Collisional excitation of Na-Rydberg atoms

The scattering of heavy ion with a multilevel Rydberg atom in the presence of an electromagnetic field is studied. The interaction of Rydberg atom and the e.m field is explored using non-perturbative quasi-energy technique. Although the results are presented for selected excitations but in actual calculations we have included many levels of the atom. The effect of various parameters are shown on collisional excitation process. As an illustration detailed calculations are performed for the inelastic proton-Na Rydberg atom collision accompanied by the transfer of photons and the effects of dressing due to the field are considered. The emphasis of the present work is on collision induced transitions especially the case that involves change of orbital as well as principal quantum number. Received 26 December 2001 / Received in final form 8 April 2002 Published online 19 July 2002     

ω-meson photoproduction on nucleons in the near-threshold region

The European Physical Journal A - The ω-meson photoproduction, γ + p→p + ω, is studied in the framework of a model, containing π-meson exchange in t-channel and...     

Electrical properties of neodymium doped CaBi4Ti4O15 ceramics

Neodymium doped bismuth layer structure ferroelectrics (BLSFs) ceramics CaBi_4−xNd_xTi₄O₁₅ (x=0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75) were prepared by solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction pattern showed that single phase was formed when x=0-0.75. The refined lattice parameters showed that a (b) axes decrease at x=0.25 and increase with more Nd³⁺ dopant. The effects of Nd³⁺ doping on the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of CaBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ ceramics are studied. Nd³⁺ dopant decreased the Curie temperature linearly, and the dielectric loss, tan δ, as well. The remnant polarization of Nd³⁺ doped CaBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ ceramics was increased by 80% at x=0.25, while more Nd³⁺ dopant decreased the remnant polarization. CaBi_3.75Nd_0.25Ti₄O₁₅ ceramics had the largest piezoelectric constant d₃₃. The structure and properties of CaBi_4−xNd_xTi₄O₁₅ ceramics showed that Nd³⁺ may occupy different crystal locations when Nd³⁺ content x is less than 0.25 and more than 0.50.     

Stationary entanglement between macroscopic mechanical oscillators

We show that the optomechanical coupling between an optical cavity mode and two movable cavity mirrors is able to entangle two different macroscopic oscillation modes of the mirrors. This continuous variable entanglement is maintained by the light bouncing between the mirrors and is robust against thermal noise. In fact, it could be experimentally demonstrated using present technology. Received 2 September 2002 / Received in final form 10 October 2002 Published online 7 January 2003     

Frequency Selectivity Behaviour in the Auditory Midbrain： Implications of Model Study

By numerical simulations on frequency dependence of the spiking threshold, i.e. on the critical amplitude of periodic stimulus, for a neuron to fire, we find that bushy cells in the cochlear nuclear exhibit frequency selec- tivity behaviour. However, the selective frequency band of a bushy cell is far away from that of the preferred spectral range in human and mammal auditory perception. The mechanism underlying this neural activity is also discussed. Further studies show that the ion channel densities have little impact on the selective frequency band of bushy cells. These findings suggest that the neuronal behaviour of frequency selectivity in bushy cells at both the single cell and population levels may be not functionally relevant to frequency discrimination. Our results may reveal a neural hint to the reconsideration on the busily cell functional role in auditory information processing of sound frequency.     

Relaxor behavior of (Ba,Sr)(Zr,Ti)O3 ferroelectric ceramics

We examine the ferroelectric-relaxor behavior of (Ba_0.65Sr_0.35)(Zr_0.35Ti_0.65)O₃ (BSZT) ceramics in the temperature range from 80 to 380 K. A broad dielectric maximum, which shifts to higher temperature with increasing frequency, signifies the relaxor-type behavior of these ceramics. The value of the relaxation parameter γ∼2 estimated from the linear fit of the modified Curie-Weiss law, indicates the relaxor nature of the BSZT ceramics. The dielectric relaxation rate follows the Vogel-Fulcher relation with T_VF=107 K, E_a=0.121 eV, and ν₀=6.83×10¹⁴ Hz, further supports such relaxor nature. The slim P-E hysteresis loop and ‘butterfly’ shape dc bias field dependence of permittivity at T>T_m (T_m, the temperature of permittivity maximum) clearly signifies the occurrence of nanopolar clusters, which is the typical characteristic of ferroelectric relaxor. At 300 K and 10 kHz, the dielectric constant and loss tan δ are ∼1100 and 0.0015, respectively. The high tunability (∼25%) and figure of merit (∼130) at room temperature show that the BSZT ceramics could be a promising candidate for tunable capacitor applications.     

Comparative investigation of up-conversion luminescence in Tm/Yb-codoped germanate-niobic and germanium-bismuth glasses: effect of phonon density on up-conversion emission

Tm³⁺/Yb³⁺-codoped germanate-niobic (GN) and germanium-bismuth (GB) glasses have been synthesized by conventional melting and quenching method. Intense blue and weak red emissions centered at 477 and 650 nm, corresponding to the transitions ¹G₄→³H₆ and ¹G₄→³H₄, respectively, were observed at room temperature. The possible up-conversion mechanisms are discussed and estimated. GN glass showed a weaker up-conversion emission than GB glass, which is inconsistent with the prediction from the difference of maximum phonon energy between GN and GB glasses. In this paper, Raman spectroscopy was employed to investigate the origin of the difference in up-conversion luminescence in the two glasses. Compared with phonon side-band spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy extracts more information including both phonon energy and phonon density. For the first time, our results reveal that, besides the maximum phonon energy, the phonon density of host glasses is also an important factor in determining the up-conversion efficiency.     

Note on a conjecture of toft

A conjecture of Toft [17] asserts that any 4-critical graph (or equivalently, every 4-chromatic graph) contains a fully odd subdivision ofK ₄. We show that if a graphG has a degree three nodev such thatG-v is 3-colourable, then eitherG is 3-colourable or it contains a fully oddK ₄. This resolves Toft's conjecture in the special case where a 4-critical graph has a degree three node, which is in turn used to prove the conjecture for line-graphs. The proof is constructive and yields a polynomial algorithm which given a 3-degenerate graph either finds a 3-colouring or exhibits a subgraph that is a fully odd subdivision ofK ₄. (A graph is 3-degenerate if every subgraph has some node of degree at most three.)     

Hard collisions of spinning protons: Past,present and future

There will be a review of the history of polarized proton beams, and a discussion of the unexpected and still unexplained large transverse spin effects found in several high-energy proton-proton spin experiments at the ZGS, AGS and Fermilab. Next, there will be a discussion of present and possible future experiments on the violent elastic collisions of polarized protons at IHEP-Protvino's 70GeV U-70 accelerator in Russia and the new high-intensity 50GeV J-PARC facility being built at Tokai in Japan.     

Second order evolution equations with time-dependent subdifferentials

We study an abstract second order nonlinear evolution equation in a real Hilbert space. We consider time-dependent convex functions and their subdifferentials operating on the first derivative of the unknown function. Introducing appropriate assumptions on the convex functions and other data, we prove the existence and uniqueness of a strong solution, and give some applications of the abstract theorem to hyperbolic variational inequalities with time-dependent constraints.