Preparation of monotectic alloys having a controlled microstructure by directional solidification under dopant-induced interface breakdown

Monotectic alloys having aligned spherical particles of rods of the minor component dispersed in a matrix of the major component are prepared by forming a melt containing predetermined amounts of the major and minor components of a chosen monotectic system, providing in the melt a dopant capable of breaking down the liquid solid interface for the chosen alloy, and directionally solidfying the melt at a selected temperature gradient and a selected rate of movement of the liquid-solid interface (growth rate). Shaping of the minor component into spheres or rods and the spacing between them are controlled by the amount of dopant and the temperature gradient and growth rate values. Specific alloy systems include Al Bi, Al Pb and Zn Bi, using a transition element such as iron

Ecdysteroids: A novel class of anabolic agents?

Increasing numbers of dietary supplements with ecdysteroids are marketed as “natural anabolic agents”. Results of recent studies suggested that their anabolic effect is mediated by estrogen receptor (ER) binding. Within this study the anabolic potency of ecdysterone was compared to well characterized anabolic substances. Effects on the fiber sizes of the soleus muscle in rats as well the diameter of C2C12 derived myotubes were used as biological readouts. Ecdysterone exhibited a strong hypertrophic effect on the fiber size of rat soleus muscle that was found even stronger compared to the test compounds metandienone (dianabol), estradienedione (trenbolox), and SARM S 1, all administered in the same dose (5 mg/kg body weight, for 21 days). In C2C12 myotubes ecdysterone (1 µM) induced a significant increase of the diameter comparable to dihydrotestosterone (1 µM) and IGF 1 (1.3 nM). Molecular docking experiments supported the ERβ mediated action of ecdysterone. To clarify its status in sports, ecdysterone should be considered to be included in the class “S1.2 Other Anabolic Agents” of the list of prohibited substances of the World Anti-Doping Agency

Determination of the gaseous hydrogen ductile-brittle transition in copper-nickel alloys

A series of copper-nickel alloys were fabricated, notched tensile specimens machined for each alloy, and the specimens tested in 34.5 MPa hydrogen and in air. A notched tensile ratio was determined for each alloy and the hydrogen environment embrittlement (HEE) determined for the alloys of 47.7 weight percent nickel to 73.5 weight percent nickel. Stacking fault probability and stacking fault energies were determined for each alloy using the x ray diffraction line shift and line profiles technique. Hydrogen environment embrittlement was determined to be influenced by stacking fault energies; however, the correlation is believed to be indirect and only partially responsible for the HEE behavior of these alloys

The Fermionic Density-functional at Feshbach Resonance

We consider a dilute gas of neutral unpolarized fermionic atoms at zero temperature.The atoms interact via a short range (tunable) attractive interaction. We demonstrate analytically a curious property of the gas at unitarity. Namely, the correlation energy of the gas, evaluated by second order perturbation theory, has the same density dependence as the first order exchange energy, and the two almost exactly cancel each other at Feshbach resonance irrespective of the shape of the potential, provided $(\mu r_s) >> 1$. Here $(\mu)^{-1}$ is the range of the two-body potential, and $r_s$ is defined through the number density $n=3/(4\pi r_s^3)$. The implications of this result for universality is discussed.Comment: Five pages, one table. accepted for publication in PR

On the effect of Ti on Oxidation Behaviour of a Polycrystalline Nickel-based Superalloy

Titanium is commonly added to nickel superalloys but has a well-documented detrimental effect on oxidation resistance. The present work constitutes the first atomistic-scale quantitative measurements of grain boundary and bulk compositions in the oxide scale of a current generation polycrystalline nickel superalloy performed through atom probe tomography. Titanium was found to be particularly detrimental to oxide scale growth through grain boundary diffusion

