Cosmological Particle Creation and Dynamical Casimir Effect

We compute particle creation for a real massive scalar field conformally coupled to a spatially closed Robertson–Walker space-time background, with time-dependent scale factor. This is a dynamical Casimir effect with moving boundaries.     

Nonequilibrium Statistical Thermodynamics of Two Dissipative Processes in Solids: Energy Losses of Channeled Particles at Low Velocities and Ultrasound Absorption by Conduction Electrons

We use methods of nonequilibrium statistical thermodynamics to investigate two dissipative processes in solids. We find the electron energy losses of a particle moving in a planar channeling regime and the sound absorption coefficient in metals under electron impurity scattering. The oscillator model is used to analyze the contribution from the effect of electron entrainment by a moving scattering center to the total dissipated energy. We investigate the frequency and temperature dependence of energy losses and also the dependence of the absorption coefficient on the sound wave vector.     

Physics in Melbourne

I survey highlights of the practice of physics and allied sciences in Melbourne,Australia, from the 1850s, soon after Europeans first settled in the area, to the present. I note recognizable sites of past and current physical-science activity that may be visited, as well as exhibits of historic items of physics apparatus. I trace the role of physics, in the course of a century and a half, in the evolution of a pioneering settlement into a large city embedded in a modern industrial economy.     

Sterically stabilized emulsion polymerization of styrene: Pseudo‐semicontinuous approach

The sterically stabilized emulsion polymerization of styrene initiated by a water‐soluble initiator at different temperatures has been investigated. The rate of polymerization (R_p) versus conversion curve shows the two non‐stationary‐rate intervals typical for the polymerization proceeding under non‐stationary‐state conditions. The shape of the R_p versus conversion curve results from two opposite effects—the increased number of particles and the decreased monomer concentration at reaction loci as the polymerization advances. At elevated temperatures the monomer emulsion equilibrates to a two‐phase or three‐phase system. The upper phase is transparent (monomer), and the lower one is blue colored, typical for microemulsion. After stirring such a multiphase system and initiation of polymerization, the initial coarse polymer emulsion was formed. The average size of monomer/polymer particles strongly decreased up to about 40% conversion and then leveled off. The initial large particles are assumed to be highly monomer‐swollen particles formed by the heteroagglomeration of unstable polymer particles and monomer droplets. The size of the “highly monomer” swollen particles continuously decreases with conversion, and they merge with the growing particles at about 40–50% conversion. The monomer droplets and/or large highly monomer‐swollen polymer particles also serve as a reservoir of monomer and emulsifier. The continuous release of nonionic (hydrophobic) emulsifier from the monomer phase increases the colloidal stability of primary particles and the number of polymer particles, that is, the particle nucleation is shifted to the higher conversion region. Variations of the square and cube of the mean droplet radius with aging time indicate that neither the coalescence nor the Ostwald ripening is the main driving force for the droplet instability. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 804–820, 2003     

A method for determining optical constants, dimensions, and concentrations of “soft” absorbing particles in the brightening band region

We investigate the possibilities of creating a method for estimating the optical constants, dimensions, and concentrations of “soft” absorbing particles by applying a theoretical analysis of the angular dependence of the intergrated indicatrix, overall characteristics of light scattering, and absorption on the phase shift and diffraction parameter of particles in the brightening band region. We show that using the investigated optical characteristics, it is possible to determine the unknown parameters of a suspension from experimental data. Institute of Biophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Akademgorodok, Krasnoyarsk, 660036, Russia. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 64, No. 6, pp. 807–812, November–December, 1997.     

Behaviors of the positive temperature coefficient of resistance of poly(styrene‐co‐n‐butylacrylate) filled with Ni‐plated core‐shell polymeric particles

Conductive composite films of poly(styrene‐co‐n‐butylacrylate) copolymers filled with low‐density, Ni‐plated core‐shell polymeric particles were prepared and their behaviors of positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PTCR) were investigated. When the conductive fillers in the composite film were loaded beyond the critical volume, 10 up to 25 vol %, composite films exhibited a unique electrical resistant transition behavior, which the electrical resistance rapidly increased by several orders of magnitude at the critical temperature. The PTCR transition temperature, in general, occurred before the glass transition temperature of polymer matrix. Further increased the conductive filler loading to 30 vol %, the overpacked conduction paths were formed in the entire composite and the PTCR effects became blurred. While the composite film treated with thermal cycle several times from room temperature up to 120 °C, the electrical resistivity increased accompanied with the shift of the PTCR transition to lower temperature. The reason might have been caused by the formed interfacial cracks within the composite film. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 322–329, 2007     

一维接触过程的光滑性与稳定性

本文证明了一维接触过程在适当的小扰动下，其极点平稳分布除在临界点λ＿ｃ处外总是光滑的．特别，一维接触过程本身的极点平稳分布关于其参数除在临界点处外总是光滑的．     

Independence of the brittle–ductile transition from the rubber particle size for impact‐modified poly(vinyl chloride)

A series of acrylic impact modifiers (AIMs) with different particle sizes ranging from 55.2 to 927.0 nm were synthesized by seeded emulsion polymerization, and the effect of the particle size on the brittle–ductile transition of impact‐modified poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was investigated. For each AIM, a series of PVC/AIM blends with compositions of 6, 8, 10, 12, and 15 phr AIM in 100 phr PVC were prepared, and the Izod impact strengths of these blends were tested at 23 °C. For AIMs with particle sizes of 55.2, 59.8, 125.2, 243.2, and 341.1 nm, the blends fractured in the brittle mode when the concentration of AIM was lower than 10 phr, whereas the blends showed ductile fracture when the AIM concentration reached 10 phr. It was concluded that the brittle–ductile transition of the PVC/AIM blends was independent of the particle size in the range of 55.2–341.1 nm. When the particle size was greater than 341.1 nm, however, the brittle–ductile transition shifted to a higher AIM concentration with an increase in the particle size. Furthermore, the critical interparticle distance was found not to be the criterion of the brittle–ductile transition for the PVC/AIM blends. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 696–702, 2006     

Spin interaction with an ideal Fermi gas

We consider the equilibrium dynamics of a system consisting of a spin interacting with an ideal Fermi gas on the lattice , 3. We present two examples: when this system is unitarily equivalent to an ideal Fermi gas or to a spin in an ideal Fermi gas without interaction between them.