Carbon diffusion between the volume and surface of (100) molybdenum

The diffusion of carbon atoms between the volume and the surface of (100) molybdenum is directly studied at temperatures between 1400 and 2000 K (i.e., at process temperatures) for the first time. The balance of carbon atoms in the system is determined. The difference in the activation energies of carbon dissolution and precipitation, ΔE=E s 1-E1s, is found for the case when the diffusion fluxes of dissolved and precipitated carbon atoms are in equilibrium. This difference defines the enrichment of the surface by carbon relative to the bulk. The experimentally found activation energy of carbon dissolution is Es1=3.9 eV. The activation energy of carbon precipitation is estimated at E 1 s=1.9 eV. The latter value is close to the energy of bulk diffusion of carbon in molybdenum.     

Metrics of Homogeneous Spaces Admitting (3.1)-Type Complete Sets

A classification has been obtained for spaces which admit complete sets of motion integrals of the (3.1)-type and are spatially homogeneous. The metrics and Killing vectors have been found in explicit form for all types of these spaces. A classification by Bianchi is given for the spaces obtained.     

Barrier-free intermolecular proton transfer in the uracil-glycine complex induced by excess electron attachment

The photoelectron spectra (PES) of anions of uracil-glycine and uracil-phenylalanine complexes reveal broad features with maxima at 1.8 and 2.0 eV. The results of ab initio density functional B3LYP and second order M?ller-Plesset theory calculations indicate that the excess electron occupies a π^* orbital localized on uracil. The excess electron attachment to the complex can induce a barrier-free proton transfer (BFPT) from the carboxylic group of glycine to the O8 atom of uracil. As a result, the four most stable structures of the anion of uracil-glycine complex can be characterized as the neutral radical of hydrogenated uracil solvated by the anion of deprotonated glycine. The similarity between the PES spectra for the uracil complexes with glycine and phenylalanine suggests that the BFPT is also operative in the case of the latter anionic species. The BFPT to the O8 atom of uracil may be related to the damage of nucleic acid bases by low energy electrons because the O8 atom is involved in a hydrogen bond with adenine in the standard Watson-Crick pairing scheme. Received 6 April 2002 Published online 13 September 2002     

Controlling global stochasticity of Hamiltonian systems by nonlinear perturbation

A method of controlling global stochasticity in Hamiltonian systems by applying nonlinear perturbation is proposed. With the well-known standard map we demonstrate that this control method can convert global stochasticity into regular motion in a wide chaotic region for arbitrary initial condition, in which the control signal remains very weak after a few kicks. The system in which chaos has been controlled approximates to the original Hamiltonian system, and this approach appears robust against small external noise. The mechanism underlying this high control efficiency is intuitively explained. Received 15 January 2002 Published online 6 June 2002     

Tunneling and EPR linewidths due to dislocations in Mn acetate

We compute the width and shape of the EPR and tunneling resonances due to dislocations in Mn₁₂ acetate crystals. Uncorrelated dislocations produce the Gaussian shape of resonances while dislocations bound in pairs produce the Lorentzian shape. We stress that the uniaxial spin Hamiltonian together with crystal defects can explain the totality of experimental data on Mn₁₂. Received 2 August 2001 / Received in final form 15 March 2002 Published online 17 September 2002     

Reception of a Signal with Unknown Duration

The maximum likely and optimal (Bayesian) algorithms for detecting an arbitrary-shaped signal observed against the background of Gaussian white noise and for measuring the duration are synthesized. Exact expressions for the characteristics of the maximum likely algorithms are found. The characteristics of the Bayesian algorithms are obtained using computer simulations.     

Transfructosylation of rebaudioside A (a sweet glycoside of Stevia leaves) with Microbacterium beta-fructofuranosidase.

It was found that a beta-fructofuranosidase produced by Microbacterium sp. H-1 has potent trans-beta-fructofuranosylation activity from sucrose (donor). By means of this enzyme system, rebaudioside A (RA), the second major sweet steviol glycoside of the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, was subjected to transfructosylation, affording a mono-beta-fructofuranosylated product (RA-F) in a high yield. The structure of RA-F was elucidated as beta-D-fructofuranosyl-(2----6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl ester of steviol-13-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1----2)]- [beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1----3)]-beta-D-glucopyranoside. Some improvement in the quality of sweetness was observed for RA-F.     

Euler characteristic and related measures for random geometric sets

By an elementary calculation we obtain the exact mean values of Minkowksi functionals for a standard model of percolating sets. In particular, a recurrence theorem for the mean Euler characteristic recently put forward is shown to be incorrect. Related previous mathematical work is mentioned. We also conjecture bounds for the threshold density of continuum percolation, which are associated with the Euler characteristic.     

Resonances and Gamow States in Non-Local Potentials

For a large class of non-local, non separable potentials with non-compact support, the solution of the radial integrodifferential equation may be reduced to the solution of a homogeneous linear integral equation of Fredholm type with a quadratically integrable kernel. In this way we derive expansions of the wave functions and the Green's function of the Schrödinger equation with a non-local potential in terms of bound states, resonant states and a continuum of scattering functions with complex wave number. The rules of normalization, orthogonality and completeness satisfied by the eigenstates of the Schrödinger equation belonging to complex eigenvalues with Im E_n < 0, (Gamow or resonant states) are also derived. Finally, by means of a realistic example, it is shown how to use these expansions to exhibit the resonant behaviour of the differential cross section. Explicit expressions for the transition amplitudes and the partial widths in terms of expectation values of operators computed with Gamow functions are given.     

Dynamic polarization of lipid bilayers as a special case in the electrochemistry of liquid/liquid interfaces

Dynamically obtained current/voltage curves of bilayer lipid membranes partitioning a solution of lipophilic ions are compared with the results of the type expected in a voltammetry experiment involving ionic transport across a liquid/liquid interface. Lipophilic ions yielding “voltammograms” analogous to reversible and irreversible voltammograms (in conventional electrochemical systems) are reported. Also reported are examples of ions which yield what may be analogous to a masked response, a phenomenon known in the literature of liquid/liquid interfaces. Although the behavior of the two systems is similar, there exist differences in the interpretation of the voltammograms and suggestions are offered for an energetic and mechanistic interpretation of the membrane voltammogram.