Ground state of two electrons on concentric spheres

We extend our analysis of two electrons on a sphere [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 79}, 062517 (2009); Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 103}, 123008 (2009)] to electrons on concentric spheres with different radii. The strengths and weaknesses of several electronic structure models are analyzed, ranging from the mean-field approximation (restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock solutions) to configuration interaction expansion, leading to near-exact wave functions and energies. The M{\o}ller-Plesset energy corrections (up to third-order) and the asymptotic expansion for the large-spheres regime are also considered. We also study the position intracules derived from approximate and exact wave functions. We find evidence for the existence of a long-range Coulomb hole in the large-spheres regime, and infer that unrestricted Hartree-Fock theory over-localizes the electrons.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

Quantum number projection at finite temperature via thermofield dynamics

Applying the thermo field dynamics, we reformulate exact quantum number projection in the finite-temperature Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory. Explicit formulae are derived for the simultaneous projection of particle number and angular momentum, in parallel to the zero-temperature case. We also propose a practical method for the variation-after-projection calculation, by approximating entropy without conflict with the Peierls inequality. The quantum number projection in the finite-temperature mean-field theory will be useful to study effects of quantum fluctuations associated with the conservation laws on thermal properties of nuclei.Comment: 27 pages, using revtex4, to be published in PR

Strain Modulated Electronic Properties of Ge Nanowires - A First Principles Study

We used density-functional theory based first principles simulations to study the effects of uniaxial strain and quantum confinement on the electronic properties of germanium nanowires along the [110] direction, such as the energy gap and the effective masses of the electron and hole. The diameters of the nanowires being studied are up to 50 {\AA}. As shown in our calculations, the Ge [110] nanowires possess a direct band gap, in contrast to the nature of an indirect band gap in bulk. We discovered that the band gap and the effective masses of charge carries can be modulated by applying uniaxial strain to the nanowires. These strain modulations are size-dependent. For a smaller wire (~ 12 {\AA}), the band gap is almost a linear function of strain; compressive strain increases the gap while tensile strain reduces the gap. For a larger wire (20 {\AA} - 50 {\AA}), the variation of the band gap with respect to strain shows nearly parabolic behavior: compressive strain beyond -1% also reduces the gap. In addition, our studies showed that strain affects effective masses of the electron and hole very differently. The effective mass of the hole increases with a tensile strain while the effective mass of the electron increases with a compressive strain. Our results suggested both strain and size can be used to tune the band structures of nanowires, which may help in design of future nano-electronic devices. We also discussed our results by applying the tight-binding model.Comment: 1 table, 8 figure

Significant Conditions on the Two-electron Reduced Density Matrix from the Constructive Solution of N-representability

We recently presented a constructive solution to the N-representability problem of the two-electron reduced density matrix (2-RDM)---a systematic approach to constructing complete conditions to ensure that the 2-RDM represents a realistic N-electron quantum system [D. A. Mazziotti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 263002 (2012)]. In this paper we provide additional details and derive further N-representability conditions on the 2-RDM that follow from the constructive solution. The resulting conditions can be classified into a hierarchy of constraints, known as the (2,q)-positivity conditions where the q indicates their derivation from the nonnegativity of q-body operators. In addition to the known T1 and T2 conditions, we derive a new class of (2,3)-positivity conditions. We also derive 3 classes of (2,4)-positivity conditions, 6 classes of (2,5)-positivity conditions, and 24 classes of (2,6)-positivity conditions. The constraints obtained can be divided into two general types: (i) lifting conditions, that is conditions which arise from lifting lower (2,q)-positivity conditions to higher (2,q+1)-positivity conditions and (ii) pure conditions, that is conditions which cannot be derived from a simple lifting of the lower conditions. All of the lifting conditions and the pure (2,q)-positivity conditions for q>3 require tensor decompositions of the coefficients in the model Hamiltonians. Subsets of the new N-representability conditions can be employed with the previously known conditions to achieve polynomially scaling calculations of ground-state energies and 2-RDMs of many-electron quantum systems even in the presence of strong electron correlation