Stop coannihilation in the CMSSM and SubGUT models

Stop coannihilation may bring the relic density of heavy supersymmetric dark matter particles into the range allowed by cosmology. The efficiency of this process is enhanced by stop-antistop annihilations into the longitudinal (Goldstone) modes of the W and Z bosons, as well as by Sommerfeld enhancement of stop annihilations and the effects of bound states. Since the couplings of the stops to the Goldstone modes are proportional to the trilinear soft supersymmetry-breaking A-terms, these annihilations are enhanced when the A-terms are large. However, the Higgs mass may be reduced below the measured value if the A-terms are too large. Unfortunately, the interpretation of this constraint on the stop coannihilation strip is clouded by differences between the available Higgs mass calculators. For our study, we use as our default calculator FeynHiggs 2.13.0, the most recent publicly available version of this code. Exploring the CMSSM parameter space, we find that along the stop coannihilation strip the masses of the stops are severely split by the large A-terms. This suppresses the Higgs mass drastically for \(\mu \) and \(A_0 > 0\), whilst the extent of the stop coannihilation strip is limited for \(A_0 < 0\) and either sign of \(\mu \). However, in sub-GUT models, reduced renormalization-group running mitigates the effect of the large A-terms, allowing larger LSP masses to be consistent with the Higgs mass calculation. We give examples where the dark matter particle mass may reach \(\gtrsim 8\) TeV.     

Solid energy calibration standards for P K‐edge XANES: electronic structure analysis of PPh4Br

P K‐edge X‐ray absorption near‐edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy is a powerful method for analyzing the electronic structure of organic and inorganic phosphorus compounds. Like all XANES experiments, P K‐edge XANES requires well defined and readily accessible calibration standards for energy referencing so that spectra collected at different beamlines or under different conditions can be compared. This is especially true for ligand K‐edge X‐ray absorption spectroscopy, which has well established energy calibration standards for Cl (Cs₂CuCl₄) and S (Na₂S₂O₃·5H₂O), but not neighboring P. This paper presents a review of common P K‐edge XANES energy calibration standards and analysis of PPh₄Br as a potential alternative. The P K‐edge XANES region of commercially available PPh₄Br revealed a single, highly resolved pre‐edge feature with a maximum at 2146.96 eV. PPh₄Br also showed no evidence of photodecomposition when repeatedly scanned over the course of several days. In contrast, we found that PPh₃ rapidly decomposes under identical conditions. Density functional theory calculations performed on PPh₃ and PPh₄⁺ revealed large differences in the molecular orbital energies that were ascribed to differences in the phosphorus oxidation state (III versus V) and molecular charge (neutral versus +1). Time‐dependent density functional theory calculations corroborated the experimental data and allowed the spectral features to be assigned. The first pre‐edge feature in the P K‐edge XANES spectrum of PPh₄Br was assigned to P 1s → P‐C π* transitions, whereas those at higher energy were P 1s → P‐C σ*. Overall, the analysis suggests that PPh₄Br is an excellent alternative to other solid energy calibration standards commonly used in P K‐edge XANES experiments.     

A high-throughput digital imaging screen for the discovery and directed evolution of oxygenases.

BACKGROUND: Oxygenases catalyze the hydroxylation of a wide variety of organic substrates. An ability to alter oxygenase substrate specificities and improve their activities and stabilities using recombinant DNA techniques would expand their use in processes such as chemical synthesis and bioremediation. Discovery and directed evolution of oxygenases require efficient screens that are sensitive to the activities of interest and can be applied to large numbers of crude enzyme samples. RESULTS: Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) couples the phenolic products of hydroxylation of aromatic substrates to generate colored and/or fluorescent compounds that are easily detected spectroscopically in high-throughput screening. Coexpression of the coupling enzyme with a functional mono- or dioxygenase creates a pathway for the conversion of aromatic substrates into fluorescent compounds in vivo. We used this approach for detecting the products of the toluene-dioxygenase-catalyzed hydroxylation of chlorobenzene and to screen large mutant libraries of Pseudomonas putida cytochrome P450cam by fluorescence digital imaging. Colors generated by the HRP coupling reaction are sensitive to the site of oxygenase-catalyzed hydroxylation, allowing the screen to be used to identify catalysts with new or altered regiospecificities. CONCLUSIONS: The coupled oxygenase-peroxidase reaction system is well suited for screening oxygenase libraries to identify mutants with desired features, including higher activity or stability and altered reaction specificity. This approach should also be useful for screening expressed DNA libraries and combinatorial chemical libraries for hydroxylation catalysts and for optimizing oxygenase reaction conditions.     

