Sub-Tc electron transfer at the Hg-HTSC/liquid-electrolyte interface

The cyclic voltammetry of ferrocene (CpFeCp) adsorbed as a monolayer of CpFeCpCO2(CH2)8SH, self-assembled onto the Hg-based high-temperature superconductor Hg0.8Re0.2Ba2Ca2Cu3O10 (Tc = 134 K), via an ultrathin (3.1 nm) Ag film, has been performed in liquid electrolyte (16:7:1 EtCl/THF/2-MeTHF; 0.2 M LiBF4) at a range of temperatures spanning the superconducting transition. Kinetic analysis based on the Marcus density-of-states theory affords standard heterogeneous rate constants, k degrees , for the ferrocene/ferricinium electron-transfer reaction. Casting these data in Arrhenius form yields a value of k degrees (273 K) = 357 s-1, which is 10-fold lower than that previously reported for the same reaction at a metal electrode in a similar electrolyte, while the reorganizational energy of 0.92 eV for the superconductor interface is very close to that for the related metal interface of 0.95 eV. There is, however, no effect of the onset of superconductivity on the electron-transfer rate for this system; the Arrhenius plot is linear through Tc. This is the first sub-Tc electrochemistry of any kind on a Hg-based superconductor and demonstrates the ease with which kinetic data can be obtained for these very high-Tc materials, opening the way for the routine study of a range of electron-transfer reactions as novel probes of the superconducting state.     

Rate measurement of D(0)-->K+pi(-)pi(0) and constraints on D(0) -- D(0) mixing

We present an observation and time-integrated rate measurement of the decay D(0)-->K(+)pi(-)pi(0) produced in 9 fb(-1) of e(+)e(-) collisions near the Upsilon(4S) resonance. The signal is inconsistent with an upward fluctuation of the background by 4.9 standard deviations. We measured the time-integrated rate of D(0)-->K(+)pi(-)pi(0) normalized to the rate of D(0)-->K(+)pi(-)pi(0) to be 0.0043(+0.0011)(-0.0010) (stat)+/-0.0007 (syst). This decay can be produced by doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decays or by the D(0) evolving into a D(0) through mixing, followed by a Cabibbo-favored decay to K(+)pi(-)pi(0). We also found the CP asymmetry A = (9(+25)(-22))% be consistent with zero.     

An intramolecular Diels-Alder approach to the synthesis of the right hand half of the ionophore antibiotic X-14547A

Starting from ethylbutyrate, an efficient synthesis of the right hand half of the antibiotic X-14547A has been achieved in which the desired five relative chiral centres were created by an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction.     

Boundedness and stability of solutions to difference equations

This paper is concerned with the qualitative behaviour of solutions to difference equations. We focus on boundedness and stability of solutions and we present a unified theory that applies both to autonomous and nonautonomous equations and to nonlinear equations as well as linear equations. Our presentation brings together new, established, and hard-to-find results from the literature and provides a theory that is both memorable and easy to apply. We show how the theoretical results given here relate to some of those in the established literature and by means of simple examples we indicate how the use of Lipschitz constants in this way can provide useful insights into the qualitative behaviour of solutions to some nonlinear problems including those arising in numerical analysis.     

Wide-angle neutron scattering studies of mixed crystals of polyethylene and deuteropolyethylene

Wide-angle neutron scattering studies have been made of a series of mixed crystal blends of polyethylene and deuterated polyethylene in the range 0.68 ≤ K = 4πλ^?1 sinθ ≤ 2.02 Å^?1. Recent calculations by Stamm have shown that regularly folded subunits of small numbers (two to ten) of stems should produce an observable modulation of the diffuse scattering pattern of such mixtures in this K range. For both melt- and solution-crystallized blends, no extra signal was observed above the background scattering level. The data are used to place an upper limit (of about four) on the number of stems that could be regularly folded in the (100) and (010) planes for these materials.     

Ab initio study of the ground and first excited state of LiAr

The intermolecular potentials for the X ²σ and A²Π states of Li… Ar were studied by a variety of multiconfiguration, single-configuration, and perturbation methods (CASPT 2). The A ²Π excited state was calculated to have a well depth of 811 cm^?1 at an internuclear separation of 2.59 Å, in excellent agreement with the 810 cm^?1 derived from experimental data. A smaller well of 77 cm^?1 was found for the X ²σ ground state at an intermolecular separation of 4.8 Å. These results are in better agreement with experimental results than were the previously reported pseudopotential calculations. The comparison of CI calculation with the CAPST 2 results shows that the latter is able to give good results for interacting metal–rare gas systems. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The polarised beam asymmetry in photoproduction of eta mesons from protons at 2.5 GeV and 3.0 GeV

Measurements of the polarised beam asymmetry parameter Σ for eta photoproduction from protons, have been carried out at incident energies of 2.5 GeV and 3.0 GeV, and for various t-values between ?0.2 (GeV/c)² and ?1.2 (GeV/c)². The values of Σ are close to +1 for values of |t| less than 0.7 (GeV/c)², showing that there can be little contribution from unnatural parity exchange in any Regge exchange model of the process, in disagreement with present theories. Differential cross sections for the process werre also measured, and are consistent with those from other experiments.