Special points for calculating integrals over the primitive cell of a periodic system

A method is proposed for constructing appropriate sets of special points in the Brillouin zone in which the extended unit cell method is used with a subsequent shift from the center of the reduced Brillouin zone. The proposed method offers several advantages over the commonly used Monkhorst-Pack method. The difference in the construction of sets of special points for the direct and reciprocal lattices is discussed for crystals belonging to a nonsymmorphic space group. The cases of a planar square lattice and an fcc lattice are considered to illustrate general results.     

Elasticity and inelasticity of biomorphic silicon carbide ceramics

The effect of the vibration strain amplitude on the Young modulus and ultrasonic absorption (internal friction) in biomorphic SiC ceramics is investigated in the temperature range 116–296 K. The biomorphic SiC ceramics is prepared through pyrolysis of eucalyptus with subsequent infiltration of silicon. It is demonstrated that the vibration loading of samples in air and under vacuum is accompanied by a number of unexpected effects. The behavior of the studied ceramics is governed by at least two mechanisms, which, to a large extent, are responsible for the elastic and inelastic properties of the material. One mechanism is associated with the adsorption-desorption of environmental molecules (hypothetically, owing to the presence of pores and residual carbon), and the other mechanism involves microplastic deformation due to the motion of dislocations or other (similar) structural units.     

Phonon scattering from the boundaries of small crystals embedded in a dielectric porous-glass matrix

The thermal conductivity of porous glass with randomly distributed connecting pores ～70 Å in size (glass porosity ～25%), as well as of a porous glass + NaCl composite, was measured in the temperature range 5–300 K. NaCl filled one fourth of the pores in the composite. The experimental results on the composite thermal conductivity can be accounted for only by assuming that phonons scatter from the boundaries of NaCl nanocrystals embedded in channels of the porous glass.     

Excitation Cross Section for Resonance Transitions of Rhenium Atoms Excited by Slow Electrons

Excitation of rhenium atoms by electron impact is investigated by the method of extended crossing beams. At electron energies of 50 eV, the excitation cross sections of 36 resonance and competing transitions in ReI are measured. Within the energy range from the threshold value to 250 eV, six optical excitation functions are detected. The reliability of data on transition probabilities in ReI has been analyzed.     

Onset of detonation in polydispersed fuel–air mixtures

Investigations of detonation onset in pulverized fuel–air mixtures were carried out. Combustion and detonation processes in sprays differ greatly from that in homogeneous mixtures, because not only chemical reactions, but physical processes of combustible mixture formation take place within the combustion zone (droplets atomization and evaporation). The polydispersed character of mixture and non-uniformity of droplet spatial distribution strongly affects spray combustion and detonation onset. The present paper contains the results of theoretical and experimental investigations of detonation onset peculiarities in polydispersed non-uniform hydrocarbon–air mixtures.     

Asymptotic behavior of neutron small-angle multiple scattering spectra

The asymptotic behavior of the spectra for large values of the scattering vector for the case of elastic multiple small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is investigated theoretically and experimentally. An expansion of the spectrum in terms of the reciprocal of the magnitude of the momentum transfer is obtained taking account of the influence of the instrumental line. It is shown that, to within some factor, the leading term of the expansion is identical to the differential single-scattering cross section averaged over a statistical ensemble of particles; several subsequent terms in the expansion are calculated and the range of applicability of the resulting expressions is determined. The asymptotic behavior of the multiple SANS spectrum is measured, using a two-crystal neutron spectrometer, for samples of an HTSC ceramic, the alloy Fe-Ni, and Al powder. The agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical predictions is analyzed. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 114, 2194–2203 (December 1998)     

Low-mode tomography of inhomogeneities in a shallow sea

Potentialities of observing spatially localized inhomogeneities by the low-frequency low-mode pulsed diffraction tomography in a shallow sea are analyzed. A numerically simulated model is used to study the procedure of reconstructing the parameters of inhomogeneities by coprocessing the signals of the tomographic projections formed at the multistatic excitation and reception of low-frequency low-mode acoustic pulses.