The effect of electrical boundary conditions on the characteristics of surface acoustic waves propagating in potassium niobate

The study of the effect of a perfectly conducting plane placed at a certain distance from the surface of a potassium niobate crystal on the characteristics of the generalized Rayleigh and Gulyaev-Bleustein surface waves is continued. In addition, the effect of an infinitely thin conducting layer applied to the surface of the piezoelectric on the characteristics of these waves is analyzed. It is found that a variation in the conductance of this layer can produce a result that completely differs from the result obtained when a perfectly conducting plane is moved toward the surface, although the extreme states of these actions (electrically open and short-circuited surfaces) are identical. A possible physical explanation of this difference is proposed.     

Reduction of the error of hydrophone calibration with respect to the field in a hydroacoustic tank by the reciprocity method

A hydrophone calibration procedure that considerably reduces the error caused by the acoustic field distortions in a hydroacoustic tank is proposed. The procedure is based on the definition of the reduced electric transfer impedances of transducers (i.e., the electric transfer impedances reduced to the spherical wave propagation law) and consists in measuring the electric transfer impedances for different distances between hydroacoustic transducers. The sensitivity of the hydrophone under calibration is calculated from the far-field values of the reduced electric transfer impedances. The latter are determined using a mathematical model of the hydrophone in the form of a system that contains a point sensing element and a finite number of point sources of acoustic signals (point reflectors). A method of determining the number and coordinates of the point reflectors from the analysis of the acoustic “images” of the hydrophone’s reflecting surface is proposed. The measuring technique, the algorithms of mathematical processing, and the results of experimental studies are considered. A comparative analysis of the results of the hydrophone calibration with respect to the field by the reciprocity method is performed for the cases of using the conventional technique and the proposed method.     

Extraordinary ray refraction in a large pitch helical medium

The phenomenon of extraordinary ray refraction in a helical liquid crystal with large (compared to the light wavelength) pitch has been studied by theoretical and experimental methods. At a sufficiently large angle of incidence relative to the pitch axis, the extraordinary ray exhibits reflection (reversal) from a certain layer of the medium. The ordinary ray, for which the system is optically isotropic, exhibits no such reflection. The experimental dependences of the transmitted and reflected (reversed) rays are described using the geometrical optics approximation taking into account the optical losses for scattering inside the liquid crystal.     

The effect of the character of electron reflection on the electromagnetic properties of an inhomogeneous spherical particle

The magnetic absorption cross section of a small spherical particle with a dielectric core and a metallic shell is calculated. The general case is considered when the ratio of the radius of the dielectric core to the total radius of the particle may take arbitrary values. The condition of specular-diffuse reflection of conduction electrons from the surfaces of the metal layer of the particle is chosen as the boundary conditions of the problem. The limit cases are considered, and the results are discussed.     

Transition in a Luttinger liquid with two-level impurities to the fermi-liquid state

The mechanisms leading to instability of the non-Fermi-liquid state of a Luttinger liquid with two-level impurities are proposed. Since exchange scattering in 1D systems is two-channel scattering in a certain range of parameters, several types of non-Fermi-liquid excitations with different quantum numbers exist in the vicinity of the Fermi level. These excitations include, first, charge density fluctuations in the Luttinger liquid and, second, many-particle excitations due to two-channel exchange interaction, which are associated with band-type as well as impurity fermion states. It is shown that mutual scattering of many-particle excitations of various types leads to the emergence of an additional Fermi-liquid singularity in the vicinity of the Fermi level. The conditions under which the Fermi-liquid state with a new energy scale (which is much smaller than the Kondo temperature) is the ground state of the system are formulated.     

Reactor as a source of antineutrinos: Thermal fission energy

Deeper insight into the features of a reactor as a source of antineutrinos is required for making further advances in studying the fundamental properties of the neutrino. The relationship between the thermal power of a reactor and the rate of the chain fission reaction in its core is analyzed.     

Model for describing the production of Centauro events and strangelets in heavy-ion collisions

A phenomenological model for describing the production of Centauro events in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is discussed. The model provides quantitative predictions for kinematical variables, for the baryon number, and for the masses of a Centauro fireball and of its decay products. A Centauro fireball decays predominantly into nucleons, strange hyperons, and possibly strangelets. Centauro events in Pb + Pb collisions at the LHC energy are simulated for the CASTOR detector. The signatures of these events are discussed in detail.