2,079 research outputs found
Half-life and spin of 60Mn^g
A value of 0.28 +/- 0.02 s has been deduced for the half-life of the ground
state of 60Mn, in sharp contrast to the previously adopted value of 51 +/- 6 s.
Access to the low-spin 60Mn ground state was accomplished via beta decay of the
0+ 60Cr parent nuclide. New, low-energy states in 60Mn have been identified
from beta-delayed gamma-ray spectroscopy. The new, shorter half-life of 60Mn^g
is not suggestive of isospin forbidden beta decay, and new spin and parity
assignments of 1+ and 4+ have been adopted for the ground and isomeric
beta-decaying states, respectively, of 60Mn.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
A Technical Introduction to Transmission Electron Microscopy for Soft-Matter:Imaging, Possibilities, Choices, and Technical Developments
With a significant role in material sciences, physics, (soft matter) chemistry, and biology, the transmission electron microscope is one of the most widely applied structural analysis tool to date. It has the power to visualize almost everything from the micrometer to the angstrom scale. Technical developments keep opening doors to new fields of research by improving aspects such as sample preservation, detector performance, computational power, and workflow automation. For more than half a century, and continuing into the future, electron microscopy has been, and is, a cornerstone methodology in science. Herein, the technical considerations of imaging with electrons in terms of optics, technology, samples and processing, and targeted soft materials are summarized. Furthermore, recent advances and their potential for application to soft matter chemistry are highlighted
Systematics of electronic and magnetic properties in the transition metal doped SbTe quantum anomalous Hall platform
The quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) has recently been reported to emerge
in magnetically-doped topological insulators. Although its general
phenomenology is well established, the microscopic origin is far from being
properly understood and controlled. Here we report on a detailed and systematic
investigation of transition-metal (TM)-doped SbTe. By combining density
functional theory (DFT) calculations with complementary experimental
techniques, i.e., scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), resonant photoemission
(resPES), and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), we provide a complete
spectroscopic characterization of both electronic and magnetic properties. Our
results reveal that the TM dopants not only affect the magnetic state of the
host material, but also significantly alter the electronic structure by
generating impurity-derived energy bands. Our findings demonstrate the
existence of a delicate interplay between electronic and magnetic properties in
TM-doped TIs. In particular, we find that the fate of the topological surface
states critically depends on the specific character of the TM impurity: while
V- and Fe-doped SbTe display resonant impurity states in the vicinity
of the Dirac point, Cr and Mn impurities leave the energy gap unaffected. The
single-ion magnetic anisotropy energy and easy axis, which control the magnetic
gap opening and its stability, are also found to be strongly TM
impurity-dependent and can vary from in-plane to out-of-plane depending on the
impurity and its distance from the surface. Overall, our results provide
general guidelines for the realization of a robust QAHE in TM-doped
SbTe in the ferromagnetic state.Comment: 40 pages, 13 figure
Electric-Field Gradient at Cd Impurities in In2o3. A FLAPW Study
We report an ab initio study of the electric-field gradient tensor (EFG) at
Cd impurities located at both inequivalent cationic sites in the semiconductor
In2O3. Calculations were performed with the FLAPW method, that allows us to
treat the electronic structure of the doped system and the atomic relaxations
introduced by the impurities in the host lattice in a fully self-consistent
way. From our results for the EFG (in excellent agreement with the
experiments), it is clear that the problem of the EFG at impurities in In2O3
cannot be described by the point-charge model and antishielding factors.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, and 2 table
Half Life of the Doubly-magic r-Process Nucleus 78Ni
Nuclei with magic numbers serve as important benchmarks in nuclear theory. In
addition, neutron-rich nuclei play an important role in the astrophysical rapid
neutron-capture process (r-process). 78Ni is the only doubly-magic nucleus that
is also an important waiting point in the r-process, and serves as a major
bottleneck in the synthesis of heavier elements. The half-life of 78Ni has been
experimentally deduced for the first time at the Coupled Cyclotron Facility of
the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University,
and was found to be 110 (+100 -60) ms. In the same experiment, a first
half-life was deduced for 77Ni of 128 (+27 -33) ms, and more precise half-lives
were deduced for 75Ni and 76Ni of 344 (+20 -24) ms and 238 (+15 -18) ms
respectively.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Empirical Investigation on Agile Methods Usage: Issues Identified from Early Adopters in Malaysia
Agile Methods are a set of software practices that can help to produce products faster and at the same time deliver what customers want. Despite the benefits that Agile methods can deliver, however, we found few studies from the Southeast Asia region, particularly Malaysia. As a result, less empirical evidence can be obtained in the country making its implementation harder. To use a new method, experience from other practitioners is critical, which describes what is important, what is possible and what is not possible concerning Agile. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the issues faced by early adopters in Malaysia where Agile methods are still relatively new. The initial study involves 13 participants including project managers, CEOs, founders and software developers from seven organisations. Our study has shown that social and human aspects are important when using Agile methods. While technical aspects have always been considered to exist in software development, we found these factors to be less important when using Agile methods. The results obtained can serve as guidelines to practitioners in the country and the neighbouring regions
On inconsistency of experimental data on primary nuclei spectra with sea level muon intensity measurements
For the first time a complete set of the most recent direct data on primary
cosmic ray spectra is used as input into calculations of muon flux at sea level
in wide energy range GeV. Computations have been performed
with the CORSIKA/QGSJET and CORSIKA/VENUS codes. The comparison of the obtained
muon intensity with the data of muon experiments shows, that measurements of
primary nuclei spectra conform to sea level muon data only up to several tens
of GeV and result in essential deficit of muons at higher energies. As it
follows from our examination, uncertainties in muon flux measurements and in
the description of nuclear cascades development are not suitable to explain
this contradiction, and the only remaining factor, leading to this situation,
is underestimation of primary light nuclei fluxes. We have considered
systematic effects, that may distort the results of the primary cosmic ray
measurements with the application of the emulsion chambers. We suggest, that
re-examination of these measurements is required with the employment of
different hadronic interaction models. Also, in our point of view, it is
necessary to perform estimates of possible influence of the fact, that sizable
fraction of events, identified as protons, actually are antiprotons. Study of
these cosmic ray component begins to attract much attention, but today nothing
definite is known for the energies GeV. In any case, to realize whether
the mentioned, or some other reasons are the sources of disagreement of the
data on primaries with the data on muons, the indicated effects should be
thoroughly analyzed
Enhancement of the Deuteron-Fusion Reactions in Metals and its Experimental Implications
Recent measurements of the reaction d(d,p)t in metallic environments at very
low energies performed by different experimental groups point to an enhanced
electron screening effect. However, the resulting screening energies differ
strongly for divers host metals and different experiments. Here, we present new
experimental results and investigations of interfering processes in the
irradiated targets. These measurements inside metals set special challenges and
pitfalls which make them and the data analysis particularly error-prone. There
are multi-parameter collateral effects which are crucial for the correct
interpretation of the observed experimental yields. They mainly originate from
target surface contaminations due to residual gases in the vacuum as well as
from inhomogeneities and instabilities in the deuteron density distribution in
the targets. In order to address these problems an improved differential
analysis method beyond the standard procedures has been implemented. Profound
scrutiny of the other experiments demonstrates that the observed unusual
changes in the reaction yields are mainly due to deuteron density dynamics
simulating the alleged screening energy values. The experimental results are
compared with different theoretical models of the electron screening in metals.
The Debye-H\"{u}ckel model that has been previously proposed to explain the
influence of the electron screening on both nuclear reactions and radioactive
decays could be clearly excluded.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, REVTeX4, 2-column format. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. C; accepte
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