Vibrational States of Glassy and Crystalline Orthotherphenyl

Low-frequency vibrations of glassy and crystalline orthoterphenyl are studied by means of neutron scattering. Phonon dispersions are measured along the main axes of a single crystal, and the corresponding longitudinal and transversal sound velocities are obtained. For glassy and polycrystalline samples, a density of vibrational states is determined and cross-checked against other dynamic observables. In the crystal, low-lying zone-boundary modes lead to an excess over the Debye density of states. In the glass, the boson peak is located at even lower frequencies. With increasing temperature, both glass and crystal show anharmonicity.Comment: 7 pages of LaTeX (svjour), 2 tables, 10 figures accepted in Eur. Phys. J.

Helicity amplitudes and electromagnetic decays of strange baryon resonances

We present results for the helicity amplitudes of the lowest-lying hyperon resonances Y*, computed within the framework of the Bonn constituent-quark model, which is based on the Bethe-Salpeter approach. The seven parameters entering the model are fitted against the best known baryon masses. Accordingly, the results for the helicity amplitudes are genuine predictions. Some hyperon resonances are seen to couple more strongly to a virtual photon with finite Q^2 than to a real photon. Other Y*'s, such as the S_{01}(1670) Lambda resonance or the S_{11}(1620) Sigma resonance, have large electromagnetic decay widths and couple very strongly to real photons. The negatively-charged and neutral members of a Sigma* triplet may couple only moderately to the Sigma(1193), while the positively-charged member of the same Sigma* triplet displays a relatively large coupling to the Sigma^+(1193) state. This illustrates the necessity of investigating all isospin channels in order to obtain a complete picture of the hyperon spectrum.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, Proceedings of the Conference "International Workshop on the Physics of Excited Baryons NSTAR 05", Tallahassee, Florida (USA), Oct. 2005, contributed tal

Comparing Simulations and Observations of the Lyman-Alpha Forest I. Methodology

We describe techniques for comparing spectra extracted from cosmological simulations and observational data, using the same methodology to link Lyman-alpha properties derived from the simulations with properties derived from observational data. The eventual goal is to measure the coherence or clustering properties of Lyman-alpha absorbers using observations of quasar pairs and groups. We quantify the systematic underestimate in opacity that is inherent in the continuum fitting process of observed spectra over a range of resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. We present an automated process for detecting and selecting absorption features over the range of resolution and signal-to-noise of typical observational data on the Lyman-alpha "forest". Using these techniques, we detect coherence over transverse scales out to 500 h^{-1}_{50} kpc in spectra extracted from a cosmological simulation at z = 2.Comment: 52 pages, includes 14 figures, to appear in ApJ v566 Feb 200

Annealing tests of in-pile irradiated oxide coated U–Mo/Al–Si dispersed nuclear fuel

Authors do acknowledge the MERARG team for their experimental work (CEA) and F. Charollais, J. Noirot and finally B. Kapusta for their advices and comments. This study was supported by a combined Grant (FRM0911) of the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) and the Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst (StMWFK).U–Mo/Al based nuclear fuels have been worldwide considered as a promising high density fuel for the conversion of high flux research reactors from highly enriched uranium to lower enrichment. In this paper, we present the annealing test up to 1800°C of in-pile irradiated U–Mo/Al–Si fuel plate samples. More than 70% of the fission gases (FGs) are released during two major FG release peaks around 500°C and 670°C. Additional characterisations of the samples by XRD, EPMA and SEM suggest that up to 500°C FGs are released from IDL/matrix interfaces. The second peak at 670°C representing the main release of FGs originates from the interaction between U–Mo and matrix in the vicinity of the cladding

