Orientations of the lamellar phase of block copolymer melts under oscillatory shear flow

We develop a theory to describe the reorientation phenomena in the lamellar phase of block copolymer melt under reciprocating shear flow. We show that similar to the steady-shear, the oscillating flow anisotropically suppresses fluctuations and gives rise to the parallel-perpendicular orientation transition. The experimentally observed high-frequency reverse transition is explained in terms of interaction between the melt and the shear-cell walls.Comment: RevTex, 3 pages, 1 figure, submitted to PR

Real-time detection of carboplatin using a microfluidic system

A microfluidic sensor system based on a carbon nanotube-epoxy composite electrode was fabricated to allow detection of the presence of the anti-cancer drug carboplatin in healthy tissue in real time during chemotherapy. Detection of carboplatin was carried out by observing the effects of the drug on the differential pulse voltammetry of free purine bases using a novel carbon nanotube-epoxy composite electrode. In free solution these electrodes performed better than glassy carbon electrodes for oxidation of the free purine bases AMP and GMP, and than DNA-modified carbon nanotube-epoxy composite sensors for detection of carboplatin. On-line carboplatin detection was performed using a computer-controlled microfluidic platform. The methodology for on-line carboplatin detection was optimised in terms of the analysis time and of to allow repeated carboplatin measurement using the same electrode. Microdialysis sampling and our microfluidic platform were combined to give a proof of concept system for real-time carboplatin detection with a limit of detection of 0.014 mM carboplatin in the sampled media. This paper is dedicated to Craig Lunte’s pioneering work in analysis and microdialysis

Influence of confinement on the orientational phase transitions in the lamellar phase of a block copolymer melt under shear flow

In this work we incorporate some real-system effects into the theory of orientational phase transitions under shear flow (M. E. Cates and S. T. Milner, Phys. Rev. Lett. v.62, p.1856 (1989) and G. H. Fredrickson, J. Rheol. v.38, p.1045 (1994)). In particular, we study the influence of the shear-cell boundaries on the orientation of the lamellar phase. We predict that at low shear rates the parallel orientation appears to be stable. We show that there is a critical value of the shear rate at which the parallel orientation loses its stability and the perpendicular one appears immediately below the spinodal. We associate this transition with a crossover from the fluctuation to the mean-field behaviour. At lower temperatures the stability of the parallel orientation is restored. We find that the region of stability of the perpendicular orientation rapidly decreases as shear rate increases. This behaviour might be misinterpreted as an additional perpendicular to parallel transition recently discussed in literature.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Measurements of the Ratios B(Ds+→ηℓ+ν)/B(Ds+→ϕℓ+ν){\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta\ell^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi\ell^+\nu) and B(Ds+→η′ℓ+ν)/B(Ds+→ϕℓ+ν){\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta'\ell^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi\ell^+\nu)

Using the CLEO~II detector we measure ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta e^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi e^+\nu) =1.24\pm0.12\pm0.15$, ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta' e^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi e^+\nu) =0.43\pm0.11\pm0.07$ and ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta' e^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta e^+\nu) =0.35\pm0.09\pm0.07$. We find the vector to pseudoscalar ratio, ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi e^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to (\eta+\eta') e^+\nu) =0.60\pm0.06\pm0.06$, which is similar to the ratio found in non strange $D$ decays.Comment: 11 page uuencoded postscript file, postscript file also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

Search for lepton-flavor violation at HERA

A search for lepton-flavor-violating interactions $e p \to \mu X$ and $e p\to \tau X$ has been performed with the ZEUS detector using the entire HERA I data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 130 pb^{-1}. The data were taken at center-of-mass energies, $\sqrt{s}$, of 300 and 318 GeV. No evidence of lepton-flavor violation was found, and constraints were derived on leptoquarks (LQs) that could mediate such interactions. For LQ masses below $\sqrt{s}$, limits were set on $\lambda_{eq_1} \sqrt{\beta_{\ell q}}$, where $\lambda_{eq_1}$ is the coupling of the LQ to an electron and a first-generation quark $q_1$, and $\beta_{\ell q}$ is the branching ratio of the LQ to the final-state lepton $\ell$ ($\mu$ or $\tau$) and a quark $q$. For LQ masses much larger than $\sqrt{s}$, limits were set on the four-fermion interaction term $\lambda_{e q_\alpha} \lambda_{\ell q_\beta} / M_{\mathrm{LQ}}^2$ for LQs that couple to an electron and a quark $q_\alpha$ and to a lepton $\ell$ and a quark $q_\beta$, where $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are quark generation indices. Some of the limits are also applicable to lepton-flavor-violating processes mediated by squarks in $R$-Parity-violating supersymmetric models. In some cases, especially when a higher-generation quark is involved and for the process $e p\to \tau X$, the ZEUS limits are the most stringent to date.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by EPJC. References and 1 figure (Fig. 6) adde

