Backscattering Mössbauer MIMOS II and XRF studies on tektites from different strewn fields

Room temperature ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy has been used to obtain information on the redox and coordination of iron in tektites. A MIMOS II spectrometer in backscattering geometry has been used in the study, so that no sample preparation at all was required. X-ray fluorescence has been used to determine the composition of the tektites. Mössbauer spectra have been deconvoluted using three extended Voigt-based profiles to allow quantitative analysis of iron atoms valence and coordination. In all tektites, the Fe $^{2+ }$ sites have been distinguished in Fe with octahedral and tetrahedral coordination. The Fe $^{2+}$ octahedral sites show a region of isomer shift (IS) and quadrupole splitting (QS), IS $=$ 1.02–1.14 mm/s and QS $=$ 1.82–2.12 mm/s, relative to $\alpha $ -Fe. The Fe $^{2+ }$ tetrahedral sites show a region of hyperfine parameters of IS = 0.59–0.89 mm/s and QS = 1.14–1.60 mm/s. The Fe³⁺sites show IS = 0.11–0.33 mm/s and QS = 0.02–0.04 mm/s. The Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺ ratio was found to be 0.025–0.149.     

Structure of some FeII − III hydroxysalt green rusts (carbonate, oxalate, methanoate) from Mössbauer spectroscopy

The abundances of Fe^II and Fe^III environments within green rusts one, GR1s, that intercalate carbonate, oxalate and methanoate (formate) anions are found from Mössbauer spectra for compositions corresponding to [Fe $^{\rm II}_{6}$ Fe $^{\rm III}_{2}$ (OH)₁₆]^2?+??[CO $_{3}^{2-}$ ?5H₂O]^2???, [Fe $^{\rm II}_{4}$ Fe $^{\rm III}_{2}$ (OH)₁₂]^2?+??[CO $_{3}^{2-}$ ?3H₂O]^2???, [Fe $^{\rm II}_{6}$ Fe $^{\rm III}_{2}$ (OH)₁₆]^2?+??[C₂O $_{4}^{2-}$ ?4H₂O]^2??? and [Fe $^{\rm II}_{5}$ Fe $^{\rm III}_{2}$ (OH)₁₄]^2?+??[2HCOO^????3H₂O]^2???. These formulae correspond to orders α, β and γ where cation distances are (2 × a ₀), ( $\surd 3$ × a ₀) or a mixture of both leading to (7 × a ₀), where ratio x = {[Fe^III]/[Fe_total]} = 1/4, 1/3 and 2/7, respectively. Anion distributions within interlayers are also devised and long-range orders determined accordingly.     

Mössbauer spectroscopy in the investigation of new mineral–related materials

New materials based on the composition of the mineral schafarzikite, FeSb $_{2}\textit {O}_{4}$ , have been synthesised. $^{57}$ Fe- and $^{121}$ Sb- Mössbauer spectroscopy shows that iron is present as Fe $^{2+}$ and that antimony is present as Sb $^{3+}$ . The presence of Pb $^{2+}$ on the antimony sites in materials of composition FeSb $_{1.5}$ Pb $_{0.5}\textit {O}_{4}$ induces partial oxidation of Fe $^{2+}_{}$ to Fe $^{3+}$ . The quasi-one-dimensional magnetic structure of schafarzikite is retained in FeSb $_{1.5}$ Pb $_{0.5}\textit {O}_{4}$ and gives rise to weakly coupled non-magnetic Fe $^{2+}$ ions coexisting with Fe $^{3+}$ ions in a magnetically ordered state. A similar model can be applied to account for the spectra recorded from the compound Co $_{0.5}$ Fe $_{0.5}$ Sb $_{1.5}$ Pb $_{0.5}\textit {O}_{4}$ .     

Dopants incorporation in ZnO mechanical milled powders sensed by positrons

The unique meteorite bencubbinite Isheyevo CH/CB which was recently found in Bashkortostan, Russia was studied using Mössbauer spectroscopy with high velocity resolution. Mössbauer hyperfine parameters of metal in Isheyevo CH/CB external and internal regions demonstrated the presence of three phases such as martensite $\upalpha _{2}$ -Fe(Ni,Co), kamacite $\upalpha $ -Fe(Ni,Co) and disordered taenite $\upgamma $ -Fe(Ni,Co).     

