Shell effects in the symmetric-modal fission of pre-actinide nuclei

Mass distributions of fragments in the low-energy fission of nuclei from ¹⁸⁷Ir to ²¹³At have been analysed. This analysis has shown that shell effects in symmetric-mode fragment mass yields from the fission of pre-actinide nuclei could be described if one assumes the existence of two strongly deformed neutron shells in the arising fragments with neutron numbers N₁ ≈ 52 and N₂ ≈ 68. A new method has been proposed for quantitatively describing the mass distributions of the symmetric fission mode for pre-actinides with A ≈ 180–220.     

MO analysis of macroscopic supercurrent flow in MgB 2

We present results from an extended magneto-optical (MO) analysis of two samples cut from high-density pellets of MgB₂. The first sample was studied in order to show that no matter how large the sample is and despite the bulk granularity, the material enters into a critical state in a crystal-like fashion. The second sample was chosen for the quantitative analysis. A numerical approach based on an inverted 2D Biot-Savart model was used to calculate the current paths across the homogeneous polycrystalline bulk, as well as in the vicinity and across some morphological defects. Local current densities in the homogeneous part were estimated as a function of the applied magnetic field at different temperatures, in three regimes: below full penetration, at full penetration and above full penetration, respectively. A hypothesis of interpretation of the apparent absence of magnetic granularity inside the polycrystalline microstructure is presented. It is related to a critical state likely reached by a network of strongly coupled Josephson junctions. Received 31 May 2001 and Received in final form 5 December 2001     

Universality in some classical Coulomb systems of restricted dimension

Coulomb systems in which the particles interact through thed-dimensional Coulomb potential but are confined in a flat manifold of dimensiond–1 are considered. The actual Coulomb potential acting is defined by particular boundary conditions involving a characteristic macroscopic distanceW in the direction perpendicular to the manifold: either it is periodic of periodW in that direction, or it vanishes on one ideal conductor wall parallel to the manifold at a distanceW from it, or it vanishes on two parallel walls at a distanceW from each other with the manifold equidistant from them. Under the assumptions that classical equilibrium statistical mechanics is applicable and that the system has the macroscopic properties of a conductor, it is shown that the suitably smoothed charge correlation function is universal, and that the free energy and the grand potential have universal dependences onW (universal means independent of the microscopic detail). The casesd=2 are discussed in detail, and the generic results are checked on an exactly solvable model. The cased=3 of a plane parallel to an ideal conductor is also explicitly worked out.Laboratoire associé au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-URA D0063.     

Effective-Field Theory on High Spin Systems with Biaxial Crystal Field

Based on the effective-field theory with self-spin correlations and the differential operator technique,physical properties of the spin-2 system with biaxial crystal field on the simple cubic, body-centered cubic, as well as faced-centered lattice have been studied. The influences of the external longitudinal magnetic field on the magnetization,internal energy, specific heat, and susceptibility have been discussed in detail. The phenomenon that the magnetization in the ground state shows quantum effects produced by the biaxial transverse crystal field has been found.     

Utilization of carbohydrates by radiation processing

Upgrading and utilization of carbohydrates such as chitosan, sodium alginate, carrageenan, cellulose, pectin have been investigated for recycling these bio-resources and reducing the environmental pollution. These carbohydrates were easily degraded by irradiation and various kinds of biological activities such as anti-microbial activity, promotion of plant growth, suppression of heavy metal stress, phytoalexins induction, etc. were induced. On the other hand, some carbohydrate derivatives, carboxymethylcellulose and carboxymethylstarch, could be crosslinked under certain radiation condition and produce the biodegradable hydrogel for medical and agricultural use.     

Renormalization of the two-photon vacuum polarization and the self energy vacuum polarization for a tightly bound electron

The renormalization method of Bogoljubov-Parasiuk-Hepp-Zimmermann (BPHZ) is used in order to derive the renormalized energy shift due to the gauge invariant K?llén-Sabry diagram of the two-photon vacuum polarization (VPVP) as well as the self energy vacuum polarization S(VP)E beyond the Uehling approximation. It is outlined, that no outer renormalization is required for the two-photon vacuum polarization and that only the inner renormalization has to be accomplished. It is shown that the so-called nongauge invariant spurious term is absent for a wide class of vacuum polarization (VP) diagrams if one applies the widely used spherical expansion of bound and free-electron propagator. This simplifies significantly calculations in bound state quantum electrodynamics. As one result of our paper the use of the BPHZ-approach in bound state QED is established. Received 28 September 2001     

A detailed analysis of the photoemission spectra of basic thioaromatic monolayers on noble metal substrates

Analysis of photoemission spectra of complex thioaromatic self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) requires the knowledge and understanding of such spectra for the basic systems. Keeping this goal in mind, synchrotron-based high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to characterize SAMs formed from the simplest thioaromatic compounds, namely thiophenol, 1,1′-biphenyl-4-thiol and 1,1′;4′,1″-terphenyl-4-thiol on evaporated Au(1 1 1) and Ag(1 1 1) substrates. The acquired S 2p and C 1s spectra were analyzed in terms of fine structure and initial and final state effects in the photoemission process. The assignment of the individual spectral features was considered in detail. Conclusions on quality and chemical and structural homogeneity of the investigated SAMs were derived.     

Structure of enantiopure and racemic alanine adlayers on Cu(1 1 0)

Plane wave density functional theory has been employed to analyze the structure of alanine adlayers on the Cu(1 1 0) surface. Alanine forms (3 × 2) adlayers on Cu(1 1 0) that are closely related to the structures of glycine on the same surface. There is essentially no energy difference between the most stable racemic and enantiopure alanine adlayers. This observation implies that adsorption of racemic alanine on Cu(1 1 0) will result in a pseudoracemate adlayer.     

Self-Diffraction of Bessel Light Beams in a Nonlinear Medium

The phenomenon of self-diffraction of Bessel light beams (BLB) in a nonlinear liquid medium has been studied experimentally and theoretically for the first time. Diffraction maxima which do not correspond to integer orders for an induced periodic structure have been registered. It has been shown that the appearance of these maxima is due to the initial BLB modulation, which can be caused by the departure of the axicon refracting surface from the ideal conical surface, as well as by the imperfection of the form of the Gaussian beam incident on the axicon.     

Tensor Products of Quantum Structures and Their Applications in Quantum Measurements

Tensor products of quantum logics and effect algebras with some known problems are reviewed. It is noticed that although tensor products of effect algebras having at least one state exist, in the category of complex Hilbert space effect algebras similar problems as with tensor products of projection lattices occur. Nevertheless, if one of the two coupled physical systems is classical, tensor product exists and can be considered as a Boolean power. Some applications of tensor products (in the form of Boolean powers) to quantum measurements are reviewed.