Evaporation and growth of crystals - propagation of step density compression waves at vicinal surfaces

We studied the step dynamics during crystal sublimation and growth in the limit of fast surface diffusion and slow kinetics of atom attachment-detachment at the steps. For this limit we formulate a model free of the quasi-static approximation in the calculation of the adatom concentration on the terraces at the crystal surface. Such a model provides a relatively simple way to study the linear stability of a step train in a presence of step-step repulsion and an absence of destabilizing factors (as Schwoebel effect, surface electromigration etc.). The central result is that a critical velocity of the steps in the train exists which separates the stability and instability regimes. When the step velocity exceeds its critical value the plot of these trajectories manifests clear space and time periodicity (step density compression waves propagate on the vicinal surface). This ordered motion of the steps is preceded by a relatively short transition period of disordered step dynamics.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Development of dysbiosis in the organism of rats receiving a high-fat diet

Background. To determine the effect on the degree of dysbiosis in the organs and tissues of rats treated with high-fat diet (HFD) using fats with various fatty acid compositions.Methods. We used ordinary (high-linoleic) sunflower oil, high-oleic sunflower oil, butter, palm and coconut oils. Rats were fed with 15 % of each of the fats for 64 days. In the blood serum from v.cava and v. porta, in the liver, heart, brain, skeletal muscles and intestinal mucosa, urease activity (an indicator of bacterial insemination), lysozyme activity (a factor of non-specific immunity) were determined, and the degree of dysbiosis was calculated from the ratio of relative urease and lysozyme activities. Results. The activity of urease in the blood of v. porta increased in rats treated with HFD, and was significantly higher than in the blood of v.cava. In most of the studied tissues, urease activity increased after HFD, with the exception of rats receiving high-oleic sunflower oil (HOSO). In contrast, lysozyme activity was reduced in most tissues, with the exception of rats treated with HOSO. The degree of dysbiosis increased after HFD with the exception of rats treated with HOSO.Conclusion. HFD increases the translocation of bacteria from the intestine. The liver partially neutralizes the microflora coming from the intestines. In blood serum from v. cava and v. porta, urease activity (an indicator of bacterial contamination), lysozyme activity (nonspecific immunity factor) were determined in the liver, heart, brain, skeletal muscle and intestinal mucosa, and the degree of dysbiosis was calculated by the ratio of the relative activities of urease and lysozyme.Results. Blood urease activity v. porta was elevated in rats treated with HFD and was significantly higher than in blood v. cava. In most of the tissues studied, urease activity increased after HFD with the exception of rats treated with high oleic sunflower oil (HOSO), the development of dysbiosis in all tissues of the body. The exception is HOSO, which does not cause the development of dysbiosis and inflammation

Coherent Stranski-Krastanov growth in 1+1 dimensions with anharmonic interactions: An equilibrium study

The formation of coherently strained three-dimensional islands on top of the wetting layer in Stranski-Krastanov mode of growth is considered in a model in 1+1 dimensions accounting for the anharmonicity and non-convexity of the real interatomic forces. It is shown that coherent 3D islands can be expected to form in compressed rather than in expanded overlayers beyond a critical lattice misfit. In the latter case the classical Stranski-Krastanov growth is expected to occur because the misfit dislocations can become energetically favored at smaller island sizes. The thermodynamic reason for coherent 3D islanding is the incomplete wetting owing to the weaker adhesion of the edge atoms. Monolayer height islands with a critical size appear as necessary precursors of the 3D islands. The latter explains the experimentally observed narrow size distribution of the 3D islands. The 2D-3D transformation takes place by consecutive rearrangements of mono- to bilayer, bi- to trilayer islands, etc., after exceeding the corresponding critical sizes. The rearrangements are initiated by nucleation events each next one requiring to overcome a lower energetic barrier. The model is in good qualitative agreement with available experimental observations.Comment: 12 pages text, 15 figures, Accepted in Phys.Rev.B, Vol.61, No2

Zel'dovich states with very small mass and charge in nonlinear electrodynamics coupled to gravity

It is shown that in non-linear electrodynamics (in particular, Born-Infeld one) in the framework of general relativity there exist "weakly singular" configurations such that (i) the proper mass M is finite in spite of divergences of the energy density, (ii) the electric charge q and Schwarzschild mass m ~ q can be made as small as one likes, (iv) all field and energy distributions are concentrated in the core region. This region has an almost zero surface area but a finite longitudinal size L=2M. Such configurations can be viewed as a new version of a classical analogue of an elementary particle.Comment: 11 pages. 1 reference added. To appear in Grav. Cosm

Classical model of elementary particle with Bertotti-Robinson core and extremal black holes

We discuss the question, whether the Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m RN) metric can be glued to another solutions of Einstein-Maxwell equations in such a way that (i) the singularity at r=0 typical of the RN metric is removed (ii), matching is smooth. Such a construction could be viewed as a classical model of an elementary particle balanced by its own forces without support by an external agent. One choice is the Minkowski interior that goes back to the old Vilenkin and Fomin's idea who claimed that in this case the bare delta-like stresses at the horizon vanish if the RN metric is extremal. However, the relevant entity here is the integral of these stresses over the proper distance which is infinite in the extremal case. As a result of the competition of these two factors, the Lanczos tensor does not vanish and the extremal RN cannot be glued to the Minkowski metric smoothly, so the elementary-particle model as a ball empty inside fails. We examine the alternative possibility for the extremal RN metric - gluing to the Bertotti-Robinson (BR) metric. For a surface placed outside the horizon there always exist bare stresses but their amplitude goes to zero as the radius of the shell approaches that of the horizon. This limit realizes the Wheeler idea of "mass without mass" and "charge without charge". We generalize the model to the extremal Kerr-Newman metric glued to the rotating analog of the BR metric.Comment: 23 pages. Misprints correcte

The Boltzmann equation for colourless plasmons in hot QCD plasma. Semiclassical approximation

Within the framework of the semiclassical approximation, we derive the Boltzmann equation describing the dynamics of colorless plasmons in a hot QCD plasma. The probability of the plasmon-plasmon scattering at the leading order in the coupling constant is obtained. This probability is gauge-independent at least in the class of the covariant and temporal gauges. It is noted that the structure of the scattering kernel possesses important qualitative difference from the corresponding one in the Abelian plasma, in spite of the fact that we focused our study on the colorless soft excitations. It is shown that four-plasmon decay is suppressed by the power of $g$ relative to the process of nonlinear scattering of plasmons by thermal particles at the soft momentum scale. It is stated that the former process becomes important in going to the ultrasoft region of the momentum scale.Comment: 41, LaTeX, minor changes, identical to published versio