Binary theory of antiproton stopping

Binary theory of electronic stopping, developed recently with the aim of quantifying stopping forces on swift heavy ions, has been applied to antiproton stopping. Essential ingredients in the theory are inverse-Bloch and shell corrections. The numerical input consists of the excitation spectrum of the stopping material, characterized by bundled oscillator strengths extracted from tabulated optical properties. Predicted stopping forces for eight solid materials agree well with experimental data, in particular for Si where measurements span over two decades of projectile energy. Large discrepancies were found with stopping data for helium extracted from annihilation time measurements. Received 22 February 2001     

Exact thought in a demented time: Karl menger and his viennese mathematical colloquium

This column is a forum for discussion of mathematical communities throughout the world, and through all time. Our definition of “mathematical community” is the broadest. We include “schools” of mathematics, circles of correspondence, mathematical societies, student organizations, and informal communities of cardinality greater than one. What we say about the communities is just as unrestricted. We welcome contributions from mathematicians of all kinds and in all places, and also from scientists, historians, anthropologists, and others.     

Sputtering and backscattering of keV light ions bombarding random targets

The fission fragment fluence required to render CaUO₄, Na₂U₂O₄, MgUO₄, Sr₂U₃O₁₁ and u₃O₈ x-ray amorphous was deduced as ～5 × 10¹⁵ events cm³. Significant annealing of the structural damage occurred in the 300–-500°C range.     

On the reflection coefficient of keV heavy-ion beams from solid targets

Measurements of the reflected fractions of sodium, potassium, and krypton ions impinging on polycrystalline silver and gold and amorphous germanium targets have been made at medium keV energies. The reflected fraction depends strongly on mass ratio and weakly on energy. Previous calculations of ion reflection (based on random slowing-down by elastic collisions in an infinite medium) have been extended. Corrections to the calculated values due to electronic stopping and surface effects have been estimated. Agreement between measurements and calculations is satisfactory.     

Generic shape of multichromatic resonance peaks

The European Physical Journal B - Recent experiments with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice have realized cavity-mediated long-range interaction and observed the emergence of a supersolid phase...     

Bohr did not make an elementary blunder

It is shown that a recent attempt to disprove the scaling properties of the Bohr stopping formula by molecular-dynamics simulation is based on a misreading. The proposed generalized scaling law is shown to be incorrect.     

Enhancing the Peroxygenase Activity of a Cofactor-Independent Peroxyzyme by Directed Evolution Enabling Gram-Scale Epoxide Synthesis

Peroxygenases selectively incorporate oxygen into organic molecules making use of the environmentally friendly oxidant H₂O₂ with water being the sole by-product. These biocatalysts can provide ‘green’ routes for the synthesis of enantioenriched epoxides, which are fundamental intermediates in the production of pharmaceuticals. The peroxyzyme 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT), catalysing the epoxidation of a variety of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes with H₂O₂, is outstanding because of its independence from any cost-intensive cofactor. However, its low-level peroxygenase activity and the decrease in the enantiomeric excess of the corresponding α,β-epoxy-aldehydes under preparative-scale conditions is limiting the potential of 4-OT. Herein we report the directed evolution of a tandem-fused 4-OT variant, which showed an ∼150-fold enhanced peroxygenase activity compared to 4-OT wild type, enabling the synthesis of α,β-epoxy-aldehydes in milligram- and gram-scale with high enantiopurity (up to 98 % ee) and excellent conversions. This engineered cofactor-independent peroxyzyme can provide new opportunities for the eco-friendly and practical synthesis of enantioenriched epoxides at large scale.     

Period doubling in quasi-one-dimensional systems : A nonadiabatic approach

In this article we propose a new approach to the electron-phonon problem in partially filled bands. With the help of the ‘rotating wave approximation’ we derive a reduced hamiltonian that can partially be diagonalized analytically in a many-particle basis. Structurally different many-particle states show up. While in the conventional adiabatic treatment of quasi-one-dimensional systems already an arbitrary small electron-phonon coupling can lead to a Peierls-type distortion, within the here proposed formalism we may conclude that a critical coupling strength has to be overcome for an energy gap above the highest occupied state to occur.     

A note on evaporation from heated spikes

We have investigated the effect of heat loss through evaporation on the surface temperature profile and the evaporation yield of an ion-induced spike. We derive a three-dimensional extension of a nonlinear integral equation first found by Mann and Wolf to describe the temperature profile in a semiinfinite medium in the presence of heat loss through the surface. The equation has been solved by perturbation expansion in powers of the evaporation rate. For heavy-ion induced, cylindrical elastic-collision spikes, noticeable but moderate corrections are found to evaporation yields estimated previously by neglecting heat loss due to evaporation. These results are relevant mainly to sputtering of metals by heavy atomic and molecular ion bombardment. Comments are also made on sputting of insulators both by heavy keV ions and by ionizing particles. Expressions for an effective sputter time and sputter area are derived for cylindrical geometry; both quantities turn out independent of the initial spike temperature. The sputter radius is normally greater than the depth of the crater formed; we conclude that the influence of crater formation on the evaporation yield is normally negligible.On leave from Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität, D-3300 Braunschweig, Fed. Rep. Germany