Threshold electrical switching in As45Te55-xInx and As50Te50-xInx glasses

The electrical switching behaviour of As₄₅Te_55-xIn_x (5≤x≤15) and As₅₀Te_50-xIn_x (2.5≤x≤11.5) has been studied over a wide range of compositions. These glasses are found to exhibit threshold switching. The composition dependence of switching voltage (V_t) has been found to exhibit a change in slope and a local minimum at compositions x=10 and 12.5 for As₄₅Te_55-xIn_x and x=7.5 and 10.8 for As₅₀Te_50-xIn_x, respectively. The slope change in V_t verses x and the local minimum have been identified using two network topological effects, namely the rigidity percolation threshold and the chemical threshold. Received: 23 August 2001 / Accepted: 27 August 2001 / Published online: 11 February 2002     

Gauge fixing, families index theory, and topological features of the space of lattice gauge fields

The families index theory for the overlap lattice Dirac operator is applied to derive topological features of the space of SU(N) lattice gauge fields on the 4-torus: the topological sectors, specified by the fermionic topological charge, are shown to contain noncontractible even-dimensional spheres when N3, and noncontractible circles in the N=2 case. We describe how certain obstructions to the existence of gauge fixings without the Gribov problem in the continuum setting correspond on the lattice to obstructions to the contractibility of these spheres and circles. We also point out a canonical connection on the space of lattice gauge fields with monopole-like singularities associated with the spheres.     

Magnetic properties of mechanically alloyed Co–Ti powder

An amorphous phase containing traces of non-transformed Co and Ti powders was obtained by mechanical alloying nominal compositions of Co₆₇Ti₃₃ and Co₅₀Ti₅₀ in a high-energy ball-mill. These alloys were prepared from elemental powders of Co and Ti. The heat treatment of Co₆₇Ti₃₃ at 573, 873 and 1173 K crystallized nanoparticles of Co₂Ti and Co₃Ti compounds, while the same treatments conducted on Co₅₀Ti₅₀ resulted in the formation of Co₂Ti and CoTi nanoparticles. The saturation magnetizations reached a maximum value in the amorphous state and they decreased when the temperatures of the heat treatment rose. Demagnetizing interparticle interaction effects were estimated through hysteresis loops and initial magnetization curves using the Fourier technique.     

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.     

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     

Propagation of mesons in asymmetric nuclear matter in a density-dependent coupling model

We study the propagation of the light mesons σ,ω,ρ, and a₀(980) in dense hadronic matter in an extended derivative scalar coupling model. Within the scheme proposed it is possible to unambiguously define effective density-dependent couplings at the Lagrangian level. We first apply the model to study asymmetric nuclear matter with fixed isospin asymmetry, and then we pay particular attention to hypermatter in β-equilibrium. The equation of state and the potential contribution to the symmetry coefficient arising from the mean-field approximation are investigated. Received: 16 October 2001 / Accepted: 10 January 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     

A new three-flavor oscillation solution of the solar neutrino deficit in <Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>-parity violating supersymmetry

We present a solution of the solar neutrino deficit using three flavors of neutrinos and R-parity non-conserving supersymmetry. In this model, in vacuum, the is massless and unmixed, mass and mixing being restricted to the - sector only, which we choose in consistency with the requirements of the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. The flavor changing and flavor diagonal neutral currents present in the model and the three-flavor picture together produce an energy dependent resonance-induced - mixing in the sun. This mixing plays a key role in the new solution to the solar neutrino problem. The best fit to the solar neutrino rates and spectrum (1258-day SK and 241-day SNO data) requires a mass square difference of eV² in vacuum between the two lightest neutrinos. This solution cannot accommodate a significant day-night effect for solar neutrinos nor CP violation in terrestrial neutrino experiments. Received: 26 December 2001 / Revised version: 16 February 2002 / Published online: 26 July 2002     

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.