11,403 research outputs found
Investigation of HNCO isomers formation in ice mantles by UV and thermal processing: an experimental approach
Current gas phase models do not account for the abundances of HNCO isomers
detected in various environments, suggesting a formation in icy grain mantles.
We attempted to study a formation channel of HNCO and its possible isomers by
vacuum-UV photoprocessing of interstellar ice analogues containing HO,
NH, CO, HCN, CHOH, CH, and N followed by warm-up, under
astrophysically relevant conditions. Only the HO:NH:CO and HO:HCN
ice mixtures led to the production of HNCO species. The possible isomerization
of HNCO to its higher energy tautomers following irradiation or due to ice
warm-up has been scrutinized. The photochemistry and thermal chemistry of
HO:NH:CO and HO:HCN ices was simulated using the Interstellar
Astrochemistry Chamber (ISAC), a state-of-the-art ultra-high-vacuum setup. The
ice was monitored in situ by Fourier transform mid-infrared spectroscopy in
transmittance. A quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) detected the desorption of
the molecules in the gas phase. UV-photoprocessing of
HO:NH:CO/HO:HCN ices lead to the formation of OCN as main
product in the solid state and a minor amount of HNCO. The second isomer HOCN
has been tentatively identified. Despite its low efficiency, the formation of
HNCO and the HOCN isomers by UV-photoprocessing of realistic simulated ice
mantles, might explain the observed abundances of these species in PDRs, hot
cores, and dark clouds
Experimental phase functions of mm-sized cosmic dust grains
We present experimental phase functions of three types of millimeter-sized
dust grains consisting of enstatite, quartz and volcanic material from Mount
Etna, respectively. The three grains present similar sizes but different
absorbing properties. The measurements are performed at 527 nm covering the
scattering angle range from 3 to 170 degrees. The measured phase functions show
two well defined regions i) soft forward peaks and ii) a continuous increase
with the scattering angle at side- and back-scattering regions. This behavior
at side- and back-scattering regions are in agreement with the observed phase
functions for the Fomalhaut and HR 4796A dust rings. Further computations and
measurements (including polarization) for millimeter sized-grains are needed to
draw some conclusions about the fluffy or compact structure of the dust grains
Degenerate Fermi Gas of Sr
We report quantum degeneracy in a gas of ultra-cold fermionic Sr
atoms. By evaporatively cooling a mixture of spin states in an optical dipole
trap for 10.5\,s, we obtain samples well into the degenerate regime with
. The main signature of degeneracy is a change in the
momentum distribution as measured by time-of-flight imaging, and we also
observe a decrease in evaporation efficiency below .Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Bose-Einstein Condensation of Sr Through Sympathetic Cooling with Sr
We report Bose-Einstein condensation of Sr, which has a small,
negative s-wave scattering length (\,). We overcome the poor
evaporative cooling characteristics of this isotope by sympathetic cooling with
Sr atoms. Sr is effective in this role in spite of the fact that
it is a fermion because of the large ground state degeneracy arising from a
nuclear spin of , which reduces the impact of Pauli blocking of
collisions. We observe a limited number of atoms in the condensate
() that is consistent with the value of and the
optical dipole trap parameters.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A compactness theorem for scalar-flat metrics on manifolds with boundary
Let (M,g) be a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary. This paper is
concerned with the set of scalar-flat metrics which are in the conformal class
of g and have the boundary as a constant mean curvature hypersurface. We prove
that this set is compact for dimensions greater than or equal to 7 under the
generic condition that the trace-free 2nd fundamental form of the boundary is
nonzero everywhere.Comment: 49 pages. Final version, to appear in Calc. Var. Partial Differential
Equation
Doping of inorganic materials in microreactors – preparation of Zn doped Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles
Microreactor systems are now used more and more for the continuous production of metal nanoparticles and metal oxide nanoparticles owing to the controllability of the particle size, an important property in many applications. Here, for the first time, we used microreactors to prepare metal oxide nanoparticles with controlled and varying metal stoichiometry. We prepared and characterised Zn-substituted Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with linear increase of Zn content (ZnxFe₃−xO₄ with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.48), which causes linear increases in properties such as the saturation magnetization, relative to pure Fe₃O₄. The methodology is simple and low cost and has great potential to be adapted to the targeted doping of a vast array of other inorganic materials, allowing greater control on the chemical stoichiometry for nanoparticles prepared in microreactors
Flavor Delta(54) in SU(5) SUSY Model
We design a supersymmetric SU (5) GUT model using \Delta (54), a finite
non-abelian subgroup of SU (3)f . Heavy right handed neutrinos are introduced
which transform as three-dimensional repre-sentation of our chosen family
group. The model successfully reproduces the mass hierarchical mass structures
of the Standard Model, and the CKM mixing matrix. It then provides predictions
for the light neutrino with a normal hierarchy and masses such that m{\nu},1
\approx 5\times10-3 eV, m{\nu}, 2 \approx 1\times 10-2 eV, and m{\nu},3 \approx
5 \times 10-2 eV. We also provide predictions for masses of the heavy
neutrinos, and correc- tions to the tri-bimaximal matrix that fit within
experimental limits, e.g. a reactor angle of -7.31o. A simple modification to
our model is introduced at the end and is shown to also produce predictions
that fall well within those limits.Comment: 22 page
Designed to fail : a biopolitics of British Citizenship.
Tracing a route through the recent 'ugly history' of British citizenship, this article advances two central claims. Firstly, British citizenship has been designed to fail specific groups and populations. Failure, it argues, is a design principle of British citizenship, in the most active and violent sense of the verb to design: to mark out, to indicate, to designate. Secondly, British citizenship is a biopolitics - a field of techniques and practices (legal, social, moral) through which populations are controlled and fashioned. This article begins with the 1981 Nationality Act and the violent conflicts between the police and black communities in Brixton that accompanied the passage of the Act through the British parliament. Employing Michel Foucault's concept of state racism, it argues that the 1981 Nationality Act marked a pivotal moment in the design of British citizenship and has operated as the template for a glut of subsequent nationality legislation that has shaped who can achieve citizenship. The central argument is that the existence of populations of failed citizens within Britain is not an accident of flawed design, but is foundational to British citizenship. For many 'national minorities' the lived realities of biopolitical citizenship stand in stark contradistinction to contemporary governmental accounts of citizenship that stress community cohesion, political participation, social responsibility, rights and pride in shared national belonging
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