The atmosphere as a lens

The advent of manned satellites has made it possible for man to observe Earth from great distances. Many new phenomena have been discovered in the atmosphere. These are evidently caused by reflection, scattering or refraction of light on crystals and drops of water. It is possible to see small objects on the surface of Earth because of these anomalies

Pauli-principle driven correlations in four-neutron nuclear decays

Mechanism of simultaneous non-sequential four-neutron ($4n$) emission (or `true' $4n$-decay) has been considered in phenomenological five-body approach. This approach is analogous to the model of the direct decay to the continuum often applied to $2n$- and $2p$-decays. It is demonstrated that $4n$-decay fragments should have specific energy and angular correlations reflecting strong spatial correlations of `valence' nucleons orbiting in their $4n$-precursors. Due to the Pauli exclusion principle, the valence neutrons are pushed to the symmetry-allowed configurations in the $4n$-precursor structure, which causes a `Pauli focusing' effect. Prospects of the observation of the Pauli focusing have been considered for the $4n$-precursors $^7$H and $^{28}$O. Fingerprints of their nuclear structure or/and decay dynamics are predicted

Two-proton radioactivity and three-body decay. IV. Connection to quasiclassical formulation

We derive quasiclassical expressions for the three-body decay width and define the ``preexponential'' coefficients for them. The derivation is based on the integral formulae for the three-body width obtained in the semianalytical approach with simplified three-body Hamiltonian [L.V. Grigorenko and M.V.\ Zhukov, arXiv:0704.0920v1]. The model is applied to the decays of the first excited $3/2^{-}$ state of $^{17}$Ne and $3/2^{-}$ ground state of $^{45}$Fe. Various qualitative aspects of the model and relations with the other simplified approaches to the three-body decays are discussed.Comment: 9 Pages, 2 figure

СONCEPT AND CALCULATION OF THE LIMIT TRANSVERSE SIZE OF CAPILLARIES

Porous medium are products of processing in food, agricultural, chemical and many other industries. Calculations of processes with wet porous medium are based on capillary properties of the liquid in a pore space. The capillary properties of liquids in porous media are established in pore models in the form of thin tubes of circular or slit transverse sections. The intensity of the processes occurring in it depends on the nature of the filling of the pore space with liquid. Filling with liquid and the formation of a capillary layer is possible only in small pores. However, there is no analytical justification for the transverse pore size, more than which it cannot be filled with liquid by capillary forces. With this in mind, the concept of the limiting transverse size of a capillary for a liquid under conditions of complete wetting is introduced. The limiting size calculation is based on two conditions: the shape of the axial section of the meniscus surface has the appearance of a semicircle and its extremum point is located at the level of the free surface of the fluid supplying the capillary. A capillary column cannot form in larger pores. The absence of formulas for calculating capillaries of the limiting sizes can introduce a significant error into the analytical calculation of the moisture content in the capillary layer of a liquid in porous media and moisture transfer processes. The aim of the study was to obtain formulas for calculating the limiting (largest) sizes of capillaries of a circular, flat slit section and annular transverse sections with complete wetting of their walls. For the conditions above, it was identified that the limiting distance between the walls was independent from annular capillary diameter. The formulas for the limiting transverse sizes of the flat slit and annular capillaries turned out to be the same under the assumptions above. This indicates a weak dependence of the limiting size of a slit capillary on the curvature of its transverse section. Examples of calculations of capillaries of the limiting sizes are performed.Porous medium are products of processing in food, agricultural, chemical and many other industries. Calculations of processes with wet porous medium are based on capillary properties of the liquid in a pore space. The capillary properties of liquids in porous media are established in pore models in the form of thin tubes of circular or slit transverse sections. The intensity of the processes occurring in it depends on the nature of the filling of the pore space with liquid. Filling with liquid and the formation of a capillary layer is possible only in small pores. However, there is no analytical justification for the transverse pore size, more than which it cannot be filled with liquid by capillary forces. With this in mind, the concept of the limiting transverse size of a capillary for a liquid under conditions of complete wetting is introduced. The limiting size calculation is based on two conditions: the shape of the axial section of the meniscus surface has the appearance of a semicircle and its extremum point is located at the level of the free surface of the fluid supplying the capillary. A capillary column cannot form in larger pores. The absence of formulas for calculating capillaries of the limiting sizes can introduce a significant error into the analytical calculation of the moisture content in the capillary layer of a liquid in porous media and moisture transfer processes. The aim of the study was to obtain formulas for calculating the limiting (largest) sizes of capillaries of a circular, flat slit section and annular transverse sections with complete wetting of their walls. For the conditions above, it was identified that the limiting distance between the walls was independent from annular capillary diameter. The formulas for the limiting transverse sizes of the flat slit and annular capillaries turned out to be the same under the assumptions above. This indicates a weak dependence of the limiting size of a slit capillary on the curvature of its transverse section. Examples of calculations of capillaries of the limiting sizes are performed

