Frictional behavior of talc-calcite mixtures

Faults involving phyllosilicates appear weak when compared to the laboratory-derived strength of most crustal rocks. Among phyllosilicates, talc, with very low friction, is one of the weakest minerals involved in various tectonic settings. As the presence of talc has been recently documented in carbonate faults, we performed laboratory friction experiments to better constrain how various amounts of talc could alter these fault’s frictional properties. We used a biaxial apparatus to systematically shear different mixtures of talc and calcite as powdered gouge at room temperature, normal stresses up to 50 MPa and under different pore fluid saturated conditions, i.e., CaCO3-equilibrated water and silicone oil. We performed slide-hold-slide tests, 1–3000 s, to measure the amount of frictional healing and velocity-stepping tests, 0.1–1000 μm/s, to evaluate frictional stability. We then analyzed microstructures developed during our experiments. Our results show that with the addition of 20% talc the calcite gouge undergoes a 70% reduction in steady state frictional strength, a complete reduction of frictional healing and a transition from velocity-weakening to velocity-strengthening behavior. Microstructural analysis shows that with increasing talc content, deformation mechanisms evolve from distributed cataclastic flow of the granular calcite to localized sliding along talc-rich shear planes, resulting in a fully interconnected network of talc lamellae from 20% talc onward. Our observations indicate that in faults where talc and calcite are present, a low concentration of talc is enough to strongly modify the gouge’s frictional properties and specifically to weaken the fault, reduce its ability to sustain future stress drops, and stabilize slip

Ab initio GW many-body effects in graphene

We present an {\it ab initio} many-body GW calculation of the self-energy, the quasiparticle band plot and the spectral functions in free-standing undoped graphene. With respect to other approaches, we numerically take into account the full ionic and electronic structure of real graphene and we introduce electron-electron interaction and correlation effects from first principles. Both non-hermitian and also dynamical components of the self-energy are fully taken into account. With respect to DFT-LDA, the Fermi velocity is substantially renormalized and raised by a 17%, in better agreement with magnetotransport experiments. Furthermore, close to the Dirac point the linear dispersion is modified by the presence of a kink, as observed in ARPES experiments. Our calculations show that the kink is due to low-energy $\pi \to \pi^*$ single-particle excitations and to the $\pi$ plasmon. Finally, the GW self-energy does not open the band gap.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Matter waves in a gravitational field: An index of refraction for massive particles in general relativity

We consider the propagation of massive-particle de Broglie waves in a static, isotropic metric in general relativity. We demonstrate the existence of an index of refraction that governs the waves and that has all the properties of a classical index of refraction. We confirm our interpretation with a WKB solution of the general-relativistic Klein-Gordon equation. Finally, we make some observations on the significance of the optical action.Comment: 20 pages, latex, ps and pdf. To appear in Am.J.Phys September, 200

Infinite index extensions of local nets and defects

Subfactor theory provides a tool to analyze and construct extensions of Quantum Field Theories, once the latter are formulated as local nets of von Neumann algebras. We generalize some of the results of [LR95] to the case of extensions with infinite Jones index. This case naturally arises in physics, the canonical examples are given by global gauge theories with respect to a compact (non-finite) group of internal symmetries. Building on the works of Izumi, Longo, Popa [ILP98] and Fidaleo, Isola [FI99], we consider generalized Q-systems (of intertwiners) for a semidiscrete inclusion of properly infinite von Neumann algebras, which generalize ordinary Q-systems introduced by Longo [Lon94] to the infinite index case. We characterize inclusions which admit generalized Q-systems of intertwiners and define a braided product among the latter, hence we construct examples of QFTs with defects (phase boundaries) of infinite index, extending the family of boundaries in the grasp of [BKLR16].Comment: 50 page

OGS NODC Meta-data standardization, discovery and reporting from a relational database

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Comparative electrochemical behavior of Prussian blue analogues as a host electrode for rare earth element recovery

In this paper, electrodeposited films belonging to the Prussian Blue Analogues (PBAs) family, namely, nickel-hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) and copper-hexacyanoferrate (CuHCF), were employed as a host material for rare earth elements (REE), and the reported insertion/release study reveals a recovery capability for such valuable metals. The ion insertion/release was accomplished by adopting an electrochemically-driven process. A reversible intercalation was observed while considering both heavy and ligth rare earth elements. The amount of REEs inserted/released over the process and its kinetic evolution during the process were also studied by a chemometric approach. For CuHCF, it was seen that the intercalation of heavy rare earth elements occurs easily respect to the light ones, suggesting a possible selectivity among these ions

Galois Correspondence and Fourier Analysis on Local Discrete Subfactors

Discrete subfactors include a particular class of infinite index subfactors and all finite index ones. A discrete subfactor is called local when it is braided and it fulfills a commutativity condition motivated by the study of inclusion of Quantum Field Theories in the algebraic Haag–Kastler setting. In Bischoff et al. (J Funct Anal 281(1):109004, 2021), we proved that every irreducible local discrete subfactor arises as the fixed point subfactor under the action of a canonical compact hypergroup. In this work, we prove a Galois correspondence between intermediate von Neumann algebras and closed subhypergroups, and we study the subfactor theoretical Fourier transform in this context. Along the way, we extend the main results concerning α-induction and σ-restriction for braided subfactors previously known in the finite index case

Spectroscopic and microscopic analyses of Fe3O4/au nanoparticles obtained by laser ablation in water

Magneto-plasmonic nanoparticles constituted of gold and iron oxide were obtained in an aqueous environment by laser ablation of iron and gold targets in two successive steps. Gold nanoparticles are embedded in a mucilaginous matrix of iron oxide, which was identified as magnetite by both microscopic and spectroscopic analyses. The plasmonic properties of the obtained colloids, as well as their adsorption capability, were tested by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy using 2,2′-bipyridine as a probe molecule. DFT calculations allowed for obtaining information on the adsorption of the ligand molecules that strongly interact with positively charged surface active sites of the gold nanoparticles, thus providing efficient SERS enhancement. The presence of iron oxide gives the bimetallic colloid new possibilities of adsorption in addition to those inherent to gold nanoparticles, especially regarding organic pollutants and heavy metals, allowing to remove them from the aqueous environment by applying a magnetic field. Moreover, these nanoparticles, thanks to their low toxicity, are potentially useful not only in the field of sensors, but also for biomedical applications