Manganese doping effects on interband electronic transitions,lattice vibrations,and dielectric functions of perovskite-type Ba<Subscript>0.4</Subscript>Sr<Subscript>0.6</Subscript>TiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> ferroelectric ceramics

The Ba_0.4Sr_0.6−x Mn _x TiO₃ (BSMT) ceramics with different Mn composition (from 1% to 10%) have been prepared via the conventional solid-state reaction sintering. The X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the ceramics are polycrystalline with the single perovskite phase. The lattice vibrations and optical properties have been investigated using Raman scattering, spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), and infrared reflectance spectra. It was found that the optical bandgap for the BSMT ceramics is varied between 3.40 and 3.65 eV. The three first-order Raman-active phonon modes can be observed, and the frequency of the A ₁(LO₃)/E(LO) mode shows a blue shift of 8 cm⁻¹ with the Mn composition, which can be attributed to the distortion of the TiO₆ octahedron. With increasing Mn composition, the frequency of the infrared-active TO₄ mode decreases from 532 to 520 cm⁻¹, owing to the local variation of the lattice constant induced by the Mn incorporation. Moreover, the optical functions of the ceramics from the far-infrared to ultraviolet region are obtained based on the SE and reflectance spectra, which is useful for the potential applications in ferroelectric-based optoelectronic devices.     

Release of ultrafine particles from three simulated building processes

Building activities are recognised to produce coarse particulate matter but less is known about the release of airborne ultrafine particles (UFPs; those below 100 nm in diameter). For the first time, this study has investigated the release of particles in the 5–560 nm range from three simulated building activities: the crushing of concrete cubes, the demolition of old concrete slabs, and the recycling of concrete debris. A fast response differential mobility spectrometer (Cambustion DMS50) was used to measure particle number concentrations (PNC) and size distributions (PNDs) at a sampling frequency of 10 Hz in a confined laboratory room providing controlled environment and near–steady background PNCs. The sampling point was intentionally kept close to the test samples so that the release of new UFPs during these simulated processes can be quantified. Tri–modal particle size distributions were recorded for all cases, demonstrating different peak diameters in fresh nuclei (<10 nm), nucleation (10–30 nm) and accumulation (30–300 nm) modes for individual activities. The measured background size distributions showed modal peaks at about 13 and 49 nm with average background PNCs ~1.47 × 10⁴ cm⁻³. These background modal peaks shifted towards the larger sizes during the work periods (i.e. actual experiments) and the total PNCs increased between 2 and 17 times over the background PNCs for different activities. After adjusting for background concentrations, the net release of PNCs during cube crushing, slab demolition, and ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ recycling events were measured as ~0.77, 19.1, 22.7 and 1.76 (×10⁴) cm⁻³, respectively. The PNDs were converted into particle mass concentrations (PMCs). While majority of new PNC release was below 100 nm (i.e. UFPs), the bulk of new PMC emissions were constituted by the particles over 100 nm; ~95, 79, 73 and 90% of total PNCs, and ~71, 92, 93 and 91% of total PMCs, for cube crushing, slab demolition, dry recycling and wet recycling, respectively. The results of this study firmly elucidate the release of UFPs and raise a need for further detailed studies and designing health and safety related exposure guidelines for laboratory workplaces and operational building sites.     

Revealing Bell’s nonlocality for unstable systems in high energy physics

Entanglement and its consequences—in particular the violation of Bell inequalities, which defies our concepts of realism and locality—have been proven to play key roles in Nature by many experiments for various quantum systems. Entanglement can also be found in systems not consisting of ordinary matter and light, i.e. in massive meson–antimeson systems. Bell inequalities have been discussed for these systems, but up to date no direct experimental test to conclusively exclude local realism was found. This mainly stems from the fact that one only has access to a restricted class of observables and that these systems are also decaying. In this Letter we put forward a Bell inequality for unstable systems which can be tested at accelerator facilities with current technology. Herewith, the long awaited proof that such systems at different energy scales can reveal the sophisticated “dynamical” nonlocal feature of Nature in a direct experiment gets feasible. Moreover, the role of entanglement and CP\mathcal{CP} violation, an asymmetry between matter and antimatter, is explored, a special feature offered only by these meson–antimeson systems.     

Do we know the mass of a black hole? Mass of some cosmological black hole models

Using a cosmological black hole model proposed recently, we have calculated the quasi-local mass of a collapsing structure within a cosmological setting due to different definitions put forward in the last decades to see how similar or different they are. It has been shown that the mass within the horizon follows the familiar Brown–York behavior. It increases, however, outside the horizon again after a short decrease, in contrast to the Schwarzschild case. Further away, near the void, outside the collapsed region, and where the density reaches the background minimum, all the mass definitions roughly coincide. They differ, however, substantially far from it. Generically, we are faced with three different Brown–York mass maxima: near the horizon, around the void between the overdensity region and the background, and another at cosmological distances corresponding to the cosmological horizon. While the latter two maxima are always present, the horizon mass maxima is absent before the onset of the central singularity.     