Ultra‐Precision Surface Machining with Reactive Plasma Jets

Atmospheric Plasma Jet Machining (PJM) is a technology for non‐mechanical ultra‐precision surface shape generation, shape error correction and smoothing based on atmospheric plasma jets. PJM is favorably applied to generate optical surfaces like aspheres, acylinders, or free‐forms but also to improve the surface shape accuracy in a very fast and cost‐efficient way. For that purpose a mainly fluorine containing plasma jet is brought into contact with a surface to locally remove material by a chemical reaction forming volatile products. Hence, the technology is limited to materials like silicon, fused silica and similar, or silicon carbide. Furthermore, the etch profile results from a convolution of the radical and the temperature distribution at the surface. Since the temperature distribution is also influenced by the plasma jet this leads to a non‐linear dependence of the removal function of the plasma tool on its velocity. Using the dwell‐time algorithm for deterministic surface machining by superposition of the local removal function of the plasma tool an advanced process simulation is necessary. In a first local approximation the velocity dependence of the removal function, which has to be determined previously, must be incorporated. Second order thermal effects due to inhomogeneous heating caused by the part geometry and the tool path can be managed by a sophisticated calculation of the surface temperature evolution during machining based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). With the help of this procedure the accuracy and convergence of the machining process can be significantly improved. In the article several examples of surface processing using plasma jet machining are presented. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The microscopic visualisation of the sonocrystallisation of ice using a novel ultrasonic cold stage

This work reports dynamic video images of the influence of ultrasonic cavitation on the sonocrystallisation of ice at a microscopic level. This has been achieved through the construction of a unique ultrasonic system for an optical microscope. The system consists of (1). an ultrasonic cold stage, (2). a temperature control system, and (3). a microscope and imaging setup. This allows the temperature of a sample to be systematically controlled while it is subjected to simultaneous excitation with alternating pressures in the ultrasonic frequency range. Both the amplitude of excitation and the frequency can be varied. Experiments on ice crystals in pure water and sucrose solutions were conducted. Three distinct phenomena were observed. Firstly, there is a tendency for cavitation bubbles to form at the grain boundaries between ice crystals. Secondly, there is a progressive melting of ice by cavitation bubbles which appear to eat their way into the ice phase. Thirdly, the dendritic ice structures may fragment under the influence of ultrasound, thus increasing the number of nuclei which may subsequently grow (secondary nucleation). These observations form the basis of a significantly enhanced understanding and exploitation of the sonocrystallisation of ice.     

Emulated super-resolution using quantitative phase microscopy

In the case of coherent illumination, knowledge of the phase and the amplitude of a light wave constitutes complete information. Phase and amplitude information can now be simply acquired using the technique of quantitative phase microscopy. It has been shown that this information allows other imaging modalities to be emulated. In this paper we consider how this information may be used to perform a form of super-resolution by emulating the effect of an annular pupil.     

