Quantum effects with an X-ray free electron laser

A quantum kinetic equation coupled with Maxwell's equation is used to estimate the laser power required at an XFEL facility to expose intrinsically quantum effects in the process of QED vacuum decay via spontaneous pair production. A 9 TW-peak XFEL laser with photon energy 8.3 keV could be sufficient to initiate particle accumulation and the consequent formation of a plasma of spontaneously produced pairs. The evolution of the particle number in the plasma will exhibit non-Markovian aspects of the strong-field pair production process and the plasma's internal currents will generate an electric field whose interference with that of the laser leads to plasma oscillations.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX2

Pair creation and plasma oscillations

We describe aspects of particle creation in strong fields using a quantum kinetic equation with a relaxation-time approximation to the collision term. The strong electric background field is determined by solving Maxwell's equation in tandem with the Vlasov equation. Plasma oscillations appear as a result of feedback between the background field and the field generated by the particles produced. The plasma frequency depends on the strength of the initial background field and the collision frequency, and is sensitive to the necessary momentum-dependence of dressed-parton masses.Comment: 11 pages, revteX, epsfig.sty, 5 figures; Proceedings of 'Quark Matter in Astro- and Particlephysics', a workshop at the University of Rostock, Germany, November 27 - 29, 2000. Eds. D. Blaschke, G. Burau, S.M. Schmid

Quark-antiquark pair production in space-time dependent fields

Fermion-antifermion pair-production in the presence of classical fields is described based on the retarded and advanced fermion propagators. They are obtained by solving the equation of motion for the Dirac Green's functions with the respective boundary conditions to all orders in the field. Subsequently, various approximation schemes fit for different field configurations are explained. This includes longitudinally boost-invariant forms. Those occur frequently in the description of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions in the semiclassical limit. As a next step, the gauge invariance of the expression for the expectation value of the number of produced fermion-antifermion pairs as a functional of said propagators is investigated in detail. Finally, the calculations are carried out for a longitudinally boost-invariant model-field, taking care of the last issue, especially.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, revised versio

Coupled fermion and boson production in a strong background mean-field

We derive quantum kinetic equations for fermion and boson production starting from a phi^4 Lagrangian with minimal coupling to fermions. Decomposing the scalar field into a mean-field part and fluctuations we obtain spontaneous pair creation driven by a self-interacting strong background field. The produced fermion and boson pairs are self-consistently coupled. Consequently back reactions arise from fermion and boson currents determining the time dependent self-interacting background mean-field. We explore the numerical solution in flux tube geometry for the time evolution of the mean-field as well as for the number- and energy densities for fermions and bosons. We find that after a characteristic time all energy is converted from the background mean-field to particle creation. Applying this general approach to the production of ``quarks'' and ``gluons'' a typical time scale for the collapse of the flux tube is 1.5 fm/c.Comment: 9 pages, latex, epsfig, 7 figure

Electrochemical behaviour of Ti/Al2O3/Ni nanocomposite material in artificial physiological solution: Prospects for biomedical application

Inorganic-based nanoelements such as nanoparticles (nanodots), nanopillars and nanowires, which have at least one dimension of 100 nm or less, have been extensively developed for biomedical applications. Furthermore, their properties can be varied by controlling such parameters as element shape, size, surface functionalization, and mutual interactions. In this study, Ni-alumina nanocomposite material was synthesized by the dc-Ni electrodeposition into a porous anodic alumina template (PAAT). The structural, morphological, and corrosion properties were studied using x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and electrochemical techniques (linear sweep voltammetry). Template technology was used to obtain Ni nanopillars (NiNPs) in the PAAT nanocomposite. Low corrosion current densities (order of 0.5 μA/cm2) were indicators of this nanocomposite adequate corrosion resistance in artificial physiological solution (0.9% NaCl). A porous anodic alumina template is barely exposed to corrosion and performs protective functions in the composite. The results may be useful for the development of new nanocomposite materials technologies for a variety of biomedical applications including catalysis and nanoelectrodes for sensing and fuel cells. They are also applicable for various therapeutic purposes including targeting, diagnosis, magnetic hyperthermia, and drug delivery. Therefore, it is an ambitious task to research the corrosion resistance of these magnetic nanostructures in simulated body fluid. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Government Council on Grants, Russian FederationBelarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research, BRFFR: Ф18Д-00720163522Funding: The work was performed with support of State Scientific and Technical Program “Nanotech” (ГБЦ No 20163522), Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research (Grant No. Ф18Д-007), Act 211 of Government of Russian Federation (contract No. 02.A03.21.0011). Additionally, the work was partially supported by the Grant of World Federation of Scientists (Geneva, Switzerland)

