Search for the emission of π<Superscript>0</Superscript> mesons from the neutron-induced fission of <Superscript>235</Superscript>U nuclei

A nuclear-reactor experiment on the search for the emission of neutral pions from the neutron-induced fission of ²³⁵U nuclei has been carried out. To this end, an experimental setup for searching for the emission of π⁰ mesons with high sensitivity to this process has been designed and produced. This setup consisted of two Cherenkov total-absorption spectrometers for the detection and measurements of the energy of two gamma-ray photons from π ⁰-meson decay. The spectrometers were placed at the exits of two coaxial horizontal experimental channels. To protect the detectors from low-energy β and γ rays and neutron fluxes, 3.5-m-long water filters were situated in the channels. To reject the cosmic background, large-area scintillation counters operating in the anticoincidence mode were placed over each spectrometer. The energy and time resolution of the spectrometers, as well as the efficiency of detecting charged particles by scintillation counters, were tested on the secondary electron beam of the Tomsk electron synchrotron Sirius. Runs of measurements of the effect on the operating reactor (duration of 805 h) were alternated with runs of measurements of background on the stopped reactor (duration of 403 h). Statistical processing of the experimental results yields an upper limit of ≤5.3×10 ^?12 with a 90% confidence level for the probability of the emission of neutral pions from the neutron-induced fission of ²³⁵U nuclei. This result and results of other works carried out with sources of spontaneously fissioning ²⁵²Cf nuclei show that the probabilities of the emission of π⁰ mesons from spontaneous fission and fission induced by fission-spectrum neutrons are equal to each other.     

Structural and preliminary molecular dynamics studies of the Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction center and its mutant form L(M196)H + H(M202)L

Pigment-protein interactions are responsible for the high efficiency of the light-energy transfer and conversion in photosynthesis. The reaction center (RC) from the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides is the most convenient model for studying the mechanisms of primary processes of photosynthesis. Site-directed mutagenesis can be used to study the effect of the protein environment of electron-transfer cofactors on the optical properties, stability, pigment composition, and functional activity of RC. The preliminary analysis of RC was performed by computer simulation of the amino acid substitutions L(M196)H + H(M202)L at the pigment-protein interface and by estimating the stability of the threedimensional structure of the mutant RC by the molecular dynamics method. The doubly mutated reaction center was overexpressed, purified, and crystallized. The three-dimensional structure of this mutant was determined by X-ray crystallography and compared with the molecular dynamics model.     

Adiabatic interaction between a dark soliton and a cnoidal wave with orthogonal circular polarizations in an isotropic gyrotropic nonlinear medium

An analytical solution to the one-dimensional (plane waves) nonintegrable problem of interaction (collision) of a dark soliton with a cnoidal wave (control and information signals with orthogonal circular polarizations) in an isotropic gyrotropic medium with Kerr nonlinearity and second-order groupvelocity dispersion is obtained in the adiabatic approximation. The asymptotic behavior of the obtained solution is considered. It is shown that the role of the control signal is reduced to strong amplitude and frequency modulation, which is localized only in the region of variation in the control signal intensity.     

Measurement of the S-Factor of the T(1H, γ)4He Reaction at Astrophysical Energies

JETP Letters - The T(1H, γ)4He reaction has been studied for the first time in the energy range Elab = 12–34 keV in the laboratory coordinate system (E = 7.8–20.1 keV in the...     

Structure of the heating layer ahead of the front of a strong intensely emitting shock wave

The problem of the structure and brightness of strong shock waves arises in the investigation of such phenomena as the motion of large meteoroids in the atmosphere, optical and electrical discharges, the development of strong explosions, and other similar processes and in the creation of powerful radiation sources based on them. This problem also has a general physics interest. As the propagation velocity of a strong shock wave increases the gas temperature behind its front and the role of emission grow. Part of the radiation emitted by the gas heated and compressed in a shock wave is absorbed ahead of the front, forming the so-called heating layer. The quasisteady structure of a strong intensely emitting shock wave was studied in [1, 2]. In this case a diffusional approximation and the assumption of a gray gas were used to describe the radiation transfer. They introduced the concept of a wave of critical amplitude, when the maximum temperature T_- in the heating layer reaches the temperature T_a determined on the basis of the conservation laws, i.e., from the usual shock adiabat; it is shown that behind a compression shock moving through an already heated gas there is a temperature peak in which the maximum temperature T₊ exceeds T_a. The problem of the quasisteady structure of an emitting shock wave in air of normal density was solved numerically in [3]. The angular distribution of the radiation was approximately taken into account — it was assigned by a simple cosinusoidal law. The spectral effects were taken into account in a multigroup approximation. They introduced 38 spectral intervals, which is insufficient to describe a radiation spectrum with allowance for the numerous lines and absorption bands.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 5, pp. 86–92, September–October, 1978.