Molecular-dynamics study of photodissociation of water in crystalline and amorphous ices

We present the results of classical dynamics calculations performed to study the photodissociation of water in crystalline and amorphous ice surfaces at a surface temperature of 10 K. A modified form of a recently developed potential model for the photodissociation of a water molecule in ice [S. Andersson et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 408, 415 (2005)] is used. Dissociation in the top six monolayers is considered. Desorption of H(2)O has a low probability (less than 0.5% yield per absorbed photon) for both types of ice. The final outcome strongly depends on the original position of the photodissociated molecule. For molecules in the first bilayer of crystalline ice and the corresponding layers in amorphous ice, desorption of H atoms dominates. In the second bilayer H atom desorption, trapping of the H and OH fragments in the ice, and recombination of H and OH are of roughly equal importance. Deeper into the ice H atom desorption becomes less important and trapping and recombination dominate. Motion of the photofragments is somewhat more restricted in amorphous ice. The distribution of distances traveled by H atoms in the ice peaks at 6-7 Angstroms with a tail going to about 60 Angstroms for both types of ice. The mobility of OH radicals is low within the ice with most probable distances traveled of 2 and 1 Angstrom for crystalline and amorphous ices, respectively. OH is, however, quite mobile on top of the surface, where it has been found to travel more than 80 Angstroms. Simulated absorption spectra of crystalline ice, amorphous ice, and liquid water are found to be in very good agreement with the experiments. The outcomes of photodissociation in crystalline and amorphous ices are overall similar, but with some intriguing differences in detail. The probability of H atoms desorbing is 40% higher from amorphous than from crystalline ice and the kinetic-energy distribution of the H atoms is on average 30% hotter for amorphous ice. In contrast, the probability of desorption of OH radicals from crystalline ice is much higher than that from amorphous ice.     

High resolution electronic study of ONO, ONO and ONO: A rovibronic survey covering 11 800-14 380 cm

The 11 800-14 380 cm⁻¹ frequency range has been scanned for rotationally resolved rovibronic transitions in the A²B₂-X²A₁ electronic band system of the symmetric (C_2v) ¹⁶O¹⁴N¹⁶O and ¹⁸O¹⁴N¹⁸O isotopologues and in the corresponding electronic band system of the asymmetric (C_s) ¹⁸O¹⁴N¹⁶O isotopologue. The rotational analysis—reflecting minor differences in mass—in combination with symmetry induced spectral differences allows an identification of 68 ¹⁶O¹⁴N¹⁶O vibronic levels, 26 ¹⁸O¹⁴N¹⁸O vibronic levels and 51 ¹⁸O¹⁴N¹⁶O vibronic levels. The bands are recorded using near infrared fluorescence spectroscopy and a piezo valve based pulsed molecular beam expansion of premixed ¹⁸O₂ and ¹⁴N¹⁶O in Ar. The majority of the observed bands is rotationally assigned and can be identified as transitions starting from the vibrational ground state of one of the isotopologues. Numerous hot bands have also been identified. A comparison of the overall spectroscopic features of C_2v vs. C_s symmetric species provides qualitative information on symmetry dependence of vibronic couplings.     

The AB2-XA1 electronic transition of NO2: A rovibronic survey covering 14 300-18 000 cm

More than 250 rotationally resolved vibrational bands of the A²B₂-X²A₁ electronic transition of ¹⁵NO₂ have been observed in the 14 300-18 000 cm⁻¹ range. The bands have been recorded in a recently constructed setup designed for high resolution spectroscopy of jet cooled molecules by combining time gated fluorescence spectroscopy and molecular beam techniques. The majority of the observed bands has been rotationally assigned and can be identified as transitions starting from the vibrational ground state or from vibrationally excited (hot band) states. An exceptionally strong band is located at 14 851 cm⁻¹ and studied in more detail as a typical benchmark transition to monitor ¹⁵NO₂ in atmospheric remote sensing experiments. Standard rotational fit routines provide band origins, rotational and spin rotation constants. A subset of 177 vibronic levels of ²B₂ vibronic symmetry has been analyzed in the energy range between 14 300 and 17 250 cm⁻¹, in terms of integrated density and using Next Neighbor Distribution. It is found that the overall statistical properties and polyad structure of ¹⁵NO₂ are comparable to those of ¹⁴NO₂ but that the internal structures of the polyads are completely different. This is a direct consequence of the X²A₁-A²B₂ vibronic mixing.     

Hot twists for the single-point model of large-N QCD

We construct two types of twists for the SU(N→∞) twisted-Eguchi-Kawai model, which mimic a periodic boundary condition in the temporal direction only and over an arbitrary extent N₀. In this way we introduce finite temperature (T=N₀^?1 in lattice units) in the single-point model. In weak coupling one gets the correct planar expansion.     

A sparse octree gravitational N-body code that runs entirely on the GPU processor

We present the implementation and performance of a new gravitational N-body tree-code that is specifically designed for the graphics processing unit (GPU).¹ All parts of the tree-code algorithm are executed on the GPU. We present algorithms for parallel construction and traversing of sparse octrees. These algorithms are implemented in CUDA and tested on NVIDIA GPUs, but they are portable to OpenCL and can easily be used on many-core devices from other manufacturers. This portability is achieved by using general parallel-scan and sort methods. The gravitational tree-code outperforms tuned CPU code during the tree-construction and shows a performance improvement of more than a factor 20 overall, resulting in a processing rate of more than 2.8 million particles per second.     

Collision synthesis of unique carbon nanomaterials inspired by the Allende meteorite

A simple shock event approach inspired by the Allende meteorite to produce sophisticated carbon nanomaterials is reported. It is demonstrated that unique carbon nanostructures, including carbon nanotubes, carbon onions, and new carbon nanorings are synthesized by high-speed ball-milling of steel balls. The carbon nanorings have diameter of several tens of nanometers. It is considered that the carbon nanomaterials are formed from around the surface of steel balls under local high temperatures induced by the collision energy in ball-milling process.     

Ammonia Borane,NH3BH3: A Threshold Photoelectron–Photoion Coincidence Study of a Potential Hydrogen-Storage Material

We have investigated the photoionization of ammonia borane (AB) and determined adiabatic ionization energy to be 9.26±0.03 eV for the X^{+ 2}E←X ¹A₁ transition. Although the threshold photoelectron spectrum appears at first glance to be similar to the one of the isosteric ethane, the electronic situation differs markedly, due to different orbital energies. In addition, an appearance energy AE_0K(NH₃BH₃, NH₃BH₂⁺)= 10.00±0.03 eV has been determined, corresponding to the loss of a hydrogen atom at the BH₃-site. From the data, a 0 K bond dissociation energy for the B−H bond in the cation of 71.5±3 kJ mol⁻¹ was derived, whereas the one in the neutral compound has been estimated to be 419±10 kJ mol⁻¹.     

Quark deconfinement at high temperature and thick vortices

First we describe Mack's effectiveZ(2) theory of quark confinement in theSU(2) lattice gauge theory at zero temperature. Then we show how quarks get liberated above a critical temperature, which has a numerical value somewhat below the glueball mass (in natural units).     

On the hadron-quark transition at high temperature

We discuss quark liberation from the point of view of the effective dielectric theory of Nielsen and Patkos and calculate the transition temperature.