Effect of Pr-Ca substitution on the transport and magnetic behavior of LaMnO3 perovskite

The effect of simultaneous substitution of a fluctuating cation and a divalent cation in LaMnO₃ perovskite modifies the properties of the material to exhibit large valence colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) effect. A good example of these properties is (La_1−2x Pr _x Ca _x )MnO₃ (LPCMO) type CMR material. In this communication it is reported that, with the increase in x (for x=0.1, 0.15, 0.2), the T _c varies between 100 and 120 K with improvisation in metal-insulator transition. Interestingly, resistance increases with x from few hundred ohms to few kilo ohms with corresponding decrease in the unit cell volume. The results of the studies using X-ray diffraction (XRD), electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance and ac susceptibility measurements on LPCMO samples for understanding the structural, transport and magnetic properties are discussed in detail.     

Perfect fluid spacetimes admitting curvature collineations

Some basic concepts about curvature collineations are reviewed and the existing results on this topic are applied to the case of perfect fluids, giving a characterization of those amongst them which admit proper curvature collineations.     

Classical physics and Penrose's thesis

We expose and discussPenrose's thesis: Nature produces harnessable noncomputable processes, but none at the classical level. We then suggest a partial counterexample to it, based on aGedanken experiment about an undecidable family of integrable Hamiltonian systems that could lead to a sort of idealized solution to the Halting problem for Turing machines.1. Partially supported by a Fulbright/CNP_q-Brazil grant. Permanent address after November 5, 1990: Center for the Study of Mathematical Theories of Communication, IDEA/School of Communications, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Av. Pasteur 250, 22290 Rio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil.     

Self-focusing of a Gaussian laser beam reflected from a thermocapillary liquid surface

Self-focusing of laser radiation reflected from the surface of liquid heavy hydrocarbons is reported. Close agreement of experimental data with theoretical previsions suggests that thermocapillarity is the main physical phenomenon involved. The focus appears at 40 cm of the sample surface after 1 s of irradiation at 350 mW.     

Adding Prior Information in FWI through Relative Entropy

Full waveform inversion is an advantageous technique for obtaining high-resolution subsurface information. In the petroleum industry, mainly in reservoir characterisation, it is common to use information from wells as previous information to decrease the ambiguity of the obtained results. For this, we propose adding a relative entropy term to the formalism of the full waveform inversion. In this context, entropy will be just a nomenclature for regularisation and will have the role of helping the converge to the global minimum. The application of entropy in inverse problems usually involves formulating the problem, so that it is possible to use statistical concepts. To avoid this step, we propose a deterministic application to the full waveform inversion. We will discuss some aspects of relative entropy and show three different ways of using them to add prior information through entropy in the inverse problem. We use a dynamic weighting scheme to add prior information through entropy. The idea is that the prior information can help to find the path of the global minimum at the beginning of the inversion process. In all cases, the prior information can be incorporated very quickly into the full waveform inversion and lead the inversion to the desired solution. When we include the logarithmic weighting that constitutes entropy to the inverse problem, we will suppress the low-intensity ripples and sharpen the point events. Thus, the addition of entropy relative to full waveform inversion can provide a result with better resolution. In regions where salt is present in the BP 2004 model, we obtained a significant improvement by adding prior information through the relative entropy for synthetic data. We will show that the prior information added through entropy in full-waveform inversion formalism will prove to be a way to avoid local minimums.     

Experimental NMR and MS study of benzoylguanidines. Investigation of E/Z isomerism

Molecules containing the guanidinic nuclei possess several pharmacological applications, and knowing the preferred isomers of a potential drug is important to understand the way it operates pharmacologically. Benzoylguanidines were synthesized in satisfactory to good yields and characterized by NMR, Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (ESI‐MS) and Fourrier Transform InfraRed Spectroscopy techniques (FTIR). E/Z isomerism of the guanidines was studied and confirmed by NMR analysis in solution (¹H‐¹³C Heteronuclear Single Quantum Coherence (HSQC) and Heteronuclear Multiple‐Bond Correlation (HMBC), ¹H‐¹⁵N HMBC, ¹H‐¹H Correlation Spectroscopy (COSY) and Nuclear Overhauser Effect Spectroscopy (NOESY) experiments) at low temperatures. Compounds with p‐Cl and p‐Br aniline moiety exist mainly as Z isomer with a small proportion of E isomer, whereas compounds with p‐NO2 moiety showed a decrease in proportion of isomer Z. The results are important for the application of these molecules as enzymatic inhibitors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermodynamic and magnetic properties of LaSn3

Thermal expansion coefficient between 77 and 900K, isothermal compressibility in the 0–80 Kbar pressure range, magnetic susceptibility between 77 and 1300 K and heat capacity at constant pressure in the 20–300 K temperature range were determined for the LaSn₃ compound. From the experimental data, the specific heat at constant volume was calculated and the thermal dependence of the Debye's parameter θ_D was obtained. The electron contribution to the heat capacity was also determined from the high temperature data. The magnetic properties confirm that there is no evidence of the existence of a magnetic moment localized on La atoms, in contrast with a previous report and in agreement with the general assumptions. A little anomaly found in the expansion coefficient, in the isothermal compressibility and in the specific heat is discussed in terms of a lattice order-disorder phenomenon.     

57Fe Mössbauer investigation of the ternary hydride Pd3FeHx

Ordered alloys of Pd₃Fe are shown to readily absorbe hydrogen through electrolytic loading. The resultant ternary hydride phase is observed to retain the fcc structure of Pd₃Fe with approximately the same lattice constant. The ⁵⁷Fe hyperfine field determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy is found to be 30% smaller in the hydride compared to Pd₃Fe. The reduction appears to be associated with a perturbation of the Pd moment by hydrogen. The results suggest the occupation of one type of interstitial site in the structure. The absence of the site in disordered Pd₃Fe would explain the much smaller hydrogen capacity observed for this alloy.     

The phase transition in the fully frustrated XY model as a percolation problem

The fully frustrated planar rotator and fully frustrated XY models in two dimensions have two phase transitions: one of the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless type and other in the Ising universality class. We use Monte Carlo simulation to study both models. We fix our attention in the Ising-like transition, which we show can be understood as a percolation transition. We obtain the critical temperature as well as the critical exponents of the mean cluster size, γ, and Fisher's exponent τ. The critical temperature agree very well with other calculations. We found that the critical exponents are smaller than in the pure two-dimensional percolation case. We interpret this as due to the long-range interaction between vortex and antivortex.