The Structure of Graphene on Graphene/C60/Cu Interfaces: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Two experimental studies reported the spontaneous formation of amorphous and crystalline structures of C60 intercalated between graphene and a substrate. They observed interesting phenomena ranging from reaction between C60 molecules under graphene to graphene sagging between the molecules and control of strain in graphene. Motivated by these works, we performed fully atomistic reactive molecular dynamics simulations to study the formation and thermal stability of graphene wrinkles as well as graphene attachment to and detachment from the substrate when graphene is laid over a previously distributed array of C60 molecules on a copper substrate at different values of temperature. As graphene compresses the C60 molecules against the substrate, and graphene attachment to the substrate between C60s ("C60s" stands for plural of C60) depends on the height of graphene wrinkles, configurations with both frozen and non-frozen C60s structures were investigated in order to verify the experimental result of stable sagged graphene when the distance between C60s is about 4 nm and height of graphene wrinkles is about 0.8 nm. Below the distance of 4 nm between C60s, graphene becomes locally suspended and less strained. We show that this happens when C60s are allowed to deform under the compressive action of graphene. If we keep the C60s frozen, spontaneous "blanketing" of graphene happens only when the distance between them are equal or above 7 nm. Both above results for the existence of stable sagged graphene for C60 distances of 4 or 7 nm are shown to agree with a mechanical model relating the rigidity of graphene to the energy of graphene-substrate adhesion. In particular, this study might help the development of 2D confined nanoreactors that are considered in literature to be the next advanced step on chemical reactions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Vascular grassland plants of Tibagi River Spring, Ponta Grossa, Brazil.

A systematic survey was carried out on wet grasslands found over Histosols at Upper Tibagi River basin, between Ponta Grossa and Palmeira municipalities, in the state of Paraná, Brazil, place of high importance because of soil water retention capability and soil carbon pool composition. We provide a checklist containing 146 species, 96 genera and 42 plant families for the area. Families with higher species richness were Asteraceae (27 species; 21 genera), Poaceae (24; 16) and Cyperaceae (18; 6). Four species were classified as endangered or rare, and one as exotic. The specific richness in wet grassland environments at the state of Paraná underlines the need for conservation efforts encompassing these formations

Interplay between intrinsic plasma rotation and magnetic island evolution in disruptive discharges

The behavior of the intrinsic toroidal rotation of the plasma column during the growth and eventualsaturation of m/n = 2/1 magnetic islands, triggered by programmed density rise, has been carefully investigatedin disruptive discharges in TCABR. The results show that, as the island starts to grow and rotate at aspeed larger than that of the plasma column, the angular frequency of the intrinsic toroidal rotation increasesand that of the island decreases, following the expectation of synchronization. As the island saturates at alarge size, just before a major disruption, the angular speed of the intrinsic rotation decreases quite rapidly,even though the island keeps still rotating at a reduced speed. This decrease of the toroidal rotation is quitereproducible and can be considered as an indicative of disruption

Classicality in discrete Wigner functions

Gibbons et al. [Phys. Rev. A 70, 062101(2004)] have recently defined a class of discrete Wigner functions W to represent quantum states in a Hilbert space with finite dimension. We show that the only pure states having non-negative W for all such functions are stabilizer states, as conjectured by one of us [Phys. Rev. A 71, 042302 (2005)]. We also show that the unitaries preserving non-negativity of W for all definitions of W form a subgroup of the Clifford group. This means pure states with non-negative W and their associated unitary dynamics are classical in the sense of admitting an efficient classical simulation scheme using the stabilizer formalism.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Aptidão natural dos solos para cultura da pimenta longa no estado do Acre.

