High electrical resistivity carbon/graphite fibers

Carbon/graphite fibers were chemically oxidized in the liquid phase to fibers of graphite oxide. Resistivity increases as high as 10,000 times were obtained, the oxidized fiber decomposed on exposure to atmosphere. A factor of 1,000 remained as a stable increment. The largest change observed was 1,000,000 times. Best results were obtained on the most highly graphitized fibers. Electrochemical oxidation yielded a lower increase--about 10 times, but provided a controllable method of synthesis and insight to the mechanism of reaction. Tensile tests indicated that the strength of the fiber on oxidation was decreased by no more than 25 percent

Caging dynamics in a granular fluid

We report an experimental investigation of the caging motion in a uniformly heated granular fluid, for a wide range of filling fractions, $\phi$. At low $\phi$ the classic diffusive behavior of a fluid is observed. However, as $\phi$ is increased, temporary cages develop and particles become increasingly trapped by their neighbors. We statistically analyze particle trajectories and observe a number of robust features typically associated with dense molecular liquids and colloids. Even though our monodisperse and quasi-2D system is known to not exhibit a glass transition, we still observe many of the precursors usually associated with glassy dynamics. We speculate that this is due to a process of structural arrest provided, in our case, by the presence of crystallization.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Plastic-crystalline solid-state electrolytes: Ionic conductivity and orientational dynamics in nitrile mixtures

Many plastic crystals, molecular solids with long-range, center-of-mass crystalline order but dynamic disorder of the molecular orientations, are known to exhibit exceptionally high ionic conductivity. This makes them promising candidates for applications as solid-state electrolytes, e.g., in batteries. Interestingly, it was found that the mixing of two different plastic-crystalline materials can considerably enhance the ionic dc conductivity, an important benchmark quantity for electrochemical applications. An example is the admixture of different nitriles to succinonitrile, the latter being one of the most prominent plastic-crystalline ionic conductors. However, until now only few such mixtures were studied. In the present work, we investigate succinonitrile mixed with malononitrile, adiponitrile, and pimelonitrile, to which 1 mol% of Li ions were added. Using differential scanning calorimetry and dielectric spectroscopy, we examine the phase behavior and the dipolar and ionic dynamics of these systems. We especially address the mixing-induced enhancement of the ionic conductivity and the coupling of the translational ionic mobility to the molecular reorientational dynamics, probably arising via a "revolving-door" mechanism.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; revised version as accepted for publication in J. Chem. Phy

Energy shifts of K x-ray lines for different chemical compounds of Ru, Pr, and Yb

The energy shifts of Kα2, Kα1, Kβ3, Kβ1, and Kβ2 x rays were measured for the following Ru, Pr, and Yb compounds: Ru, Ru(CO2)Cl2, RuO2, [Ru(NH3)4OHCl]Cl · 2H2O, and RuF3; Pr, PrC2, Pr2O3, PrFeO3, Pr6O11, PrO2, CsPrF5, and Cs2PrF6, Yb, YbF3, and Yb2O3. The results are compared with free-ion relativistic self-consistent-field calculations. The measurements bear out the dominant role of the 4f electrons in energy shifts between the trivalent and tetravalent Pr and the divalent and trivalent Yb. In Yb the full free-ion value is observed, while in Pr the free-ion value appears to be attenuated by a factor of 0.4, presumably owing to covalency. In all cases the relation of the x-ray energy shift to the Mössbauer isomer shift is discussed

Apollo experience report: Assessment of metabolic expenditures

A significant effort was made to assess the metabolic expenditure for extravehicular activity on the lunar surface. After evaluation of the real-time data available to the flight controller during extravehicular activity, three independent methods of metabolic assessment were chosen based on the relationship between heart rate and metabolic production, between oxygen consumption and metabolic production, and between the thermodynamics of the liquid-cooled garment and metabolic production. The metabolic assessment procedure is analyzed and discussed. Real-time use of this information by the Apollo flight surgeon is discussed. Results and analyses of the Apollo missions and comments concerning future applications are included

Influence of topography and Co domain walls on the magnetization reversal of the FeNi layer in FeNi/Al_2\_2O_3\_3/Co magnetic tunnel junctions

