Inclusion of carbon nanotubes in a TiO2 sol-gel matrix

We report here the successful inclusion of carbon nanotubes (CNs) into a TiO₂ matrix prepared by a sol-gel method. The presence of CNs in the sol-gel matrix and the structure of the film were analyzed principally by transmission electron microscopy. Complementary information about the behavior of embedded carbon nanotubes versus heat treatment and ion irradiation were obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The elaboration of an inorganic matrix containing embedded carbon nanotubes leads to a new nanocomposite. The possible applications of this nanocomposite are discussed.     

Effect of trapping centers of luminescent properties of bismuth orthogermanate

Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 54, No. 6, pp. 970–975, June, 1991.     

Magnetic charge type equations from torsion

It is shown that torsion can be built from two independent vector fields, and that these vector fields obey, for the Lagrangian chosen, the equations of electromagnetism with magnetic charge from the two photon formalism. The equation of motion follows from the Bianchi identity ofU ₄ spacetime, and finally the interpretation of these fields is discussed.     

Fluorescence spectra of different configurations of the diphenyl molecule in solid paraffin solutions

Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 212–217, August, 1989.     

Positive definite functions on the Heisenberg group

Work supported in part by the NSF     

Absence of shocks in an initially dilute collisionless plasma

The Cauchy Problem for the relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell equations is studied in three space dimensions. It is assumed that the initial data satisfy the required constraints and have compact support. If in addition the data have sufficiently smallC ² norm, then a uniqueC ¹ solution to this system is shown to exist on all of spacetime.Research supported in part by NSF DMS 85-20662 and NSF DMS 84-20957     

Observation of the nonlinear effect in relativistic Thomson scattering of electron and laser beams

Thomson scattering of high-power laser and electron beams is a good test of electrodynamics in the high-field region. We demonstrated production of high-intensity X-rays in the head-on collision of a CO₂ laser and 60-MeV electron beams at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Accelerator Test Facility. The energy of an X-ray photon was limited at 6.5 keV in the linear (lowest order) Thomson scattering, but the nonlinear (higher order) process produces higher energy X-rays. We measured the angular distribution of the high-energy X-rays and confirmed that it agrees with theoretical predictions.     

Advantages of NIR radiation use for optical determination of skin horny layer thickness with embedded TiO2 nanoparticles during tape stripping procedure

The tape stripping technique is an experimental method frequently used for reconstruction of the in-depth distribution of various topically administered substances within the horny layer of human skin, e.g., compounds contained in sunscreens. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles (25–200 nm in diameter) are one such compound. Optical techniques which apply blue light are found to be suitable for reconstruction. However, the presence of particles affects the light propagation within the skin and therefore causes incorrect determination of strip thickness, leading to an improper reconstructed distribution of nanoparticle concentration revealed from the experimental data. This study evaluates the errors emerging from the use of blue (400 nm) and NIR (800 nm) radiation and finds the use of longer wavelength light more advantageous. Particles of different diameters are considered, and it is revealed that the application of small particles (25–60 nm) results in the lowest rate of error.     

General coordinate invariance and conformal invariance in nonrelativistic physics: Unitary Fermi gas

We show that the Lagrangian for interacting nonrelativistic particles can be coupled to an external gauge field and metric tensor in a way that exhibits a nonrelativistic version of general coordinate invariance. We explore the consequences of this invariance on the example of the degenerate Fermi gas at infinite scattering length, where conformal invariance also plays an important role. We find the most general effective Lagrangian consistent with both general coordinate and conformal invariance to leading and next-to-leading orders in the momentum expansion. At the leading order the Lagrangian contains one phenomenological constant and reproduces the results of the Thomas-Fermi theory and superfluid hydrodynamics. At the next-to-leading order there are two additional constants. We express various physical quantities through these constants.     

On non-Fermi liquid quantum critical points in heavy fermion metals

Heavy electron metals on the verge of a quantum phase transition to magnetism show a number of unusual non-Fermi liquid properties which are poorly understood. This article discusses in a general way various theoretical aspects of this phase transition with an eye toward understanding the non-Fermi liquid phenomena. We suggest that the non-Fermi liquid quantum critical state may have a sharp Fermi surface with power law quasiparticles but with a volume not set by the usual Luttinger rule. We also discuss the possibility that the electronic structure change associated with the possible Fermi surface reconstruction may diverge at a different time/length scale from that associated with magnetic phenomena.