Kinetic arrest of crowded soft spheres in solvents of varying quality

Crowded solutions of multiarm star polymers, representing model colloidal spheres with ultrasoft repulsive interactions, undergo a reversible gelation transition upon heating in solvents of intermediate quality (between good and Theta). This unusual phenomenon is due to the kinetic arrest of the swollen interpenetrating spheres at high temperatures, forming clusters, in analogy to the colloidal glass transition. In this work we demonstrate that the choice of the solvent has a dramatic effect on the gelation transition, because of the different degree of star swelling (at the same temperature) associated with the solvent quality. We construct a generic kinetic phase diagram for the gelation of different stars in different solvents (gelation temperature against effective volume fraction, phi) and propose a critical "soft sphere close packing" volume fraction phi(c) distinguishing the temperature-induced (for phiphi(c)) glass-like gelation. We conclude that appropriate selection of the solvent allows for manipulation of the sol-gel transition in such ultrasoft colloids

Simple Z_0∗ˆ\_{0}\^{*} model (Isoscalar KN scattering)

A model for isoscalar KN scattering near the K*N threshold is constructed, and solved analytically in the approximation of retaining only pion exchange terms. Basic features of phenomenological phase shifts are reproduced, including a wide J/sup P/=1/2/sup +/ exotic resonance, Z/sub 0/* (1800). (19 refs)

Implications of the recent "e+e−→^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow hadron + X" data on the leptonic world

The authors examine phenomenologically the reaction e/sup +/e/sup -/ producing hadrons+X, in the light of new CEA and SPEAR data. (14 refs)