Positive and negative linear magnetoresistance of graphite

The magnetoresistance (MR) of bulk graphite with different particle sizes is investigated. The MR of the graphite decreases with the particle size decreases. The graphite with micro-sized particles has a positive MR and exhibits positive linear field dependence of MR at about 50 K, whereas the graphite with particle size of 30.2 nm has a negative MR and exhibits negative linear field dependence of MR at about 25 K. The possible mechanism for the MR of graphite can be partially understood using ordinary MR theory, weak localization theory and diffuse scattering theory.     

Two-component description of inclusive correlations for a fixed prong number

It is pointed out that the two-component model of particle production can explain the observed structures in the correlation function of pairs of negative pions as a function of rapidity difference for a fixed prong number. It is argued that as the prong number increases this correlation function should become zero or negative at $\text{δy ? 0}$.     

The friction coefficient of a Lennard-Jones fluid from the random force autocorrelation function determined as a memory function by molecular dynamics calculations

A recent molecular dynamics (MD) study showed that the friction coefficient of a simple fluid is obtainable by the integral over the autocorrelation function (ACF) of the total force of a Brownian-type particle. The results indicated that mass ratios 50M/m200 of the massive and the light particle suffice to yield accurate friction coefficients. Complementarily, we calculate the random force ACF of the light particle, which is the memory function force of the ACF of the velocity apart from a constant factor, for all the states of the Lennard-Jones system investigated previously. A detailed comparison is presented of the memory function, the total force ACF of the fluid particle, and the total force ACF of the massive particle. The MD results confirm quantitatively our theoretical predictions: (i) on a time scale corresponding to the dynamics of the massive particle the total force ACF of that particle approximates well the memory function, while there are slight differences between them on a short time scale, (ii) the total force ACF of the liquid particle deviates significantly from the memory function already after extremely short time and is thus completely useless for the determination of the friction coefficient, (iii) using the total force ACF of a heavy particle for the determination of the friction constant with mass ratios ofM/m=50 up to 200, the pseudo plateau value of the time integral is often not very noticeable, as the memory function is only approximated and the total force ACF of the massive particle has a negative part at medium times. In those cases the integration has to be extended to include the negative part.     

Photophoresis—Light induced motion of particles suspended in gas

When irradiated sideways, by visible light, a particle can perform different kinds of motion, (e.g. in direction of irradiation, opposite to irradiation, vertical movement, helicoidally, etc.). This phenomenon is called photophoresis. Photophoresis is based on momentum transfer between the aerosol particle and surrounding gas molecules. Photophoresis strongly depends on the pressure of the surrounding gas. Particles mostly influenced by photophoresis are those of μm size. Two main types of forces describe photophoretic motion: ΔT force: The thermal accommodation coefficient α is constant over the particle surface. As a result of the thermal accommodation, gas molecules on the warm side of a particle leave the surface faster than gas molecules on the cold side. This leads to ΔT force on the particle towards the colder side. Typical motion of the particle will be either away from light irradiation (positive photophoresis), or in direction of light irradiation (negative photophoresis). In the case of negative photophoresis, the back side of the particle, due the nature of light absorption, will be heated more than front side of the particle. Δα force: If the particle is at a constant temperature, which is different from the temperature of the surrounding gas, and the thermal accommodation coefficient α varies over the particle surface, the net momentum between gas molecules and particle will be transferred. In this case, the result will be body fixed Δα force. Depending on the particle surface properties, Δα force can direct the particle in any possible photophoresis could also play important role in planet formation and astrophysics.     

Random walks in two-dimensional glass-like environments

The asymptotic behavior of a diffusive particle under the influence of an environment and of a dynamical feedback coupling is considered in the framework of a two-dimensional numerical simulation. The feedback is controlled by a memory term of strength λ. A sufficient negative memory term (λ<0) offers a superdiffusive behavior with logarithmic corrections to conventional diffusion, whereas a positive feedback coupling (λ>0) is related to a weak subdiffusion or leads to localization of the particle. The numerical simulations are in agreement with results of a renormalization group approach and of the mode-coupling theory.     

Influence of charged particle bombardment and sputtering parameters on the properties of HfO2 films prepared by dc reactive magnetron sputtering

HfO₂ films prepared on glass substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering in an Ar + O₂ atmosphere are investigated. The films are polycrystallized with a pure monoclinic phase, and the crystallization strongly relates to the technology environment. Charged particle bombardment mainly caused by negative oxygen ions during sputtering on the films results in rougher surface morphology and worse crystalline property. Influence of sputtering pressure, substrate temperature and Ar:O₂ flow ratio is studied. The main orientations of the films are (−1 1 1) and (1 1 1). The (−1 1 1) orientation is stable, but (1 1 1) orientation is very sensitive to the sputtering condition, and it can be suppressed effectively by introducing charged particle bombardment, lowing sputtering pressure and increasing oxygen concentration.     

Probability Backflow for a Dirac Particle

The phenomenon of probability backflow, previously quantified for a free nonrelativistic particle, is considered for a free particle obeying Dirac's equation. It is shown that probability backflow can occur in the opposite direction to the momentum; that is to say, there exist positive-energy states in which the particle certainly has a positive momentum in a given direction, but for which the component of the probability flux vector in that direction is negative. It is shown that the maximum possible amount of probability that can flow backwards, over a given time interval of duration T, depends on the dimensionless parameter = (4/mc²T)^1/2, where m is the mass of the particle and c is the speed of light. At = 0, the nonrelativistic value of approximately 0.039 for this maximum is recovered. Numerical studies suggest that the maximum decreases monotonically as increases from 0, and show that it depends on the size of m, , and T, unlike the nonrelativistic case.     

Note on relativistic coulomb wave functions

Some results on the wave functions of a Dirac particle in a point charge Coulomb field are presented. Angular momentum and parity eigenfunctions are tabulated and used to construct solutions representing asymptotically a plane wave plus incoming or outgoing spherical waves. The solutions forr → 0 are exhibited in a form closely similar to the corresponding free particle spinors and are used to construct generalizations of the Casimir projection operators for positive or negative energy particles. The various wave functions presented are useful in calculations such as nuclear beta decay in which it is necessary to take into account final (or initial) state Coulomb interactions. Because of the similarity of the wave functions to those of a free particle, calculations including rigorously all Coulomb corrections for such processes as allowed beta decay can be performed with little more effort than is involved in a calculation using only plane waves.     

Corona discharge in a cylindrical triode charger for unipolar diffusion aerosol charging

A cylindrical triode charger for unipolar diffusion charging of aerosol particles was designed, constructed, and evaluated. The corona discharge characteristics were studied in this cylindrical triode charger. For the process the current–voltage characteristics were determined, as were the ion number concentration, the n_it product, and the mean charge per particle as a function of particle diameter. The discharge and charging currents, and ion number concentration in the charging zone of the charger increased monotonically with corona voltage. The negative corona had a higher current than the positive corona. At the same corona voltage, the ion number concentration in the discharge zone was larger than the charging current for positive and negative coronas, with values of about 197 and 32 times and 645 and 99 times for the ion-driving voltages of 0 and 310 V, respectively. The average ion penetration for positive and negative coronas was 0.64 and 0.19% and 3.62 and 1.93% for the ion-driving voltages of 0 V and 310 V, respectively. The higher flow rate, shorter residence time, gave a lower N_it product. By calculation 14% of charged particles of 10 nm in diameter were lost to the outer cylinder because of the electrostatic field effect. The charger does not use a sheath of air flow along the walls or the perforated screen opening, it has low diffusion and space charge losses due to the short column charging zone, and is a low complexity and inexpensive system. It worked as well as more sophisticated and expensive commercially available chargers.     

