304 research outputs found
When hot water freezes before cold
I suggest that the origin of the Mpemba effect (the freezing of hot water
before cold) is freezing-point depression by solutes, either gaseous or solid,
whose solubility decreases with increasing temperature so that they are removed
when water is heated. They are concentrated ahead of the freezing front by zone
refining in water that has not been heated, reduce the temperature of the
freezing front, and thereby reduce the temperature gradient and heat flux,
slowing the progress of the front. I present a simple calculation of this
effect, and suggest experiments to test this hypothesis.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
Calculation of Screening Masses in a Chiral Quark Model
We consider a simple model for the coordinate-space vacuum polarization
function which is often parametrized in terms of a screening mass. We discuss
the circumstances in which the standard result for the screening mass,
, is obtained. In the model considered here, that result is
obtained when the momenta in the relevant vacuum polarization integral are
small with respect to the first Matsubara frequency.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure
The heat capacity of nitrogen chains in grooves of single-walled carbon nanotube bundles
The heat capacity of bundles of closed-cap single-walled carbon nanotubes
(SWNT) with one-dimensional chains of nitrogen molecules adsorbed in the
grooves has been first experimentally studied at temperatures from 2K to 40K
using an adiabatic calorimeter. The contribution of nitrogen C(T) to the total
heat capacity has been separated. In the region 2-8K the behaviour of the curve
C(T) is qualitatively similar to the theoretical prediction of the phonon heat
capacity of 1D chains of krypton (Kr) atoms localized in the grooves of SWNT
bundles. Below 3K the dependence C(T) is linear. Above 8K the dependence C(T)
becomes steeper in comparison with the case of Kr atoms. This behaviour of the
heat capacity C(T) is due to the contribution of the rotational degrees of
freedom of the nitrogen molecules.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
Radial thermal expansion of single-walled carbon nanotube bundles at low temperatures
The linear coefficient of the radial thermal expansion has been measured on a
system of SWNT bundles in an interval of 2.2 - 120K. The measurement was
performed using a dilatometer with a sensitivity of 2*10-9 cm. The cylindrical
sample 7 mm high and 10 mm in diameter was obtained by compressing powder. The
resulting bundles of the nanotubes were oriented perpendicular to the sample
axis. The starting powder contained over 90% of SWNTs with the outer diameter
1.1 nm, the length varying within 5-30 um.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Decay and fusion as two different mechanisms of stability loss for the (C_20)_2 cluster dimer
The thermal stability of the (C_20)_2 cluster dimer consisting of two C_20
fullerenes is examined using a tight-binding approach. Molecular dynamics
simulations of the (C_20)_2 dimer at temperatures T = 2000 - 3500 K show that
the finite lifetime \tau of this metastable system is determined by two
fundamentally different processes, the decay of one of the C_20 fullerenes and
the fusion of two C_20 fullerenes into the C_40 cluster. The activation
energies for these processes Ea = 3.4 and 2.7 eV, respectively, as well as
their frequency factors, have been determined by analyzing the dependence of
\tau on T.Comment: Slightly modified version of the paper to appear in JETP Let
High orders of the perturbation theory for hydrogen atom in magnetic field
The states of hydrogen atom with principal quantum number and zero
magnetic quantum number in constant homogeneous magnetic field are
considered. The coefficients of energy eigenvalues expansion up to 75th order
in powers of are obtained for these states. The series for energy
eigenvalues and wave functions are summed up to values of the order
of atomic magnetic field. The calculations are based on generalization of the
moment method, which may be used in other cases of the hydrogen atom
perturbation by a polynomial in coordinates potential.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 6 figures (ps, eps
Anomalous Thermal Stability of Metastable C_20 Fullerene
The results of computer simulation of the dynamics of fullerene C_20 at
different temperatures are presented. It is shown that, although it is
metastable, this isomer is very stable with respect to the transition to a
lower energy configuration and retains its chemical structure under heating to
very high temperatures, T ~ 3000 K. Its decay activation energy is found to be
E_a ~ 7 eV. Possible decay channels are studied, and the height of the minimum
potential barrier to decay is determined to be U = 5.0 eV. The results obtained
make it possible to understand the reasons for the anomalous stability of
fullerene C_20 under normal conditions.Comment: Slightly corrected version of the paper submitted to Phys. Solid
Stat
1/m_b^2 correction to the left-right lepton polarization asymmetry in the decay B -> X_s mu^+ mu^-
Using a known result by Falk et al. for the 1/m_b^2 correction to the
dilepton invariant mass spectrum in the decay B \rightarrow X_s \mu^+ \mu^-, we
calculate the 1/m_b^2 correction to the left-right muon polarization asymmetry
in this decay. Employing an up-to-date range of values for the non-perturbative
parameter \lambda_1, we find that the correction is much smaller than it should
have been expected from the previous work by Falk et al.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures included. Uses epsf.sty and rotate.sty. To appear
in Physical Review D. The complete postscript file is also available from URL
ftp://feynman.t30.physik.tu-muenchen.de/pub/preprints/ tum_t31_98_96.ps.g
Enhancement of fusion rates due to quantum effects in the particles momentum distribution in nonideal media
This study concerns a situation when measurements of the nonresonant
cross-section of nuclear reactions appear highly dependent on the environment
in which the particles interact. An appealing example discussed in the paper is
the interaction of a deuteron beam with a target of deuterated metal Ta. In
these experiments, the reaction cross section for d(d,p)t was shown to be
orders of magnitude greater than what the conventional model predicts for the
low-energy particles. In this paper we take into account the influence of
quantum effects due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle for particles in a
non-ideal medium elastically interacting with the medium particles. In order to
calculate the nuclear reaction rate in the non-ideal environment we apply both
the Monte Carlo technique and approximate analytical calculation of the Feynman
diagram using nonrelativistic kinetic Green's functions in the medium which
correspond to the generalized energy and momentum distribution functions of
interacting particles. We show a possibility to reduce the 12-fold integral
corresponding to this diagram to a fivefold integral. This can significantly
speed up the computation and control accuracy. Our calculations show that
quantum effects significantly influence reaction rates such as p +7Be, 3He
+4He, p +7Li, and 12C +12C. The new reaction rates may be much higher than the
classical ones for the interior of the Sun and supernova stars. The possibility
to observe the theoretical predictions under laboratory conditions is
discussed
Exclusive Radiative B-Decays in the Light-Cone QCD Sum Rule Approach
We carry out a detailed study of exclusive radiative rare -decays in the
framework of the QCD sum rules on the light cone, which combines the
traditional QCD sum rule technique with the description of final state vector
mesons in terms of the light-cone wave functions of increasing twist. The
decays considered are: and the corresponding decays of the mesons, and . Based on our estimate of the transition
form factor F_1^{B \to K^*\pg}(0) =0.32\pm0.05, we find for the branching
ratio , which is in
agreement with the observed value measured by the CLEO collaboration. We
present detailed estimates for the ratios of the radiative decay form factors,
which are then used to predict the rates for the exclusive radiative B-decays
listed above. This in principle allows the extraction of the CKM matrix element
from the penguin-dominated CKM-suppressed radiative decays when they
are measured. We give a detailed discussion of the dependence of the form
factors on the -quark mass and on the momentum transfer, as well as their
interrelation with the CKM-suppressed semileptonic decay form factors in , which we also calculate in our approach.Comment: 32 pages, 10 uuencoded figures, LaTeX, preprint CERN-TH 7118/9
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