Effect of CO on hydrogen adsorption on palladium

Coadsorption of H₂ and CO on Pd has been studied using TDS and ESD techniques. It has been observed that the presence of 10% CO in the H₂ dosing gas during exposure gives rise to a drastic change in the TDS spectra of H₂ compared to the case when only H₂ is separately adsorbed. Furthermore, significant modifications occur in the ESD energy distribution of CO⁺ and H⁺ as a result of coadsorption of H₂ and CO. These observations are taken as evidence of adsorbate interaction possibly resulting in formation of an HCO surface complex.     

A model for crack formation during active solid pyrolysis of a char-forming solid: crack patterns; surface area generation; volatile mass efflux

A model is developed for the formation and propagation of cracks in a material sample that is heated at its top surface, pyrolyses, and then thermally degrades to form char. In this work the sample is heated uniformly over its entire top surface by a hypothetical flame (a heat source). The pyrolysis mechanism is described by a one-step overall reaction that is dependent nonlinearly on the temperature (Arrhenius form). Stresses develop in response to the thermal degradation of the material by means of a shrinkage strain caused by local mass loss during pyrolysis. When the principal stress exceeds a prescribed threshold value, the material forms a local crack. Cracks are found to generally originate at the surface in response to heating, but occasionally they form in the bulk, away from ever-changing material boundaries. The resulting cracks evolve and form patterns whose characteristics are described. Quantities examined in detail are: the crack spacing in the pyrolysis zone; the crack length evolution; the formation and nature of crack loops which are defined as individual cracks that have joined to form loops that are disconnected from the remaining material; the formation of enhanced pyrolysis area; and the impact of all of the former quantities on mass flux. It is determined that the mass flux from the sample can be greatly enhanced over its nominal (non-cracking) counterpart. The mass efflux profile qualitatively resembles those observed in Cone Calorimeter tests.     

Excitation functions for some output channels following the p +55Mn interaction atE p=1·3–2·0 MeV

Excitation functions for the⁵⁵Mn(p, p )⁵⁵Mn,⁵⁵Mn(p, n )⁵⁵Fe and⁵⁵Mn(p, )⁵⁶Fe reactions are studied for proton beam energyE _p=1·3–2 MeV. The excitation functions are established from yield functions for -rays emitted from the first excited states of final nuclei. Many resonances are observed and competition of their decay into all three output channels is analysed. Spin-parity assignment for some resonant states in the⁵⁶Fe compound nucleus is deduced.Participated partly in the course of his work on a Thesis.The authors wish to thank the staff of the Van de Graaff accelerator at Charles University in Prague for the efficient operation of the machine and dr. I. Wilhelm for the valuable technical help in the early period of the experimental work. One of us (N. A. N.) acknowledges the staff of the Dept. of Nuclear Physics of Charles University in Prague for the excellent working conditions.     

Statistical Physics Approach to Liquid Crystals: Dynamics of Mobile Potts Model Leading to Smectic Phase,Phase Transition by Wang–Landau Method

We study the nature of the smectic–isotropic phase transition using a mobile 6-state Potts model. Each Potts state represents a molecular orientation. We show that with the choice of an appropriate microscopic Hamiltonian describing the interaction between individual molecules modeled by a mobile 6-state Potts spins, we observe the smectic phase dynamically formed when we cool the molecules from the isotropic phase to low temperatures (T). In order to elucidate the order of the transition and the low-T properties, we use the high-performance Wang–Landau flat energy-histogram technique. We show that the smectic phase goes to the liquid (isotropic) phase by melting/evaporating layer by layer starting from the film surface with increasing T. At a higher T, the whole remaining layers become orientationally disordered. The melting of each layer is characterized by a peak of the specific heat. Such a succession of partial transitions cannot be seen by the Metropolis algorithm. The successive layer meltings/evaporations at low T are found to have a first-order character by examining the energy histogram. These results are in agreement with experiments performed on some smectic liquid crystals.     

Improbability of void growth in aluminum via dislocation nucleation under typical laboratory conditions

The rate at which dislocations nucleate from spherical voids subjected to shear loading is predicted from atomistic simulation. By employing the latest version of the finite temperature string method, a variational transition state theory approach can be utilized, enabling atomistic predictions at ordinary laboratory time scales, loads, and temperatures. The simulation results, in conjunction with a continuum model, show that the deformation and growth of voids in Al are not likely to occur via dislocation nucleation under typical loadings regardless of void size.     

Effects of constrained chain conformations on polymer-solute interactions in semicrystalline polymers

The chemical potential of a solute in a solid polymer includes contributions from solute-polymer chain conformations, Flory-Huggins type interaction, and elastic energy of swelling. Presence of impermeable and rigid crystallites in such systems is expected to affect all these contributions. Theoretical calculations have been performed to check the direct effects of constrained chain conformations in the amorphous domains in semicrystalline polymers. Experimental results are used to determine Flory-Huggins coefficient and elastic modulus. From all these, the primary effects are shown to be on the entropic part of the Flory-Huggins coefficient and an increase in the elastic modulus by one or two order of magnitude. Finally, these results are used to calculate the rates of solvent-induced crystallization to show that these rates can drop to negligible values as the amount of crystals formed rises. Thus, the actual degree of crystallization can lie well below the Flory-Yoon limit.     

Dispersion and Confinement Loss Control in Modified Hexagonal Photonic Crystal Fibers

This paper presents a novel technique for the control of chromatic dispersion and confinement loss in hexagonal photonic crystal fibers (H-PCFs). It is demonstrated that it is possible to obtain very low chromatic dispersion of 0 ± 0:38 ps/(nm·km) in the wavelength range of 1.41 to 1.66 μm and confinement loss of less than 0.0001 dB/km from a six ring modified H-PCF (MH-PCF). The higher order dispersion at 1.55 μm is about −0.001 ps/(nm²-km).     

Inverse statistical problems: from the inverse Ising problem to data science

Inverse problems in statistical physics are motivated by the challenges of ‘big data’ in different fields, in particular high-throughput experiments in biology. In inverse problems, the usual procedure of statistical physics needs to be reversed: Instead of calculating observables on the basis of model parameters, we seek to infer parameters of a model based on observations. In this review, we focus on the inverse Ising problem and closely related problems, namely how to infer the coupling strengths between spins given observed spin correlations, magnetizations, or other data. We review applications of the inverse Ising problem, including the reconstruction of neural connections, protein structure determination, and the inference of gene regulatory networks. For the inverse Ising problem in equilibrium, a number of controlled and uncontrolled approximate solutions have been developed in the statistical mechanics community. A particularly strong method, pseudolikelihood, stems from statistics. We also review the inverse Ising problem in the non-equilibrium case, where the model parameters must be reconstructed based on non-equilibrium statistics.