Materials with a desired refraction coefficient can be made by embedding small particles

A method is proposed to create materials with a desired refraction coefficient, possibly negative one. The method consists of embedding into a given material small particles. Given n₀(x), the refraction coefficient of the original material in a bounded domain , and a desired refraction coefficient n(x), one calculates the number N(x) of small particles, to be embedded in D around a point xD per unit volume of D, in order that the resulting new material has refraction coefficient n(x).     

Wave propagation inside one-dimensional photonic crystals with single-negative materials

The propagation of light waves in one-dimensional photonic crystals (1DPCs) composed of alternating layers of two kinds of single-negative materials is investigated theoretically. The phase velocity is negative when the frequency of the light wave is smaller than the certain critical frequency ω_cr, while the Poynting vector is always positive. At normal incidence, such 1DPCs may act as equivalent left-handed materials. At the inclined incidence, the effective wave vectors inside such 1DPCs do refract negatively, while the effective energy flows do not refract negatively. Therefore, at the inclined incidence, the 1DPCs are not equivalent to the left-handed materials.     

Development of a high speed imaging microscope and new software for nuclear track detector analysis

Automated digital imaging optical microscopy is widely used for diagnostic applications in the health care and biology fields and for routine inspection in industrial applications such as semiconductor fabrication. These applications require the imaging of large areas at high speed in order to obtain sufficient data for image processing with good statistics. Track detector analysis also benefits from the rapid acquisition of large areas on the detector surface. We have developed a new microscope system, the HSP-1000, for high speed image acquisition that uses a line sensor camera in place of a traditional CCD camera. Continuous, automatic focusing of the microscope is achieved by means of an optical pick-up system that provides fast feedback for control of distance between the objective and the image surface. Using transmitted light illumination, the microscope is able to digitize a area at resolution in . As a result of continuous stage motion and continuous focusing, we have attained image acquisition speeds that are 50–100 times faster than conventional CCD-based microscope systems. In this paper, we describe a number of aspects of the microscope system including the use of the line sensor and the automatic focus system.     

Quadrupole collectivity of Ne and the boundary of the island of inversion

The excitation of the neutron-rich nucleus ²⁸Ne has been investigated via heavy-ion inelastic scattering in reversed kinematics. The value was determined to be , which is smaller than expected from the low excitation energy of the first state. A comparison with theoretical predictions suggests that the suppressed collectivity in ²⁸Ne is characteristic of nuclei lying on the boundary of the ‘island of inversion’.     

The chiral ring and the periods of the resolvent

The strongly coupled vacua of an supersymmetric gauge theory can be described by imposing quantization conditions on the periods of the gauge theory resolvent, or equivalently by imposing factorization conditions on the associated Seiberg–Witten curve (the so-called strong-coupling approach). We show that these conditions are equivalent to the existence of certain relations in the chiral ring, which themselves follow from the fact that the gauge group has a finite rank. This provides a conceptually very simple explanation of why and how the strongly coupled physics of theories, including fractional instanton effects, chiral symmetry breaking and confinement, can be derived from purely semi-classical calculations involving instantons only.     

Parameters-dependent nonlinear absorptions in InGaN/GaN MQW and GaN film

The optical nonlinearities of an InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) and a GaN film were experimentally investigated by using femtosecond Z-scan method in this paper. It was observed that the InGaN/GaN MQW displays a nonlinear saturable absorption (SA) effect and the nonlinear absorption coefficient β was determined to be ; and the GaN film shows a reverse saturable absorption (RSA) effect and the β is . It is also found that the absorption cross sections and quantum confinement effect (QCE) give an influence on the SA of the InGaN/GaN MQW structure.     

Form factors and wave functions of vector mesons in holographic QCD

Within the framework of a holographic dual model of QCD, we develop a formalism for calculating form factors of vector mesons. We show that the holographic bound states can be described not only in terms of eigenfunctions of the equation of motion, but also in terms of conjugate wave functions that are close analogues of quantum-mechanical bound state wave functions. We derive a generalized VMD representation for form factors, and find a very specific VMD pattern, in which form factors are essentially given by contributions due to the first two bound states in the Q²-channel. We calculate electric radius of the ρ-meson, finding the value .     

