Oscillatory Size-Dependence of the Surface Plasmon Linewidth in Metallic Nanoparticles

We study the linewidth of the surface plasmon resonance in the optical absorption spectrum of metallic nanoparticles, when the decay into electron-hole pairs is the dominant channel. Within a semiclassical approach, we find that the electron-hole density-density correlation oscillates as a function of the size of the particles, leading to oscillations of the linewidth. This result is confirmed numerically for alkali and noble metal particles. While the linewidth can increase strongly, the oscillations persist when the particles are embedded in a matrix.Comment: RevTeX4, 5 pages, 2 figures, final versio

Thermal expansion in small metal clusters and its impact on the electric polarizability

The thermal expansion coefficients of $\mathrm{Na}_{N}$ clusters with $8 \le N \le 40$ and $\mathrm{Al}_{7}$, $\mathrm{Al}_{13}^-$ and $\mathrm{Al}_{14}^-$ are obtained from {\it ab initio} Born-Oppenheimer LDA molecular dynamics. Thermal expansion of small metal clusters is considerably larger than that in the bulk and size-dependent. We demonstrate that the average static electric dipole polarizability of Na clusters depends linearly on the mean interatomic distance and only to a minor extent on the detailed ionic configuration when the overall shape of the electron density is enforced by electronic shell effects. The polarizability is thus a sensitive indicator for thermal expansion. We show that taking this effect into account brings theoretical and experimental polarizabilities into quantitative agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, one table. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. References 10 and 23 update

Urban-rural disparities in smoking behaviour in Germany

BACKGROUND: It is currently not clear whether individuals living in metropolitan areas differ from individuals living in rural and urban areas with respect to smoking behaviours. Therefore, we sought to explore the relation between residential area and smoking behaviours in Germany. METHODS: We used a nationwide German census representative for the general population of Germany. A number of 181,324 subjects aged 10 years or older were included. Information on the average daily usage of cigarettes that have or had been smoked formerly or currently was available in subjects who have ever smoked. A daily consumption of more than 20 cigarettes was considered heavy smoking. Logistic regression analyses were performed sex-stratified and adjusted for relevant confounders. RESULTS: Analyses revealed inhabitants of metropolitan areas to be more likely current smokers than inhabitants of rural areas (odds ratio 1.56, 95%-confidence interval 1.51; 1.62). Among current and former smokers those who lived in urban communities had also increased odds for being heavy smokers than those who lived in rural communities. CONCLUSION: We conclude that living in an urban and particularly living in a metropolitan area is a determinant of both smoking and severity of current smoking. Tobacco control programs should recognize the difference in living conditions between rural and urban areas

Ionic structure and photoabsorption in medium sized sodium clusters

We present ground-state configurations and photoabsorption spectra of Na-7+, Na-27+ and Na-41+. Both the ionic structure and the photoabsorption spectra of medium-size sodium clusters beyond Na-20 have been calculated self-consistently with a nonspherical treatment of the valence electrons in density functional theory. We use a local pseudopotential that has been adjusted to experimental bulk properties and the atomic 3s level of sodium. Our studies have shown that both the ionic structure of the ground state and the positions of the plasmon resonances depend sensitively on the pseudopotential used in the calculation, which stresses the importance of its consistent use in both steps.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in PRB, tentatively July 15th, 1998 some typos corrected, brought to nicer forma

Ionic and electronic structure of sodium clusters up to N=59

We determined the ionic and electronic structure of sodium clusters with even electron numbers and 2 to 59 atoms in axially averaged and three-dimensional density functional calculations. A local, phenomenological pseudopotential that reproduces important bulk and atomic properties and facilitates structure calculations has been developed. Photoabsorption spectra have been calculated for $\mathrm{Na}_2$, $\mathrm{Na}_8$, and $\mathrm{Na}_9^+$ to $\mathrm{Na}_{59}^+$. The consistent inclusion of ionic structure considerably improves agreement with experiment. An icosahedral growth pattern is observed for $\mathrm{Na}_{19}^+$ to $\mathrm{Na}_{59}^+$. This finding is supported by photoabsorption data.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. B 62. Version with figures in better quality can be requested from the author

