Monte Carlo determinations of the beta dose rate to tooth enamel

The results of Monte Carlo simulations of the beta dose rate to enamel are presented. The dose rates are the most comprehensive to date, incorporating the beta spectrum from 21 different radionuclides, all internal conversion and Auger electrons, the majority of the bremsstrahlung radiation, effects due to radon loss in the uranium series, and variations in the moisture content of the sediment. Applications to a new dating technique in archaeology using electron spin resonance and beta-gradient isochrons are discussed.     

Aspects of alpha-particle scattering and structure of the nuclear surface

The interaction of α particles above 5 MeV with a 2s-1d target is dominated by resonances. It cannot be described only in terms of a mean-field one-body potential. An analysis of the elastic α-particle scattering by ²⁸Si encourages the comprehension of the resonance states to be mainly fragments of a mixed-parity band. In the present article, the angular distributions of particles scattered by ³²S are analyzed in terms of such bands. The analysis of new data from an experiment made at Florida State University reveals the existence of states that do not belong to the above bands. This follows from a coupled-channel analysis of the elastic and inelastic (2⁺) cross sections. An α-particle structure at the nuclear surface is suggested.     

Dirac-Hestenes spinor fields on Riemann-Cartan manifolds

In this paper we study Dirac-Hestenes spinor fields (DHSF) on a four-dimensional Riemann-Cartan spacetime (RCST). We prove that these fields must be defined as certain equivalence classes of even sections of the Clifford bundle (over the RCST), thereby being certain particular sections of a new bundle named the spin-Clifford bundle (SCB). The conditions for the existence of the SCB are studied and are shown to be equivalent to Geroch's theorem concerning the existence of spinor structures in a Lorentzian spacetime. We introduce also the covariant and algebraic Dirac spinor fields and compare these with DHSF, showing that all three kinds of spinor fields contain the same mathematical and physical information. We clarify also the notion of (Crumeyrolle's) amorphous spinors (Dirac-Kähler spinor fields are of this type), showing that they cannot be used to describe fermionic fields. We develop a rigorous theory for the covariant derivatives of Clifford fields (sections of the Clifford bundle, CB) and of Dirac-Hestenes spinor fields. We show how to generalize the original Dirac-Hestenes equation in Minkowski spacetime for the case of RCST. Our results are obtained from a variational principle formulated through the multiform derivative approach to Lagrangian field theory in the Clifford bundle.     

Current correlators to all orders in the quark masses

The contributions to the coefficient functions of the quark and the mixed quark-gluon condensate to mesonic correlators are calculated for the first time to all orders in the quark masses, and to lowest order in the strong coupling constant. Existing results on the coefficient functions of the unit operator and the gluon condensate are reviewed. The proper factorization of short- and long-distance contributions in the operator product expansion is discussed in detail. It is found that to accomplish this task rigorously the operator product expansion has to be performed in terms ofnon-normal-ordered condensates. The resulting coefficient functions are improved with the help of the renormalization group. The scale invariant combination of dimension 5 operators, including mixing with the mass operator, which is needed for the renormalization group improvement, is calculated in the leading order.Supported by the German Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie, under the contract 06 TM 761     

Topological Simplicity of a Certain LF-Algebra

We show that the LF-algebra considered by Akkar and Nacir in [1] is topologically simple.     

Maximum-entropy data analysis

The reconstruction of physical quantities from (computer-) experimental data is very often hampered by the presence of noise, insufficient information and above all by the ill-posed nature of the underlying inversion problem. It will be demonstrated that the maximum entropy concepts is particularly suited for this type of data-analysis problems. It is based on Bayesian statistics and provides a consistent probabilistic theory to obtain unbiased results, independent of any model assumptions. This is particularly desirable if there is no additional information to justify these hypotheses. If, on the other hand, additional prior knowledge is available, it can be effectively incorporated into the computation, leading to more stringent confidence intervals.     

Chemical composition and reaction analysis of single aerosol particles

In situ measurements of gas-liquid surface reactions of single aerosol microdroplets are presented. By means of optical levitation in combination with elastic (Mie) and inelastic (Raman) light scattering it is possible to get information on the chemistry of e.g. acid/base reactions as well as the physical behavior of single microparticles.     

Small angle neutron scattering from oxygen precipitates in silicon

The formation of silicon oxide precipitates from Czochralski grown silicon depends on the time and temperature of the heat treatment as well as on the initial content of interstitially dissolved oxygen. Samples containing between 5×10¹⁷ O_i/cm³ and 13×10¹⁷ O_i/cm³ have been heated at 750° C for 96 h. SiO₂ precipitates of various shape and size have been obtained and investigated by means of small angle neutron scattering (SANS) in the Q-range 0.05 Å^–1<Q<0.2 Å^–1. The obtained SANS patterns reveal a typical anisotropy of their intensity distribution, which splits into a central peak at Q<0.1 Å^–1 due to the shape of the individual particles and a number of weak intensities for large Q-values, originating from a correlation between defects, possibly between the precipitates. While these correlation peaks in the SANS patterns are seen best for rather low values of about (5–7)×10¹⁷ O_i/cm³ oxygen content, the central peak anisotropy is most pronounced for higher values of ca 10×10¹⁷ O_i/cm³. The integrated intensity of the central peak increases with increasing initial oxygen content. For comparison, untreated samples of the same initial oxygen content do not reveal any anisotropic SAN scattering or a broadened central peak beam.