TDPAC experiments in111In-implanted niobium oxides

Magnetization and high field Mössbauer experiments were performed to study the ground state and the metamagnetic transition in Ce(Fe, Al)₂. A model is proposed for the arrangement of the Fe-moments which includes the reported finite Ce-moment.     

TDPAC studies of internal AgIn alloy oxidation

The internal oxidation of dilute AgIn alloys in open air versus In concentration and oxidation temperature was investigated by the TDPAC technique. The¹¹¹In interaction described by the broad quadrupole frequencies distribution aroundv _Q = 115 MHz and =0.5–0.7 was observed and interpreted as due to nonstoichiometric In–O_X cluster formation. For higher temperatures and more concentrated alloys additionally quasiunique frequencyv _Q 157 MHz with 0.28 was evidenced and ascribed to¹¹¹In interaction inside In₂O₃ precipitates. The internal oxidation under reduced oxygen pressures was studied and the thermal stability of the complex formed was tested. The effect of surface preparation on internal oxidation was observed.     

Evidence for skyrmion crystallization from NMR relaxation experiments

A resistively detected NMR technique was used to probe the two-dimensional electron gas in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well. The spin-lattice relaxation rate (1/T(1)) was extracted at near complete filling of the first Landau level by electrons. The nuclear spin of (75)As is found to relax much more efficiently with T --> 0 and when a well developed quantum Hall state with R(xx) approximately 0 occurs. The data show a remarkable correlation between the nuclear spin relaxation and localization. This suggests that the magnetic ground state near complete filling of the first Landau level may contain a lattice of topological spin texture, i.e., a Skyrmion crystal.     

Evidence for instanton-induced dynamics from lattice QCD

We perform a study of the nonperturbative dynamics of the light-quark sector of QCD, based on some recent results of lattice simulations with chiral fermions. We analyze some correlators that are designed to probe the Dirac structure of the quark-quark interaction at different scales. We show that, in the nonperturbative regime, such an interaction contains very large scalar and pseudoscalar components. We observe quantitative agreement between lattice QCD results and the predictions of the instanton liquid model. Moreover, we study how the quark-quark interaction is modified, when quark loops are suppressed. We observe a dramatic effect related to the loss of unitarity, which is naturally explained in the instanton picture. Such an effect cannot be explained in a Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSE) approach, if one assumes a vector quark-gluon coupling.     

Evidence for an internal field in CdSe/CdS nanorods by time resolved and single rod experiments

In this contribution we report on an optical nonlinearity featuring colloidal seeded grown CdSe/CdS nanorods (NRs). It consists of a photoluminescence (PL) blueshift of single rod spectra with increasing laser power and a transient, power-dependent redshift of the spectra studied by time resolved PL measurement, strictly related to the multicarrier scattering occurring at high excitation density. We attribute this nonlinearity to a photo-induced screening of an internal field, originating from the piezoelectric polarization induced at the core/shell interface.     

Functional subconformations in protein folding: evidence from single-channel experiments

We study fluctuations in ion conductance and enzymatic rates of the sugar-specific channel-forming membrane protein, Maltoporin, at the single-molecule level. Specifically, we analyze time-persistent deviations in the transport parameters of individual channels from the multichannel averages and discuss our findings in the context of static disorder in protein folding. We show that the disorder responsible for variations in ion conductance does not affect sugar binding, suggesting that Maltoporin can exist in a wide set of fully functional, yet distinctly different, subconformations.     

Evidence for multiple parton interactions from the observation of multi-muon events in Drell-Yan experiments

We calculate the production of two lepton pairs via the Drell-Yan mechanism. To establish the existence of multiple parton interactions in a single hadron collision, lepton pair production is superior to jet production from the theoretical, phenomenological and experimental points of view. The calculated rate agrees with the previously unexplained four-muon events observed in πp and pp interactions. Our results lend support to a recent analysis of ISR four-jet events and we discuss some implications of this study.     

Quantitative protein dynamics from dominant folding pathways

We develop a theoretical approach to the protein-folding problem based on out-of-equilibrium stochastic dynamics. Within this framework, the computational difficulties related to the existence of large time scale gaps are removed, and simulating the entire reaction in atomistic details using existing computers becomes feasible. We discuss how to determine the most probable folding pathway, identify configurations representative of the transition state, and compute the most probable transition time. We perform an illustrative application of these ideas, studying the conformational evolution of alanine dipeptide, within an all-atom model based on the empiric GROMOS96 force field.     

