Cosmic rays as a new instrument of seismological studies

The state of the art of the short-termearthquake prediction problemis considered. A new method for monitoring the 3D stress state in the earthquake-prone zone using high-energy muons in cosmic rays and simultaneous measurements of acoustic and seismic signals in the frequency range from 1 Hz to 1–2 kHz is proposed. To implement this method, muons should be detected simultaneously with extensive air showers in an area of several square kilometers.     

Calculations in exceptional groups over rings

In the present paper, we discuss a major project whose goal is to develop theoretical background and working algorithms for calculations in exceptional Chevalley groups over commutative rings. We recall some basic facts concerning calculations in groups over fields, and indicate complications arising in the ring case. Elementary calculations as such are no longer conclusive. We describe the basics of calculations with elements of exceptional groups in their minimal representations, which allow one to reduce calculations in the group itself to calculations in subgroups of smaller rank. For all practical purposes, such calculations are much more efficient than localization methods. Bibliography: 147 titles.     

Electricoswitchable bonding of metal ions and complexes by calixarenes

The results of authors on designing electroswitchable supramolecular systems based on calix[4]arenes, calix[4]resorcinols, and transition metal ions and complexes are summarized. We consider systems in which the switching is performed owing to electrochemical reactions both of groups grafted to the macrocycle and bound substrates. Examples of electrochemically switchable luminescence are given.     

Structural and magnetic ordering in nanoparticles of complex 3<Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>- and 4<Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>-element oxides in germanate glass

Germanate glasses doped simultaneously with Fe and rare earth elements Gd, Tb, Dy, and Ho in concentrations of several percent have been investigated. It is shown that the phase state of paramagnetic elements changes from isolated ions and small clusters in the initial glass to crystalline magnetic nanoparticles in the samples subjected to heat treatments. The field dependences of the magnetization of such samples are characterized by magnetic saturation in fields of about 1 kOe and large Faraday rotation in the near-IR region (up to 10 deg/cm in the range from 700 to 800 nm).     

New possibilities of X-ray nanocrystallography of biological macromolecules based on X-ray free-electron lasers

X-ray serial nanocrystallography is a new technique for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules from data on the diffraction of ultrashort pulses generated by X-ray free-electron lasers. The maximum achievable resolution for a set of experimental data as a function of the sample sizes and parameters of the equipment is estimated based on simulations of the diffraction process with allowance for changes in the electronic structure of the atoms of the sample under the influence of X-rays. Estimates show that nanocrystallography greatly enhances the possibilities of X-ray analysis, reducing the requirements for the minimum permitted size of the crystals and enabling to explore poorly crystallizable molecular objects, such as many membrane proteins and complexes of macromolecules.     

Suppression of the spectral selectivity of two-layer phase-relief diffraction structures

Optics and Spectroscopy - The method and results of studying the effect of relief depth on the attainable degree of reducing the spectral selectivity of two-layer diffraction structures based on...     

The ScopeShell graphic interface: Support for computational experiments and data visualization

We consider problems of the visualization and automation of routine tasks that arise in the process of a computational experiment. We describe ScopeShell, a state-of-the-art universal platform independent graphic interface for computational codes that includes data visualization and the monitoring of calculations on distributed computing systems. We describe the concept behind ScopeShell, along with the interface’s functionality and methods of application. The ScopeShell system is used to support computational experiments in the field of controlled thermonuclear fusion. The system considerably increases the efficiency of research requiring the application of voluminous computer codes.     

To the application of the emission Mössbauer and positron annihilation spectroscopies for detection of carcinogens

Being the main cause of cancer, almost all chemical carcinogens are strong electrophiles, that is, they have a high affinity for the electron. We have shown that positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) is able to detect chemical carcinogens by their inhibition of positronium (Ps) formation in liquid media. Electrophilic carcinogens intercept thermalized track electrons, which are precursors of Ps, and as a result, when they are present Ps atom does not practically form. Available biophysical data seemingly indicate that frozen solutions model better an intracellular medium than the liquid ones. So it is reasonable to use emission Mössbauer spectroscopy (EMS) to detect chemical carcinogens, measuring the yield of ⁵⁷Fe²⁺ions formed in reactions of Auger electrons and other secondary electrons they produced with ⁵⁷Fe³⁺. These reactions are similar to the Ps formation process in the terminal part the positron track: e⁺+ e^? =>Ps. So EMS and PALS are complementary methods for detection of carcinogenic compounds.     

Relaxation and convexity of functionals with pointwise nonlocality

It is shown that the relaxation of the integral functional involving argument deviations

in weak topology of a Lebesgue space (where and are standard measure spaces, the latter with nonatomic measure), coincides with its convexification whenever the matrix of measurable functions : satisfies the special condition, called unifiability, which can be regarded as collective nonergodicity or commensurability property, and is automatically satisfied only if . If, however, either 1$"> or 1$">, then it is shown that as opposed to the classical case without argument deviations, for nonunifiable function matrix one can always construct an integrand so that the functional itself is already weakly lower semicontinuous but not convex.

     

Direct evidence for two-band superconductivity in MgB2 single crystals from directional point-contact spectroscopy in magnetic fields

We present the results of the first directional point-contact spectroscopy experiments in high-quality MgB2 single crystals. Because of the directionality of the current injection into the samples, the application of a magnetic field allowed us to separate the contributions of the sigma and pi bands to the total conductance of our point contacts. By using this technique, we were able to obtain the temperature dependency of each gap independent of the other. The consequent, strong reduction of the error on the value of the gap amplitude as a function of temperature allows a stricter test of the predictions of the two-band model for MgB2.