Dynamic interaction of plasma flow with the hot boundary layer of a geomagnetic trap

The study of the interaction between collisionless plasma flow and stagnant plasma revealed the presence of an outer boundary layer at the border of a geomagnetic trap, where the super-Alfvén subsonic laminar flow changes over to the dynamic regime characterized by the formation of accelerated magnetosonic jets and decelerated Alfvén flows with characteristic relaxation times of 10–20 min. The nonlinear interaction of fluctuations in the initial flow with the waves reflected from an obstacle explains the observed flow chaotization. The Cherenkov resonance of the magnetosonic jet with the fluctuation beats between the boundary layer and the incoming flow is the possible mechanism of its formation. In the flow reference system, the incoming particles are accelerated by the electric fields at the border of boundary layer that arise self-consistently as a result of the preceding wave-particle interactions; the inertial drift of the incoming ions in a transverse electric field increasing toward the border explains quantitatively the observed ion acceleration. The magnetosonic jets may carry away downstream up to a half of the unperturbed flow momentum, and their dynamic pressure is an order of magnitude higher than the magnetic pressure at the obstacle border. The appearance of nonequilibrium jets and the boundary-layer fluctuations are synchronized by the magnetosonic oscillations of the incoming flow at frequencies of 1–2 mHz.     

Thermal Oxidation of Polyethylene Films Containing Dispersed Copper and Amine Antioxidant

Thermal oxidation of polyethylene filled with dispersed copper and containing an amine antioxidant was studied. The concentration ranges in which the catalytic effect of the metal on the polymer oxidation or the stabilizing effect of the antioxidant prevails were determined. Under certain conditions, dispersed copper enhances the stabilizing effect of the antioxidant.     

The use of an ultrasonic Doppler velocimeter in turbulent pipe flow

An ultrasonic Doppler velocimeter (UDV) is used for an experimental investigation of turbulent pipe flow at eight different Reynolds numbers (22,300–854,900). The UDV is a multipoint probe in the sense that it takes instantaneous measurements of fluid velocities at different locations simultaneously, with remarkable resolutions in space and time. The performances of the instrument with respect to the properties of the overlap layer of the turbulent flow field are investigated; the experimental results are compared with both already existing and more recently proposed scaling laws, and with other data of experimental nature.     

Features of the Quenching of the Triplet States of Water-Soluble Porphyrins by Molecular Oxygen

Using the methods of time-resolved absorption spectroscopy, we have investigated the features of quenching, by molecular oxygen, of the excited triplet states of water-soluble 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-N-methylpyridyl)-porphyrin (H₂TMPyP) and 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-porphyrin (H₂TSPP) in water–ethanol solutions. It has been revealed that for both compounds the rate constant of quenching of the triplet states increases with increasing viscosity of the medium. Quenching of the excited triplet states of the dissociated (in water) and undissociated (in ethanol) forms of water-soluble porphyrins occurs with a different efficiency, and the rate constant of quenching the triplet states by molecular oxygen k _T thereby is higher for the dissociated form. It has been shown by means of mathematical modeling that the experimental results obtained can be described in terms of the change in the rate constants of intracomplex transitions in the porphyrin–oxygen collisional complex at varied solution viscosity and their difference for the dissociated and undissociated forms of water-soluble porphyrin.     

Marking Games and the Oriented Game Chromatic Number of Partial <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Trees

 Nešetřil and Sopena introduced the concept of oriented game chromatic number. They asked whether the oriented game chromatic number of partial k-trees was bounded. Here we answer their question positively. Received: January 12, 2001 Final version received: February 25, 2002     

Reconstruction of the fine structure of an acoustic scatterer against the distorting influence of its large-scale inhomogeneities

In the ultrasonic diagnostics of small-size neoplasms of biological tissues at the earliest stage of their development, an efficient way to eliminate the distorting influence of high-contrast or large inhomogeneities of the biological medium is to apply the iterative technique. A simple approach is proposed, which makes it possible with only two iteration steps to achieve an efficient focusing of the tomograph array. At the first step, the unknown distribution of the large-scale inhomogeneities of sound velocity and absorption over the scatterer is reconstructed, where the large-scale inhomogeneities are those whose size exceeds several wavelengths. At the second step, the fine structure of the scatterer is reconstructed against the large-scale background, which can be performed with a high accuracy owing to the evaluation of the background at the first step. The possibility of simultaneous reconstruction of the large-scale and fine structures by the noniterative Grinevich-Novikov algorithm is considered as an alternative. This algorithm reconstructs in an explicit form two-dimensional refractive-absorbing acoustic scatterers of almost arbitrary shape and strength. Taking into account the effects of multiple scattering, this algorithm provides resolution of the fine structure almost as good as that achieved in reconstructing the same structure against an undistorting homogeneous background. The results of numerical simulations of both algorithms are presented.     

Local adsorption sites and bondlength changes in Ni(1 0 0)/H/CO and Ni(1 0 0)/CO

The local adsorption geometry of CO adsorbed in different states on Ni(1 0 0) and on Ni(1 0 0) precovered with atomic hydrogen has been determined by C 1s (and O 1s) scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction, using the photoelectron binding energy changes to characterise the different states. The results confirm previous spectroscopic assignments of local atop and bridge sites both with and without coadsorbed hydrogen. The measured Ni–C bondlengths for the Ni(1 0 0)/CO states show an increase of 0.16 ± 0.04 Å in going from atop to bridge sites, while comparison with similar results for Ni(1 1 1)/CO for threefold coordinated adsorption sites show a further lengthening of the bond by 0.05 ± 0.04 Å. These changes in the Ni–CO chemisorption bondlength with bond order (for approximately constant adsorption energy) are consistent with the standard Pauling rules. However, comparison of CO adsorbed in the atop geometry with and without coadsorbed hydrogen shows that the coadsorption increases the Ni–C bondlength by only 0.06 ± 0.04 Å, despite the decrease in adsorption energy of a factor of 2 or more. This result is also reproduced by density functional theory slab calculations. The results of both the experiments and the density functional theory calculations show that CO adsorption onto the Ni(1 0 0)/H surface is accompanied by significant structural modification; the low desorption energy may then be attributed to the energy cost of this restructuring rather than weak local bonding.     

Gaussian Chaos Laws on Banach Function Spaces

We give a characterization of Gaussian chaos laws on Banach function spaces which do not contain ℓ _∞ ⁿ 's uniformly. The result is applied to describe the convergence in law of U-processes with sample paths in certain Banach function spaces. __________ Published in Lietuvos Matematikos Rinkinys, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 553–566, October–December, 2005.     

Mechanical Properties of Blends of Low-Density Polyethylene with Chlorinated Polyethylene

The results of experimental investigation into the mechanical properties of blends of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) with chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) in tension are presented. The specimens of pure LDPE, CPE, and nine types of LDPE/CPE blends, with different content of components at 10 wt.% intervals, were examined. Data on the influence of blend composition on the tensile stress-strain diagram, elastic modulus, yield stress, breaking stress, and ultimate elongation are obtained. The results of investigations of creep are also reported. It is found that the creep compliance (the total current compliance minus the elastic compliance) obeys the power law of creep.__________Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 391–404, May–June, 2005.