Phenyldimethylsilyl-Substituted Ketenes and Bisketenes

The phenyldimethylsilyl-substituted monoketene PhMe(2)SiCH=C=O (1) and bisketene (PhMe(2)SiC=C=O)(2) (3) have been prepared and compared to the corresponding Me(3)Si- and t-BuMe(2)Si-substituted species. The (13)C, (17)O, and (29)Si NMR spectra fit the pattern shown by other silylketenes and provide no evidence for transmission of a substituent effect of the Ph group through the silicon to the ketenyl group, as has been proposed for PhMe(2)Si-substituted radicals. The UV spectrum of 1 does show a longer lambda and greater epsilon than for t-BuMe(2)SiCH=C=O, and this may indicate some interaction of the phenyl group with the ketene chromophore, while the greater reactivity of 1 in hydration compared to t-BuMe(2)SiCH=C=O is ascribed to the inductive effect of the phenyl. The very similar ring-opening reactivity of the bis(phenyldimethylsilyl)cyclobutenedione (6) to form 3 compared to the bis(Me(3)Si) analogues also provides no evidence of a significant interaction of the phenyl with the ketene. A new type of stabilized 1,8-bisketene based on the arylbis(dimethylsilyl) grouping, namely, 1,4-bis(ketenyldimethylsilyl)benzene (12), has been prepared for the first time.     

Measurement of the polarization of positive muons produced in high-energy antineutrino interactions

The question whether scalar-type interactions contribute to weak interactions at large momentum transfer has been investigated by a measurement of the longitudinal polarization of positive muons produced in charged-current interactions of high-energy antineutrinos with iron. At an average momentum transfer <Q ²>=4 GeV² the muon spin is found to be oriented forward with respect to the muon momentum vector, with an average polarization of 1.10±0.24, consistent with positive helicity. A limit on scalar contributions of σ_{s, p}/σ_tot <7% at the 95% confidence level can be deduced. A search for violation of time reversal invariance which could manifest itself by a polarization component perpendicular to the muon production plane gave a limit of σ_tv/σ_tot <16% (95% c.l.). It is concluded that the weak leptonic charged current retains its dominant vector and axial vector structure at large momentum transfers.     

A search for neutrino oscillations

We present here the final results of experiments searching for neutrino oscillations, carried out by the CHARM Collaboration. The data — taking took place in 1983. The first experiment was performed by exposing two detectors simultaneously to the CERN PS low energyv _µ beam. In the second experiment the full CHARM detector was exposed to the wide-band horn-focusedv _µ beam of the CERN SPS. Complete details of the experiments and data reduction are presented. No statistically significant signals for neutrino oscillations were observed. Our 90% CL limits in the appearance experiment (v _µ→v _e ) exclude Δm ²≧0.19 eV² for complete mixing (sin²2θ=1), and sin²2θ≧0.008 for the region Δm ²≧30 eV². These results, and the limits observed for (v _µ→v _x ) (disappearance of (v _µ), are in agreement with those of most other experiments but exclude part of the region previously reported as a possible indication ofv _µ→v _e oscillations.     

Dissipative terms of thermal nature in the theory of an ideal monoatomic superfluid

A dissipative model of helium II was built up in previous works, using a 13-field extended thermodynamic theory formulated by Liu and Müller. In this work a generalization of such model is presented, where an extended thermodynamics with 14 fields due to Kremer is used. It is shown that the fourteenth field is able to account for the experimental data concerning the second sound attenuation. Further, the proposed theory is able to explain the Osborne experiment. Finally, a comparison with the two-fluid model is performed, emphasizing the different ways in which the dissipative phenomena are explained by the two theories.     

Experimental evidence and consequences of rare events in quantum tunneling

Tiny spatial fluctuations of tunnel barrier parameters are shown to have dramatic consequences on the statistical properties of quantum tunneling. A direct experimental evidence is provided that the tunnel current through metal-oxide junctions, imaged at a nanometric scale, exhibits broad statistical distributions extending over more than 4 orders of magnitude. Striking effects of broad current distributions are shown: the total tunnel transmission is dominated by few highly transmitting sites and the typical current density varies strongly with the size of the junction. Moreover, self-averaging of the tunnel current fluctuations occurs only for unexpectedly large junction areas. Received 1 April 1999     

Performance studies of a full-length prototype for the CASTOR forward calorimeter at the CMS experiment

The Time-Of-Flight detector (TOF) of the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC is based on Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs). The TOF detector consists of 152928 readout channels covering a total area of 141 m². In this paper the results of the calibration with cosmic-ray data collected during 2009 are presented.     

Microfluidic sensor based on integrated optical hollow waveguides

A simple integrated optical refractometric sensor based on hollow-core antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides is proposed. The sensor uses the antiresonant reflecting guidance mechanism and permits one to measure the refractive index of a liquid filling the core by simply monitoring the transmitted spectrum. The device has been made with standard silicon technology, and the experimental results confirm numerical simulations performed in one- and two-dimensional geometry. The sensor exhibits a linear response over a wide measurement range (1.3330-1.4450) and a resolution of 9 x 10(-4) and requires a small analyte volume.     

Vibration reduction in piecewise bi-coupled periodic structures

The problem of minimizing transmitted vibrations through finitely long periodic structures is addressed. Bi-coupled periodic element properties and arrangement are tailored to localize the response around the excitation source within any assigned frequency range. Bi-dimensional analytical maps of the single unit free-wave propagation domains (stop, pass and complex domains) provide the optimal choice of the cell properties and ordering. Moreover, the amount of vibration suppression along the periodic structure is also controlled as it can be described through iso-attenuation curves representing the contour plot of the real part of the propagation constants. Applications to both undamped and damped beams resting on elastic supports are illustrated. The response of the periodic structures to harmonic excitations is expressed through the wave vector method taking into account the effects of wave reflection due to changes in the cell properties along the structure and boundary conditions. Such computational schemes enables one to overcome numerical difficulties arising in the transfer matrix formulation for structures with a large number of periodic units.     

Amplification phenomena of Casimir force fluctuations on close scatterers coupled via a coherent fermionic fluid

We study the mechanical actions affecting close scatterers immersed in a coherent fermionic fluid. Using a scattering field theory, we theoretically analyse the single-scatterer and the two-scatterer case. Concerning the single-scatterer case, we find that a net force affects the scatterer dynamics only in non-equilibrium condition, i.e. imposing the presence of a non-vanishing particle current flowing through the system. The force fluctuation (variance) is instead not negligible both in equilibrium and in non-equilibrium conditions. Concerning the two-scatterer case, an attractive fluid-mediated Casimir force is experienced by the scatterers at small spatial separation, while a decaying attractive/repulsive behavior as a function of the scatterer separation is found. Furthermore, the Casimir force fluctuations acting on a given scatterer in close vicinity of the other present an oscillating behavior reaching a long distance limit comparable to the noise level of the single-scatterer case. The relevance of these findings is discussed in connection with fluctuation phenomena in low-dimensional nanostructures and cold atoms systems.