The oxidation of CO on RuO₂(110) at room temperature

RuO2(110) surfaces were prepared by exposing Ru(0001) to 10(7) L of O-2 at 700 K. Postexposure of O-2 at 300 K resulted in an additional oxygen species (O-cus) adsorbed on coordinatively unsaturated Ru atoms (Ru-cus). The surface was then exposed to CO at 300 K and studied by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS). It is demonstrated that CO is oxidized at 300 K through reaction with both the O-cus as well as with surface O-atoms held in bridge positions (O-bridge). Although-at room temperature-CO adsorbs intermediately on the Ru-cus atoms, it is stable only at the Ru atoms underneath the O-bridge after the latter has been reacted off. At room temperature only surface oxygen takes part in the CO oxidation and the oxygen-depleted surface can be restored by O-2 exposure, so that under steady-state flow conditions an oxygen-deficient surface will exist whose stoichiometry will be determined by the ratio of partial pressures

Dual-Path Mechanism for Catalytic Oxidation of Hydrogen on Platinum Surfaces

The catalytic formation of water from adsorbed hydrogen and oxygen atoms on Pt(111) was studied with scanning tunneling microscopy and high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy. The known complexity of this reaction is explained by the strongly temperature dependent lifetime of the product H2O molecules on the surface. Below the desorption temperature water reacts with unreacted O adatoms to OHad, leading to an autocatalytic process; at higher temperatures sequential addition of H adatoms to Oad with normal kinetics takes place

Elliptic Phases: A Study of the Nonlinear Elasticity of Twist-Grain Boundaries

We develop an explicit and tractable representation of a twist-grain-boundary phase of a smectic A liquid crystal. This allows us to calculate the interaction energy between grain boundaries and the relative contributions from the bending and compression deformations. We discuss the special stability of the 90 degree grain boundaries and discuss the relation of this structure to the Schwarz D surface.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Vibrational and structural properties of OH adsorbed on Pt(111)

OH species adsorbed on Pt(111) were studied in a combined investigation using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS). OH was formed by two different reactions, by reaction of H2O with O, and as an intermediate in the reaction of O with hydrogen to H2O. In both cases, two ordered OH phases were observed, a (√3×√3)R30° and a (3×3) structure, for which models are proposed. Both structures have OH coverages of 2/3, and their formation is driven by hydrogen bond formation between the adparticles; the OH adsorption site is most likely on top. OH molecules at defects in the adlayer, in particular at island edges, are spectroscopically distinguishable and contribute significantly to the vibrational spectra in disordered OH layers. This is important for the water formation reaction, where the OH islands are small. The discrepancies between previous HREELS studies on OH can be explained by the different degree of order under the various formation conditions

Thermodynamic instability and first-order phase transition in an ideal Bose gas

We conduct a rigorous investigation into the thermodynamic instability of ideal Bose gas confined in a cubic box, without assuming thermodynamic limit nor continuous approximation. Based on the exact expression of canonical partition function, we perform numerical computations up to the number of particles one million. We report that if the number of particles is equal to or greater than a certain critical value, which turns out to be 7616, the ideal Bose gas subject to Dirichlet boundary condition reveals a thermodynamic instability. Accordingly we demonstrate - for the first time - that, a system consisting of finite number of particles can exhibit a discontinuous phase transition featuring a genuine mathematical singularity, provided we keep not volume but pressure constant. The specific number, 7616 can be regarded as a characteristic number of 'cube' that is the geometric shape of the box.Comment: 1+21 pages; 3 figures (2 color and 1 B/W); Final version to appear in Physical Review A. Title changed from the previous one, "7616: Critical number of ideal Bose gas confined in a cubic box

Energetics and Vibrational States for Hydrogen on Pt(111)

We present a combination of theoretical calculations and experiments for the low-lying vibrational excitations of H and D atoms adsorbed on the Pt(111) surface. The vibrational band states are calculated based on the full three-dimensional adiabatic potential energy surface obtained from first principles calculations. For coverages less than three quarters of a monolayer, the observed experimental high-resolution electron peaks at 31 and 68meV are in excellent agreement with the theoretical transitions between selected bands. Our results convincingly demonstrate the need to go beyond the local harmonic oscillator picture to understand the dynamics of this system.Comment: In press at Phys. Rev. Lett - to appear in April 200

Equal charge black holes and seven dimensional gauged supergravity

We present various supergravity black holes of different dimensions with some U(1) charges set equal in a simple, common form. Black hole solutions of seven dimensional U(1)^2 gauged supergravity with three independent angular momenta and two equal U(1) charges are obtained. We investigate the thermodynamics and the BPS limit of this solution, and find that there are rotating supersymmetric black holes without naked closed timelike curves. There are also supersymmetric topological soliton solutions without naked closed timelike curves that have a smooth geometry.Comment: 24 pages; v2, v3: minor change

Quasi-doubly periodic solutions to a generalized Lame equation

We consider the algebraic form of a generalized Lame equation with five free parameters. By introducing a generalization of Jacobi's elliptic functions we transform this equation to a 1-dim time-independent Schroedinger equation with (quasi-doubly) periodic potential. We show that only for a finite set of integral values for the five parameters quasi-doubly periodic eigenfunctions expressible in terms of generalized Jacobi functions exist. For this purpose we also establish a relation to the generalized Ince equation.Comment: 15 pages,1 table, accepted for publication in Journal of Physics

Frame dragging and bending of Light in Kerr and Kerr-(anti) de Sitter spacetimes

The equations of general relativity in the form of timelike and null geodesics that describe motion of test particles and photons in Kerr spacetime are solved exactly including the contribution from the cosmological constant. We then perform a systematic application of the exact solutions obtained to the following cases. The exact solutions derived for null, spherical, polar and non-polar orbits are applied for the calculation of frame dragging (Lense-Thirring effect) for the orbit of a photon around the galactic centre, assuming that the latter is a Kerr black hole for various values of the Kerr parameter including those supported by recent observations. Unbound null polar orbits are investigated, and an analytical expression for the deviation angle of a polar photon orbit from the gravitational Kerr field is derived. In addition, we present the exact solution for timelike and null equatorial orbits. In the former case, we derive an analytical expression for the precession of the point of closest approach (perihelion, periastron) for the orbit of a test particle around a rotating mass whose surrounding curved spacetime geometry is described by the Kerr field. In the latter case, we calculate an exact expression for the deflection angle for a light ray in the gravitational field of a rotating mass (the Kerr field). We apply this calculation for the bending of light from the gravitational field of the galactic centre for various values of the Kerr parameter and the impact factor.Comment: LaTeX file, 45 pages 1 figure, typos fixed, v3 published in Classical and Quantum Gravity 22 (2005) 4391-442

Discontinuous Molecular Dynamics for Semi-Flexible and Rigid Bodies

A general framework for performing event-driven simulations of systems with semi-flexible or rigid bodies interacting under impulsive torques and forces is outlined. Two different approaches are presented. In the first, the dynamics and interaction rules are derived from Lagrangian mechanics in the presence of constraints. This approach is most suitable when the body is composed of relatively few point masses or is semi-flexible. In the second method, the equations of rigid bodies are used to derive explicit analytical expressions for the free evolution of arbitrary rigid molecules and to construct a simple scheme for computing interaction rules. Efficient algorithms for the search for the times of interaction events are designed in this context, and the handling of missed interaction events is discussed.Comment: 16 pages, double column revte