Enhanced electron–ion recombination in ion storage rings

We review recent advances in the understanding of the enhanced electron–ion recombination observed in storage ring experiments. The measured recombination rates show a strong enhancement relative to what the standard radiative recombination rates predict. A transient motional electric field is induced in the merging region of an electron and an ion beam in the electron cooler. This induced field opens an additional pathway for free-bound transitions of electrons. The formed Rydberg states can be radiatively stabilized and contribute to the measured rate. We show that this “field induced recombination” (FIR) explains the gap previously observed between measurements and the standard radiative recombination rate.     

Evaluation of compatibility in polymer blend systems by simultaneous DSC-FTIR measurement

The concept of crystallization dynamics method evaluating the miscibility of binary blend system including crystalline component was proposed. Three characteristic rates, nucleation, crystal growth rates (N*, G*) and growth rate of conformation (G _c*) were used to evaluate the miscibility of PVDF/at-PMMA and PVDF/iso-PMMA by the simultaneous DSC-FTIR. N*, G* and G _c* depended remarkably on both temperature and blend fraction (ϕ_PMMA) for PVDF/at-PMMA system, which indicated the miscible system. PVDF/iso-PMMA showed small ϕ_PMMA dependency of N*, G* and G _c*, was estimated the immiscible system. The ΔT/T _m⁰ values, corresponding to Gibbs energy required to attend the constant G* and G _c*, evaluated from G* and G _c* showed the good linear relationships with different slope. The experimental results suggested that the concentration fluctuation existed in PVDF/iso-PMMA system.     

Basic study of the gelation of dimethacrylate‐type crosslinking agents

An investigation was made of the gelation of dimethacrylate‐type crosslinking agents in view of an application for separation media. The study mainly centered on a crosslinking agent, glycerol dimethacrylate (GDMA), which is relatively hydrophilic because of a hydroxyl group in the middle of its structure. The gelation of GDMA was compared with that of other hydrophobic crosslinking agents such as ethylene glycol dimethacrylate and 1,6‐hexanediol dimethacrylate. The diluents used in the study were toluene, toluene with methanol, and cyclohexanol. The gelation was observed in real time with a charge coupled device camera and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Also, the separated dry gels were extensively characterized with scanning electron microscopy, BET (N₂ absorption and desorption isotherm), and Fourier transform infrared. DLS analysis showed a stronger molecular interaction of GDMA gelation in toluene, whereas this interaction was much weaker in an alcoholic solvent such as toluene with methanol or cyclohexanol. This indicated that GDMA gelation might proceed through hydrogen bonding as well as a crosslinking reaction of vinyl groups. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 949–958, 2006     

Chemically modified proton‐conducting membranes based on sulfonated polyimides: Improved water stability and fuel‐cell performance

A series of branched/crosslinked sulfonated polyimide (B/C‐SPI) membranes were prepared and evaluated as proton‐conducting ionomers based on the new concept of in situ crosslinking from sulfonated polyimide (SPI) oligomers and triamine monomers. Chemical branching and crosslinking in SPI oligomers with 1,3,5‐tris(4‐aminophenoxy)benzene as a crosslinker gave the polymer membranes very good water stability and mechanical properties under an accelerated aging treatment in water at 130 °C, despite their high ion‐exchange capacity (2.2–2.6 mequiv g^?1). The resulting polymer electrolytes displayed high proton conductivities of 0.2–0.3 S cm^?1 at 120 °C in water and reasonably high conductivities of 0.02–0.03 S cm^?1 at 50% relative humidity. In a single H₂/O₂ fuel‐cell system at 90 °C, they exhibited high fuel‐cell performances comparable to those of Nafion 112. The B/C‐SPI membranes also displayed good performances in a direct methanol fuel cell with methanol concentrations as high as 50 wt % that were superior to those of Nafion 112. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 3751–3762, 2006     

Simultaneous imaging of the structure and fluorescence of a supramolecular nanostructure formed by the coupling of π‐conjugated polymer chains in the intermolecular interaction

We fabricated a micrometer‐long supramolecular chain in which π‐conjugated polyrotaxane was coupled. A new experimental setup was designed and constructed, and the simultaneous direct imaging of the structure and fluorescent function was achieved. Furthermore, we identified the formation of a polymer intertwined network and observed novel fluorescence due to a long‐range interaction via this intertwined network over a distance of 5 μm or more without quenching over 15 min in the near field. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 801–809, 2006     

QCD perturbation theory in the temporal gauge

In this paper we present a non-trivial check of the consistency of the quantization of a gauge theory with fermions (QCD) in the temporal gauge. We use the approach based on the finite time Feynman propagation kernel, in which the Gauss law is imposed as a constraint on the states by means of a functional integration over all the time independent gauge transformations acting on the boundary values of the fields. We spell out in detail the “Feynman rules” when fermions are present and we compute, as an example, the gauge invariant correlation function $$\begin{gathered} G(t) = \left\langle {\bar \psi (0,t)(\gamma _5 \gamma _0 )\frac{{1 - \gamma _0 }}{2}P} \right. \hfill \\ \left. { \cdot \exp \left( {ig\int\limits_0^t {A_0 (0,t')dt'} } \right)(\gamma _5 \gamma _0 )^ + (0,0)} \right\rangle \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$ up to orderg ², obtaining the expected result.