Extremely polysubstituted magnetic material based on magnetoplumbite with a hexagonal structure: Synthesis, structure, properties, prospects

Crystalline high-entropy single-phase products with a magnetoplumbite structure with grains in the µm range were obtained using solid-state sintering. The synthesis temperature was up to 1400 °C. The morphology, chemical composition, crystal structure, magnetic, and electrodynamic properties were studied and compared with pure barium hexaferrite BaFe 12 O 19 matrix. The polysubstituted high-entropy single-phase product contains five doping elements at a high concentration level. According to the EDX data, the new compound has a formula of Ba(Fe6Ga1.25In1.17Ti1.21Cr1.22Co1.15)O19. The calculated cell parameter values were a = 5.9253(5) Å, c = 23.5257(22) Å, and V = 715.32(9) Å3. The increase in the unit cell for the substituted sample was expected due to the different ionic radius of Ti/In/Ga/Cr/Co compared with Fe3+. The electrodynamicmeasurements were performed. The dielectric and magnetic permeabilities were stable in the frequency range from 2 to 12 GHz. In this frequency range, the dielectric and magnetic losses were??0.2/0.2. Due to these electrodynamic parameters, this material can be used in the design of microwave strip devices. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Funding: The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 18-73-10049

Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles for complex targeted delivery and boron neutron capture therapy

Magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles (NPs) and their surface modification with therapeutic substances are of great interest, especially drug delivery for cancer therapy, including boron-neutron capture therapy (BNCT). In this paper, we present the results of boron-rich compound (carborane borate) attachment to previously aminated by (3-aminopropyl)-trimethoxysilane (APTMS) iron oxide NPs. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with Attenuated total reflectance accessory (ATR-FTIR) and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed the change of the element content of NPs after modification and formation of new bonds between Fe3O4 NPs and the attached molecules. Transmission (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed Fe3O4 NPs’ average size of 18.9 nm. Phase parameters were studied by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the magnetic behavior of Fe 3 O 4 NPs was elucidated by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The colloidal and chemical stability of NPs was studied using simulated body fluid (phosphate buffer-PBS). Modified NPs have shown excellent stability in PBS (pH = 7.4), characterized by XRD, Mössbauer spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Biocompatibility was evaluated in-vitro using cultured mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). The results show us an increasing of IC50 from 0.110 mg/mL for Fe 3 O 4 NPs to 0.405 mg/mL for Fe 3 O 4 -Carborane NPs. The obtained data confirm the biocompatibility and stability of synthesized NPs and the potential to use them in BNCT. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Funding: This study was funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (grant No AP05130947 “Setting the stage for boron neutron capture therapy of cancer in the Republic of Kazakhstan”) and Nazarbayev University “Social Policy Grant” (project title: “Research and development of the new Nano-Optical Sensor based on Polymer Optical Fiber for Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy”, PI: Kanat Dukenbayev). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in the framework of Increase Competitiveness Program of NUST «MISiS» (NoK4-2018-036, P02-2017-2-4), implemented by a governmental degree dated 16th of March 2013, No 211. The work was partially supported by Act 211 Government of the Russian Federation, contract No 02.A03.21.0011. This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Government task in SUSU 5.5523.2017/8.9)