Study of obstruction effect and activation energy for tracer diffusion of chromium ions in agar gel containing transition metal sulphates

The densities of binary mixtures of N, N-dimethylacetamide (DMA) with benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene, including those of pure liquids, over the entire composition range were measured at temperatures (293.15, 298.15, 303.15, 308.15, 313.15, 318.15 and 323.15) K and atmospheric pressure. From the experimental data, the excess molar volume, , were calculated using different methods over whole composition range. The values were found negative for all the mixtures at each temperature studied, and decrease with rising temperature, indicating the presence of specific interactions between DMA and aromatic hydrocarbon molecules. The extent of negative deviations in values follows the order: toluene > benzene > ethylbenzene.     

Instability of bound states of a nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a Dirac potential

We study analytically and numerically the stability of the standing waves for a nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a point defect and a power type nonlinearity. A major difficulty is to compute the number of negative eigenvalues of the linearized operator around the standing waves. This is overcome by a perturbation method and continuation arguments. Among others, in the case of a repulsive defect, we show that the standing-wave solution is stable in and unstable in under subcritical nonlinearity. Further we investigate the nature of instability: under critical or supercritical nonlinear interaction, we prove the instability by blowup in the repulsive case by showing a virial theorem and using a minimization method involving two constraints. In the subcritical radial case, unstable bound states cannot collapse, but rather narrow down until they reach the stable regime (a finite-width instability). In the nonradial repulsive case, all bound states are unstable, and the instability is manifested by a lateral drift away from the defect, sometimes in combination with a finite-width instability or a blowup instability.     

Electronic and optical properties of BaTe, BaSe and BaS from first principles

Electronic and optical properties of barium chalcogenide compounds BaX (X=S, Se and Te) in NaCl crystal structure are calculated using the band structure results obtained through the full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The exchange correlation potential is treated by the generalized gradient approximation. The real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function ε(ω), the optical absorption coefficient I(ω), the reflectivity R(ω) and the energy loss function are calculated. The calculated results show good agreement with the available experimental results, particularly in the low-energy region of the spectra. Furthermore the interband transitions responsible for the structures seen in the spectra are specified. It is shown that the chalcogen p states and Ba 5d states play a major role in optical transitions as initial and final states, respectively. The effect of the spin–orbit coupling on the optical properties is also investigated and found to be significant, especially in high-energy regions.     

All-optical diode in an asymmetrically apodized Kerr nonlinear microresonator system

We show numerically that a Kerr nonlinear system composed of two channel waveguides coupled periodically by circular microresonators can be used as an all optical diode. The diode has low intensity requirements (50 MW/cm²) and compact dimensions (100  m).     

Correlation among electronic polarizability, optical basicity and interaction parameter of Bi2O3–B2O3 glasses

For optical basicity and electronic polarizability, the previous studies basically concentrate on the wavelength range of the visible light region. However, heavy metal oxides glasses have a reputation of being good materials for infrared region. In this study, new data of the average electronic polarizability of the oxide ion _O^2-, optical basicity Λ and Yamashita–Kurosawa's interaction parameter A of Bi₂O₃–B₂O₃ glasses have been calculated in a wavelength range from 404.66 to 1083.03 nm. The present investigation suggests that both _O^2- and Λ increase gradually with increasing wave number, and A decreases with increasing wave number. Furthermore, close correlations are studied among _O^2-, Λ, A and refractive index n in this paper. Particularly, it has been found that a quantitative relationship between electronic polarizability and optical basicity is observed in a wavelength range from 404.66 to 1083.03 nm. Our present study extends over a wide range of _O^2-, Λ and A values.     

Flux and energy distribution of axial protons emitted from the hydrogen plasma focus

Experimental results and theoretical studies show that protons from the hydrogen plasma focus are emitted predominantly in the axial direction. In this work the results of the flux and energy distribution measurements of the axial protons using CR-39 detector are presented. The main purpose of the experiment is to test the suitability of a plasma focus device as a source for (p,) nuclear reactions, especially and .     

production in exclusive B decays

Production of f₀(1710), a theoretical endeavor of pure scalar glueball state, is studied in detail from exclusive rare B decay within the framework of perturbative QCD. The branching fraction for is estimated to be about 8×10⁻⁶, while for it is smaller by roughly an order of magnitude. With the accumulation of almost 1 billion pairs from the BaBar and Belle experiments to date, hunting for a scalar glueball via these rare decay modes should be attainable.     

