“It’s better to forget physics”: The Idea of the Tactical Nuclear Weapon in the Early Cold War

Physics in Perspective - The American physicist John Wheeler once told his colleague Richard Feynman that, in case of war, “it’s better to forget physics and tell the admirals and...     

Macroscopic evidence of soliton formation in multiterawatt laser-plasma interaction

A novel physical phenomenon has been observed following the interaction of an intense (10(19) W/cm(2)) laser pulse with an underdense plasma. Long-lived, macroscopic bubblelike structures have been detected through the deflection that the associated electric charge separation causes in a proton probe beam. These structures are interpreted as the remnants of a cloud of relativistic solitons generated in the plasma by the ultraintense laser pulse. This interpretation is supported by an analytical study of the soliton cloud evolution, by particle-in-cell simulations, and by a reconstruction of the proton-beam deflection.     

Reactions and X-ray crystal structure of (3-cyano-2,4-pentanedionato-N)pentaamminecobalt(III) perchlorate chloride dihydrate

The pentaamminecobalt(III) complex with the 3-cyano-2,4-pentanedionate anion coordinated through the nitrile nitrogen has been characterized by X-ray crystallography. The crystals of [(NH₃)₅CoNCacac](Cl)(ClO₄)·2H₂O are triclinic, space group P , a = 10.245(2) Å, b = 14.071(4) Å, c = 6.971(2) Å, = 90.03(3)°, β = 109.86(2)°, γ = 108.91(2)°, V= 887.1 ų, Z = 2, D_c = 1.64 g cm⁻³, F(000) = 456, Mo-K radiation, λ = 0.71069 Å, μ(Mo-K) = 12.7 cm⁻¹. The structure was determined by the heavy-atom method, and refined by block-diagonal least-squares calculations, R = 0.0537, R_w = 0.0607, for 2499 observed reflections. Principal dimensions are: Co---N(NH₃) trans to NCacac⁻ 1.940(5), other Co---N(NH₃) 1.967(2), Co---N(NCacac⁻) 1.911(5) Å. The pendant acac moiety is best described in terms of a delocalized bond network with, for example, C---C distances in the range 1.44–1.52(1) Å. Several reactions involving this free acac group are also described including the preparation and characterization of the dimeric species pentaamminecobalt(III) - μ - (3 - cyano - 2,4 - pentanedionato) - bis(propylenediamine) cobalt(III) perchlorate.