Nuclear orbiting and anomalies in nuclear reactions

In this paper, we report our measurements of back-angle oxygen and carbon particle yields from ¹⁶O+⁸⁹Y, ¹²C+⁹³Nb reactions forming the same compound nucleus ¹⁰⁵Ag at the same excitation energy and spin distribution. We find anomalously large oxygen yield and entrance channel dependence at high excitation energies from ¹⁶O+⁸⁹Y reaction implying formation of a dinuclear orbiting complex. Possible connection between nuclear orbiting and fast fission is also discussed.     

An alternative approach to determine the spot-size of a multi-mode laser beam and its application to diode laser beams

An alternative approach is suggested to determine the spot-size of a multi-mode laser beam. It has been shown by simulations that the suggested approach can give the beam quality factor and characteristic radius with less than 5% error. Unlike the power content method, the proposed method is applicable to the beams even with diameter one tenth of the CCD size. The new approach has been applied to a multi-mode diode laser output and it is shown that the ABCD matrix analysis can be used for beam propagation, with the measured parameters of the laser.     

Phase behavior of the mixtures of poly(oxyethylene) (10) stearyl ether (Brij-76), 1-butanol, isooctane, and mixed polar solvents II. Water and ethylene glycol (EG) or tetraethylene glycol (TEG)

The phase diagrams of the pseudo-quaternary systems poly(oxyethylene) (10) stearyl ether (Brij-76)/1-butanol/isooctane/water (with equal amounts of oil and water in the presence of two nonaqueous polar solvents (NPS), ethylene glycol (EG), and tetraethylene glycol (TEG)), have been constructed at 30 degrees C. Regular fish-tail diagrams were obtained up to psi (weight fraction of EG or TEG in the mixture of polar solvents) equal to 0.5, confirming the establishment of hydrophile-lipophile balance (HLB) of the systems. The maximum solubilization capacity passed through a minimum at psi=0.2. No HLB was obtained at higher psi. The usual fish-tail diagrams were also obtained in temperature-induced phase mapping at fixed W(1) (weight fraction of 1-butanol in total amphiphile). Solubilization capacity and HLB temperature (T(HLB)) decreased with increasing psi at a fixed W(1), the effect being more pronounced for TEG than EG. A correlation between HLB temperature (T(HLB)) and HLB number (N(HLB)) of mixed amphiphiles (Brij-76+Bu) in pseudo-quaternary systems (in the presence of water and partial substitution of water with both NPS) has been established. The novelty of the work with respect to possible applications has been discussed.     

Preparation and characterization of MgB2 superconductor

The MgB₂ superconductor, synthesized using solid-state and liquid-phase sintering methods, have been characterized for various properties. The upper critical field, irreversibility line and critical current density have been determined using magnetization data. The current-voltage characteristics recorded under an applied magnetic field revealed the existence of vortex glass transition. The surface analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows that MgB₂ is sensitive to atmospheric degradation.     

Analytical solution of magnetohydrodynamic stagnation-point flow of a power-law fluid towards a stretching surface

A new kind of analytic technique, namely the homotopy analysis method (HAM), is employed to give an explicit analytical solution of the steady two-dimensional stagnation-point flow of an electrically conducting power-law fluid over a stretching surface when the surface is stretched in its own plane with a velocity proportional to the distance from the stagnation-point. A uniform transverse magnetic field is applied normal to the surface. An explicit analytical solution is given by recursive formulae for the first-order power-law (Newtonian) fluid when the ratio of free stream velocity and stretching velocity is not equal to unity. For second and real order power-law fluids, an analytical approach is proposed for magnetic field parameter in a quite large range. All of our analytical results agree well with numerical results. The results obtained by HAM suggest that the solution of the problem under consideration converges.     

Analysis of coupled conduction and radiation heat transfer in presence of participating medium- using a hybrid method

The current study addresses the mathematical modeling aspects of coupled conductive and radiative heat transfer in presence of absorbing, emitting and isotropic scattering gray medium within two-dimensional square enclosure. The walls of the enclosure are considered to be opaque, diffuse and gray. The enclosure comprised of isothermal vertical walls and insulated horizontal walls. A new hybrid method where the concepts of modified differential approximation employed by blending discrete ordinate method and spherical harmonics method, has been developed for modeling the radiative transport equation. The finite volume method has been adopted as the numerical technique. The effect of various influencing parameters i.e., radiation-conduction parameter, surface emissivity, single scattering albedo and optical thickness has been illustrated. The compatibility of the method with regard to solving coupled conduction and radiation has also been addressed.