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.     

Specific features of magnetoabsorption resulting from exactly taking into account the electronic band spectrum

Effects related to the periodicity of the carrier dispersion relation in the reciprocal space are investigated. It is shown that, under certain conditions, magnetoabsorption in crystals exhibiting such dispersion significantly differs from the magnetoabsorption in crystals characterized by a parabolic dispersion relation for charge carriers.     

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.     

Thermal Oxidation of Polyethylene Films Containing Dispersed Copper and Amine Antioxidant

Thermal oxidation of polyethylene filled with dispersed copper and containing an amine antioxidant was studied. The concentration ranges in which the catalytic effect of the metal on the polymer oxidation or the stabilizing effect of the antioxidant prevails were determined. Under certain conditions, dispersed copper enhances the stabilizing effect of the antioxidant.     

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     

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.     

Single-electron charging spectra: from natural to artificial atoms

We present a theoretical study of the charging spectra in natural and artificial atoms. We apply a model electrostatic potential created by a homogenously charged sphere. This model potential allows for a continuous passage from the Coulomb potential of the nucleus to parabolic confinement potential of quantum dots. We consider electron systems with N=1,…,10 electrons with the use of the Hartree–Fock method. We discuss the qualitative similarities and differences between the chemical potential spectrum of electron systems bound to nucleus and confined in quantum dots.     

Reconstruction of the fine structure of an acoustic scatterer against the distorting influence of its large-scale inhomogeneities

In the ultrasonic diagnostics of small-size neoplasms of biological tissues at the earliest stage of their development, an efficient way to eliminate the distorting influence of high-contrast or large inhomogeneities of the biological medium is to apply the iterative technique. A simple approach is proposed, which makes it possible with only two iteration steps to achieve an efficient focusing of the tomograph array. At the first step, the unknown distribution of the large-scale inhomogeneities of sound velocity and absorption over the scatterer is reconstructed, where the large-scale inhomogeneities are those whose size exceeds several wavelengths. At the second step, the fine structure of the scatterer is reconstructed against the large-scale background, which can be performed with a high accuracy owing to the evaluation of the background at the first step. The possibility of simultaneous reconstruction of the large-scale and fine structures by the noniterative Grinevich-Novikov algorithm is considered as an alternative. This algorithm reconstructs in an explicit form two-dimensional refractive-absorbing acoustic scatterers of almost arbitrary shape and strength. Taking into account the effects of multiple scattering, this algorithm provides resolution of the fine structure almost as good as that achieved in reconstructing the same structure against an undistorting homogeneous background. The results of numerical simulations of both algorithms are presented.