The Spatial Dependence of Spin-Echo Signals

The signals in NMR spin echoes which are refocused by 90° pulses are spatially modulated. The spatial modulation is not normally observed in images or profiles obtained using Hahn or stimulated echoes, but may cause errors if the sample structure varies on the distance scale of the modulation. Localized spectra measured using stimulated echoes will also show errors under these conditions. Simple Fourier-transform arguments show that conditions which allow the modulation to become visible in an image or profile have the effect of introducing a second echo into the time-domain acquisition window. Phase cycling may be used to remove the spatial dependence of the signals.     

Modification of ligand properties of phosphine ligands for C-C and C-N bond-forming reactions

A series of ligands have been prepared for use in Pd-catalysed coupling reactions to form C-C and C-N bonds; significant differences are exhibited by similar ligands containing different phosphorus substituents.     

Mössbauer mineralogy on the Moon: The lunar regolith

A first-order requirement for spacecraft missions that land on solid planetary objects is instrumentation for mineralogical analyses. For purposes of providing diagnostic information about naturally-occurring materials, the element iron is particularly important because it is abundant and multivalent. Knowledge of the oxidation state of iron and its distribution among iron-bearing mineralogies tightly constrains the types of materials present and provides information about formation and modification (weathering) processes. Because Mössbauer spectroscopy is sensitive to both the valence of iron and its local chemical environment, the technique is unique in providing information about both the relative abundance of iron-bearing phases and oxidation state of the iron. The Mössbauer mineralogy of lunar regolith samples (primarily soils from the Apollo 16 and 17 missions to the Moon) were measured in the laboratory to demonstrate the strength of the technique for in-situ mineralogical exploration of the Moon. The regolith samples were modeled as mixtures of five iron-bearing phases: olivine, pyroxene, glass, ilmenite, and metal. Based on differences in relative proportions of iron associated with these phases, volcanic-ash regolith can be distinguished from impact-derived regolith, impact-derived soils of different geologic affinity (e.g., highlands and maria) can be distinguished on the basis of their constituent minerals, and soil maturity can be estimated. The total resonant absorption area of the Mössbauer spectrum can be used to estimate total FeO concentrations.     

Muonium diffusion in “dirty” solid krypton

Muonium spin dynamics in solid krypton in the presence of deliberately introduced impurities has been studied in the temperature range from 2 K to 115 K. At temperatures up to 40 K, muonium transverse relaxation rate turns out to be virtually unaffected by impurities. This implies that the Mu energy level shifts in the neighboring wells induced by impurities are smaller than the characteristic Mu activation energy in the one‐phonon regime of quantum diffusion. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Entropy bounds for endomorphisms commuting withK actions

Shereshevsky has shown that a shift-commuting homeomorphism from the two-dimensional full shift to itself cannot be expansive, and asked if such a homeomorphism can have finite positive entropy. We formulate an algebraic analogue of this problem, and answer it in a special case by proving the following: ifT : X → X is a mixing endomorphism of a compact metrizable abelian groupX, andT commutes with a completely positive entropyZ ²-actionS onX by continuous automorphisms, thenT has infinite entropy. Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Elizabeth Mary Hartley (1923–1998) The authors gratefully acknowledge support from EPSRC award no. 9570016X, N.S.F. grant No. DMS-94-01093, and the hospitality of the Warwick Mathematics Research Institute.     

Reduction kinetics of ceria surface by hydrogen

Powdered cerium dioxide (ceria, CeO₂) as compressed, sintered pellets, of porosity 16.4% and density 5.99 g cm^?3, were treated in hydrogen flow at 1 atm and various temperatures to effect reduction. The electrical conductivity was measured in situ during the reduction process. The conductivity increased continuously during the hydrogen treatment because of the creation of anion vacancies and accompanying small polaron electrons. The conductivity–time relationship exhibits three distinct regions indicated as I, II, and III. For each of steps I and II, the conductivity increases exponentially with the reduction. It is suggested from the kinetic analysis of the data that region I is due to desorption of adsorbed oxygen states. Region II appears to be the reduction of surface lattice oxygen. The kinetics of the reactions in both regions I and II obey first‐order rate laws with similar activation energies of 86 and 115 kJ mol^?1, respectively. Thermogravimetric experiments were used to determine the time needed to remove one monolayer of adsorbed oxygen from the surface. This could be used to estimate the activation energy of the desorption process at 95 kJ mol^?1—close to the value measured by conductivity measurements. After completing the surface reduction the electrical conductivity subsequently increased slowly during region III. This step is assigned to a diffusion‐controlled process during which the bulk of the pellets are reduced. ¹H MASNMR and in situ PXRD experiments confirmed the chemical nature of each of the three steps. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 36: 293–301, 2004     

T2* measurements in human brain at 1.5, 3 and 7 T

Measurements have been carried out in six subjects at magnetic fields of 1.5, 3 and 7 T, with the aim of characterizing the variation of T2* with field strength in human brain. Accurate measurement of T2* in the presence of macroscopic magnetic field inhomogeneity is problematic due to signal decay resulting from through-slice dephasing. The approach employed here allowed the signal decay due to through-slice dephasing to be characterized and removed from data, thus facilitating an accurate measurement of T2* even at ultrahigh field. Using double inversion recovery turbo spin-echo images for tissue classification, an analysis of T2* relaxation times in cortical grey matter and white matter was carried out, along with an evaluation of the variation of T2* with field strength in the caudate nucleus and putamen. The results show an approximately linear increase in relaxation rate R2* with field strength for all tissues, leading to a greater range of relaxation times across tissue types at 7 T that can be exploited in high-resolution T2*-weighted imaging.     

Gaussian potentials facilitate access to quantum Hall states in rotating Bose gases

Through exact numerical diagonalization for small numbers of atoms, we show that it is possible to access quantum Hall states in harmonically confined Bose gases at rotation frequencies well below the centrifugal limit by applying a repulsive Gaussian potential at the trap center. The main idea is to reduce or eliminate the effective trapping frequency in regions where the particle density is appreciable. The critical rotation frequency required to obtain the bosonic Laughlin state can be fixed at an experimentally accessible value by choosing an applied Gaussian whose amplitude increases linearly with the number of atoms while its width increases as the square root.