The action of an electron beam on dust structures in a plasma

The action of an electron beam on ordered dust structures in glow and low-pressure RF discharges was studied experimentally. The electron beam produces destruction and dynamic displacement of the dust structure. In the center of a dust structure, an electron beam with a low electron energy (tens of eV) at currents up to 1 mA caused structural disordering and “melting” in the region of its action but did not excite external crystal regions. Local action of an electron beam with a high electron energy (25 keV) and a beam current above 10 mA caused deformation of the whole dust structure and shifted it in the horizontal direction so that it was carried away from the RF discharge zone. The effect of dust structure displacements can be used to locally remove particles from a plasma.     

Dynamic interaction of plasma flow with the hot boundary layer of a geomagnetic trap

The study of the interaction between collisionless plasma flow and stagnant plasma revealed the presence of an outer boundary layer at the border of a geomagnetic trap, where the super-Alfvén subsonic laminar flow changes over to the dynamic regime characterized by the formation of accelerated magnetosonic jets and decelerated Alfvén flows with characteristic relaxation times of 10–20 min. The nonlinear interaction of fluctuations in the initial flow with the waves reflected from an obstacle explains the observed flow chaotization. The Cherenkov resonance of the magnetosonic jet with the fluctuation beats between the boundary layer and the incoming flow is the possible mechanism of its formation. In the flow reference system, the incoming particles are accelerated by the electric fields at the border of boundary layer that arise self-consistently as a result of the preceding wave-particle interactions; the inertial drift of the incoming ions in a transverse electric field increasing toward the border explains quantitatively the observed ion acceleration. The magnetosonic jets may carry away downstream up to a half of the unperturbed flow momentum, and their dynamic pressure is an order of magnitude higher than the magnetic pressure at the obstacle border. The appearance of nonequilibrium jets and the boundary-layer fluctuations are synchronized by the magnetosonic oscillations of the incoming flow at frequencies of 1–2 mHz.     

Chemical Properties of the K2O-Al2O3-SiO2-P2O5 System Activated with Mn(II) Oxide

Synthesis and some chemical properties of the Al₂O-SiO₂-P₂O₅ system activated with MnO were studied.     

The use of an ultrasonic Doppler velocimeter in turbulent pipe flow

An ultrasonic Doppler velocimeter (UDV) is used for an experimental investigation of turbulent pipe flow at eight different Reynolds numbers (22,300–854,900). The UDV is a multipoint probe in the sense that it takes instantaneous measurements of fluid velocities at different locations simultaneously, with remarkable resolutions in space and time. The performances of the instrument with respect to the properties of the overlap layer of the turbulent flow field are investigated; the experimental results are compared with both already existing and more recently proposed scaling laws, and with other data of experimental nature.     

Marking Games and the Oriented Game Chromatic Number of Partial <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Trees

 Nešetřil and Sopena introduced the concept of oriented game chromatic number. They asked whether the oriented game chromatic number of partial k-trees was bounded. Here we answer their question positively. Received: January 12, 2001 Final version received: February 25, 2002     

Krylov subspaces and the analytic grade

Typical behaviour of the solution of a linear system of equations obtained iteratively by Krylov methods can be characterized by three stages. Initially the residual diminishes steadily; this is followed by stagnation and finally rapid convergence near the algebraic grade. This study examines this behaviour in terms of the concepts of approximately invariant subspace and what we have called the analytic grade of a Krylov sequence. It is shown how the small Ritz values play a vital role in the convergence and how this knowledge helps in the construction of an effective preconditioner. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fermions in Odd Space-Time Dimensions: Back to Basics

It is a well-known feature of odd space-time dimensions d that there exist two inequivalent fundamental representations A and B of the Dirac gamma matrices. Moreover, the parity transformation swaps the fermion fields living in A and B. As a consequence, a parity-invariant Lagrangian can only be constructed by incorporating both the representations. Based upon these ideas and contrary to long-held belief, we show that in addition to a discrete exchange symmetry for the massless case, we can also define chiral symmetry provided the Lagrangian contains fields corresponding to both the inequivalent representations. We also study the transformation properties of the corresponding chiral currents under parity and charge-conjugation operations. We work explicitly in 2 + 1 dimensions and later show how some of these ideas generalize to an arbitrary number of odd dimensions.     

A Study of Evaporation of Complex Oxide Systems Based on Chromium(III) Oxide

Evaporation of chromium ore and concentrates was studied using high-temperature differential mass-spectrometry. The data obtained, concerning the component vapor pressures in evaporation of complex oxide systems in the range 1700-2100 K, can be used to calculate the evaporation loss in melting and to assess the possibility of utilization of the sublimates formed.     

Crossover from high-temperature vortex-liquid to low-temperature vortex-glass behavior in single phase HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8+δ superconductor

The ρ-T curves in our single phase HgBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O_8+δ superconductor were measured as a function of temperature and magnetic field, ρ=ρ₀exp(−U_eff/κ_BT). It can be transformed to another form d(lnρ)/d(1/T)=−U_eff+TdU_eff/dT, then this becomes a plot of the activation energy U_eff as a function of temperature. Our data plotted in these ways show a clear crossover from high-temperature two-dimensional vortex-liquid to a critical region associated with the low-temperature three-dimensional vortex-glass phase transition. The critical exponents v(z−1)=3.9±1.9 in this system are little different with previous measurements in BSCCO and YBCO systems.