Mössbauer study of magnetism in FeII − III (oxy-)hydroxycarbonate green rusts; ferrimagnetism of FeII − III hydroxycarbonate

Fe^II???III hydroxycarbonate Fe $^{\rm II}_{4}$ Fe $^{\rm III}_{2}$ (OH)₁₂CO₃, green rust GR(CO $_{3}^{2-})$ , reveals a ferrimagnetic behaviour. Moments that lie within two-dimensional cation layers are parallel for same species and antiparallel between Fe^II and Fe^III. Respective ordering temperatures are 5.2 and 7 K. A sextet with distribution from 350 to 580 kOe for Fe^III and an octet reflecting a mixture of states with field of 130 kOe and quadrupole splitting of ?3.0 mm s^???1 for Fe^II are observed at 1.4 K. Ferric oxyhydroxycarbonate Fe $^{\rm III}_{6}$ O₁₂H₈CO₃ is ferromagnetic and displays at 4 K a sextet with field between 400 and 500 kOe (maximum at 480 kOe) and transition at 80 K. GR(CO $_{3}^{2-})$ deprotonation gives magnetic domains with compositions at x?=?1/3, 2/3 and 1 due to long range order.     

Precision spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium

We survey recent progress in the theoretical study of vibrational transitions in the antiprotonic helium atom. Along with the latest experiment they allow to achieve a competitive accuracy in determination of the atomic mass of an electron and thus they have been included into the CODATA06 analysis of the fundamental constants. Improved theoretical calculation of the hyperfine structure in $^{4\!}\mbox{He}\bar{p}\/$ atom will be considered as well. We will discuss contributions of order $R_\infty\alpha^4$ to the electron spin-orbit interaction. These corrections are necessary to confirm the latest measurements of the 12.9 MHz intervals of the (n,l)?=?(37,35) state in $^4\mbox{He}^+\bar{p}$ and for precise determination of the antiproton magnetic moment.     

Influence of temperature on the electric,dielectric and AC conductivity properties of nano-crystalline zinc substituted cobalt ferrite synthesized by solution combustion technique

Cobalt–zinc nanoferrites with formulae Co $_{1-x}$ Zn $_{x}$ Fe $_{2}$ O $_{4}$ , where x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3, have been synthesized by solution combustion technique. The variation of DC resistivity with temperature shows the semiconducting behavior of all nanoferrites. The dielectric properties such as dielectric constant ( $\varepsilon $ ’) and dielectric loss tangent (tan $\delta )$ are investigated as a function of temperature and frequency. Dielectric constant and loss tangent are found to be increasing with an increase in temperature while with an increase in frequency both, $\varepsilon $ ’ and tan $\delta $ , are found to be decreasing. The dielectric properties have been explained on the basis of space charge polarization according to Maxwell–Wagner’s two-layer model and the hopping of charge between Fe $^{2+}$ and Fe $^{3+}$ . Further, a very high value of dielectric constant and a low value of tan $\delta $ are the prime achievements of the present work. The AC electrical conductivity ( $\sigma _\mathrm{AC})$ is studied as a function of temperature as well as frequency and $\sigma _\mathrm{AC}$ is observed to be increasing with the increase in temperature and frequency.     

Separation efficiency of the MASHA facility for short-lived mercury isotopes

The mass-separator MASHA built to identify Super Heavy Elements by their mass-to-charge ratios is described. The results of the off- and on-line measurements of its separation efficiency are presented. In the former case four calibrated leaks of noble gases were used. In the latter the efficiency was measured via 284 MeV $^{40}$ Ar beam and with using the hot catcher. The ECR ion source was used in both cases. The $\alpha $ -radioactive isotopes of mercury produced in the complete fusion reaction $^{40}$ Ar+ $^{144}$ Sm $\rightarrow ^{184-xn}$ Hg+xn were detected at the mass-separator focal plane. The half-lives and the separation efficiency for the short-lived mercury isotopes were measured. Potentialities of the MEDIPIX detector system have been demonstrated for future use at the mass-separator MASHA.     

Pyrid-2-yl and 2-CyanoPhenyl fused heterocyclic compounds as human P2X_{3} inhibitors: a combined approach based on homology modelling,docking and QSAR analysis

P2X receptors are hetero-oligomeric proteins that function as membrane ion channels and are gated by extracellular ATP. The hP2X $_{3}$ subunit is a constituent of the channels on a subset of sensory neurons involved in pain signaling, where ATP released by damaged and inflamed tissue can initiate action potentials. Hence, the inhibition of ATP-activated P2X $_{3}$ receptor is an exciting approach for the treatment of inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Recently, the crystal structures of zebrafish P2X $_{4}$ (zP2X $_{4})$ were obtained in closed, apo state (PDB ID: 3I5D) and ATP-bound, open state (PDB ID: 4DW1). These structures were used to develop a homology model of human P2X $_{3}$ (hP2X $_{3})$ in order to identify through docking studies, the binding modes of known P2X $_{3}$ inhibitors and their key active site interactions, along with a pharmacophore-based 3D-QSAR model for a series of 136 Pyrid-2-yl and 2-CyanoPhenyl fused heterocyclic compounds. These 3D-QSAR models have been developed with different combinations of training and test set divisions obtained by random separation, Jarvis–Patrick clustering, K-means clustering and sphere exclusion methods. The best predictive 3D-QSAR model resulted in training set R $^{2 }$ of 0.75, internal test set Q $^{2}$ of 0.74, Pearson-R value of 0.87 and root mean square error of 0.37. The information generated by the pharmacophore model and docking analyses using the homology model provides valuable clues to design novel potent hP2X $_{3}$ inhibitors.     

