24 research outputs found
On melting of boron phosphide under pressure
Melting of cubic boron phosphide, BP has been studied at pressures to 9 GPa
using synchrotron X-ray diffraction and electrical resistivity measurements. It
has been found that above 2.6 GPa BP melts congruently, and the melting curve
exhibits negative slope -60(7) K/GPa, which is indicative of a higher density
of the melt as compared to the solid phase.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur
Hardness of materials at high temperature and high pressure
International audienceIntrinsic character of correlation between hardness and thermodynamic properties of solids has been established. The proposed thermodynamic model of hardness allows one to easily estimate hardness and bulk moduli of known or even hypothetical solids from the data on Gibbs energy of atomization of the elements or on the enthalpy at the melting point. The correctness of this approach has been illustrated by an example of the recently synthesized superhard diamond-like BC5 and orthorhombic modification of boron, γ-B28. The pressure and/or temperature dependences of hardness have been calculated for a number of hard and superhard phases, i.e. diamond, cBN, B6O, B4C, SiC, Al2O3, β-B2O3 and β-rh boron. The excellent agreement between experimental and calculated values has been observed for temperature dependences of Vickers and Knoop hardness. Besides, the model predicts that some materials can become harder than diamond already at pressures in the megabar range.
On melting of B4C boron carbide under pressure
The pressure dependence of melting temperatures for boron carbide and
B4C-carbon eutectic has been studied up to 8 GPa, and it was found that in both
cases the melting curves exhibit negative slope (-13\pm6 K/GPa), that is
indicative of higher density of the melt as compared to the solid phase.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
A MSFD complementary approach for the assessment of pressures, knowledge and data gaps in Southern European Seas : the PERSEUS experience
PERSEUS project aims to identify the most relevant pressures exerted on the ecosystems of the Southern
European Seas (SES), highlighting knowledge and data gaps that endanger the achievement of SES Good
Environmental Status (GES) as mandated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). A complementary
approach has been adopted, by a meta-analysis of existing literature on pressure/impact/knowledge
gaps summarized in tables related to the MSFD descriptors, discriminating open waters from coastal
areas. A comparative assessment of the Initial Assessments (IAs) for five SES countries has been also
independently performed. The comparison between meta-analysis results and IAs shows similarities
for coastal areas only. Major knowledge gaps have been detected for the biodiversity, marine food
web, marine litter and underwater noise descriptors. The meta-analysis also allowed the identification
of additional research themes targeting research topics that are requested to the achievement of GES.
2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.peer-reviewe
The neutron and its role in cosmology and particle physics
Experiments with cold and ultracold neutrons have reached a level of
precision such that problems far beyond the scale of the present Standard Model
of particle physics become accessible to experimental investigation. Due to the
close links between particle physics and cosmology, these studies also permit a
deep look into the very first instances of our universe. First addressed in
this article, both in theory and experiment, is the problem of baryogenesis ...
The question how baryogenesis could have happened is open to experimental
tests, and it turns out that this problem can be curbed by the very stringent
limits on an electric dipole moment of the neutron, a quantity that also has
deep implications for particle physics. Then we discuss the recent spectacular
observation of neutron quantization in the earth's gravitational field and of
resonance transitions between such gravitational energy states. These
measurements, together with new evaluations of neutron scattering data, set new
constraints on deviations from Newton's gravitational law at the picometer
scale. Such deviations are predicted in modern theories with extra-dimensions
that propose unification of the Planck scale with the scale of the Standard
Model ... Another main topic is the weak-interaction parameters in various
fields of physics and astrophysics that must all be derived from measured
neutron decay data. Up to now, about 10 different neutron decay observables
have been measured, much more than needed in the electroweak Standard Model.
This allows various precise tests for new physics beyond the Standard Model,
competing with or surpassing similar tests at high-energy. The review ends with
a discussion of neutron and nuclear data required in the synthesis of the
elements during the "first three minutes" and later on in stellar
nucleosynthesis.Comment: 91 pages, 30 figures, accepted by Reviews of Modern Physic