Electric field distribution and simulation of avalanche formation due to the passage of heavy ions in a parallel grid avalanche counter

Electric field distributions and their role in the formation of avalanche due to the passage of heavy ions in parallel grid avalanche type wire chamber detectors are evaluated using a Monte Carlo simulation. The relative merits and demerits of parallel and crossed wire grid configurations are studied. It is found that the crossed grid geometry has marginally higher gain at larger electric fields close to the avalanche region. The spatial uniformity of response in the two wire grid configurations is also compared.      

Effects of three-body atomic interaction and optical lattice on solitons in quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate

We make use of a coordinate-free approach to implement Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion for stability analysis in order to study the effects of three-body atomic recombination and lattice potential on the matter-wave bright solitons formed in Bose-Einstein condensates. We analytically demonstrate that (i) the critical number of atoms in a stable BEC soliton is just half the number of atoms in a marginally stable Townes-like soliton and (ii) an additive optical lattice potential further reduces this number by a factor of √1 − bg ₃ with g ₃ the coupling constant of the lattice potential and b = 0.7301.      

A Girsanov particle filter in nonlinear engineering dynamics

In this Letter, we propose a novel variant of the particle filter (PF) for state and parameter estimations of nonlinear engineering dynamical systems, modelled through stochastic differential equations (SDEs). The aim is to address a possible loss of accuracy in the estimates due to the discretization errors, which are inevitable during numerical integration of the SDEs. In particular, we adopt an explicit local linearization of the governing nonlinear SDEs and the resulting linearization errors in the estimates are corrected using Girsanov transformation of measures. Indeed, the linearization scheme via transformation of measures provides a weak framework for computing moments and this fits in well with any stochastic filtering strategy wherein estimates are themselves statistical moments. We presently implement the strategy using a bootstrap PF and numerically illustrate its performance for state and parameter estimations of the Duffing oscillator with linear and nonlinear measurement equations.     

Surface and interfacial structural characterization of MBE grown Si/Ge multilayers

Si/Ge multilayer structures have been grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Si (1 1 1) and (1 0 0) substrates and were characterized by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), high-depth-resolution secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and cross-section high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). A reasonably good agreement has been obtained for layer thickness, interfacial structure and diffusion between SIMS and HRTEM measurements. Epitaxial growth and crystalline nature of the individual layer have been probed using cross-sectional HRTEM and XRD measurements. Surface and interface morphological studies by AFM and HRTEM show island-like growth of both Si and Ge nanostructures.     

Ideal Gas with a Varying (Negative Absolute) Temperature: an Alternative to Dark Energy?

The present work is an attempt to investigate whether the evolutionary history of the Universe from the offset of inflation can be described by assuming the cosmic fluid to be an ideal gas with a specific gas constant but a varying negative absolute temperature (NAT). The motivation of this work is to search for an alternative to the “exotic” and “supernatural” dark energy (DE). In fact, the NAT works as an “effective quintessence” and there is need to deal neither with exotic matter like DE nor with modified gravity theories. For the sake of completeness, we release some clarifications on NATs in Section 3 of the paper.     

Universal fluctuations in orbital diamagnetism

Bohr–van Leuween theorem has attracted the notice of physicists for more than 100 years. The theorem states about the absence of magnetisation in classical systems in thermal equilibrium. In this paper, we discuss about fluctuations of magnetic moment in classical systems. In recent years, this topic has been investigated intensively and it is not free from controversy. We have considered a system consisting of a single particle moving in a plane. A magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the plane. The system is in contact with a thermal bath. We have considered three cases: (a) particle moving in a homogeneous medium, (b) particle moving in a medium with space-dependent friction and (c) particle moving in a medium with space-dependent temperature. For all the three cases, the average magnetic moment and fluctuations in magnetic moment have been calculated. Average magnetic moment saturates to a finite value in the case of free particle but goes to zero when the particle is confined by a 2D harmonic potential. Fluctuations in magnetic moment shows universal features in the presence of arbitrary friction inhomogeneity. For this case, the system reaches equilibrium asymptotically. In the case of space-dependent temperature profile, the stationary distribution is non-Gibbsian and fluctuations deviate from universal value for the bounded system only.     