Chemistry of layered d-metal pnictide oxides and their potential as candidates for new superconductors

Layered d-metal pnictide oxides are a unique class of compounds which consists of characteristic d-metal pnictide layers and metal oxide layers. More than 100 of these layered compounds, including the recently discovered Fe-based superconducting pnictide oxides, can be classified into 9 structure types. These structure types and the chemical and physical properties of the characteristic d-metal pnictide layers and metal oxide layers of the layered d-metal pnictide oxides are reviewed and discussed. Furthermore, possible approaches to design new superconductors based on these layered d-metal pnictide oxides are proposed.Comment: 29 pages including 6 tables and 2 figure

Study of Leading Hadrons in Gluon and Quark Fragmentation

The study of quark jets in e+e- reactions at LEP has demonstrated that the hadronisation process is reproduced well by the Lund string model. However, our understanding of gluon fragmentation is less complete. In this study enriched quark and gluon jet samples of different purities are selected in three-jet events from hadronic decays of the Z collected by the DELPHI experiment in the LEP runs during 1994 and 1995. The leading systems of the two kinds of jets are defined by requiring a rapidity gap and their sum of charges is studied. An excess of leading systems with total charge zero is found for gluon jets in all cases, when compared to Monte Carlo Simulations with JETSET (with and without Bose-Einstein correlations included) and ARIADNE. The corresponding leading systems of quark jets do not exhibit such an excess. The influence of the gap size and of the gluon purity on the effect is studied and a concentration of the excess of neutral leading systems at low invariant masses (<~ 2 GeV/c^2) is observed, indicating that gluon jets might have an additional hitherto undetected fragmentation mode via a two-gluon system. This could be an indication of a possible production of gluonic states as predicted by QCD.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, Accepted by Phys. Lett.

Measurement and Interpretation of Fermion-Pair Production at LEP energies above the Z Resonance

This paper presents DELPHI measurements and interpretations of cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries, and angular distributions, for the e+e- -> ffbar process for centre-of-mass energies above the Z resonance, from sqrt(s) ~ 130 - 207 GeV at the LEP collider. The measurements are consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model and are used to study a variety of models including the S-Matrix ansatz for e+e- -> ffbar scattering and several models which include physics beyond the Standard Model: the exchange of Z' bosons, contact interactions between fermions, the exchange of gravitons in large extra dimensions and the exchange of sneutrino in R-parity violating supersymmetry.Comment: 79 pages, 16 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

Determination of the b quark mass at the M_Z scale with the DELPHI detector at LEP

An experimental study of the normalized three-jet rate of b quark events with respect to light quarks events (light= \ell \equiv u,d,s) has been performed using the CAMBRIDGE and DURHAM jet algorithms. The data used were collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP on the Z peak from 1994 to 2000. The results are found to agree with theoretical predictions treating mass corrections at next-to-leading order. Measurements of the b quark mass have also been performed for both the b pole mass: M_b and the b running mass: m_b(M_Z). Data are found to be better described when using the running mass. The measurement yields: m_b(M_Z) = 2.85 +/- 0.18 (stat) +/- 0.13 (exp) +/- 0.19 (had) +/- 0.12 (theo) GeV/c^2 for the CAMBRIDGE algorithm. This result is the most precise measurement of the b mass derived from a high energy process. When compared to other b mass determinations by experiments at lower energy scales, this value agrees with the prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics for the energy evolution of the running mass. The mass measurement is equivalent to a test of the flavour independence of the strong coupling constant with an accuracy of 7 permil.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

A Determination of the Centre-of-Mass Energy at LEP2 using Radiative 2-fermion Events

Using e+e- -> mu+mu-(gamma) and e+e- -> qqbar(gamma) events radiative to the Z pole, DELPHI has determined the centre-of-mass energy, sqrt{s}, using energy and momentum constraint methods. The results are expressed as deviations from the nominal LEP centre-of-mass energy, measured using other techniques. The results are found to be compatible with the LEP Energy Working Group estimates for a combination of the 1997 to 2000 data sets.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.