We have studied the magnetization reversal dynamics of FeNi/Al$\_2$O$\_3$/Co magnetic tunnel junctions deposited on step-bunched Si substrates using magneto-optical Kerr effect and time-resolved x-ray photoelectron emission microscopy combined with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD-PEEM). Different reversal mechanisms have been found depending on the substrate miscut angle. Larger terraces (smaller miscut angles) lead to a higher nucleation density and stronger domain wall pinning. The width of domain walls with respect to the size of the terraces seems to play an important role in the reversal. We used the element selectivity of XMCD-PEEM to reveal the strong influence of the stray field of domain walls in the hard magnetic layer on the magnetic switching of the soft magnetic layer.Comment: 8 Pages, 7 Figure

The Ising M-p-spin mean-field model for the structural glass: continuous vs. discontinuous transition

The critical behavior of a family of fully connected mean-field models with quenched disorder, the $M-p$ Ising spin glass, is analyzed, displaying a crossover between a continuous and a random first order phase transition as a control parameter is tuned. Due to its microscopic properties the model is straightforwardly extendable to finite dimensions in any geometry.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

Mass Hierarchy Determination Using Neutrinos from Multiple Reactors

We report the results of Monte Carlo simulations of a medium baseline reactor neutrino experiment. The difference in baselines resulting from the 1 km separations of Daya Bay and Ling Ao reactors reduces the amplitudes of 1-3 oscillations at low energies, decreasing the sensitivity to the neutrino mass hierarchy. A perpendicular detector location eliminates this effect. We simulate experiments under several mountains perpendicular to the Daya Bay/Ling Ao reactors, considering in particular the background from the TaiShan and YangJiang reactor complexes. In general the hierarchy can be determined most reliably underneath the 1000 meter mountain BaiYunZhang, which is 44.5 km from Daya Bay. If some planned reactors are not built then nearby 700 meter mountains at 47-51 km baselines gain a small advantage. Neglecting their low overhead burdens, hills near DongKeng would be the optimal locations. We use a weighted Fourier transform to avoid a spurious dependence on the high energy neutrino spectrum and find that a neural network can extract quantities which determine the hierarchy marginally better than the traditional RL + PV.Comment: 22 pages, added details on the neural network (journal version

Muonium-Antimuonium Oscillations in an extended Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with right-handed neutrinos

The electron and muon number violating muonium-antimuonium oscillation process in an extended Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is investigated. The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is modified by the inclusion of three right-handed neutrino superfields. While the model allows the neutrino mass terms to mix among the different generations, the sneutrino and slepton mass terms have only intra-generation lepton number violation but not inter-generation lepton number mixing. So doing, the muonium-antimuonium conversion can then be used to constrain those model parameters which avoid further constraint from the $\mu\to e\gamma$ decay bounds. For a wide range of parameter values, the contributions to the muonium-antimuonium oscillation time scale are at least two orders of magnitude below the sensivity of current experiments. However, if the ratio of the two Higgs field VEVs, $\tan\beta$, is very small, there is a limited possibility that the contributions are large enough for the present experimental limit to provide an inequality relating $\tan\beta$ with the light neutrino mass scale $m_\nu$ which is generated by see-saw mechanism. The resultant lower bound on $\tan\beta$ as a function of $m_\nu$ is more stringent than the analogous bounds arising from the muon and electron anomalous magnetic moments as computed using this model.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, Late

Cavity-assisted spontaneous emission as a single-photon source: Pulse shape and efficiency of one-photon Fock state preparation

Within the framework of exact quantum electrodynamics in dispersing and absorbing media, we have studied the quantum state of the radiation emitted from an initially in the upper state prepared two-level atom in a high-$Q$ cavity, including the regime where the emitted photon belongs to a wave packet that simultaneously covers the areas inside and outside the cavity. For both continuing atom--field interaction and short-term atom--field interaction, we have determined the spatio-temporal shape of the excited outgoing wave packet and calculated the efficiency of the wave packet to carry a one-photon Fock state. Furthermore, we have made contact with quantum noise theories where the intracavity field and the field outside the cavity are regarded as approximately representing independent degrees of freedom such that two separate Hilbert spaces can be introduced.Comment: 16 pages, 7 eps figures; improved version as submitted to Phys. Rev.