Density fluctuations in the presence of spinodal instabilities

Density fluctuations resulting from spinodal decomposition in a nonequilibrium first-order chiral phase transition are explored. We show that such instabilities generate divergent fluctuations of conserved charges along the isothermal spinodal lines appearing in the coexistence region. Thus, divergent density fluctuations could be a signal not only for the critical end point but also for the first-order phase transition expected in strongly interacting matter. We also compute the mean-field critical exponent at the spinodal lines. Our analysis is performed in the mean-field approximation to the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model formulated at finite temperature and density. However, our main conclusions are expected to be generic and model independent.     

The functional renormalization group and O(4) scaling

The critical behavior of the chiral quark-meson model is studied within the Functional Renormalization Group (FRG). We derive the flow equation for the scale-dependent thermodynamic potential at finite temperature and density in the presence of a symmetry-breaking external field. We perform a set of approximations to formulate and solve the FRG flow equation in the presence of fermionic degrees of freedom and test their influence on the O(4) critical properties expected in the quark-meson model. Within this scheme, the critical scaling behavior of the order parameter, its transverse and longitudinal susceptibilities as well as the correlation lengths near the chiral phase transition are computed for vanishing baryon density. We focus on the scaling properties of these observables at non-vanishing external field when approaching the critical point from the symmetric as well as from the broken phase. We confront our numerical results with the Widom–Griffiths form of the magnetic equation of state, obtained by a systematic ε expansion of the scaling function.     

The imaginary part of the nucleon optical potential in nuclear matter

We show that the energy dependence of the real part of the optical potential, or equivalently the effective mass of nucleons in nuclear matter, gives significant corrections to the imaginary part calculated with either impulse approximation or Brueckner's theory. These corrections greatly reduce the difference between theoretical and empirical strengths of the imaginary potential.     

The centrifugal stretching model and the deviation from the L(L+1) rule for rare-earth nuclei

The deviation from the L(L+1) rule for the deformed rare-earth nuclei is formulated in terms of the centrifugal stretching model of Sood. A two-parameter formula is presented which reproduces the general experimental trend. The result is discussed and compared with the results of Sood and Holmberg.     

Ring diagrams,Landau parameters,pion condensation and the binding energy of nuclear matter

We calculate all direct π-exchange ring diagrams to arbitrary orders in nuclear matter. Our model incorporates intermediate Δ(1236) resonances, correlations, ρ- as well as π-meson exchange and mesonic form factors. We find that the convergence of the diagram summation is governed by two quantities which have an immediate physical interpretation: the Landau parameter G'₀ and the threshold for pion condensation. The contribution to the energy of nuclear matter from terms of third and higher order is 2 MeV/particle (repulsion) at normal density, with a strong density dependence.     

Changes in intratumor heterogeneity in blood perfusion in intradermal human melanoma xenografts during tumor growth assessed by DCE-MRI

The purpose of this study was to use dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) to search for systematic intratumor heterogeneity in blood perfusion in human melanoma xenografts growing intradermally in BALB/c-nu/nu mice. Six xenografted tumors of an amelanotic human melanoma line (A-07) were included in the study. DCE-MRI was performed daily for 5 days by using spoiled-gradient recalled sequences. Tumor images of E.F (E is initial extraction fraction and F is perfusion) were produced by subjecting DCE-MRI data to Kety analysis. E.F was used as a measure of tumor blood perfusion, since comparative studies have shown that E.F is closely related to blood perfusion in A-07 tumors. The E.F images indicated that the intratumor heterogeneity in blood perfusion was similar in all investigated tumors. The blood perfusion was low in the center of the tumors and increased toward the tumor periphery in the dorsal and ventral direction by a factor of 3-4, but not in the lateral and medial direction. The magnitude of the heterogeneity increased by a factor of approximately 2 during tumor growth. In conclusion, intradermal human melanoma xenografts show significant systematic intratumor heterogeneity in blood perfusion.     

Polarization contributions to the spin dependence of the effective interaction in neutron matter

We calculate the modification of the effective interaction of particles on the Fermi surface due to polarization contributions, with particular attention to spin-dependent forces. In addition to the standard spin-spin, tensor, and spin-orbit forces, spin nonconserving effective interactions are induced by screening in the particle-hole channels. Furthermore, a novel long-wavelength tensor force is generated. We compute the polarization contributions to second order in the low-momentum interaction V(low k) and find that the medium-induced spin-orbit interaction leads to a reduction of the 3P2 pairing gap for neutrons in the interior of neutron stars.     

The Coloring Ideal and Coloring Complex of a Graph

Let G be a simple graph on d vertices. We define a monomial ideal K in the Stanley-Reisner ring A of the order complex of the Boolean algebra on d atoms. The monomials in K are in one-to-one correspondence with the proper colorings of G. In particular, the Hilbert polynomial of K equals the chromatic polynomial of G.The ideal K is generated by square-free monomials, so A/K is the Stanley-Reisner ring of a simplicial complex C. The h-vector of C is a certain transformation of the tail T(n) = n ^d – (n) of the chromatic polynomial of G. The combinatorial structure of the complex C is described explicitly and it is shown that the Euler characteristic of C equals the number of acyclic orientations of G.     

Structural rearrangements and magic numbers in reactions between pyridine-containing water clusters and ammonia

Molecular cluster ions H(+)(H(2)O)(n), H(+)(pyridine)(H(2)O)(n), H(+)(pyridine)(2)(H(2)O)(n), and H(+)(NH(3))(pyridine)(H(2)O)(n) (n = 16-27) and their reactions with ammonia have been studied experimentally using a quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Abundance spectra, evaporation spectra, and reaction branching ratios display magic numbers for H(+)(NH(3))(pyridine)(H(2)O)(n) and H(+)(NH(3))(pyridine)(2)(H(2)O)(n) at n = 18, 20, and 27. The reactions between H(+)(pyridine)(m)(H(2)O)(n) and ammonia all seem to involve intracluster proton transfer to ammonia, thus giving clusters of high stability as evident from the loss of several water molecules from the reacting cluster. The pattern of the observed magic numbers suggest that H(+)(NH(3))(pyridine)(H(2)O)(n) have structures consisting of a NH(4)(+)(H(2)O)(n) core with the pyridine molecule hydrogen-bonded to the surface of the core. This is consistent with the results of high-level ab initio calculations of small protonated pyridine/ammonia/water clusters.     

The unimolecular chemistry of protonated glycine and the proton affinity of glycine: a computational model

The potential energy hypersurface of protonated glycine, GH⁺, has been investigated. The calculated G2(MP2) value for the proton affinity (PA) of glycine, PA _calc=895kJ mol⁻¹, is in good agreement with the experimental value which has been estimated to lie in the range 864kJ mol⁻¹ < PA _exp <891kJ mol⁻¹. Ab initio quantum chemical calculations of relevant parts of the potential energy surface of GH⁺ give a reaction model which is consistent with the observed mass spectrometric fragmentation pattern. The lowest energy unimolecular reactions of GH⁺ are two distinct processes: (1) loss of CO, which has a substantial barrier for the reverse reaction, and (2) loss of CO plus H₂O, which has no barrier for the reverse reaction. Received: 15 November 1996 / Accepted: 6 May 1997