Electron-phonon relaxation and excited electron distribution in gallium nitride

We develop a theory of energy relaxation in semiconductors and insulators highly excited by the long-acting external irradiation. We derive the equation for the non-equilibrium distribution function of excited electrons. The solution for this function breaks up into the sum of two contributions. The low-energy contribution is concentrated in a narrow range near the bottom of the conduction band. It has the typical form of a Fermi distribution with an effective temperature and chemical potential. The effective temperature and chemical potential in this low-energy term are determined by the intensity of carriers' generation, the speed of electron-phonon relaxation, rates of inter-band recombination and electron capture on the defects. In addition, there is a substantial high-energy correction. This high-energy 'tail' covers largely the conduction band. The shape of the high-energy 'tail' strongly depends on the rate of electron-phonon relaxation but does not depend on the rates of recombination and trapping. We apply the theory to the calculation of a non-equilibrium distribution of electrons in irradiated GaN. Probabilities of optical excitations from the valence to conduction band and electron-phonon coupling probabilities in GaN were calculated by the density functional perturbation theory. Our calculation of both parts of distribution function in gallium nitride shows that when the speed of electron-phonon scattering is comparable with the rate of recombination and trapping then the contribution of the non-Fermi 'tail' is comparable with that of the low-energy Fermi-like component. So the high-energy contribution can affect essentially the charge transport in the irradiated and highly doped semiconductors.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Two-proton radioactivity and three-body decay. III. Integral formulae for decay widths in a simplified semianalytical approach

Three-body decays of resonant states are studied using integral formulae for decay widths. Theoretical approach with a simplified Hamiltonian allows semianalytical treatment of the problem. The model is applied to decays of the first excited $3/2^{-}$ state of $^{17}$Ne and the $3/2^{-}$ ground state of $^{45}$Fe. The convergence of three-body hyperspherical model calculations to the exact result for widths and energy distributions are studied. The theoretical results for $^{17}$Ne and $^{45}$Fe decays are updated and uncertainties of the derived values are discussed in detail. Correlations for the decay of $^{17}$Ne $3/2^-$ state are also studied.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figure

Electron-phonon relaxation and excited electron distribution in zinc oxide and anatase

We propose a first-principle method for evaluations of the time-dependent electron distribution function of excited electrons in the conduction band of semiconductors. The method takes into account the excitations of electrons by external source and the relaxation to the bottom of conduction band via electron-phonon coupling. The methods permits calculations of the non-equilibrium electron distribution function, the quasi-stationary distribution function with steady-in-time source of light, the time of setting of the quasi-stationary distribution and the time of energy loss via relaxation to the bottom of conduction band. The actual calculations have been performed for titanium dioxide in the anatase structure and zinc oxide in the wurtzite structure. We find that the quasi-stationary electron distribution function for ZnO is a fermi-like curve that rises linearly with increasing excitation energy whereas the analogous curve for anatase consists of a main peak and a shoulder. The calculations demonstrate that the relaxation of excited electrons and the setting of the quasi-stationary distribution occur within the time no more than 500 fsec for ZnO and 100 fsec for anatase. We also discuss the applicability of the effective phonon model with energy-independent electron-phonon transition probability. We find that the model only reproduces the trends in changing of the characteristic times whereas the precision of such calculations is not high. The rate of energy transfer to phonons at the quasi-stationary electron distribution also have been evaluated and the effect of this transfer on the photocatalyses has been discussed. We found that for ZnO this rate is about 5 times less than in anatase.Comment: 21 p., 9 figure

Transition from direct to sequential two-proton decay in ss-dd shell nuclei

Transitions among different mechanisms of two-proton decay are studied in general. The introduced improved direct-decay model generalizes the semi-analytical models used before and provides flawless phenomenological description of three-body correlations in $2p$ decays. This is demonstrated by examples of the low-lying $^{16}$Ne state decays. Different forms of transition dynamic are shown to be highly probable beyond the proton dripline for the $s$-$d$ shell nuclei. It is demonstrated that transition dynamic of $2p$ emitters can provide means for extraction of a width of the ground-state resonance of a core+$p$ subsystem of the core+$2p$ system. Practical applicability of the method is demonstrated by properties of the $^{14}$F ground state derived from the ^{15}\mbox{Ne}\rightarrow ^{\,13\!\!}\mbox{O}+2p decay data and of the $^{29}$Cl ground state derived from the ^{30}\mbox{Ar}\rightarrow ^{\,28\!\!}\mbox{S}+2p decay data.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure