(e, 3e) test on e-e correlations in helium

The angular variations of the five-fold differential cross section obtained by using different wave functions of helium are compared with experimental data. It is found that in the coplanar geometry two kinematical arrangements, (i) equal energy sharing between the two ejected electrons with one of them ejected along the momentum transfer direction and the other along varying direction and (ii) the Bethe ridge condition with fixed sum of ejected electron energies and varying angle between them, are very sensitive to e-e correlations contained in the target wave function. This comparison has been used to show that open-shell class of wave functions better incorporate e-e correlations than the closed-shell class.     

Theory of sheath in a collisional multi-component plasma

The aim of this brief report is to study the behaviour of sheath structure in a multi-component plasma with dust-neutral collisions. The plasma consists of electrons, ions, micron size negatively charged dust particles and neutrals. The sheath-edge potential and sheath width are calculated for collisionally dominated sheath. Comparison of collisionless and collisionally dominated sheath are made.     

Fast iterative methods for symmetric sinc-Galerkin systems

The symmetric sinc-Galerkin method developed by Lund, when appliedto the second-order self-adjoint boundary value problem, givesrise to a symmetric coefficient matrix has a special structureso that it can be advantageously used in solving the discretesystem. In this paper, we employ the preconditioned conjugategradient method with banded matrices as preconditioners. Weprove that the condition number of the preconditioned matrixis uniformly bounded by a constant independent of the size ofthe matrix. In particular, we show that the solution of an n-by-ndiscrete symmetric sinc-Galerkin system can be obtained in O(nlog n) operations. We also extend our method to the self-adjointelliptic partial differential equation. Numerical results aregiven to illustrate the effectiveness of our fast iterativesolvers.     

(e, 3e) Differential cross section of He (21 S) and He (23 S)

The angular distribution of the five-fold differential cross section for the electron impact double ionization of He (2¹ S) and He (2³ S) has been studied. The kinematical conditions for maxima/minima in the angular distribution for the two cases have been compared. The two-step process for the double ionization is found to contribute very little in the triplet case.     

Independence and port oracles for matroids,with an application to computational learning theory

Given a matroidM with distinguished elemente, aport oracie with respect toe reports whether or not a given subset contains a circuit that containse. The first main result of this paper is an algorithm for computing ane-based ear decomposition (that is, an ear decomposition every circuit of which contains elemente) of a matroid using only a polynomial number of elementary operations and port oracle calls. In the case thatM is binary, the incidence vectors of the circuits in the ear decomposition form a matrix representation forM. Thus, this algorithm solves a problem in computational learning theory; it learns the class ofbinary matroid port (BMP) functions with membership queries in polynomial time. In this context, the algorithm generalizes results of Angluin, Hellerstein, and Karpinski [1], and Raghavan and Schach [17], who showed that certain subclasses of the BMP functions are learnable in polynomial time using membership queries. The second main result of this paper is an algorithm for testing independence of a given input set of the matroidM. This algorithm, which uses the ear decomposition algorithm as a subroutine, uses only a polynomial number of elementary operations and port oracle calls. The algorithm proves a constructive version of an early theorem of Lehman [13], which states that the port of a connected matroid uniquely determines the matroid.Research partially funded by NSF PYI Grant No. DDM-91-96083.Research partially funded by NSF Grant No CCR-92-10957.     

Microwave absorption studies of MgB2 superconductor

Microwave absorption studies have been carried out on MgB₂ superconductor using a standard X-band EPR spectrometer. The modulated low-field microwave absorption signals recorded for polycrystalline (grain size ∼ 10 μm) samples suggested the absence of weak-link character. The field dependent direct microwave absorption has been found to obey a ✓H dependence with two different slopes, which indicated a transition from strongly pinned lattice to flux flow regime.     

