Plastic flow around rigid spherical inclusions

The extent of plastic flow in a spherical solid (assumed to be homogeneous and elastically and plastically isotropic), surrounding a concentric rigid sphere was calculated as a function of applied external pressure. The applied pressure necessary to cause plastic deformation throughout the solid was obtained

Stress anisotropy and concentration effects in high pressure measurements

Sodium chloride is used as an internal pressure standard in high pressure research. Possible corrections are discussed which are needed in the calibration of this standard due to the independent effects of stress anisotropy and stress concentration in pressure vessels. The first is due to the lack of a truly hydrostatic state of stress in solid state pressure vessels. The second is due to the difference in the compressibilities between the pressure transmitting substances (sodium chloride) and a stiffer test specimen. These two corrections are then combined and a total correction, as a function of measured pressure, is discussed for two systems presently in use. The predicted value of the combined effect is about 5-10% of the pressure at 30 GPa

Studies on silane to 70 GPa

Raman and X-ray diffraction studies were made on silane in the diamond anvil cell using three different gaskets, stainless steel, tungsten and rhenium. The structure existing between 10 and 27 GPa is well characterized by the monoclinic space group P21c (#14). While the Gibbs free energy of formation of silane is positive at one atmosphere, it is calculated from the equation of state of silane and its reactants that this becomes negative near 4 GPa and remains negative until 13 GPa and then becomes positive again. At about 27 GPa, where quasi-quantum mechanical calculations suggest there should be a transformation from 4-fold to 6-fold (or even higher), the sample turns black. The Raman modes seize to exist beyond 30 GPa after showing softening above 25 GPa. At higher pressures it turns silvery. The gaskets play a different role as will be discussed. The sample brought back from 70 GPa contains amorphous Si (with attached hydrogen) as well as crystalline silicon. The lowest free energy system at high pressure is the decomposed reactants as observed

Pressure-induced insulator-to-metal transition in low-dimensional TiOCl

We studied the transmittance and reflectance of the low-dimensional Mott-Hubbard insulator TiOCl in the infrared and visible frequency range as a function of pressure. The strong suppression of the transmittance and the abrupt increase of the near-infrared reflectance above 12 GPa suggest a pressure-induced insulator-to-metal transition. The pressure-dependent frequency shifts of the orbital excitations, as well as the pressure dependences of the charge gap and the spectral weight of the optical conductivity above the phase transition are presented.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

General Relativistic Rossby-Haurwitz waves of a slowly and differentially rotating fluid shell

We show that, at first order in the angular velocity, the general relativistic description of Rossby-Haurwitz waves (the analogues of r-waves on a thin shell) can be obtained from the corresponding Newtonian one after a coordinate transformation. As an application, we show that the results recently obtained by Rezzolla and Yoshida (2001) in the analysis of Newtonian Rossby-Haurwitz waves of a slowly and differentially rotating, fluid shell apply also in General Relativity, at first order in the angular velocity.Comment: 4 pages. Comment to Class. Quantum Grav. 18(2001)L8

Effect of pressure on the polarized infrared optical response of quasi-one-dimensional LaTiO3.41_{3.41}

The pressure-induced changes in the optical properties of the quasi-one-dimensional conductor LaTiO$_{3.41}$ were studied by polarization-dependent mid-infrared micro-spectroscopy at room temperature. For the polarization of the incident radiation parallel to the conducting direction, the optical conductivity spectrum shows a pronounced mid-infrared absorption band, exhibiting a shift to lower frequencies and an increase in oscillator strength with increasing pressure. On the basis of its pressure dependence, interpretations of the band in terms of electronic transitions and polaronic excitations are discussed. Discontinuous changes in the optical response near 15 GPa are in agreement with a recently reported pressure-induced structural phase transition and indicate the onset of a dimensional crossover in this highly anisotropic system.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Pressure-induced metallization and structural phase transition of the Mott-Hubbard insulator TiOBr

We investigated the pressure-dependent optical response of the low-dimensional Mott-Hubbard insulator TiOBr by transmittance and reflectance measurements in the infrared and visible frequency range. A suppression of the transmittance above a critical pressure and a concomitant increase of the reflectance are observed, suggesting a pressure-induced metallization of TiOBr. The metallic phase of TiOBr at high pressure is confirmed by the presence of additional excitations extending down to the far-infrared range. The pressure-induced metallization coincides with a structural phase transition, according to the results of x-ray powder diffraction experiments under pressure.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Rotational effects on the oscillation frequencies of newly born proto-neutron stars

In this paper we study the effects of rotation on the frequencies of the quasi-normal modes of a proto-neutron star (PNS) born in a gravitational collapse during the first minute of life. Our analysis starts a few tenths of seconds after the PNS formation, when the stellar evolution can be described by a sequence of equilibrium configurations. We use the evolutionary models developed by Pons et al. (1999; 2001) that describe how a non rotating star cools down and contracts while neutrino diffusion and thermalization processes dominate the stellar dynamics. For assigned values of the evolution time, we set the star into slow rotation and integrate the equations of stellar perturbations in the Cowling approximation, both in the time domain and in the frequency domain, to find the quasi-normal mode frequencies. We study the secular instability of the g-modes, that are present in the oscillation spectrum due to the intense entropy and composition gradients that develop in the stellar interior, and we provide an estimate of the growth time of the unstable modes based on a post-Newtonian formula.Comment: 13 pages, 1 table, 3 figures, Accepted for publication to MNRA

The rotational modes of relativistic stars: Numerical results

We study the inertial modes of slowly rotating, fully relativistic compact stars. The equations that govern perturbations of both barotropic and non-barotropic models are discussed, but we present numerical results only for the barotropic case. For barotropic stars all inertial modes are a hybrid mixture of axial and polar perturbations. We use a spectral method to solve for such modes of various polytropic models. Our main attention is on modes that can be driven unstable by the emission of gravitational waves. Hence, we calculate the gravitational-wave growth timescale for these unstable modes and compare the results to previous estimates obtained in Newtonian gravity (i.e. using post-Newtonian radiation formulas). We find that the inertial modes are slightly stabilized by relativistic effects, but that previous conclusions concerning eg. the unstable r-modes remain essentially unaltered when the problem is studied in full general relativity.Comment: RevTeX, 29 pages, 31 eps figure

Phase transformation of BeS and equation-of-state studies to 96 GPa

We report the existence of a reversible first-order phase transition of BeS from the zinc-blende structure, B3, to the nickel-arsenide structure, B8, at 51 GPa with a volume change of 11%. The NiAs phase remains stable up to at least 96 GPa. A second-order Birch equation describes the equation of state of the B3 phase with B o ϭ105 GPa and B o Јϭ3.5. Preliminary studies of BeO to 66 GPa are described. ͓S0163-1829͑97͒07346-3