All-carbon detector with buried graphite pillars in CVD diamond

A diamond detector of 3D architecture without any metallization is developed for spectroscopy of ionizing radiation and single particles detection. The carbon electrode system was fabricated using a femtosecond infrared laser ( $\lambda $ = 1,030 nm) to induce graphitization on the surface and inside 4.0  $\times $  4.0  $\times $  0.4 mm $^{3}$ single-crystal chemical vapor deposition diamond slab, resulting in an array of 84 buried graphite pillars of 30  $\upmu $ m diameter formed orthogonally to the surface and connected by surface graphite strips. Sensitivity to ionizing radiation with $^{90}$ Sr $\upbeta $ -source has been measured for the 3D detector and high charge collection efficiency is demonstrated.     

{\gamma}-Fe phase plasma-induced on the surface of thin S3A alloy ribbons

Amorphous alloy ribbons of Fe₇₇Cr₂B₁₆Si₅ were exposed to cold plasmas of N₂ and Ar?CN₂ at temperatures lower than T_x?=?808?K. The conversion X-ray M?ssbauer spectra of the plasma-exposed ribbons consist of a singlet and a broadened magnetic sextet. The singlet with isomer shift $\updelta = -0.11$ ?mm/s can be assigned to $\upgamma $ -Fe austenite phase. Minor bulk magnetic changes in the alloy were measured as a consequence of these treatments; e.g. the relative intensities A23 of the transmission M?ssbauer spectra of the untreated and treated samples, were 3.22 and 3.56, respectively, the B_hf values changed from 22.9?T (untreated sample) to 22.4?T (plasma treated samples). Unexpectedly, the $\upgamma $ -Fe phase can also be produced by simply heating the alloy ribbons under N₂ flux at temperatures as low as 423?K. M?ssbauer data of the crystallized samples are also reported, and a qualitative assessment on the mechanical properties of the Fe₇₇Cr₂B₁₆Si₅ alloy associated with the plasma and/or temperature surface induced $\upgamma $ -Fe phase is given.     

Sign of the Singlet (np)-Scattering Length, Neutron Radiative Capture by the Proton and Problem of the Virtual Level of the (np) System

It is shown that, taking into account the process of neutron radiative capture by the proton and the negative sign of the length of singlet (np)-scattering (a _s =? ?f _s (0) <? 0), the singlet (np)-scattering amplitude f _s has a pole at a complex energy ${\widetilde{E}_s}$ , the real part of which is negative ( ${{\rm Re}\,\widetilde{E}_s < 0}$ ) and the imaginary part is positive ( ${{\rm Im}\, \widetilde{E}_s > 0}$ ). This means that a singlet state of the (np) system, which would decay into the deuteron in the ground state and the ?? quantum (??singlet deuteron??) does not exist, and the pole ${\widetilde{E}_s}$ corresponds to the virtual but not true quasistationary level.     

{\boldsymbol N}\boldsymbol{\bar N} exotics and antiprotonic atoms

The BES Collaboration measurements of J/ψ radiative decays into $ p{\bar p}$ indicate a strong enhancement at $ p {\bar p}$ threshold. In a related experiment a peak in the invariant π ^?+? π ^???η′ mass is observed. It is shown that both structures may be related to a broad $ N{\bar N}$ quasi-bound state in the $^{11}S_{0} $ wave. The existence of this state finds additional support from the antiprotonic atom level widths. It is also explained by a traditional model of $ N \bar{N} $ interactions based on G-parity transformation. The level widths in H, D and He antiprotonic atoms and the radiochemical studies of $ {\bar p}$ capture in nuclei indicate the existence of another near-threshold quasi-bound state in a P wave.     

