Confinement of electrons and ions in a combined trap with the potential for antihydrogen production

Experiments with electrons and ions in a combined trap are reported. The unique capability to confine particles with opposite charge and very different mass simultaneously in the same spatial region makes the combined trap a promising device for future synthesis of antihydrogen.     

Alumina-catalyzed condensation of 2-methylquinoline with methanol

The alumina-catalyzed reaction of 2-methylquinoline with excess methanol at 500° produced a mixture of 2-ethyl-, 2-isopropyl-, and 2-isopropenylquinolines in yields of 10%, 7%, and 2%, respectively. A mechanistic interpretation of this reaction is presented.     

Conformation dependence of electronic structures of poly(ethylene oxide)

The electronic structure of pure poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) for four different polymeric chain conformations has been studied by Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional theory (DFT) through the analysis of their valence band photoelectron spectroscopy (VB-PES), X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS). It is shown that the valence band of PEO presents specific conformation dependence, which can be used as a fingerprint of the polymeric structures. The calculated spectra have been compared with experimental results for PEO powder.     

Scale invariance,killing vectors,and the size of the fifth dimension

An analysis is made of the classical five-dimensional sourceless Kaluza-Klein equations with the existence of the usual/ Killing vector not assumed, where is the coordinate of the fifth dimension. The physical distance around the fifth dimensionD ₅, needed for the calculation of the fine structure constant, is not calculable in the usual theory because the equations have a global scale invariance. In the present case, the Killing vector and the global scale invariance are not present, but it is found rather generally thatD ₅=0. This indicates that quantum gravity is a necessary ingredient if is to be calculated. It also provides an alternate explanation of why the universe appears four-dimensional.     

Inclusive ϕ production inK − p interactions at 110 GeV/c and search for structure in φ π−

Results on inclusive ? production inK ^? p interactions at 110 GeV/c are presented. The production cross section is found to be larger than in πp andpp interactions at similar energies, suggesting OZI allowed \(s\bar s\) fusion to be the dominant mechanism in ? production. Thex distributions of ? and \(\bar K^{*0} \) are found to be similar to each other over the entirex range suggesting an overall strangeness suppression factor of 0.20±0.04 in the sea to be the dominant source of the difference in the cross section for ? and \(\bar K^{*0} \) . There is no evidence of a narrowφπ ^? state around 2.1 GeV/c² as suggested byK ⁺ experiments, but there is some excess of events in the region 1.94?1.98 GeV/c² consistent with theF-meson mass as observed ine ⁺ e ^? experiments.     

Ascorbate-induced oxidation of formate by peroxodisulfate: product yields,kinetics and mechanism

The slow reaction between peroxodisulfate and formate is significantly accelerated by ascorbate at room temperature. The products of this induced oxidation, CO₂ and oxalate (C₂O^2– ₄), were analyzed by several methods and the kinetics of this reaction were measured. The overall mechanism involves free radical species. Ascorbate reacts with peroxodisulfate to initiate production of the sulfate radical ion (SO^– ₄), which reacts with formate to produce carbon dioxide radical ion (CO^– ₂) and sulfate. The carbon dioxide radical reacts with peroxodisulfate to form CO₂ or self-combines to form oxalate. Competition occurring between these two processes determines the overall fate of the carbon dioxide radical species. As pH decreases, protonation of the carbon dioxide radical ion tends to favor production of CO₂.     

Broadband and band-selective IMPRESS-gHMBC: compensation of refocusing inefficiency with synchronized inversion sweep

Compensation of refocusing inefficiency in a gHMBC experiment by replacing the rectangular pi pulse with a pair of adiabatic pulses with synchronized inversion sweep (CRISIS) significantly improves the performance of the gHMBC experiment. The CRISIS-gHMBC experiment retains the pure absorptive shapes in F1 and hence results in better lineshape and higher resolution than the current versions of magnitude mode gHMBC spectra. When used as a broadband experiment, CRISIS-gHMBC, owing to better refocusing efficiency of the adiabatic pulse pairs, gives improved performance across the 13C spectral width. Moreover, it is shown that CRISIS-gHMBC is a robust and improved alternative and when used along with the IMPRESS (Improved Resolution using Symmetrically Shifted pulses) technique further increases the sensitivity and resolution without additional experimental time. The IMPRESS-CRISIS combination is demonstrated for broadband gHMBC and band-selective gHMBC experiments. The ICbs-gHMBC [IMPRESS-CRISIS-band-selective gHMBC] experiment is an attractive and better alternative to individual band-selective gHMBC.     

A first-principles density-functional calculation of the electronic and vibrational structure of the key melanin monomers

We report first-principles density-functional calculations for hydroquinone (HQ), indolequinone (IQ), and semiquinone (SQ). These molecules are believed to be the basic building blocks of the eumelanins, a class of biomacromolecules with important biological functions (including photoprotection) and with the potential for certain bioengineering applications. We have used the difference of self-consistent fields method to study the energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, Delta(HL). We show that Delta(HL) is similar in IQ and SQ, but approximately twice as large in HQ. This may have important implications for our understanding of the observed broadband optical absorption of the eumelanins. The possibility of using this difference in Delta(HL) to molecularly engineer the electronic properties of eumelanins is discussed. We calculate the infrared and Raman spectra of the three redox forms from first principles. Each of the molecules have significantly different infrared and Raman signatures, and so these spectra could be used in situ to nondestructively identify the monomeric content of macromolecules. It is hoped that this may be a helpful analytical tool in determining the structure of eumelanin macromolecules and hence in helping to determine the structure-property-function relationships that control the behavior of the eumelanins.