Fusion-fission dynamics and perspectives of future experiments

The paper is focused on reaction dynamics of superheavy-nucleus formation and decay at beam energies near the Coulomb barrier. The aim is to review the things we have learned from recent experiments on fusion-fission reactions leading to the formation of compound nuclei with Z≥102 and from their extensive theoretical analysis. Major attention is paid to the dynamics of formation of very heavy compound nuclei taking place in strong competition with the process of fast fission (quasifission). The choice of collective degrees of freedom playing a fundamental role and finding the multidimensional driving potential and the corresponding dynamic equation regulating the whole process are discussed. A possibility of deriving the fission barriers of superheavy nuclei directly from performed experiments is of particular interest here. In conclusion, the results of a detailed theoretical analysis of available experimental data on the “cold” and “hot” fusion-fission reactions are presented. Perspectives of future experiments are discussed along with additional theoretical studies in this field needed for deeper understanding of the fusion-fission processes of very heavy nuclear systems.     

Evidence of the presence of opticlike collective modes in a liquid from neutron scattering experiments

Inelastic neutron scattering data from liquid DF close to the melting point show, in addition to spectra comprising quasielastic and heavily damped acoustic motions, an intense, nondispersive band centered at about 27 meV along with a broader higher energy feature. Observation of the former band provides the first direct verification of the existence within the liquid state of collective opticlike excitations as predicted by molecular dynamics simulations. The latter corresponds to mainly reorientational motions assigned from mode eigenvector analysis carried out by computer simulations.     

TDPAC Study of the Hydrogen Uptake Process in HfNi

The electronic properties of the HfNi-hydrogen system has been investigated, as a function of the hydrogen composition ratio (x), using combined Time Differential Perturbed Angular Correlation (TDPAC) technique and standard full-potential Linearized-Augmented-Plane-Wave method. The experimental TDPAC data confirm the presence of a two-step hydrogenation process in this system, with the octahedral holes filled first. The major part of the electric field gradient at the hafnium site is from p–p contribution, shifted down in energy by hydrogen s-states contribution.     

Status of experiments probing the dynamics of water in confinement

In many relevant situations, water is not in its bulk form but is instead attached to some substrates or filling some cavities. We shall call water in the latter environment confined or interfacial water as opposed to bulk water. This confined water is essential for the stability and function of biological macromolecules. In this review paper, we present the more recent up to date account of the dynamics of confined water as compared with that of bulk water. Various techniques are used to study the dynamics of confined water. Among them, quasi-elastic and inelastic neutron scattering is a powerful tool to study translational and rotational diffusion as well as vibrational density of states of confined water. Various examples involving water confined in porous media, adsorbed on surface of ionic crystals, in the presence of organic solutes and at the surface of biological molecules are presented. The combined effects of the hydration level and the temperature on the retardation of the water molecules motions are discussed on the basis of phenomenological models as well as of power law fits based on the Mode Coupling Theory.Received: 1 January 2003, Published online: 8 October 2003PACS: 61.12.Ex Neutron scattering (including small-angle scattering) - 66.30.Pa Transport properties of condensed matter (nonelectronic): Diffusion in nanoscale solids     

Intercalation of indium chloride in graphite studied by TDPAC

TDPAC studies of graphite indium chloride reveal the presence of three sites for intercalated In Cl₃. Two sites correspond to static efg interactions, for which the nuclear quadrupole interaction parameters were determined. It is suggested that the third site corresponds to a time-dependent inter-action as a result of after-effect following the electron decay of¹¹¹In.     

Anticipation effect in pedestrian dynamics: Modeling and experiments

In this paper, we propose the anticipation floor field (AFF) as an extension of the floor field (FF) model, which is one of the successful models in describing pedestrian dynamics. The AFF focuses on non-local interaction between pedestrians, which has not been taken into account in the FF model based on local rules. We have conducted several experiments, as well as simulations of counter flow to show the validity of our model. It is found that strength and range of anticipation significantly affect pedestrian dynamics, and there is an optimal strength of anticipation to realize the smoothest counter flow.     

Effect of internal friction on biofilament dynamics

We consider biofilaments-flexible multimolecule structures common in cell biology-and show how "internal" friction associated with either conformational fluctuations or with fluid flow through narrow pores inside the filaments can dominate the external hydrodynamic friction usually considered to be the main energy dissipation process. The signature of this is wave-number-independent relaxation time of bending fluctuations. Preliminary experimental data for bending fluctuations of single folded (mitotic) chromosomes display these dynamics.