563 research outputs found
Stopping of Charged Particles in a Magnetized Classical Plasma
The analytical and numerical investigations of the energy loss rate of the
test particle in a magnetized electron plasma are developed on the basis of the
Vlasov-Poisson equations, and the main results are presented. The Larmor
rotation of a test particle in a magnetic field is taken into account. The
analysis is based on the assumption that the energy variation of the test
particle is much less than its kinetic energy. The obtained general expression
for stopping power is analyzed for three cases: (i) the particle moves through
a collisionless plasma in a strong homogeneous magnetic field; (ii) the fast
particle moves through a magnetized collisionless plasma along the magnetic
field; and (iii) the particle moves through a magnetized collisional plasma
across a magnetic field. Calculations are carried out for the arbitrary test
particle velocities in the first case, and for fast particles in the second and
third cases. It is shown that the rate at which a fast test particle loses
energy while moving across a magnetic field may be much higher than the loss in
the case of motion through plasma without magnetic field.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, LaTe
Microscopic study of freeze-out in relativistic heavy ion collisions at SPS energies
The freeze-out conditions in the light (S+S) and heavy (Pb+Pb) colliding
systems of heavy nuclei at 160 AGeV/ are analyzed within the microscopic
Quark Gluon String Model (QGSM). We found that even for the most heavy systems
particle emission takes place from the whole space-time domain available for
the system evolution, but not from the thin ''freeze-out hypersurface", adopted
in fluid dynamical models. Pions are continuously emitted from the whole volume
of the reaction and reflect the main trends of the system evolution. Nucleons
in Pb+Pb collisions initially come from the surface region. For both systems
there is a separation of the elastic and inelastic freeze-out. The mesons with
large transverse momenta, , are predominantly produced at the early stages
of the reaction. The low -component is populated by mesons coming mainly
from the decay of resonances. This explains naturally the decreasing source
sizes with increasing , observed in HBT interferometry. Comparison with
S+S and Au+Au systems at 11.6 AGeV/ is also presented.Comment: REVTEX, 26 pages incl. 9 figures and 2 tables, to be published in the
Physical Review
Self-diffusion of adatoms, dimers, and vacancies on Cu(100)
We use ab initio static relaxation methods and semi-empirical
molecular-dynamics simulations to investigate the energetics and dynamics of
the diffusion of adatoms, dimers, and vacancies on Cu(100). It is found that
the dynamical energy barriers for diffusion are well approximated by the
static, 0 K barriers and that prefactors do not depend sensitively on the
species undergoing diffusion. The ab initio barriers are observed to be
significantly lower when calculated within the generalized-gradient
approximation (GGA) rather than in the local-density approximation (LDA). Our
calculations predict that surface diffusion should proceed primarily via the
diffusion of vacancies. Adatoms are found to migrate most easily via a jump
mechanism. This is the case, also, of dimers, even though the corresponding
barrier is slightly larger than it is for adatoms. We observe, further, that
dimers diffuse more readily than they can dissociate. Our results are discussed
in the context of recent submonolayer growth experiments of Cu(100).Comment: Submitted to the Physical Review B; 15 pages including postscript
figures; see also http://www.centrcn.umontreal.ca/~lewi
A novel ultra-high strength maraging steel with balanced ductility and creep resistance achieved by nanoscale β-NiAl and Laves phase precipitates
A novel ultra-high strength precipitation hardened martensitic steel with balanced ductility and creep resistance has been developed. It utilises a unique combination of nanometre scale intermetallic precipitates of Laves phases and β-NiAl to achieve such properties. The mechanical properties of this steel were assessed by tensile and creep testing. With different heat treatments, this steel showed a remarkable combination of mechanical properties: yield strength of >1800 MPa, ultimate tensile strength of ~ 2000 MPa, tensile ductility up to ~8% at room temperature and creep rupture life > 2,000 hours under 700 MPa stress at 500 °C. The microstructures at different length scales were characterised using scanning / transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography. The austenisation and ageing temperatures were found be the key factors determining the microstructural development and resulting mechanical properties. Large primary Laves phase precipitates formed at lower austenisation temperatures resulted in reduced creep strength; whilst the small difference (20 °C) in ageing temperatures had significant impact on the spatial distribution characteristics of β-NiAl precipitates. Lower ageing temperature produced much smaller but more uniformly distributed β-NiAl precipitates which contributed to the higher observed yield strength. It is clear from this study that whilst this novel alloy system showed great potentials, careful design of heat treatment is still required to achieve balanced mechanical properties to meet the service requirements in aerospace propulsion systems
Lycopene from two food sources does not affect antioxidant or cholesterol status of middle-aged adults
BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have reported associations between reduced cardiovascular disease and diets rich in tomato and/or lycopene. Intervention studies have shown that lycopene-containing foods may reduce cholesterol levels and lipid peroxidation, factors implicated in the initiation of cardiovascular disease. The objective of this study was to determine whether consumption of lycopene rich foods conferred cardiovascular protection to middle-aged adults as indicated by plasma lipid concentrations and measures of ex vivo antioxidants. METHODS: Ten healthy men and women consumed a low lycopene diet with no added lycopene (control treatment) or supplemented with watermelon or tomato juice each containing 20 mg lycopene. Subjects consumed each treatment for three weeks in a crossover design. Plasma, collected weekly was analyzed for total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride concentrations and for the antioxidant biomarkers of malondialdehyde formation products (MDA), plasma glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP). Data were analyzed using Proc Mixed Procedure and associations between antioxidant and lipid measures were identified by Pearson's product moment correlation analysis. RESULTS: Compared to the control diet, the lycopene-containing foods did not affect plasma lipid concentrations or antioxidant biomarkers. Women had higher total cholesterol, HDL-C and triglyceride concentrations than did the men. Total cholesterol was positively correlated to MDA and FRAP while HDL-C was positively correlated to MDA and GPX. GPX was negatively correlated to triglyceride concentration. CONCLUSIONS: The inclusion of watermelon or tomato juice containing 20 mg lycopene did not affect plasma lipid concentrations or antioxidant status of healthy subjects. However, plasma cholesterol levels impacted the results of MDA and FRAP antioxidant tests
Search for Large Extra Dimensions in Dielectron and Diphoton Production
We report a search for effects of large extra spatial dimensions in ppbar
collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.8 TeV with the DZero detector, using
events containing a pair of electrons or photons. The data are in good
agreement with the expected background and do not exhibit evidence for large
extra dimensions. We set the most restrictive lower limits to date, at the 95%
confidence level, on the effective Planck scale between 1.0 TeV and 1.4 TeV for
several formalisms and numbers of extra dimensions.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
production at low transverse momentum in p+p and d+Au collisions at = 200 GeV
We report on the measurement of production in the dielectron
channel at mid-rapidity (|y|<1) in p+p and d+Au collisions at =
200 GeV from the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The
transverse momentum spectra in p+p for < 4 GeV/c and d+Au
collisions for < 3 GeV/c are presented. These measurements extend the
STAR coverage for production in p+p collisions to low .
The from the measured invariant cross section in
p+p and d+Au collisions are evaluated and compared to similar measurements at
other collision energies. The nuclear modification factor for is
extracted as a function of and collision centrality in d+Au and
compared to model calculations using the modified nuclear Parton Distribution
Function and a final-state nuclear absorption cross section
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