Harmonic behavior of metallic glasses up to the metastable melt

In two amorphous alloys ZrTiCuNiBe and ZrAlNiCu coherent neutron scattering has been measured over five decades in energy, including measurements in the metastable melt of a metallic alloy more than 80 K above Tg. In the vibrational spectra a pronounced "boson" peak is found: Even in crystallized samples the density of states exceeds the Debye ω2 model, and in the amorphous state low-frequency vibrations are further enhanced. The peak position shows no dispersion in q, while intensities are strongly correlated with the static structure factor. Over the full energy range the temperature dependence is strictly harmonic. From high-energy resolution measurements we establish lower bounds for the temperatures at which structural α and fast β relaxation become observable

Static observables of relativistic three-fermion systems with instantaneous interactions

We show that static properties like the charge radius and the magnetic moment of relativistic three-fermion bound states with instantaneous interactions can be formulated as expectation values with respect to intrinsically defined wavefunctions. The resulting operators can be given a natural physical interpretation in accordance with relativistic covariance. We also indicate how the formalism may be generalized to arbitrary moments. The method is applied to the computation of static baryon properties with numerical results for the nucleon charge radii and the baryon octet magnetic moments. In addition we make predictions for the magnetic moments of some selected nucleon resonances and discuss the decomposition of the nucleon magnetic moments in contributions of spin and angular momentum, as well as the evolution of these contributions with decreasing quark mass.Comment: 13 pages, including 2 figures and 3 tables, submitted to Eur.Phys.J.

Centaurus A at Hard X-rays and Soft Gamma-rays

Centaurus A, at a distance of less than 4 Mpc, is the nearest radio-loud AGN. Its emission is detected from radio to very-high energy gamma-rays. Despite the fact that Cen A is one of the best studied extragalactic objects the origin of its hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray emission (100 keV < E < 50 MeV) is still uncertain. Observations with high spatial resolution in the adjacent soft X-ray and hard gamma-ray regimes suggest that several distinct components such as a Seyfert-like nucleus, relativistic jets, and even luminous X-ray binaries within Cen A may contribute to the total emission in the MeV regime that has been detected with low spatial resolution. As the Spectral Energy Distribution of Cen A has its second maximum around 1 MeV, this energy range plays an important role in modeling the emission of (this) AGN. As there will be no satellite mission in the near future that will cover this energies with higher spatial resolution and better sensitivity, an overview of all existing hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray measurements of Cen A is presented here defining the present knowledge on Centaurus A in the MeV energy range.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, article for conference proceedings "The Many Faces of Centaurus A"; accepted for publication in PAS

Quasars as Absorption Probes of the J0053+1234 Region

We present UBRI photometry and spectra for 60 quasars found within one square degree centered on the J0053+1234 region, which has been the subject of the Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey. Candidate quasars were selected by their ultraviolet excess with respect to the stellar locus, and confirmed spectroscopically. The quasars span a wide range in brightness (17.5<B<21.6) and redshift (0.43<z<2.38). These new quasars comprise a grid of absorption probes that can be used to study large-scale structure as well as the correlation between luminous galaxies, non-luminous halos, and Lyman-alpha absorbers in the direction of the deep pencil-beam galaxy survey. Spectra of 14 emission line galaxies found using the same technique are also presented.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal; 29 pages, including 6 tables and 7 figure

Sintering characteristics of nanocrystalline TiO2—A study combining small angle neutron scattering and nitrogen absorption-BET

Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) was employed to characterize the pore structure of nanophase TiO2 ceramic materials compacted at different temperatures. Nanophase samples, produced by inert gas condensation, were compacted at 25, 290, 413, and 550 °C using a pressure of 1 GPa. The pore size distribution of the sample compacted at room temperature was very broad, with sizes ranging from 3-30 nm and pores comprising 38% of the sample volume. Compaction at 290 and 413 °C reduced the pore volume to 25% and 20%, respectively, by eliminating pores at both the small and large ends of the distribution. Compaction at 550 °C resulted in a pore volume that was less than 8%. Complications in the SANS analysis arising from the scattering from grain boundaries are discussed. The results from SANS are compared with those derived from nitrogen absorption, BET, measurement