What Oxidation State of Iron Determines the Amethyst Colour?

A colourless quartz crystal doped with ⁵⁷Fe³⁺ was obtained by hydrothermal synthesis in an NH₄F solution. The crystal was transformed into violet amethyst by gamma-irradiation. The change in colour was accompanied by changes in the Mössbauer spectrum that can be interpreted as the conversion of trivalent iron into the tetravalent state: Fe³⁺→Fe⁴⁺.

     

The mechanism of emission in the red photoluminescence band of porous silicon

Porous silicon (PS) exhibits several photoluminescence (PL) bands, whose spectral position and intensity depend strongly on the actual conditions of preparation of PS, its treatment, and subsequent use. The PS PL band peaking at about 1.8 eV and usually assigned to the intrinsic emission of silicon nanocrystals was studied. It was shown that the temperature-induced variation of the PL kinetics in the 80 to 300-K interval follows a complex pattern and depends noticeably on the actual point on the band profile. The temperature behavior of PL decay in the 1.8-eV band is determined by the electron-hole recombination rate within a nanocrystal and the cascade carrier transitions from small to large nanocrystals, with an attendant decrease in energy.     

Investigations of low- and high-spin states of <Superscript>132</Superscript>La

The fusion evaporation reaction ¹²²Sn(¹⁴N, 4n)¹³²La was used to populate the high-spin states of ¹³²La at the beam energy of 60 MeV. A new band consisting of mostly E2 transitions has been discovered. This band has the interesting links to the ground state 2^- and the isomeric state 6^-. A new transition of energy 351 keV connecting the low-spin states of the positive-parity band based on the πh _11/2 ⊗ νh _11/2 particle configuration, has been found. This has played a very important role in resolving the existing ambiguities and inconsistencies in the spin assignment of the band head. Received: 12 August 2002 / Accepted: 18 March 2003 / Published online: 7 May 2003     

A fast method to measure the thickness of removed layer from etching of SSNTD based on EDXRF

Solid state nuclear track detectors are commonly used for measurements of concentrations of radon gas and/or radon progeny. All these measurements depend critically on the thickness of the removed layer during etching. However, the thickness of removed layer calculated using the etching period does not necessarily provide a sufficiently accurate measure of the thickness. For example, the bulk etch rate depends on the strength of stirring during etching for the LR 115 detector. We propose here to measure the thickness of the removed layer by using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. In the present work, a reference silver nitrate pellet is placed beneath the LR 115 detector, and the fluorescence X-ray intensity for silver is then measured. We have found a linear relationship between the X-ray intensity and the thickness of the removed layer for LR 115 detector. This provides a fast method to measure the thickness of removed layer from etching of LR 115 detector. However, this method was found to be inapplicable for the CR-39 detector. Therefore, alternative methods have yet to be explored for the CR-39 detector.     

Optimal entropic uncertainty relation for successive measurements in quantum information theory

We derive an optimal bound on the sum of entropic uncertainties of two or more observables when they are sequentially measured on the same ensemble of systems. This optimal bound is shown to be greater than or equal to the bounds derived in the literature on the sum of entropie uncertainties of two observables which are measured on distinct but identically prepared ensembles of systems. In the case of a two-dimensional Hilbert space, the optimum bound for successive measurements of two-spin components, is seen to be strictly greater than the optimal bound for the case when they are measured on distinct ensembles, except when the spin components are mutually parallel or perpendicular     

Angular correlations in the decays of two unstable identical particles with close momenta

For the decay of two identical particles with close momenta, the angular correlations between the directions of emission of decay products are considered on the basis of the model of independent single-particle sources emitting unstable unpolarized particles of nonzero spin. These correlations reflect spin correlations that are caused by quantum-statistics and final-state-interaction effects. A general theory of angular correlations in the decays of two arbitrarily polarized particles (resonances) is constructed.     

A priori estimates and existence of positive solutions for strongly nonlinear problems

In this paper we study the existence of positive solutions for a nonlinear Dirichlet problem involving the m-Laplacian. The nonlinearity considered depends on the first derivatives; in such case, variational methods cannot be applied. So, we make use of topological methods to prove the existence of solutions. We combine a blow-up argument and a Liouville-type theorem to obtain a priori estimates. Some Harnack-type inequalities which are needed in our reasonings are also proved.     

An algorithm to locate perinatal facilities in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro

In order to reduce infant mortality in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro it is desired to encourage all mothers-to-be to attend the appropriate health care facilities. A 3-level hierarchical prenatal–neonatal health care system is described together with a basic model for optimising accessibility to facilities. A genetic algorithm to solve the basic model is developed and some numerical experience reported. Extensions to the basic model and planned future research are briefly indicated.     

2,9-disubstituted 1,10-phenanthroline nickel complexes: Syntheses,characterization, and their ethylene oligomerization

Nickel complexes 1–4 ligated with 2,9-disubstituted-1,10-phenanthroline were synthesized and characterized by FT-IR spectra and elemental analysis. The molecular structure of complex 2 was confirmed by X-ray crystal diffraction analysis. Activated with methylaluminoxane (MAO), those complexes showed moderate activities for ethylene oligomerization. Published in Kinetika i Kataliz, 2007, Vol. 48, No. 5, pp. 710–714. This article was submitted by the authors in English.