Size-dependent linear and non-linear optical response of single carrier two-dimensional quantum dots

We explore the pattern of size dependence of linear and non-linear optical (NLO) responses of one-electron quantum dots in two dimensions with or without anharmonicity in the confinement potential. For some fixed values of transverse magnetic field strength (ω_c) and harmonic confinement potential (ω₀), the influence of the size of the dot on the linear (), the first (β) and the second (γ) NLO responses of the system computed through a finite field linear variational route is analysed. Size-dependent maximization is predicted to be feasible for the quadratic hyperpolarizability.     

Upgrading of LET track-etch spectrometer calibration: Calibration and uncertainty analysis

The spectrometer of linear energy transfer (LET) was developed several years ago. It is based on the chemically etched polyallyldiglycolcarbonate (PADC) track-etch detector. LET spectra are determined through track parameters determination and analysis by an automatic optical image analyser LUCIA G. For the past few years, we have used three materials, Page, 0.5 mm thick and Tastrak, 1 and 0.5 mm thick. To upgrade and determine their calibration curves, we have performed irradiation in high-energy heavier charged particle beams at Dubna, Russia and at Chiba, Japan. We were able to irradiate detectors by means of particles from ¹²C to ⁵⁶Fe with LET in water from 7.9 to . Upgraded calibration curves were obtained through a regression analysis, including systematic uncertainty estimation. The results obtained were combined with statistical uncertainty treatment and were used to analyse recently and previously obtained data. Examples of the results are presented and analysed.     

Measurement of indoor radon levels in Erbil capital by using solid state nuclear track detectors

Radon alpha activity concentration has been measured in 28 homes in the Erbil Capital-Iraqi Kurdistan region during the autumn season by using time-integrated passive radon dosimeters containing CR-39 solid state nuclear track detectors “SSNTDs”. The radon activity concentrations in these homes range from (10.33–90.34) with an average of . The average absorption effective dose equivalent for a person living in homes for which the investigation were done was found to be , obtained by using an equilibrium factor of 0.5 and an occupancy factor of 0.8. The average lung cancer cases per year per 10⁶ person was found to be 23±12.     

Studies of UV-cured CR-39 recording properties in view of its applicability in radiobiological experiments with alpha particles

In radiobiology, low doses of high-LET radiation correspond to a few particle traversals through the cell population. Therefore, for studies on cell monolayers irradiated with a low dose of -particles, it is extremely useful if the number and position of particle traversals can be determined. In this study we describe a new method, based on UV-curing, to obtain a thick CR-39 grafted onto a thick PolyEthylene Terephtalate (PET). This thin double polymeric layer, used as a dish base, has a regular and reproducible detector thickness which can be traversed by 3.5 MeV -particles, with a sufficient residual energy to traverse mammalian cells attached to the base. The recording properties of a PET-CR-39 dish, together with a demonstration of its use for radiobiological experiments, are presented. This new tool allows the precise determination of single-track impact parameters at a sub-cellular level.     

An extensive indoor Rn/Rn monitoring in North-East India

The behaviour of ubiquitous radon (), thoron () and their progeny in the indoor atmosphere generally reflect a complex interplay between a number of processes, the most important of which are radioactive -decay, ventilation, attachment to aerosols and deposition on the surfaces. The present work involved a long-term (1997–2000) passive monitoring of and in the indoor environment of the North-Eastern region of India. This region being a zone of high seismicity, the indoor radon and thoron measurement of the region will provide a better insight and a valuable database for any study related to radon and thoron anomalies.     

The new multiplet, heavy baryon mass predictions, meson–baryon universality and effective supersymmetry in hadron spectrum

The recent measurement by CDF M(Σ_b)−M(Λ_b)=192 MeV is in striking agreement with our theoretical prediction M(Σ_b)−M(Λ_b)=194 MeV. In addition, the measured splitting agrees well with the predicted splitting of 22 MeV. We point out the connection between these predictions and an effective supersymmetry between mesons and baryons related by replacing a light antiquark by a light diquark. We discuss the theoretical framework behind these predictions and use it to provide additional predictions for the masses of spin- and spin- baryons containing heavy quarks, as well as for magnetic moments of Λ_b and Λ_c.