The Shuttle Potential and return electron experiment (SPREE)

Summary The Shuttle Potential and Return Electron Experiment (SPREE) was designed and fabricated for flight as part of the joint NASA/Agenzia Spaziale Italiana Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1) mission. The SPREE is a complex instrument package designed to measure ion and electron particle flux and wave-particle interactions. The SPREE flight hardware consists of two multiangular electrostatic analyzer units, two rotary tables, a data processing unit, a particle correlator experiment, and two data recording units. The electrostatic analyzers measure both electrons and ions, in an energy range from 10 eV to 10 keV and simultaneously over an angular fan of (100×10) degrees. These units are mounted on the rotary tables to provide a 2π steradian field of view out of the Orbiter's payload bay. To assess negative charging of the Orbiter with respect to the ambient plasma, ion data from the analyzers are processed real time by an on-board algorithm operating within the data processing unit. The particle correlator experiment determines wave-particle interactions in the frequency range 0–10 MHz for electrons and from 0–10 kHz for ions. SPREE operated successfully throughout the TSS-1 mission. Examples of the data returned by the SPREE are shown.     

Effect of concentration and particle size on nonlinearity of Au nano-fluid prepared by γ (Co) radiation

Nonlinear properties of Au nano-fluid prepared by γ-radiation method at different concentrations were investigated. Measurements of nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear absorption coefficient were carried out using a single beam Z-scan technique. A green CW laser beam operated at 532 nm was used as excitation source. The Au nano-fluid shows a good third order nonlinear response. The sign of the nonlinear refractive index is found to be negative and the magnitude is in the order of 10⁻⁷ cm²/W. This nonlinear effect increases as the concentration increases from 3.119 × 10⁻⁴ to 2.354 × 10⁻³ M which correspond to particle sizes of 4.0-30.5 nm, respectively. A good linear relationship was obtained between nonlinear refractive index and concentration. However the relationship between nonlinear refractive index and particle size was nonlinear behavior.     

The Spectral Gap for the Kawasaki Dynamics at Low Temperature

In this paper we analyze the convergence to equilibrium of Kawasaki dynamics for the Ising model in the phase coexistence region. First we show, in strict analogy with the nonconservative case, that in any lattice dimension, for any boundary condition and any positive temperature and particle density, the spectral gap in a box of side L does not shrink faster than a negative exponential of the surface L ^d–1. Then we prove that, in two dimensions and for free boundary condition, the spectral gap in a box of side L is smaller than a negative exponential of L provided that the temperature is below the critical one and the particle density satisfies (*_–, *₊), where *_± represents the particle density of the plus and minus phase, respectively.     

Growth of Ni-Mn-Ga high-temperature shape memory alloy thin films by magnetron sputtering technique

Ni-Mn-Ga thin films have been fabricated by using magnetron sputtering technique under various substrate negative bias voltages. The effect of substrate negative bias voltage on the compositions and surface morphology of Ni-Mn-Ga thin films was systematically investigated by energy dispersive X-ray spectrum and atomic force microscopy, respectively. The results show that the Ni contents of the thin films increase with the increase of the substrate negative bias voltages, whereas the Mn contents and Ga contents decrease with the increase of substrate negative bias voltages. It was also found that the surface roughness and average particle size of the thin films remarkably decrease with the increase of substrate negative bias voltages. Based on the influence of bias voltages on film compositions, a Ni₅₆Mn₂₇Ga₁₇ thin film was obtained at the substrate negative bias voltage of 30 V. Further investigations indicate that the martensitic transformation start temperature of this film is up to 584 K, much higher than room temperature, and the film has a non-modulated tetragonal martensitic structure at room temperature. Transmission electron microscopy observations reveal that microstructure of the thin film exhibits an internally (1 1 1) type twinned substructure. The fabrication of Ni₅₆Mn₂₇Ga₁₇ high-temperature shape memory alloy thin film will contribute to the successful development of microactuators.     

Numerical analysis of glow discharge in oxygen

Computational analysis of the positive column in a dc oxygen glow discharge was performed. Considering the discharge plasma as a mixture of electrons, positive molecular ions, negative atomic ions, metastable molecules O ₂ ^* (a¹_g), atoms and molecules particle balance equations were solved. As a result the particle concentrations in a dependence on discharge parameters were obtained and the mechanism of the discharge was discussed.     

