Studies of the {\boldsymbol{\bar{K}}}\boldsymbol{N} interaction at DAΦNE

AMADEUS is an experiment planned to be performed at the DAΦNE e⁺e^? collider of the Frascati National Laboratories (Italy) of INFN, to investigate the antikaon-nuclei interaction at low energies. AMADEUS will perform, for the first time, full-acceptance studies of antikaon interaction in light nuclei, including a complete experimental program for the case of the kaonic nuclear clusters. The study of the absorption of antikaon by the nucleus will provide information concerning the $\bar{K}N$ interaction and the modification of the kaon mass in the nuclear medium. The experiment is being preceded by the study of the hadronic interactions of K^? in the ⁴He of the drift chamber from the KLOE experiment data.     

First measurement of kaonic helium-3 X-rays

The first observation of the kaonic (3)He 3d→2p transition was made, using slow K- mesons stopped in a gaseous (3)He target. The kaonic atom X-rays were detected with large-area silicon drift detectors using the timing information of the K+K- pairs of ?-meson decays produced by the DAΦNE e+e- collider. The strong interaction shift of the kaonic (3)He 2p state was determined to be -2±2(stat)±4(syst) eV.     

MALDI-TOF and MALDI-FTICR imaging mass spectrometry of methamphetamine incorporated into hair

A new approach is described for imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) of methamphetamine (MA) incorporated into human hair using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-time-of-flight (TOF) and MALDI-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR). A longitudinal section of a lengthwise manually-cut single human hair shaft from a chronic MA user was directly analyzed by MALDI-TOF-IMS after deposited with α-Cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid matrix. A barcode-like image, which was most probably generated with repeated intakes of MA, was for the first time obtained by monitoring MA-specific product ion in the selected reaction monitoring mode. Laser beam scan lengthwise-cut hair shafts gave only poor mass spectra of MA, probably due to the loss of MA and/or the thermal denaturation of hair. The identity of MA detected in hair was further confirmed by MALDI-FTICR mass spectrometry. A combination with ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry by FTICR provided indisputable identification of MA. The MALDI-FTICR-IMS of another hair shaft from the same MA user also provided a barcode-like image by monitoring the protonated molecule of MA with ultra-high resolution. The two barcode-like images exhibited a close resemblance. Thus, MALDI-IMS can offer a new perspective: 'imaging hair analyses for drugs'.     

Inhomogeneity of local temperature in small clusters in microcanonical equilibrium

Overall homogeneity of temperature is a condition for thermal equilibrium, but, as is demonstrated by classical molecular dynamics simulations, the local temperatures of atoms in small, isolated crystalline clusters in microcanonical equilibrium are not uniform. The effective temperature determined from individual atomic velocity decreases with distance from the cluster center. It is argued that these effects are due to the conservation of angular and translational momentum. A general microcanonical expression is derived for the spatial dependence of the statistics of the kinetic energies of individual atoms; this fits the numerical observations well.     

On the characterization of the stationary state of a class of dynamical semigroups

We consider a representation of the entropy production for a completely positive, trace-preserving dynamical semigroup satisfying detailed balance with respect to its faithful stationary state denned on aW*-algebra(): it is expressed as a positive Hermitian form on(), which is analogous to the quantum correlation functions used in the Kubo theory. By considering this Hermitian form as a variation function of a vector in(), an exact characterization of the stationary states of semigroups in a certain class is obtained. On this basis, the problem of characterizing the stationary states discussed by Spohn and Lebowitz for manyreservoir open systems is solved without the restriction to situations near thermal equilibrium.     

First principles studies on In-related nitride semiconductors

In-related nitride semiconductors exhibit characteristic behavior which can be ascribed to the large difference in the covalent radius between In and N atoms. We consider atomic and electronic structures of N mono-vacancies (V_N) in InGaN in detail by the first principles calculations. We find that the second nearest neighbor In–In interactions, which are not important in conventional semiconductors such as Si and InAs, are as crucial as the nearest neighbor In–N interaction in In-related nitride semiconductors. Moreover, we clearly show that the strong second nearest neighbor In–In interactions in InN are the physical origin of the unusually narrow band gap of InN.