Exploration of the Crystal Structure and Thermal and Spectroscopic Properties of Monoclinic Praseodymium Sulfate Pr2(SO4)3

Praseodymium sulfate was obtained by the precipitation method and the crystal structure was determined by Rietveld analysis. Pr₂(SO₄)₃ is crystallized in the monoclinic structure, space group C2/c, with cell parameters a = 21.6052 (4), b = 6.7237 (1) and c = 6.9777 (1) Å, β = 107.9148 (7)°, Z = 4, V = 964.48 (3) ų (T = 150 °C). The thermal expansion of Pr₂(SO₄)₃ is strongly anisotropic. As was obtained by XRD measurements, all cell parameters are increased on heating. However, due to a strong increase of the monoclinic angle β, there is a direction of negative thermal expansion. In the argon atmosphere, Pr₂(SO₄)₃ is stable in the temperature range of T = 30–870 °C. The kinetics of the thermal decomposition process of praseodymium sulfate octahydrate Pr₂(SO₄)₃·8H₂O was studied as well. The vibrational properties of Pr₂(SO₄)₃ were examined by Raman and Fourier-transform infrared absorption spectroscopy methods. The band gap structure of Pr₂(SO₄)₃ was evaluated by ab initio calculations, and it was found that the valence band top is dominated by the p electrons of oxygen ions, while the conduction band bottom is formed by the d electrons of Pr³⁺ ions. The exact position of ZPL is determined via PL and PLE spectra at 77 K to be at 481 nm, and that enabled a correct assignment of luminescent bands. The maximum luminescent band in Pr₂(SO₄)₃ belongs to the ³P₀ → ³F₂ transition at 640 nm.     

Working group report: Collider Physics

This is summary of the activities of the working group on collider physics in the IXth Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-9) held at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India in January 2006. Some of the work subsequently done on these problems by the subgroups formed during the workshop is included in this report.     

Aharonov-Bohm effect as a probe of interaction between magnetic impurities

We study the effects of the RKKY interaction between magnetic impurities on the mesoscopic conductance fluctuations of a metal ring with dilute magnetic impurities. At sufficiently low temperatures and strong magnetic fields, the loss of electron coherence occurs mainly due to the scattering off rare pairs of strongly coupled magnetic impurities. We establish a relation between the dephasing rate and the distribution function of the exchange interaction within such pairs. In the case of the RKKY exchange interaction, this rate exhibits 1/B(2) behavior in strong magnetic fields. We demonstrate that the Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations may be used as a probe of the distribution function of the exchange interaction between magnetic impurities in metals.     

Magnetic moments of spherical nuclei: Status of the problem and unsolved issues

Dipole magnetic moments of more than 100 odd spherical nuclei are calculated within the theory of finite Fermi systems. For the effective interaction of nucleons within the theory of finite Fermi systems, use is made of a version that takes into account nuclear-medium-modified amplitudes for the exchange of one pion and one rho meson. A new tensor local charge ζ _t is incorporated in the theory of finite Fermi systems in addition to the known orbital (ζ _l ) and spin (ζ _s ) local charges. Good agreement with experimental data, at a level of 0.1 to 0.2μ _N , is obtained for the overwhelming majority of the nuclei considered here. Several cases of a significant discrepancy with experimental data, at a level of 0.3 to 0.5μ _N , are revealed. Possibilities for removing these discrepancies are discussed. A detailed comparison with known results obtained within the multiparticle shell model is performed for 2p-to 1f-shell nuclei. Cases where the standard theory of finite Fermi systems must be extended by taking into account multiparticle configurations are found. Magnetic moments are analyzed for a number of long isotopic chains. Several new experimental values of magnetic moments for copper isotopes far from the beta-stability valleys are known. For the example of the copper-isotope chain, it is shown how the emergence of a deformation in the ground state of a nucleus can be revealed on the basis of a systematic analysis of magnetic moments.     

Effects produced by metal-coated near-field probes on the performance of silicon waveguides and resonators

We study the effects of metal-coated fiber near-field probes on the performance of nanophotonic devices. Employing a heterodyne near-field scanning optical microscope and analyzing transmission characteristics, we find that a metal-coated probe can typically introduce a 3 dB intensity loss and a 0.2 rad phase shift during characterization of a straight waveguide made in a silicon-on-insulator system. In resonant nanophotonic structures such as a 5 mum radius microring resonator, we demonstrate that the probe induces a 1 nm shift in resonant wavelength and decreases the resonator quality factor, Q, from 1100 to 480.     

Algebro-Geometric Approach in the Theory of Integrable Hydrodynamic Type Systems

The algebro-geometric approach for integrability of semi-Hamiltonian hydrodynamic type systems is presented. The class of symmetric hydrodynamic type systems is defined and the calculation of the associated Riemann surfaces is greatly simplified for this class. Many interesting and physically motivated examples are investigated.     

New Proof of the Cheeger–Müller Theorem

We present a short analytic proof of the equality between the analytic and combinatorialtorsion. We use the same approach as in the proof given by Burghelea, Friedlander andKappeler, but avoid using the difficult Mayer-Vietoris type formula for the determinantsof elliptic operators. Instead, we provide a direct way of analyzing the behaviour of thedeterminant of the Witten deformation of the Laplacian. In particular, we show that thisdeterminant can be written as a sum of two terms, one of which has an asymptoticexpansion with computable coefficients and the other is very simple (no zeta-functionregularization is involved in its definition).