A kinetic study on the decay of formic acid produced by the thrmal decomposition of ethyl formate

The thermal decomposition of ethyl formate diluted in argon has been investigated behind reflected shock waves over the temperature range 1220-1710 K, with a total density of ～ 1.2×10[-5] mol/㎤. Production and decay processes of formic acid were monitored by means of the time-resolved IR emission at 5.7 μm. The emission profiles were analyzed by utilizing the integrated profiles method developed by Yamasaki et al. The resultant first-order decay rate constant is expressed as k=10[9.10] exp (-40.7 Kcal mol[-1]/RT) s[-1], which is in proper agreement with that for the pyrolysis of formic acid obtained by Blades at lawer temperatures, but slightly lower than the estimated expression suggested by Benson and O'Neal. The formation rate for carbon dioxide, however, is found to be greatly accelerated compared to that with formic acid as a starting material, which attributes to the chemical activation of the intermediary produces formic acid

Effects of Disorder on the Competition between Antiferromagnetism and Superconductivity

Motivated by the observation of unusual magnetism in Ce_xCu_2Si_2 ($x\sim 1$), we study the effect of disorder, such as Ce vacancy, on the competition between superconductivity (SC) and antiferromagnetism (AF) on the basis of the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory. Assuming that the AF-SC transition is of first order in clean system, we show that a single impurity in the SC state can induce staggered magnetization by suppressing the SC around it. For finite concentration of impurities, the first-order AF-SC boundary in the clean case is replaced by a finite region where the SC and the induced AF moments coexist microscopically with spatially varying order parameters. We argue that spin excitation spectrum in the coexistent state has a dual structure of SC gapped mode and the low-energy spin-wave mode. In accordance with the emergence of AF out of SC ground state, the spectral weight will be transferred from the former mode to the latter, keeping the structure of both modes basically unchanged.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Japa

Extended Clausius Relation and Entropy for Nonequilibrium Steady States in Heat Conducting Quantum Systems

Recently, in their attempt to construct steady state thermodynamics (SST), Komatsu, Nakagwa, Sasa, and Tasaki found an extension of the Clausius relation to nonequilibrium steady states in classical stochastic processes. Here we derive a quantum mechanical version of the extended Clausius relation. We consider a small system of interest attached to large systems which play the role of heat baths. By only using the genuine quantum dynamics, we realize a heat conducting nonequilibrium steady state in the small system. We study the response of the steady state when the parameters of the system are changed abruptly, and show that the extended Clausius relation, in which "heat" is replaced by the "excess heat", is valid when the temperature difference is small. Moreover we show that the entropy that appears in the relation is similar to von Neumann entropy but has an extra symmetrization with respect to time-reversal. We believe that the present work opens a new possibility in the study of nonequilibrium phenomena in quantum systems, and also confirms the robustness of the approach by Komtatsu et al.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

Muonium as a shallow center in GaN

A paramagnetic muonium (Mu) state with an extremely small hyperfine parameter was observed for the first time in single-crystalline GaN below 25 K. It has a highly anisotropic hyperfine structure with axial symmetry along the [0001] direction, suggesting that it is located either at a nitrogen-antibonding or a bond-centered site oriented parallel to the c-axis. Its small ionization energy (=< 14 meV) and small hyperfine parameter (--10^{-4} times the vacuum value) indicate that muonium in one of its possible sites produces a shallow state, raising the possibility that the analogous hydrogen center could be a source of n-type conductivity in as-grown GaN.Comment: 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Letter

Equation of state in the PNJL model with the entanglement interaction

The equation of state and the phase diagram in two-flavor QCD are investigated by the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model with an entanglement vertex between the chiral condensate and the Polyakov-loop. The entanglement-PNJL (EPNJL) model reproduces LQCD data at zero and finite chemical potential better than the PNJL model. Hadronic degrees of freedom are taken into account by the free-hadron-gas (FHG) model with the volume-exclusion effect due to the hadron generation. The EPNJL+FHG model improves agreement of the EPNJL model with LQCD data particularly at small temperature. The quarkyonic phase survives, even if the correlation between the chiral condensate and the Polyakov loop is strong and hadron degrees of freedom are taken into account. However, the location of the quarkyonic phase is sensitive to the strength of the volume exclusion.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure