. The Gaussian method is better at predicting the peak volume than the moments method provided there are at least three second dimension injections above the limit of detection (LOD). However, when only two of the second dimension signals are substantially above baseline, the accuracy and precision of the Gaussian fit method become quite poor because the results from the fitting algorithm become indeterminate. Based on simulations in which the modulation ratio (M_R = 4¹σ/t_s) and sampling phase (?) were varied, we conclude for well-resolved peaks that the optimum precision in peak volumes in 2D separations will be obtained when the M_R is between two and five, such that there are typically four to ten second dimension peaks recorded over the eight σ width of the first dimension peak. This sampling rate is similar to that suggested by the Murphy–Schure–Foley criterion. This provides an RSD of approximately 2% for the signal-to-noise ratio used in the present simulations. The precision of the peak volume of experimental data was also assessed, and RSD values were in the range of 4–5%. We conclude that the poorer precision found in the LC × LC experimental data as compared to LC may be due to experimental imprecision in sampling the effluent from the first dimension column.     

标准镜的高精度柔性支撑镜框的优化设计

为了实现干涉仪标准镜中光学元件的高精度定位,设计了一种柔性支撑镜框,研究了该结构的力学模型、结构参数、定位精度和透镜变形。首先,根据材料力学原理将柔性镜框等效为一个弹簧系统;根据力学方程和几何关系,建立了透镜中心位置与柔性结构的挠度之间的二元方程。然后,分析了安装位置、温度、结构参数对透镜位置以及作用力的影响。最后,应用有限元仿真分析了所设计结构的力学性能,并进行对比验证。结果表明,数值仿真分析的结果与有限元仿真结果基本相同,柔性镜框的柔性结构厚度最优值为1.5 mm。该设计方案完全满足干涉仪标准镜对镜框在定位精度、稳定性方面的要求。     

二重数值积分公式的高精度对偶公式及其应用

给出了计算二重积分的Simpson公式与两点高斯公式的对偶公式的构造过程,得到与之对应的高精度对偶修正解,提高了二重数值积分公式的计算精度,同时给出了二重积分的一种估值方法.最后,应用于几个典型的数值算例,计算结果表明：对偶修正解比对应的数值积分公式及其对偶公式的解有更高的计算精度和更快的收敛速度.     

Physalis method for heterogeneous mixtures of dielectrics and conductors: Accurately simulating one million particles using a PC

Prosperetti’s seminal Physalis method, an Immersed Boundary/spectral method, had been used extensively to investigate fluid flows with suspended solid particles. Its underlying idea of creating a cage and using a spectral general analytical solution around a discontinuity in a surrounding field as a computational mechanism to enable the accommodation of physical and geometric discontinuities is a general concept, and can be applied to other problems of importance to physics, mechanics, and chemistry. In this paper we provide a foundation for the application of this approach to the determination of the distribution of electric charge in heterogeneous mixtures of dielectrics and conductors. The proposed Physalis method is remarkably accurate and efficient. In the method, a spectral analytical solution is used to tackle the discontinuity and thus the discontinuous boundary conditions at the interface of two media are satisfied exactly. Owing to the hybrid finite difference and spectral schemes, the method is spectrally accurate if the modes are not sufficiently resolved, while higher than second-order accurate if the modes are sufficiently resolved, for the solved potential field. Because of the features of the analytical solutions, the derivative quantities of importance, such as electric field, charge distribution, and force, have the same order of accuracy as the solved potential field during postprocessing. This is an important advantage of the Physalis method over other numerical methods involving interpolation, differentiation, and integration during postprocessing, which may significantly degrade the accuracy of the derivative quantities of importance. The analytical solutions enable the user to use relatively few mesh points to accurately represent the regions of discontinuity. In addition, the spectral convergence and a linear relationship between the cost of computer memory/computation and particle numbers results in a very efficient method. In the present paper, the accuracy of the method is numerically investigated by example computations using one dielectric particle, one isolated conductor particle, one conductor particle connected to an external source with imposed voltage, and two conductor/dielectric particles with strong interactions. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated with one million particles, which suggests that the method can be used for many important engineering applications of broad interest.