Influence of the crystallite size on the phase transformation of yttria irradiated with swift heavy ions

The irradiation effects induced by swift heavy ions are now widely described in `bulk' materials. It is shown here that the behaviour of matter under irradiation depends on its crystalline state in the sense that a given material is all the more sensitive to swift heavy ion irradiations as the mean crystallite size L is small. The present paper relates the experimental results obtained in yttrium oxide from `in situ' X-ray diffraction measurements. Three kinds of sample have been irradiated: sintered samples (L = 1μm), non-ground powders (L = 45 nm) and ground powders (L = 28 nm). A cubic to monoclinic phase transformation appears if the electronic energy loss of the incident particle is higher than a threshold. The comparison between the different kinds of samples reveals that this phase transformation is all the easier as the mean crystallite size of the target is weak. Received 27 January 2000 and Received in final form 13 December 2000     

Bifurcation in a Nonlinear Autoparametric System Using Experimental and Numerical Investigations

Experimental and numerical investigations are carried out on anautoparametric system consisting of a composite pendulum attached to aharmonically base excited mass-spring subsystem. The dynamic behavior ofsuch a mechanical system is governed by a set of coupled nonlinearequations with periodic parameters. Particular attention is paid to thedynamic behavior of the pendulum. The periodic doubling bifurcation ofthe pendulum is determined from the semi-trivial solution of thelinearized equations using two methods: a trigonometric approximation ofthe solution and a symbolic computation of the Floquet transition matrixbased on Chebyshev polynominal expansions. The set of nonlineardifferential equations is also integrated with respect to time using afinite difference scheme and the motion of the pendulum is analyzed viaphase-plane portraits and Poincaré maps. The predicted resultsare experimentally validated through an experimental set-up equippedwith an opto-electronic set sensor that is used to measure the angulardisplacement of the pendulum. Period doubling and chaotic motions areobserved.     

Design and development of a new program for data processing of mass spectra acquired by means of a high-resolution double-focusing glow-discharge mass spectrometer

An new program has been developed and implemented for data analysis of mass spectra obtained by use of the VG9000 glow-discharge mass spectrometer. The program, designed to run in a Windows 9X environment includes several tools for import and export of data, cluster generators, etc. An automated technique for the interpretation of mass spectra is also built into the program; this enables faster and operator-independent interpretation. When major interferences or not-well defined signals are involved, the automated technique might fail to find the correct result. Therefore, a manual, VG9000 software-like, bypass is at hand. A comparison of the different techniques and programs shows, in general, comparable results. An installable version of the software is available on the university FTP-server (ftp://PLASMA-FTP.uia.ac.be/ private/imsas/).     

Decay of the compound nucleus179Au formed in the cold fusion reaction90Zr+89Y

For the compound nucleus¹⁷⁹Au formed at an excitation energy of 26 MeV in the fusion reaction⁹⁰Zr+⁸⁹Y, the energy spectra of promptly emitted protons,α particles andγ rays were measured in concidence with the evaporation residues. On the basis of the measured total decay energy, the 1p and 1α decay channels were separated from all other evaporation-residue channels. The energy spectra and absolute cross sections, together with previously measured excitation functions for various decay channels, are successfully described by statisticalmodel calculations with the Monte Carlo code CODEX.     

Nambu Structures and Integrable 1-Forms

Some years ago Moshé Flato pointed out that it would be interesting to develop Nambu's idea to generalize Hamiltonian mechanics. An interesting new formalism in that direction was proposed by L. Takhtajan. His theory gave new perspectives concerning deformation quantization, and many authors have developed its mathematical features. The purpose of this Letter is to show that this theory, at first dedicated to physics, presents a new point of view for the study of singularities of integrable 1-forms. Namely, we will prove that any integrable 1-form which vanishes at a point and has a nonzero linear part at this point is, up to multiplication by a nonvanishing function, the formal pull-back of a two-dimensional 1-form. We also obtain a classification of quadratic integrable 1-forms.     

Theory of chemical equilibrium in a lattice

The chemical equilibrium is studied for the reactionA+B?C, assuming that, initially, the particlesB form a lattice and the particlesA are statistically distributed on interstices. A mass action law is derived which defines the numbersn _A, n_B, n_C of particlesA, B,C in the chemical equilibrium assuming the initial distribution to be known. It predicts a considerably larger numbern _C of fused particlesC compared to the mass action law for the gaseous phase. The result holds for an ordinary as well as for a nuclear lattice. Its possible relevance for the production of proton-rich isotopes in the universe is discussed.     

Beta-delayed neutron radioactivity of15B

The new beta-delayed neutron emitter¹⁵B has been observed. The measured half-life is 11 ms ±1 ms and limits have been set on other decay channels: P_0n<5%, P_2n<1.5%. The beta emitter¹²Be has been separated, unambiguously identified, and its half-life has been measured to be 24±1 ms.     

Cleavable Binary Dyads: Simplifying Data Extraction and Increasing Storage Density in Digital Polymers

Digital polymers are uniform macromolecules that store monomer‐based binary sequences. Molecularly stored information is usually extracted from the polymer by a tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) measurement, in which the coded chains are fragmented to reveal each bit (i.e. basic coded monomer unit) of the sequence. Here, we show that data‐extraction can be greatly simplified by favoring the formation of MS/MS fragments containing two bits instead of one. In order to do so, digital poly(alkoxyamine phosphodiester)s, containing binary dyads in each repeat unit, were prepared by an orthogonal solid‐phase approach involving successive phosphoramidite and radical‐radical coupling steps. Three different sets of monomers were considered to build these polymers. In all cases, four coded building blocks—two hydroxy‐nitroxides and two phosphoramidite monomers—were required to build the dyads. Among the three studied monomer sets, one combination allowed synthesis of uniform sequence‐coded polymers. The resulting polymers led to clear dyad‐containing fragments in MS/MS and could therefore be efficiently decoded. Additionally, an algorithm was created to detect specific dyad fragments, thus enabling automated sequencing.     

Vapour-liquid equilibrium and critical locus curve calculations with the soave equation for hydrocarbon systems with carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide

Huron, M.-J., Dufour, G.-N. and Vidal, J., 1978. Vapour-liquid equilibrium and critical locus curve calculations with the Soave equation for hydrocarbon systems with carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. Fluid Phase Equilibria, 1: 247–265The aim of this work is to test the value of the Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state for predicting phase behaviour of mixtures. Special attention is paid to systems containing hydrogen sulphide or carbon dioxide with hydrocarbons. The properties analysed are critical loci and liquid vapour equilibria, with calculations of standard deviations for pressures and compositions. Optimum values of binary interaction parameters are proposed for these mixtures. Calculation methods to avoid trivial solutions in phase equilibria calculations and for finding critical loci with temperature extrema are described.