Precise measurement of the CP violation parameter sin2φ1 in B0→(cc¯)K0 decays

We present a precise measurement of the CP violation parameter sin2φ1 and the direct CP violation parameter A(f) using the final data sample of 772×10(6) BB[over ˉ] pairs collected at the Υ(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) collider. One neutral B meson is reconstructed in a J/ψK(S)(0), ψ(2S)K(S)(0), χ(c1)K(S)(0), or J/ψK(L)(0) CP eigenstate and its flavor is identified from the decay products of the accompanying B meson. From the distribution of proper-time intervals between the two B decays, we obtain the following CP violation parameters: sin2φ1=0.667±0.023(stat)±0.012(syst) and A(f)=0.006±0.016(stat)±0.012(syst).     

One-dimensional model of inhomogeneous shear in sliding

The paper briefly describes a one-dimensional dynamic model of plastic shear deformation in a material surface layer in sliding friction, giving grounds to the reduction of the problem dimension from 3D to 1D. A selection of simulation results is presented to illustrate the peculiarities of plastic deformation under the action of two competitive processes — work hardening and thermal softening due to frictional heating. Presented also are experimental data on which to base the conclusion on the possibility of surface layer flow similar to flow of a viscous fluid. To assess from the Reynolds number whether turbulization of the surface layer is feasible, simulation results are used.     

Birefringence imaging of human skin by polarization-sensitive spectral interferometric optical coherence tomography

We have developed a spectral interferometric optical coherence tomography (OCT) system with polarization sensitivity that is able to measure a two-dimensional tomographic image by means of one-dimensional mechanical scanning. Our system, which has an axial resolution of 32 mum , calculates the distribution of each element of the Müller matrix of a measured object from 16 OCT images. The OCT system successfully reveals the birefringent nature of human skin tissue.     

Many-electron effect in the Fe L3-M4,5M4,5 Auger electron spectrum of ultrathin Fe films grown on Cu(1 0 0)

D’Addato et al. [S. D’Addato, P. Luches, R. Gotter, L. Floreano, D. Cvetko, A. Morgante, A. Newton, D. Martin, P. Unsworth, P. Weightman, Surf. Rev. Lett. 9 (2002) 709] studied the variation with Fe coverages in the relative Fe L₃-M_4,5M_4,5 Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) spectral satellite intensity of ultrathin Fe films grown on Cu(1 0 0) by sweeping photon excitation energy through the Fe L₂-level ionization threshold. They interpreted that the M_4,5 hole in the L₃M_4,5 double-hole state created by the L₂-L₃M_4,5 Coster–Kronig (CK) decay remains localized for longer than the L₃-hole lifetime for the 0.3 and 10 ML coverages but has a lifetime comparable to the L₃-hole lifetime for the 1 ML coverages. The present many-body theory shows that when the M_4,5 hole created either by the CK decay or by the L₃M_4,5 shakeoff hops away from the ionized atomic site and becomes completely screened out prior to the L₃-hole decay, the Fe L₂-L₃M_4,5-L₃-M_4,5M_4,5 AES main line as well as the Fe L₃ M_4,5 (satellite)-L₃-M_4,5M_4,5 one, both of which are identical in line shape to the Fe L₃-M_4,5M_4,5 one, dominate in the Fe CK preceded AES spectrum. The present analysis shows that the delocalization time of the M_4,5 hole created in the 1 ML Fe/Cu(1 0 0) system by the L₂-L₃M_4,5 CK decay is much shorter than the L₃-hole lifetime so that the Fe L₃-M_4,5M_4,5 AES spectral line shape hardly changes, except for the presence of a very weak spectator L₂-L₃M_4,5-M_4,5M_4,5M_4,5 AES satellite, when the photon excitation energy is swept through the Fe L₂-level ionization threshold. For the 0.3 ML coverages the M_4,5-hole delocalization time is still shorter than the L₃-hole lifetime.     

SICs and Algebraic Number Theory

We give an overview of some remarkable connections between symmetric informationally complete measurements (SIC-POVMs, or SICs) and algebraic number theory, in particular, a connection with Hilbert’s 12th problem. The paper is meant to be intelligible to a physicist who has no prior knowledge of either Galois theory or algebraic number theory.     

Models of spherical shells as sources of Majumdar–Papapetrou type spacetimes

By starting with a seed Newtonian potential–density pair we construct relativistic thick spherical shell models for a Majumdar–Papapetrou type conformastatic spacetime. As a simple example, we considerer a family of Plummer–Hernquist type relativistic spherical shells. As a second application, these structures are then used to model a system composite by a dust disk and a halo of matter. We study the equatorial circular motion of test particles around such configurations. Also the stability of the orbits is analyzed for radial perturbation using an extension of the Rayleigh criterion. The models considered satisfying all the energy conditions.