Heterotrinuclear [Fe2IIINiII]-µ3-oxo-cluster Based on Salicylic Acid. Synthesis, Structure and Physico-chemical Properties

The reaction between iron and nickel salts with ammonium salicylate results in the formation of a new trinuclear heterometallic complex [hexa-µ2-salicylato-µ3-oxo-(methanol)(dimethylformamide) aquadiiron(III) nickel(II)] methanol dimethylformamide. The synthesized [Fe2NiO(SalH)6(CH3OH)(DMF)(H2O)]•DMF•CH3OH complex crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/c. The IR and Mössbauer spectra and thermal properties were studied

Oxido- and Dioxidovanadium(V) Complexes with O-vanillin Semicarbazone: Synthesis and Crystal Structure

Two vanadium(V) complexes comprising VO3+ and VO2+ cores with o-vanillin semicarbazone (H2L) have been synthesized and characterized by IR, NMR spectroscopies and single-crystal X-ray diffraction study. The coordination polyhedra are a O5N distorted octahedron in the mono-oxidovanadium complex [VO(HL)(EtO)(EtOH)0.6(H2O)0.4][VO(HL)(SO4)(EtO)]•0.4EtOH (1) and a O4N square-pyramid in the dioxidovanadium compound [VO2(HL)]•2H2O (2)

Synthesis, biological evaluation, X-ray molecular structure and molecular docking studies of RGD mimetics containing 6-amino-2,3-dihydroisoindolin-1-one fragment as ligands of integrin αIIbβ3

AbstractA series of novel RGD mimetics containing phthalimidine fragment was designed and synthesized. Their antiaggregative activity determined by Born’s method was shown to be due to inhibition of fibrinogen binding to αIIbβ3. Molecular docking of RGD mimetics to αIIbβ3 receptor showed the key interactions in this complex, and also some correlations have been observed between values of biological activity and docking scores. The single crystal X-ray data were obtained for five mimetics

A missing high-spin molecule in the family of cyano-bridged heptanuclear heterometal complexes, [(LCuII)6FeIII(CN)6]3+, and its CoIII and CrIII analogues, accompanied in the crystal by a novel octameric water cluster

Three isostructural cyano-bridged heptanuclear complexes, [{CuII(saldmen)(H2O)}6{MIII(CN)6}](ClO4)3$\cdotp$8H2O (M = FeIII 2; CoIII, 3; CrIII 4), have been obtained by reacting the binuclear copper(II) complex, [Cu2(saldmen)2(mu-H2O)(H2O)2](ClO4)2$\cdotp$2H2O 1, with K3[Co(CN)6], K4[Fe(CN)6], and, respectively, K3[Cr(CN)6] (Hsaldmen is the Schiff base resulted from the condensation of salicylaldehyde with N,N-dimethylethylenediamine). A unique octameric water cluster, with bicyclo[2,2,2]octane-like structure, is sandwiched between the heptanuclear cations in 2, 3 and 4. The cryomagnetic investigations of compounds 2 and 4 reveal ferromagnetic couplings of the central FeIII or CrIII ions with the CuII ions (JCuFe = +0.87 cm-1, JCuCr = +30.4 cm-1). The intramolecular Cu-Cu exchange interaction in 3, across the diamagnetic cobalt(III) ion, is -0.3 cm-1. The solid-state1H-NMR spectra of compounds 2 and 3 have been investigated

Haloes gone MAD: The Halo-Finder Comparison Project

[abridged] We present a detailed comparison of fundamental dark matter halo properties retrieved by a substantial number of different halo finders. These codes span a wide range of techniques including friends-of-friends (FOF), spherical-overdensity (SO) and phase-space based algorithms. We further introduce a robust (and publicly available) suite of test scenarios that allows halo finder developers to compare the performance of their codes against those presented here. This set includes mock haloes containing various levels and distributions of substructure at a range of resolutions as well as a cosmological simulation of the large-scale structure of the universe. All the halo finding codes tested could successfully recover the spatial location of our mock haloes. They further returned lists of particles (potentially) belonging to the object that led to coinciding values for the maximum of the circular velocity profile and the radius where it is reached. All the finders based in configuration space struggled to recover substructure that was located close to the centre of the host halo and the radial dependence of the mass recovered varies from finder to finder. Those finders based in phase space could resolve central substructure although they found difficulties in accurately recovering its properties. Via a resolution study we found that most of the finders could not reliably recover substructure containing fewer than 30-40 particles. However, also here the phase space finders excelled by resolving substructure down to 10-20 particles. By comparing the halo finders using a high resolution cosmological volume we found that they agree remarkably well on fundamental properties of astrophysical significance (e.g. mass, position, velocity, and peak of the rotation curve).Comment: 27 interesting pages, 20 beautiful figures, and 4 informative tables accepted for publication in MNRAS. The high-resolution version of the paper as well as all the test cases and analysis can be found at the web site http://popia.ft.uam.es/HaloesGoingMA

Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal

Polarized blazar X-rays imply particle acceleration in shocks

Most of the light from blazars, active galactic nuclei with jets of magnetized plasma that point nearly along the line of sight, is produced by high-energy particles, up to around 1 TeV. Although the jets are known to be ultimately powered by a supermassive black hole, how the particles are accelerated to such high energies has been an unanswered question. The process must be related to the magnetic field, which can be probed by observations of the polarization of light from the jets. Measurements of the radio to optical polarization—the only range available until now—probe extended regions of the jet containing particles that left the acceleration site days to years earlier1,2,3, and hence do not directly explore the acceleration mechanism, as could X-ray measurements. Here we report the detection of X-ray polarization from the blazar Markarian 501 (Mrk 501). We measure an X-ray linear polarization degree ΠX of around 10%, which is a factor of around 2 higher than the value at optical wavelengths, with a polarization angle parallel to the radio jet. This points to a shock front as the source of particle acceleration and also implies that the plasma becomes increasingly turbulent with distance from the shock

Tracking the X-ray Polarization of the Black Hole Transient Swift J1727.8-1613 during a State Transition

We report on a campaign on the bright black hole X-ray binary Swift J1727.8$-$1613 centered around five observations by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). This is the first time it has been possible to trace the evolution of the X-ray polarization of a black hole X-ray binary across a hard to soft state transition. The 2--8 keV polarization degree slowly decreased from $\sim$4\% to $\sim$3\% across the five observations, but remained in the North-South direction throughout. Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), we measure the intrinsic 7.25 GHz radio polarization to align in the same direction. Assuming the radio polarization aligns with the jet direction (which can be tested in the future with resolved jet images), this implies that the X-ray corona is extended in the disk plane, rather than along the jet axis, for the entire hard intermediate state. This in turn implies that the long ($\gtrsim$10 ms) soft lags that we measure with the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) are dominated by processes other than pure light-crossing delays. Moreover, we find that the evolution of the soft lag amplitude with spectral state differs from the common trend seen for other sources, implying that Swift J1727.8$-$1613 is a member of a hitherto under-sampled sub-population.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 20 pages, 8 figure

X-ray Polarization Observations of BL Lacertae

Blazars are a class of jet-dominated active galactic nuclei with a typical double-humped spectral energy distribution. It is of common consensus the Synchrotron emission to be responsible for the low frequency peak, while the origin of the high frequency hump is still debated. The analysis of X-rays and their polarization can provide a valuable tool to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for the origin of high-energy emission of blazars. We report the first observations of BL Lacertae performed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer ({IXPE}), from which an upper limit to the polarization degree $\Pi_X<$12.6\% was found in the 2-8 keV band. We contemporaneously measured the polarization in radio, infrared, and optical wavelengths. Our multiwavelength polarization analysis disfavors a significant contribution of proton synchrotron radiation to the X-ray emission at these epochs. Instead, it supports a leptonic origin for the X-ray emission in BL Lac.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

(Table 2) Concentrations of dissolved Zn, Cd, Pb, and Cu in waters of the Baltic Sea

A method of determination of low concentrations of zinc, cadmium, lead, and copper dissolved in seawater and interstitial water with use of inversion voltammetry with AC solution conditions is described. The optimum conditions for measurements with accumulation on a mercury-film electrode with a silver substrate are presented. Detection limit is 0.2 ?g/l for zinc and 0.05 ?g/l for cadmium, lead, and copper. Large number of determinations can be carried out during expeditions at natural pH of seawater containing these four metals