Stored energy release behaviour of disordered carbon

The use of graphite as a moderator in a low temperature thermal nuclear reactor is restricted due to accumulation of energy caused by displacement of atoms by neutrons and high energetic particles. Thermal transients may lead to a release of stored energy that may raise the temperature of the fuel clad above the design limit. Disordered carbon is thought to be an alternative choice for this purpose. Two types of disordered carbon composites, namely, CB (made up of 15 wt. % carbon black dispersed in carbonized phenolic resin) and PAN (made up of 20 vol. % chopped polyacrylonitrile carbon fibre dispersed in carbonized phenolic resin matrix) have been irradiated with 145 MeV Ne⁶⁺ ions at three fluence levels of 1.0×10¹³, 5.0×10¹³ and 1.5×10¹⁴ Ne⁶⁺/cm², respectively. The XRD patterns revealed that both the samples remained disordered even after irradiation. The maximum release of stored energy for CB was 212 J/g and that of PAN was 906 J/g. For CB, the release of stored energy was a first order reaction with activation energy of 2.79 eV and a frequency factor of 3.72×10²⁸ per second. 13% of the defects got annealed by heating up to 700 °C. PAN showed a third-order release rate with activation energy of 1.69 eV and a frequency factor of 1.77×10¹⁴ per second. 56% of the total defects got annealed by heating it up to 700 °C. CB seems to be the better choice than PAN as it showed less energy release with a slower rate. PACS 61.80.Jh; 61.80.-x; 61.43Er; 61.43.-j; 68.43.Vx     

A few points on omnidirectional band gaps in one-dimensional photonic crystals

The universal condition for the formation of omnidirectional band gaps (OBG) in photonic crystal (PC) was derived with consideration of permeability of the materials. And it was found that there are four kinds of PCs: one of them has no OBG, and one always possesses OBG. For the other two kinds of PCs, there are OBG for only TM or TE waves respectively. Moreover, in all PCs, the OBG can be broadened by decreasing the refractive index of the ambient medium or/and increasing the contrast between the wave impedances of the component materials of the PC. PACS 42.70.Qs; 71.20.Tx     

Magnetic anisotropy of textured CrO2 thin films investigated by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Highly a-axis-textured CrO₂ films have been deposited on Al₂O₃ (0001) substrates by chemical vapor deposition. CrO₂ has been found to have highly a-axis (010)-oriented columnar growth on a Cr₂O₃ (0001) initial layer. The six-fold surface symmetry of the Cr₂O₃ initial layer leads to three equivalent in-plane orientations of the a-axis-oriented CrO₂ unit cell. We report Cr L_2,3 X-ray magnetic circular dichroism data along the surface normal and at 60° off-normal sample orientation. For a 60° sample alignment, a strong increase of the projected orbital moment could be observed for unoccupied majority t_2g states using moment analysis. Therefore, the c axis is identified as the intrinsic magnetic easy axis of CrO₂. In addition, a small spin moment and a very strong magnetic dipole term T_z have been found. Received: 8 January 2002 / Accepted: 8 January 2002     

Numerical simulation of silane decomposition in an RF plasma

A model of silane decomposition in a radio-frequency argon plasma is constructed. The concentrations of SiH₄ decomposition products, as well as products of synthesis (higher silanes), are calculated. The role of metastable argon atoms in the formation of SiH₃ radicals and the higher silanes is analyzed.     

Element Pools and Numeric Coprocessors for Linear Programming on Personal Computers

This note discusses the need to use various data-compaction schemes in the implementation of sophisticated large-scale linear programming codes on modest personal computers. It demonstrates a method whereby the overhead of using these schemes is significantly reduced on Intel 80 x 86 processors.     

Controlling global stochasticity of Hamiltonian systems by nonlinear perturbation

A method of controlling global stochasticity in Hamiltonian systems by applying nonlinear perturbation is proposed. With the well-known standard map we demonstrate that this control method can convert global stochasticity into regular motion in a wide chaotic region for arbitrary initial condition, in which the control signal remains very weak after a few kicks. The system in which chaos has been controlled approximates to the original Hamiltonian system, and this approach appears robust against small external noise. The mechanism underlying this high control efficiency is intuitively explained. Received 15 January 2002 Published online 6 June 2002     

A new three-flavor oscillation solution of the solar neutrino deficit in <Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>-parity violating supersymmetry

We present a solution of the solar neutrino deficit using three flavors of neutrinos and R-parity non-conserving supersymmetry. In this model, in vacuum, the is massless and unmixed, mass and mixing being restricted to the - sector only, which we choose in consistency with the requirements of the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. The flavor changing and flavor diagonal neutral currents present in the model and the three-flavor picture together produce an energy dependent resonance-induced - mixing in the sun. This mixing plays a key role in the new solution to the solar neutrino problem. The best fit to the solar neutrino rates and spectrum (1258-day SK and 241-day SNO data) requires a mass square difference of eV² in vacuum between the two lightest neutrinos. This solution cannot accommodate a significant day-night effect for solar neutrinos nor CP violation in terrestrial neutrino experiments. Received: 26 December 2001 / Revised version: 16 February 2002 / Published online: 26 July 2002     

Parametric and Non Homogeneous Semi-Markov Process for HIV Control

In AIDS control, physicians have a growing need to use pragmatically useful and interpretable tools in their daily medical taking care of patients. Semi-Markov process seems to be well adapted to model the evolution of HIV-1 infected patients. In this study, we introduce and define a non homogeneous semi-Markov (NHSM) model in continuous time. Then the problem of finding the equations that describe the biological evolution of patient is studied and the interval transition probabilities are computed. A parametric approach is used and the maximum likelihood estimators of the process are given. A Monte Carlo algorithm is presented for realizing non homogeneous semi-Markov trajectories. As results, interval transition probabilities are computed for distinct times and follow-up has an impact on the evolution of patients.      

Research,teaching, and social activities of academician Sergey Alekseevich Khristianovich

Sergey Alekseevich Khristianovich is one of the famous Russian mechanical engineers of the 20th century together with N.E. Zhukovsky, S.A. Chaplygin, N.E. Kochin, and others. He made an immense contribution to some aspects of mechanics, such as aerogasdynamics, rock mechanics, theory of plasticity, filtration theory, and environmental power engineering. All this was preceded by a long, hard, and fruitful life full of outstanding events.     

Influence of the counterion size on swelling and collapse of polyelectrolyte gel

A theory that predicts the effect of the counterion size on the swelling and collapse of a weakly charged polyelectrolyte gel was developed. In addition to excluded-volume interactions between monomer units of the gel, the theory involves the counterion-monomer unit and counterion-counterion interactions in terms of the virial approximation. The character of interactions between different units in the system varies from repulsion to attraction depending on the type of solvent, counterion, and dielectric permittivity of the solvent. For solvents with a low permittivity, the effect of condensation of counterions resulting in the formation of ion pairs is taken into account.