Backscattering and negative polarization of agglomerate particles

We used the discrete dipole approximation to study the backscattering of agglomerate particles consisting of oblong monomers. We varied the aspect ratio of the monomers from approximately 1 (sphere) to 4, while we kept the total particle volume equivalent to that of an x = 10 sphere for m = 1.59 + i0 and 1.50 + i0 and considered two values of agglomerate packing density: rho = 0.25 and rho = 0.1. We found that these particles do not display a prominent brightness opposition effect but do produce significant negative polarization over a range of near-backscattering angles. Increasing the monomers' aspect ratio can make the negative polarization much more prominent. We have noted also that decreasing m and p can reduce the amplitude of the negative polarization for these particles.     

Dynamics of laser-induced desorption from dielectric surfaces on a sub-picosecond timescale

The impact of ultra-short laser pulses induces intensity-dependent non-equilibrium processes in the surface region of dielectric targets, resulting in desorption of surface constituents. We report time-resolved studies on particle ejection from CaF₂ and BaF₂ targets.Pump-probe time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ToF MS) was used to measure the particle yields as a function of the delay time between pairs of sub-damage threshold laser pulses, thus obtaining the temporal dynamics of the laser-excited charged particle emission.In a correlative manner, the positive ion, electron and negative ion desorption yields dependence on the pump-probe delay time reveal a coherence peak around zero delay (similar to a two-pulse autocorrelation), accounting for the increase of the ion yield with laser intensity. Additionally, the measurements reveal a delayed peaks at ∼900 fs (BaF₂) and ∼300 fs (CaF₂). For comparison, we present time-resolved studies on electron emission from aluminum targets with pump and probe pulses below the damage threshold. The measurements show, again, the autocorrelation peak in the coherence region and an additional increase in the electron yield when the pulses are several picoseconds apart.The autocorrelation could also stand for the dephasing time of the electronic coherence, while the delayed peaks may reveal for the time needed for the collisional energy to be transferred to the lattice. The pump pulse induces a new unstable phase, which is further destabilized by the probe pulse.A corresponding qualitative picture for temporal dynamics of femtosecond (fs) laser-induced particle emission is proposed.     

A consistent parametrisation for the production rates of negatively charged hadrons and neutral strange particles in nucleon-nucleon,nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions

A parametrisation of negative hadron and neutral strange particle production was developed which consistently describes presently available data from nucleon-nucleon, nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at a beam energy of 200 GeV per nucleon. Average multiplicities of negative hadrons are found to be proportional to the number of wounded nucleons, averageK _s ⁰ multiplicities proportional to the number of wounded quarks, and average and multiplicities proportional to the number of wounded quarks plus an additional contribution proportional to the number of interactions of secondary produced particles. Predictions are given for lead-lead collisions.On leave from Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia     

Letter: Electromagnetic Mass-Models in General Relativity Reexamined

The problem of constructing a model of an extended charged particle within the context of general relativity has a long and distinguished history. The distinctive feature of these models is that, in some way or another, they require the presence of negative mass in order to maintain stability against Coulomb's repulsion. Typically, the particle contains a core of negative mass surrounded by a positive-mass outer layer, which emerges from the Reissner-Nordström field. In this work we show how the Einstein-Maxwell field equations can be used to construct an extended model where the mass is positive everywhere. This requires the principal pressures to be unequal inside the particle. The model is obtained by setting the effective matter density, rather than the rest matter density, equal to zero. The Schwarzschild mass of the particle arises from the electrical and gravitational field (Weyl tensor) energy. The model satisfies the energy conditions of Hawking and Ellis. A particular solution that illustrates the results is presented.     

Possible odderon effects in inclusive hadron production

We consider the possible contribution of odderon (reggeon with α _Odd(0)∼1 and negative signature) exchange to the differences in the inclusive spectra of particle and antiparticle in the central region. The energies and/or accuracy of the currently available experimental data do not allow for a clear conclusion on the presence of an odderon component, but the upcoming LHC data should finally elucidate the question of the existence of the odderon.