Chiral mirror and optical resonator designs for circularly polarized light: suppression of cross-polarized reflectances and transmittances

A left-handed chiral sculptured thin film (STF) that reflects strongly at the wavelength of the circular Bragg resonance tends to partially convert the handedness of incident LCP (left-circularly-polarized) light to RCP (right-circularly-polarized). We show that the cross-polarized component of the reflected RCP beam can be eliminated by interference with an additional RCP beam that is reflected at the interface of an isotropic cover and an AR (antireflecting) layer. For best results the refractive index and thickness of the AR layer need to accommodate a phase change on reflection that occurs at the chiral film. Effective suppression of the reflectances R_RR, R_RL, R_LR and the transmittances T_RL, T_LR can be achieved by sandwiching the chiral reflector between such amplitude and phase-matched AR coatings. Co-polarized chiral reflectors of this type may form efficient handed optical resonators. For LCP light the optical properties of such a handed resonator are formally the same as the properties of the isotropic passive or active Fabry–Perot resonators, but the handed resonator is transparent to RCP light.     

Supramolecular aspects of iron(II) crown-dipyridyl spin-crossover compounds

The synthesis, structures and magnetism of the complexes [Fe^II(3-bpp)₂][bpmdcK](SeCN)_1.7(ClO₄)_1.3·MeOH·H₂O (1), [Fe^II(3-bpp)₂]₄[bpmdcH₂(H₂O)₂](ClO₄)₁₀·7H₂O·3MeOH (2) and cis-[Fe^II₂(NCSe)₂((3,5-Me₂pz)₃CH)₂(μ-bpmdc)]·2MeCN (3) (where 3-bpp = 2,6-di(pyrazole-3yl)pyridine, bpmdc = N,N′-bis(4-pyridyl-methyl)diaza-18-crown-6) and (3,5-Me₂pz)₃CH = tris(3,5-dimethylpyrazole)methane, are presented. These compounds form a study of the supramolecular influence of host–guest/crown-ether interactions and cation-to-crown hydrogen-bonding effects upon d⁶ spin transitions, the latter occurring above, or near to, room temperature in 1 and 2. Desolvation effects also influence the T_1/2 values. The dinuclear compound 3 contains covalent pyridyl (crown) N to Fe bridge bonding and remains high spin.     

Stand-off Raman spectroscopic detection of minerals on planetary surfaces

We have designed and developed two breadboard versions of stand-off Raman spectroscopic systems for landers based on a 5-in. Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope and a small (4-in. diameter) Newtonian telescope receiver. These systems are capable of measuring the Raman spectra of minerals located at a distance of 4.5-66 m from the telescope. Both continuous wave (CW) Ar-ion and frequency doubled Nd:YAG (532 nm) pulsed (20 Hz) lasers are used as excitation sources for measuring remote Raman spectra of rocks and minerals. We have also made complementary measurements on the same rock samples with a micro-Raman system in 180 and 135 degrees geometry for evaluating the system performance and for estimating effect of grain size and laser-induced heating on the spectra of minerals using alpha-quartz as a model mineral. A field portable remote pulsed Raman spectroscopic system based on the 5-in. telescope and an f/2.2 spectrograph has been developed and tested. We have also demonstrated a prototype of a combined Raman and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system, capable of providing major element composition and mineralogical information on both biogenic and inorganic minerals at a distance of 10 m from the receiver.     

Utilizing Experiment and Theory to Evaluate Rhodamine B ethylenediamine as a Fluorescent Sensor for G-type Nerve Agents

Nerve gas mimic binding with Rhodamine B ethylenediamine (1) was studied in organic media. Binding of the nerve gas mimic, diethyl chlorophosphate (DCP), with the probe generated a non-fluorescent intermediate and a fluorescent product. Fluorescent and non-fluorescent products generated were identified using mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations were also used to investigate the electronic structure of the fluorescent probe in the ground and lowest lying π?→?π* singlet excited state. Though good agreement between theory and experiment can be obtained for the intense peak in the experimental spectrum using non-hybrid functionals, care must be taken when modelling these complexes due to the appearance of an n?→?π* transition that is too low in energy and appears to fall in the shoulders of the π?→?π* transitions.