29Si NMR spectra of methylphenylcyclotri-and -tetrasilazanes

²⁹Si NMR spectra of various methylphenyl-substituted cyclotri- and -tetrasilazanes, composed of different combinations of the units d = Me₂SiNH, d^ph = MePhSiNH and d = Ph₂SiNH, have been investigated. For most of the compounds having more than one asymmetric centre, the spectra of both the individual isomers and their mixtures have been studied, and the signals of the individual isomers have been assigned. The effect of a different arrangement of phenyl groups in the rings, and the influence of the stereochemistry of the isomers on the ²⁹Si chemical shifts in cyclotri- and -tetrasilazanes have been studied. The ²⁹Si chemical shifts in cyclotrisilazanes are additive and can be represented as the sum of increments corresponding to the number and positions of the phenyl groups in the rings. In these compounds, the spatial structure of the isomers does not exert any noticeable effect on the spectra. On the contrary, chemical shifts are not simply additive in cyclotetrasilazanes: a pronounced stereochemical dependence is apparent.     

Continuous phase transitions which should be first order

It is demonstrated that phase transitions predicted to be first order by the Landau symmetry arguments can be continuous for a finite range of the physical parameters. For transitions with a rank-two tensor order parameter it is shown that fluctuations in a phase associated with the anisotropy of the tensor result in a renormalization of the cubic term. This leads to continuous transitions when the coefficient of the bare cubic term is small compared to the coefficient of the quartic term. It is shown that the argument can be extended to more general cases when the order parameter belongs to a multidimensional representation of the broken symmetry group.     

Bond strengths in metals. Part I

The general expressionpreviously derived by statistical methods [1] is examined for individual metals with bcc and fcc lattices.     

Finite-range effects in pionic atoms

Pionic atom data are refitted in terms of conventional π^? nuclear optical potentials, modified to allow for finite range in the underlying p-wave πN interaction. We find that level shifts and widths in light and medium-weight nuclei cannot distinguish between the various ranges tested. In heavy nuclei, and for reasonable choices of neutron radii, the data tend to exclude ranges of order 0.5 fm and larger.     

Observation of the decay τ → πv

The decay of the heavy lepton τ into πv has been established using the magnetic detector PLUTO. The branching ratio is determined to be BR(τ→πv)=(9.0 ± 2.9)% with an additional systematic uncertainty of 2.5%. This value is in good agreement with the theoretical prediction.     

Heterocyclic synthesis using ethyl carboethoxyformimidate

Ethyl carboethoxyformimidate is shown to be a versatile reagent for the synthesis of a variety of mono- and bicyclic heterocyclic systems.