Reaction rates of graphite with ozone measured by etch decoration

Etch-decoration technique of detecting vacancies in graphite has been used to determine the reaction rates of graphite with ozone in the directions parallel and perpendicular to the layer planes. It consists essentially of peeling single atom layers off graphite crystals without affecting the remainder of the crystal

Analytical techniques for determining boron in graphite

Two analytical techniques, a gold nucleation and an etch-decoration technique have been developed for determining the presence and mobility of boron in graphite

Universal properties of distorted Kerr-Newman black holes

We discuss universal properties of axisymmetric and stationary configurations consisting of a central black hole and surrounding matter in Einstein-Maxwell theory. In particular, we find that certain physical equations and inequalities (involving angular momentum, electric charge and horizon area) are not restricted to the Kerr-Newman solution but can be generalized to the situation where the black hole is distorted by an arbitrary axisymmetric and stationary surrounding matter distribution.Comment: 7 page

Alleviation of the Fermion-sign problem by optimization of many-body wave functions

We present a simple, robust and highly efficient method for optimizing all parameters of many-body wave functions in quantum Monte Carlo calculations, applicable to continuum systems and lattice models. Based on a strong zero-variance principle, diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix in the space spanned by the wav e function and its derivatives determines the optimal parameters. It systematically reduces the fixed-node error, as demonstrated by the calculation of the binding energy of the small but challenging C$_2$ molecule to the experimental accuracy of 0.02 eV

Importance of high-angular-momentum channels in pseudopotentials for quantum Monte Carlo

Quantum Monte Carlo methods provide in principle a highly accurate treatment of the many-body problem of calculating the ground and excited states of condensed systems. In practice, however, uncontrolled errors, such as those arising from the fixed-node and pseudopotential approximations can be problematic. We show that the accuracy of some quantum Monte Carlo calculations is limited by the properties of currently available pseudopotentials. The use of pseudopotentials involves several approximations, and we will focus on one that is relatively simple to correct during the pseudopotential design phase. It is necessary to include angular-momentum channels in the pseudopotential for excited angular-momentum states and to choose the local channel appropriately to obtain accurate results. Variational and diffusion Monte Carlo calculations for Zn, O, and Si atoms and ions demonstrate these issues. Adding higher-angular-momentum channels into the pseudopotential description reduces such errors without a significant increase in computational cost

Fast Diffusion Mechanism of Silicon Tri-interstitial Defects

We reveal the microscopic self-diffusion process of compact tri-interstitials in silicon using a combination of molecular dynamics and nudged elastic band methods. We find that the compact tri-interstitial moves by a collective displacement, involving both translation and rotation, of five atoms in a screw-like motion along $[111]$ directions. The elucidation of this pathway demonstrates the utility of combining tight-binding molecular dynamics with \textit{ab initio} density functional calculations to probe diffusion mechanisms. Using density functional theory to obtain diffusion barriers and the prefactor, we calculate a diffusion constant of $4 \cdot 10^{-5} \exp (- 0.49 {\rm eV} / k_{B} T) {\rm cm^2/s}$. Because of the low diffusion barrier, $I_{3}^{b}$ diffusion may be an important process under conditions such as ion implantation that creates excess interstitials, hence favoring formation of interstitial clusters

Non-existence of stationary two-black-hole configurations

We resume former discussions of the question, whether the spin-spin repulsion and the gravitational attraction of two aligned black holes can balance each other. To answer the question we formulate a boundary value problem for two separate (Killing-) horizons and apply the inverse (scattering) method to solve it. Making use of results of Manko, Ruiz and Sanabria-G\'omez and a novel black hole criterion, we prove the non-existence of the equilibrium situation in question.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; Contribution to Juergen Ehlers Memorial Issue (GeRG journal