Elimination of the concentration dependence in mass isotopomer abundance mass spectrometry of methyl palmitate using metastable atom bombardment

An important problem in mass isotopomer abundance mass spectrometry (MIAMS) is the dependence of measured mass isotopomer abundances on sample concentration. We have evaluated the role of ionization energy on mass isotopomer abundance ratios of methyl palmitate as a function of sample concentration. Ionization energy was varied using electron impact ionization (EI) and metastable atom bombardment (MAB). The latter generates a beam of metastable species capable of ionizing analyte molecules by Penning ionization. We observed that ionization of methyl palmitate by EI (70 eV) showed the greatest molecular ion fragmentation and also showed the greatest dependence of relative isotopomer abundance ratios on sample concentration. Ionization using the 3P2 and 3P0 states of metastable krypton (9.92 and 10.56 eV, respectively) resulted in almost no molecular ion fragmentation, and the isotopomer abundances quantified were essentially independent of sample concentration. Ionization using the 3P2 and 3P0 states of metastable argon (11.55 and 11.72 eV, respectively) showed molecular ion fragmentation intermediate between that of EI and MAB(Kr) and showed an isotopomer concentration dependence which was less severe than that observed with EI but more severe than that observed with MAB(Kr). The observed decrease in the dependence of isotopomer abundance on sample concentration with a decrease in molecular ion fragmentation is consistent with the hypothesis that proton transfer from a fragment cation to a neutral molecule is the gas phase reaction mechanism responsible for the concentration dependence. Alternative explanations, e.g., hydrogen abstraction from a neutral molecule to a molecular cation, is not supported by these results. Moreover, the MAB ionization technique shows potential for eliminating one source of error in MIAMS measurements of methyl palmitate, in particular, and of fatty acids methyl esters, in general.     

Effects of lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation on expression of growth-associated genes by corticospinal neurons

Background  

Inflammation around cell bodies of primary sensory neurons and retinal ganglion cells enhances expression of neuronal growth-associated genes and stimulates axonal regeneration. We have asked if inflammation would have similar effects on corticospinal neurons, which normally show little response to spinal cord injury. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was applied onto the pial surface of the motor cortex of adult rats with or without concomitant injury of the corticospinal tract at C4. Inflammation around corticospinal tract cell bodies in the motor cortex was assessed by immunohistochemistry for OX42 (a microglia and macrophage marker). Expression of growth-associated genes c-jun, ATF3, SCG10 and GAP-43 was investigated by immunohistochemistry or in situ hybridisation.     

Molecular ion fragmentation and its effects on mass isotopomer abundances of fatty acid methyl esters ionized by electron impact

We have analyzed the isotopomer abundance ratios of an equimolar mixture of nine fatty acid methyl esters (decanoate, undecanoate, laurate, tridecanoate, myristate, pentadecanoate, palmitate, heptadecanoate, and stearate) by selected-ion monitoring gas chromatography/electron impact/mass spectrometry (GC/EI/MS). The abundance of the second lowest m/z isotopomer (IM1) increased disproportionately compared with the abundance of the lowest m/z isotopomer (IM0) as a function of: (1) increasing sample size; (2) decreasing repeller voltage; and (3) decreasing alkyl chain length. We also compared the abundance of the third lowest m/z isotopomer (IM2) and the abundance of the second lowest m/z isotopomer (IM1) of methyl palmitate and [4,4-2H2]methyl palmitate. We observed that the IM2/IM1 for methyl palmitate was significantly lower than IM2/IM1 for [4,4-2H2]methyl palmitate. From these results, as well as a consideration of basic principles of ion chemistry and ion physics, we conclude that gas-phase chemistry, specifically proton (or deuteron) transfer from fragment ions to molecules, is a major contributor to the sample size dependence observed in mass isotopomer abundance measurements of fatty acid methyl esters ionized by EI. Our results and analysis do not support hydrogen abstraction as the reaction mechanism. In addition, we calculate that rearranged molecular ions are unlikely to contribute significantly to intermolecular proton transfer because of their relatively brief lifetime. We also discuss alternative analytical techniques which might improve the precision and accuracy of isotopomer measurements by reducing molecular ion fragmentation.