Multijet production in neutral current deep inelastic scattering at HERA and determination of alpha_s

Multijet production rates in neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured in the range of exchanged boson virtualities 10 < Q2 < 5000 GeV2. The data were taken at the ep collider HERA with centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 318 GeV using the ZEUS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 82.2 pb-1. Jets were identified in the Breit frame using the k_T cluster algorithm in the longitudinally invariant inclusive mode. Measurements of differential dijet and trijet cross sections are presented as functions of jet transverse energy E_{T,B}{jet}, pseudorapidity eta_{LAB}{jet} and Q2 with E_{T,B}{jet} > 5 GeV and -1 < eta_{LAB}{jet} < 2.5. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations describe the data well. The value of the strong coupling constant alpha_s(M_Z), determined from the ratio of the trijet to dijet cross sections, is alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1179 pm 0.0013(stat.) {+0.0028}_{-0.0046}(exp.) {+0.0064}_{-0.0046}(th.)Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

Time-integrated luminosity recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider

This article is the Preprint version of the final published artcile which can be accessed at the link below.We describe a measurement of the time-integrated luminosity of the data collected by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the ϒ(4S), ϒ(3S), and ϒ(2S) resonances and in a continuum region below each resonance. We measure the time-integrated luminosity by counting e+e-→e+e- and (for the ϒ(4S) only) e+e-→μ+μ- candidate events, allowing additional photons in the final state. We use data-corrected simulation to determine the cross-sections and reconstruction efficiencies for these processes, as well as the major backgrounds. Due to the large cross-sections of e+e-→e+e- and e+e-→μ+μ-, the statistical uncertainties of the measurement are substantially smaller than the systematic uncertainties. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to observed differences between data and simulation, as well as uncertainties on the cross-sections. For data collected on the ϒ(3S) and ϒ(2S) resonances, an additional uncertainty arises due to ϒ→e+e-X background. For data collected off the ϒ resonances, we estimate an additional uncertainty due to time dependent efficiency variations, which can affect the short off-resonance runs. The relative uncertainties on the luminosities of the on-resonance (off-resonance) samples are 0.43% (0.43%) for the ϒ(4S), 0.58% (0.72%) for the ϒ(3S), and 0.68% (0.88%) for the ϒ(2S).This work is supported by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physiquedes Particules (France), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (The Netherlands), the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union) and the A.P. Sloan Foundation (USA)

Measurement of (anti)deuteron and (anti)proton production in DIS at HERA

The first observation of (anti)deuterons in deep inelastic scattering at HERA has been made with the ZEUS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 300--318 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb-1. The measurement was performed in the central rapidity region for transverse momentum per unit of mass in the range 0.3<p_T/M<0.7. The particle rates have been extracted and interpreted in terms of the coalescence model. The (anti)deuteron production yield is smaller than the (anti)proton yield by approximately three orders of magnitude, consistent with the world measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Photoproduction of D∗±D^{*\pm} mesons associated with a leading neutron

The photoproduction of $D^{*\pm} (2010)$ mesons associated with a leading neutron has been observed with the ZEUS detector in $ep$ collisions at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 80 pb$^{-1}$. The neutron carries a large fraction, {$x_L>0.2$}, of the incoming proton beam energy and is detected at very small production angles, {$\theta_n<0.8$ mrad}, an indication of peripheral scattering. The $D^*$ meson is centrally produced with pseudorapidity {$|\eta| 1.9$ GeV}, which is large compared to the average transverse momentum of the neutron of 0.22 GeV. The ratio of neutron-tagged to inclusive $D^*$ production is $8.85\pm 0.93({\rm stat.})^{+0.48}_{-0.61}({\rm syst.})\%$ in the photon-proton center-of-mass energy range {$130 <W<280$ GeV}. The data suggest that the presence of a hard scale enhances the fraction of events with a leading neutron in the final state.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Measurement of the open-charm contribution to the diffractive proton structure function

Production of D*+/-(2010) mesons in diffractive deep inelastic scattering has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 82 pb^{-1}. Diffractive events were identified by the presence of a large rapidity gap in the final state. Differential cross sections have been measured in the kinematic region 1.5 < Q^2 < 200 GeV^2, 0.02 < y < 0.7, x_{IP} < 0.035, beta 1.5 GeV and |\eta(D*+/-)| < 1.5. The measured cross sections are compared to theoretical predictions. The results are presented in terms of the open-charm contribution to the diffractive proton structure function. The data demonstrate a strong sensitivity to the diffractive parton densities.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, 6 table