Measurement of the <Superscript>14</Superscript>C Content in Liquid Scintillators by Means of a Small-Volume Detector in the Low-Background Chamber of the Baksan Neutrino Observatory

A setup for measuring natural-radioactivity backgrounds and ultralow concentrations of the isotope ¹⁴C in samples of a liquid organic scintillator was created at the low-background laboratory of the Baksan Neutrino Observatory (Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences) at a depth of 4900 mwe. The concentration of the radiocarbon ^14C in a sample of a scintillator based on domestically produced linear alkylbenzene was measured, and it was found that ¹⁴C/¹²C (3.3 ± 0.5) × 10^?17.     

Modelling wave dynamics of compressible elastic materials

An Eulerian conservative hyperbolic model of isotropic elastic materials subjected to finite deformation is addressed. It was developed by Godunov [S.K. Godunov, Elements of continuum mechanics, Nauka, Moscow, 1978 (in Russian) and G.H. Miller, P. Colella, A high-order Eulerian Godunov method for elastic–plastic flow in solids, J. Comput. Phys. 167 (2001) 131–176]. Some modifications are made concerning a more suitable form of governing equations. They form a set of evolution equations for a local cobasis which is naturally related to the Almansi deformation tensor. Another novelty is that the equation of state is given in terms of invariants of the Almansi tensor in a form which separates hydrodynamic and shear effects. This model is compared with another hyperbolic non-conservative model which is widely used in engineering sciences. For this model we develop a Riemann solver and determine some reference solutions which are compared with the conservative model. The numerical results for different tests show good agreement of both models for waves of very small and very large amplitude. However, for waves of intermediate amplitude important discrepancies between results are clearly visible.     

Effect of high pressures on exchange and hyperfine interactions in rare-earth orthoferrites

The effect of high pressures P on the Néel temperature T _N , the crystal lattice parameters, and the magnitude of the hyperfine magnetic field H ^Sn at a nucleus of a diamagnetic tin atom was studied in pure and tin-doped orthoferrites RFeO₃ (R = Nd, Lu). The dependence of these quantities on the geometry of the exchange bonds, specifically, the angle and length of the chemical bond Fe-O-Fe(Sn), was analyzed. It was established that under pressure the angular contribution decreases and the radial contribution increases T _N and H ^Sn, the radial contribution being greater than the angular contribution in absolute magnitude. Numerical estimates were obtained for the angular and radial contributions to T _N and H ^Sn. In lutecium orthoferrite, at P > 30 GPa anomalies indicating a possible phase transition were observed in the behavior of the lattice parameters and the value of H ^Sn.     

Observation of daily and annular variations in the <Superscript>214</Superscript>Po half-life

Results of the analysis of a time series of values of the half-life (τ) of the ²¹⁴Po nucleus with a different time step obtained from the TAU-1 (354 days) and TAU-2 (973 days) installations are presented. The annual variation with an amplitude of (9.8 ± 0.6) × 10^?4 and daily variations in the solar, lunar, and sidereal times with amplitudes of (5.3 ± 0.3) × 10^?4, (6.9 ± 2.0) × 10^?4, and (7.2 ± 1.2) × 10^?4, respectively, are found in the series of τ values. It is shown that variations in microclimatic parameters cannot be a cause of τ variations.     

Conversions of ethanol in thermolysis of dyes adsorbed on a silica surface

Using thermal desorption measurements with mass spectrometric analysis of the gas phase, we have studied the characteristics of the interaction of ethanol molecules with the silica surface under conditions when some of the adsorption centers are occupied by molecules of a heteroaromatic dye. The characteristics of the thermal conversions of ethanol on the surface are described in terms of ideas concerning the nature of the active centers on a surface of dispersed silicon dioxide. We observed occurrence of the reaction of ethoxylation of the surface with an increase in temperature. The interaction between the ethanol molecules and the dye molecules occurs with formation of a complex in an excited state upon UV irradiation, which stimulates adsorption of the solvent in strongly bound forms with decomposition of the complex in the surface layer.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 87–91, January–February, 1992.     

Sol-Gel Porous Glass as Holographic Medium

Experiments on hologram recording in porous structure obtained by the sol-gel technology were performed. It was shown that holograms with a diffraction efficiency close to 100% can be obtained with the exposure of about 0.1 J/cm. A pronounced birefringence was observed in dry samples, but it diminished upon immersion in liquids. To explain this effect, a theoretical model was developed. it was shown that even a low asymmetry in pore structure leads to a pronounced birefringence.     

X-ray diffraction investigation of the structure of propolis films

The structure of films of a biological organic material (propolis) on inorganic substrates is investigated for the first time. It is established that, despite the complex chemical composition (involving more than 300 different components), the propolis films prepared from an alcohol solution on amorphous glass substrates and on semiconductor substrates with a small number of dangling bonds have a crystal structure.     

An algorithmic representation of fractional powers of positive operators

We are concerned with a new representation of fractional powers of operators by a series using exclusively contractive operators or operators with uniformly bounded powers. This representation is suitable for the construction of efficient approximations for which the error estimates are given and the convergence is investigated. The rate of convergence turns out to be exponential for bounded operators and polynomial for unbounded operators