Characterization of low molecular weight hydrocarbon oligomers by laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry using a solvent-free sample preparation method.

A new solvent-free sample preparation method using silver trifluoroacetate (AgTFA) was developed for the analysis of low molecular weight paraffins and microcrystalline waxes by laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LDI-TOFMS). Experiments show that spectral quality can be enhanced by dispersing AgTFA directly in liquid paraffins without the use of additional solvents. This preparation mixture is applied directly to the MALDI probe. Solid waxes could be examined by melting prior to analysis. The method also provides sufficiently reproducible spectra that peak area ratios between mono- and bicyclic alkane peaks indicated variations in the cycloalkane content of paraffin samples. Dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons observed during the desorption/ionization process was studied by analysis of alkane standards.     

Mass Power Spectrum in a Universe Dominated by the Chaplygin Gas

The mass power spectrum for a Universe dominated by the Chaplygin gas is evaluated numerically from scales of the order of the Hubble horizon to 100 Mpc. The results are compared with a pure baryonic Universe and a cosmological constant model. In all three cases, the spectrum increases with k, the wavenumber of the perturbations. The slope of the spectrum is higher for the baryonic model and smaller for the cosmological constant model, the Chaplygin gas interpolating these two models. The results are analyzed in terms of the sound velocity of the Chaplygin gas and the moment the Universe begins to accelerate.     

Deformation Quantization for Systems with Fermions

Deformation quantization, which achieves the passage from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics by the replacement of the pointwise multiplication of functions on phase space by the star product, is a powerful tool for treating systems involving bosonic degrees of freedom, both in quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory. In the present paper we show how these methods may be naturally extended to systems involving fermions. In particular we show how supersymmetric quantum mechanics can be formulated in this approach and consider examples involving both non-relativistic and relativistic systems.     

Ermakov Approach for Minisuperspace Oscillators

The Wheeler–DeWitt equation of arbitrary Hartle–Hawking factor ordering for several minisuperspace universe models, such as the pure gravity Friedmann–Robertson–Walker and Taub ones, is mapped onto the dynamics of corresponding classical oscillators. The latter ones are studied by the classical Ermakov invariant method, which is a natural approach in this context. For the more realistic case of a minimally coupled massive scalar field, one can study, within the same type of approach, the corresponding squeezing features as a possible means of describing cosmological evolution. Finally, we comment on the analogy with the accelerator physics.     

Amino acids and peptides. XIII. Synthetic studies on N-terminal tripeptide amide analogs of fibrin alpha-chain

N-Terminal tripeptide analogs of fibrin alpha-chain were synthesized and their inhibitory effect on fibrinogen/thrombin clotting was examined. A new water-soluble active ester, 3-pyridinium ester, was used for the synthesis. Among the synthetic peptides, H-Gly-Pro-Arg-hexamethyleneimine exhibited the highest inhibitory effect on fibrinogen-thrombin clotting.     

Charged Black Holes and Multidimensional Gravity

A multidimensional generalization of the Reissner-Nordström solution of general relativity is obtained for the case of n Ricci-flat internal spaces. A two-parameter family of black-hole solutions for an arbitrary dimensionality D is selected. Nontrivial black holes with D > 4 are shown to exist only with a nonzero electric charge. Observational consequences are discussed, in particular, a violation of Coulomb's law.     

Investigation of the structure of a melt and molecular dynamics of ortho- and pyrophosphates by Raman spectroscopy

Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 535–540, October, 1991.