O Acre é região endêmica da Pimenta Longa. A partir de sua identificação realizada na década de 1970, houve grande interesse pela cultura, sobretudo, pelo alto teor de safrol. O objetivo deste trabalho foi elaborar o mapa de aptidão natural da cultura em áreas desmatadas do Estado do Acre, em nível de reconhecimento de média intensidade. O estudo foi desenvolvido nas áreas convertidas do Estado, com base nas exigências edáficas da cultura, classes de relevo, mapa pedológico e características gerais do clima do Acre, assim definiu-se o estudo de aptidão dos solos acreanos para a cultura da pimenta longa em escala de trabalho 1:250.000. As áreas alteradas do Estado apresentam 29%, ou seja, 607.190,4 ha com aptidão preferencial para o cultivo da pimenta longa, se acrescentado a este número as áreas com potencial preferencial/restrita, tem-se 38% (796.677,9 ha), contabilizando 67,8%, ou seja, 1.403.868,3 ha. A regional com maior potencial em termos de área e, aptidão natural é a do Baixo Acre com 38% da sua área desmatada, ou seja, 393.487,6 hectares de área preferencial

Characterization of toroidal intrinsic rotation with MHD activity in theTCABR tokamak

Plasma rotation has an important play in stabilization of MHD modes and reducing turbulenttransport of particles and energy. Because in fusion reactors it is expected the torque provided byexternal sources will be small, the intrinsic (or spontaneous) rotation is of great interest[1, 2, 3].Furthermore, the origin and physics of plasma rotation is also an important issue by itself.The behavior of the intrinsic toroidal rotation during the growth and saturation of m/n =2/1 magnetic islands, triggered by programmed density ramp up, has been investigated in Lmodeohmic discharges in the TCABR tokamak. In those discharges R = 0.61 m, a = 0.18 m,Ip 80 kA, Bt = 1.07 T, q(a) 3.5 and the toroidal spontaneous rotation of the plasma coreis in the counter-current direction. The results show that the plasma is accelerated as the islandstarts to grow, while the island frequency slows down. And, as the island saturates, the toroidalrotation decreases quite rapidly (faster than the island), and the discharge is followed by a majordisruption. In some discharges, where the density decreases after the island saturation (and thus,avoiding the plasma disruption), the MHD instability becomes smaller until it vanishes, and thetoroidal rotation slows down to its original value before the gas injection

New SiS destruction and formation routes via neutral-neutral reactions and their fundamental role in interstellar clouds at low- and high-metallicity values

Context. Among the silicon-bearing species discovered in the interstellar medium, SiS and SiO stand out as key tracers due to their distinct chemistry and variable abundances in interstellar and circumstellar environments. Nevertheless, while the origins of SiO are well documented, the SiS chemistry remains relatively unexplored. Aims. Our objective is to enhance the network of Si- and S-bearing chemical reactions for a gas-grain model in molecular clouds, encompassing both low and high metallicities. To achieve this, we calculated the energies and rate coefficients for six neutral atom-diatom reactions involved in the SiCS triatomic system, with a special focus on the C+SiS and S+SiC collisions. Methods. We employed the coupled-cluster method with single and double substitutions and a perturbative treatment of triple substitutions (CCSD(T)) refined at the explicitly correlated CCSD(T)-F12 level. With these computational results in conjunction with supplementary data from the literature, we construct an extended network of neutral-neutral chemical reactions involving Si- and S-bearing molecules. To assess the impact of these chemical reactions, we performed time-dependent models employing the Nautilus gas-grain code, setting the gas temperature to 10 K and the H2 density to 2 × 10^4 cm−3 . The models considered two initial abundance scenarios, corresponding to low- and high-metallicity levels. Abundances were computed using both the default chemical network and the constrained network, enriched with newly calculated reactions. Results. The temperature dependence for the reactions involving SiS were modelled to the k(T ) = α (T/300)β exp (−γ/T ) expression, and the coefficients are provided for the first time. The high-metallicity models significantly boost the SiS production, resulting in abundances nearly four orders of magnitude higher compared to low-metallicity models. Higher initial abundances of C, S, and Si, roughly ∼2, 190, and 210 times higher, respectively, contribute to this. Around the age of 10^3 yr, destruction mechanisms become relevant, impacting the abundance of SiS. The proposed production reaction S + SiC −→ C + SiS, mitigates these effects in later stages. By expanding the gas reaction network using a high-metallicity model, we derived estimates for the abundances of observed interstellar molecules, including SiO, SO, and SO2 . Conclusions. We demonstrate the significance of both SiC+S and C+SiS channels in the SiS chemistry. Notably, the inclusion of neutral-neutral mechanisms, particularly via Si+HS and S+SiC channels, played a pivotal role in determining SiS abundance. These mechanisms carry a significance level on a par with that of the well-known and fast ion-neutral reactions