Structural evolution of nanopores and cracks as fundamental constituents of ultrashort pulse-induced nanogratings

We present an extensive study of the underlying structure of femtosecond laser-induced nanogratings in fused silica. To explore the evolution of the three-dimensional structure of the nanopores and cracks, of which the nanogratings consist, we performed small angle X-ray scattering measurements as well as focused ion beam milling and scanning electron microscopy. Our results show that cracks with dimensions of (280  $\times $  25  $\times $  380) nm $^{3}$ and nanopores with typical diameters of (30  $\times $  25  $\times $  75) nm $^{3}$ are formed independent of various illumination parameters. With increasing number of laser pulses the smaller pores fuse to larger structures. Furthermore, the data suggest a cross-sectional change of the pores from cuboidal to ellipsoidal.     

One-loop gg\to b\bar{b} effects in the main irreducible background to exclusive H\to b\bar{b} production at the LHC

We calculate the amplitude of $gg\to b\bar{b}$ production for the colour singlet, J _z =0, di-gluon state at $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_{\mathrm{S}}^{2})$ order. We consider the cancellation and a realistic cut-off, of the infrared divergent terms. We show that the one-loop radiative QCD contributions effectively reduce the Born level result for the central exclusive $b\bar{b}$ cross section at the LHC. This process is essentially the only irreducible QCD background to the exclusive $H\to b\bar{b}$ signal.     

Development of the pulse NMR method utilizing the short-lived β-emitter 12 B

Measurements of the spin-spin relaxation time T ₂ of the short-lived $\upbeta $ -emitter $^{12}B (I^{\uppi }$ = 1^?+?, T _1/2 = 20 ms) in Si have been performed. By applying the spin echo method to $\upbeta $ -NMR measurements, the intrinsic T ₂ for ¹²B in Si was successfully determined with the effect of the static magnetic field inhomogeneity removed. The temperature dependence of T ₂ for ¹²B in Si shows that T ₂ becomes longer with increasing temperature, which seems to reflect the effect of motional narrowing.     

Laser nanoablation of graphite

Experimental data on laser ablation of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite by nanosecond pulsed UV ( $\lambda =193$  nm) and green ( $\lambda =532$  nm) lasers are presented. It was found that below graphite vaporization threshold $\approx $ 1 J/cm $^{2}$ , the nanoablation regime can be realized with material removal rates as low as 10 $^{-3}$  nm/pulse. The difference between physical (vaporization) and physical–chemical (heating + oxidation) ablation regimes is discussed. Special attention is paid to the influence of laser fluence and pulse number on ablation kinetics. Possibility of laser-induced graphite surface nanostructuring has been demonstrated. Combination of tightly focused laser beam and sharp tip of scanning probe microscope was applied to improve material nanoablation.     

Analysis of the vertexes \Xi_{Q}^{*}′QV , \Sigma_{Q}^{*} \Sigma_{Q}^{}V and radiative decays \Xi_{Q}^{*} \rightarrow ′Q \gamma , \Sigma_{Q}^{*} \rightarrow \Sigma_{Q}^{} \gamma

In this article, we study the vertexes $ \Xi_{Q}^{*}$ ′_Q V and $ \Sigma_{Q}^{*}$ $ \Sigma_{Q}^{}$ V with the light-cone QCD sum rules, then assume the vector meson dominance of the intermediate $ \phi$ (1020) , $ \rho$ (770) and $ \omega$ (782) , and calculate the radiative decays $ \Xi_{Q}^{*}$ $ \rightarrow$ ′_Q $ \gamma$ and $ \Sigma_{Q}^{*}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \Sigma_{Q}^{}$ $ \gamma$ .     

An Algebraic Construction of Boundary Quantum Field Theory

We build up local, time translation covariant Boundary Quantum Field Theory nets of von Neumann algebras ${\mathcal A_V}$ on the Minkowski half-plane M ₊ starting with a local conformal net ${\mathcal A}$ of von Neumann algebras on ${\mathbb R}$ and an element V of a unitary semigroup ${\mathcal E(\mathcal A)}$ associated with ${\mathcal A}$ . The case V?=?1 reduces to the net ${\mathcal A_+}$ considered by Rehren and one of the authors; if the vacuum character of ${\mathcal A}$ is summable, ${\mathcal A_V}$ is locally isomorphic to ${\mathcal A_+}$ . We discuss the structure of the semigroup ${\mathcal E(\mathcal A)}$ . By using a one-particle version of Borchers theorem and standard subspace analysis, we provide an abstract analog of the Beurling-Lax theorem that allows us to describe, in particular, all unitaries on the one-particle Hilbert space whose second quantization promotion belongs to ${\mathcal E(\mathcal A^{(0)})}$ with ${\mathcal A^{(0)}}$ the U(1)-current net. Each such unitary is attached to a scattering function or, more generally, to a symmetric inner function. We then obtain families of models via any Buchholz-Mack-Todorov extension of ${\mathcal A^{(0)}}$ . A further family of models comes from the Ising model.