Effect of hardness and composition gradients on Barkhausen emission in case hardened steel

The effect of gradients in hardness, structure and composition in the surface layers on magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) was investigated in two widely used low alloy steels. One material was case hardened by induction hardening. The other was case carburised. Similar hardness profiles were produced by the two treatments. It was found that the variation in structure and hardness through the case in the induction-hardened steel had a minor effect on the MBN profile. In contrast, the inhomogeneity in the case-carburised material showed up clearly. This took the form of a broadened or two-peak MBN profile. When the surface layer containing the case was removed by etching, the broadened profile was replaced by a profile with a single peak. It is concluded that the shape and position of the MBN profile is significantly affected when a gradient in microstructure is induced by a gradient in carbon content. On the other hand, a gradient in microstructure induced by heat treatment with a constant carbon level has much less affect on the MBN profile for the induction-hardened steel.     

Angular distribution of muon pairs produced by negative pions on deuterium and tungsten in terms of coherent states

Recently published data on thep _T dependence of the angular distributions of muon pairs produced in collisions of negative pions with deuterium and tungsten nuclei reveal an unexpected tendency. We show that the quantum statistical approach involving expansions in terms of coherent states leads in this case to an exact, non-perturbative result which in the lowest order approximation describes the observed trends with sufficient accuracy. In this procedure, the non-vanishing correlations between the coordinates and momenta of dimuons play a decisive role.     

Reductions in overshoot following intense sound exposures

Overshoot refers to the poorer detectability of brief signals presented soon after the onset of a masking noise compared to those presented after longer delays. In the present experiment, brief tonal signals were presented 2 or 190 ms following the onset of a broadband masker that was 200 ms in duration. These two conditions of signal delay were tested before and after a series of exposures to a tone intense enough to induce temporary threshold shift (TTS). The magnitude of the overshoot was reduced after the exposure when a TTS of at least 10 dB was induced, but not when smaller amounts of TTS were induced. The reduction in overshoot was due to a decrease in the masked thresholds with the 2-ms delay; masked thresholds with the 190-ms delay were not different pre- and post-exposure. The implication is that the mechanisms responsible for the normal overshoot effect are temporarily inactivated by the same stimulus manipulations that produce a mild exposure-induced hearing loss. Thus the result is the paradox that exposure to intense sounds can produce a loss of signal detectability in certain stimulus conditions and a simultaneous improvement in detectability in other stimulus conditions.     

A microprocessor based autoscanner for electromigration studies in thin films

Mass transport due to electromigration can be estimated if the diffusion coefficientD and the electromigration effective charge numberZ* are known. Neutron activated tracer scanning method determine the radioactivity at different positions. An automatic scanning system for determining the radioactive concentration profiles developed using a microprocessor is described in this paper. Using the radioactive concentration profiles the electromigration shift is determined. From this shift the electromigration effective charge numberZ* is calculated. The system developed was tested for tin thin films.     

Status of the standard solar model prediction of solar neutrino fluxes

The Standard Solar Model (BP04) predicts a total ⁸B neutrino flux that is 17.2% larger than that measured in the salt phase of the SNO detector (and if it is significant, it will indicate oscillation to sterile neutrinos). Hence, it is important to examine in detail the uncertainties (and values) of inputs to the BP04. Currently, the largest fractional uncertainty is due to the new evaluation of the surface composition of the Sun. We examine the nuclear input on the formation of solar ⁸B [S ₁₇(0)] and demonstrate that it is still quite uncertain due to the ill-known slope of the measured astrophysical cross section factor and thus illdefined extrapolation to zero energy. This yields an additional reasonable uncertainty due to extrapolation of _−3.0 ^+0.0 eV b ( _−14% ^+0% ). Since a large discrepancy exists between measured as well as predicted slopes, the value of S ₁₇(0) is dependent on the choice of data and theory used to extrapolate S ₁₇(0). This situation must be alleviated by new measurement(s). The “world average” is driven by the Seattle result owing to the very small quoted uncertainty, which we, however, demonstrate to be an overestimated accuracy. We propose more realistic error bars for the Seattle results based on the published Seattle data. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Hadroproduction experiments for precise neutrino beam calculations

The discovery of the neutrino oscillation pattern with solar and atmospheric neutrinos has stimulated systematic studies with long-baseline accelerator experiments. Precise neutrino beamline calculations have demonstrated the importance and paucity of existing hadroproduction data needed to shape the primary meson production in targets and tune available Monte Carlo codes for hadronic shower simulation. After a brief introduction to the physics of neutrino beams, available hadron production data will be reviewed with regards to their parametrization. Fast simulations based on such parameterizations and full Monte Carlo simulations of neutrino beamlines will then be illustrated. The prospective impact of new hadroproduction experiments, such as HARP at CERN and MIPP at Fermilab, will be shown together with some neutrino beamline simulations.     

Thermal and dielectric behaviors of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) copolymers at the curie transition

The thermal and dielectric behaviors of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) copolymers near the ferroelectric-to-paraelectric phase transition are investigated for samples with 20, 25, 30, and 40 mol% trifluoroethylene (TrFE). The data suggest that the transition becomes continuous for a particular composition near 50 mol% TrFE. Experimental data are sensitive to thermal history (kinetics of crystallization, and kinetics and cycling over the structural transition). It is found that several anomalies are present at the structural change, and in particular the 30 mol% TrFE sample shows the most marked anomalies. These phenomena can be attributed to defects, but another possibility would be the existence of an intemediate supplementary phase. Both hypotheses are discussed.     

Elektrische Charakterisierung von Hochfrequenz-Niederdruck-Gasentladungen

In recent years there has emerged significant interest in low pressure radio frequency (rf) glow discharges which are used widely particulary in IC fabrication. Various parameters of the rf glow discharge have been found to be useful for its electrical characterization; however, there is no uniformity and agreement. Extensive experimental investigations on various discharge systems have shown, that the self-bias on the rf driven electrode, the complex conductivity and the breakdown characteristic are preferable parameters of rf discharges. Advantageously the self-bias and the complex conductivity should be presented in dependence on the pressure and the applied rf voltage. The discharge current cannot be measured quite accurately due to currents via leaky capacitors and the deviations from a sinusoidal form of the current due to nonlinearities.