Exclusive measurement of the nonmesonic weak decay of the lambda(5)He hypernucleus

We performed a coincidence measurement of two nucleons emitted from the nonmesonic weak decay of lambda(5)He formed via the 6Li(pi+, K+) reaction. The energies of the two nucleons and the pair number distributions in the opening angle between them were measured. In both np and nn pairs, we observed a clean back-to-back correlation coming from the two-body weak reactions of lambda p --> np and lambda n --> nn, respectively. The ratio of the nucleon pair numbers was N(nn)/N(np) = 0.45 +/- 0.11(stat) +/- 0.03(syst) in the kinematic region of cos theta(NN) < -0.8. Since each decay mode was exclusively detected, the measured ratio should be close to the ratio of gamma(lambda p --> np)/gamma(lambda n --> nn). The ratio is consistent with recent theoretical calculations based on the heavy meson and/or direct-quark exchange picture.     

Doubly Excited 1,3Fe States of Two-Electron Atoms under Weakly Coupled Plasma Environment *

Precise energy eigenvalues of metastable bound doubly excited $^{1,3}{\rm F}^{e}$ states originating from $2pnf$,($n=4$--6) configuration of helium-like ions $(Z=\text{2--4})$ under weakly coupled plasma (WCP) environment have been estimated within the framework of Ritz variational method. The wavefunction is expanded in explicitly correlated Hylleraas type basis set. The screened Coulomb potential is considered mimic the WCP environment. The atomic systems tend towards gradual instability and the number of excited metastable bound states reduces with increasing plasma strength. The wavelengths corresponding to $2pnf (^{1,3}{\rm F}^{e}) \rightarrow 2pn^\prime d (^{1,3}{\rm D}^{o})$ ($n=4$--6; $n^\prime=3$--6) transitions occurring between doubly excited states of plasma embedded two-electron ions are also reported.     

Mesomorphic and photophysical behaviour of 1,3,4-oxadiazole based hockey stick reactive mesogens

New hockey stick mesogens derived from 1,3,4-oxadiazole as a bent-core unit have been synthesised. The molecules resemble hockey stick shape due to the presence of two arms containing a different number of phenyl rings attached with the 1,3,4-oxadiazole bending unit. The shorter arm of the molecule consists of one phenyl ring and 4-n-alkyloxy terminal chains whereas the long arm of the molecule possesses containing two phenyl rings which are linked via imine linkage and reactive 4-n-undecenyloxy as a terminal chain. The thermal stabilities of the newly synthesised compounds were carried out by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The mesomorphic behaviour was investigated by polarising optical microscopy (POM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). All the compounds exhibit enantiotropic nematic phase along with smectic phases (SmA and SmC phases). Interestingly, the compounds with lower 4-n-alkyloxy terminal chains (n = 4 and 6) exhibit a wide range of optically isotropic DC phase. On increasing, the terminal 4-n-alkoxy chain length the DC phase disappears. The photophysical properties of the compounds were investigated in different solvents and in the solid state. It was observed that the compound exhibit absorption in UV region and emission in the green region.     

Stability indicating liquid chromatographic method for simultaneous quantification of betamethasone valerate and tazarotene in in vitro and ex vivo studies of complex nanoformulation

Low‐potency corticosteroid betamethasone valerate and vitamin‐A tazarotene are used in combination for effective treatment of psoriasis. There is no robust high‐performance liquid chromatography analytical technique available for simultaneous estimation of betamethasone valerate and tazarotene in conventional and nanocarriers based formulations. A simple, accurate, robust isocratic high‐performance liquid chromatography method was developed for simultaneous estimation of betamethasone valerate and tazarotene in topical pharmaceutical formulations. The developed method was validated as per the regulatory guidelines. The validated method was linear over the concentration range of 150–6000 ng/mL (r² > 0.999) at 239 nm wavelength. Limits of detection and quantification of two analytes were 50 and 150 ng/mL, respectively. The %relative standard deviation for intraday and interday precision was less than 2%. The method was also evaluated in the presence of forced degradation conditions. The developed method was successfully applied for in vitro and ex vivo drug release studies of in‐house designed nanoformulations.