368 research outputs found
Mean first passage time for fission potentials having structure
A schematic model of over-damped motion is presented which permits one to
calculate the mean first passage time for nuclear fission. Its asymptotic value
may exceed considerably the lifetime suggested by Kramers rate formula, which
applies only to very special, favorable potentials and temperatures. The
additional time obtained in the more general case is seen to allow for a
considerable increment in the emission of light particles.Comment: 7 pages, LaTex, 7 postscript figures; Keywords: Decay rate, mean
first passage tim
Thermodynamic gauge-theory cascade
It is proposed that the cooling of a thermalized SU() gauge theory can be
formulated in terms of a cascade involving three effective theories with
successively reduced (and spontaneously broken) gauge symmetries, SU()
U(1) Z. The approach is based on the assumption that away
from a phase transition the bulk of the quantum interaction inherent to the
system is implicitly encoded in the (incomplete) classical dynamics of a
collective part made of low-energy condensed degrees of freedom. The properties
of (some of the) statistically fluctuating fields are determined by these
condensate(s). This leads to a quasi-particle description at tree-level. It
appears that radiative corrections, which are sizable at large gauge coupling,
do not change the tree-level picture qualitatively. The thermodynamic
self-consistency of the quasi-particle approach implies nonperturbative
evolution equations for the associated masses. The temperature dependence of
these masses, in turn, determine the evolution of the gauge coupling(s). The
hot gauge system approaches the behavior of an ideal gas of massless gluons at
asymptotically large temperature. A negative equation of state is possible at a
stage where the system is about to settle into the phase of the (spontaneously
broken) Z symmetry.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 1 reference added, minor corrections in text,
errors in Sec. 3.2 corrected, PRD versio
Atomic layer deposition of HfO2 on graphene from HfCl4 and H20
Atomic layer deposition of ultrathin HfO2 on unmodified graphene from HfCl4
and H2O was investigated. Surface RMS roughness down to 0.5 nm was obtained for
amorphous, 30 nm thick hafnia film grown at 180 degrees C. HfO2 was deposited
also in a two-step temperature process where the initial growth of about 1 nm
at 170 degrees C was continued up to 10-30 nm at 300 degrees C. This process
yielded uniform, monoclinic HfO2 films with RMS roughness of 1.7 nm for 10-12
nm thick films and 2.5 nm for 30 nm thick films. Raman spectroscopy studies
revealed that the deposition process caused compressive biaxial strain in
graphene whereas no extra defects were generated. An 11 nm thick HfO2 film
deposited onto bilayer graphene reduced the electron mobility by less than 10%
at the Dirac point and by 30-40% far away from it.Comment: 4 figures, accepted by CEJ
Sensitivity of polar stratospheric ozone loss to uncertainties in chemical reaction kinetics
The impact and significance of uncertainties in model calculations of stratospheric ozone loss resulting from known uncertainty in chemical kinetics parameters is evaluated in trajectory chemistry simulations for the Antarctic and Arctic polar vortices. The uncertainty in modeled ozone loss is derived from Monte Carlo scenario simulations varying the kinetic (reaction and photolysis rate) parameters within their estimated uncertainty bounds. Simulations of a typical winter/spring Antarctic vortex scenario and Match scenarios in the Arctic produce large uncertainty in ozone loss rates and integrated seasonal loss. The simulations clearly indicate that the dominant source of model uncertainty in polar ozone loss is uncertainty in the Cl2O 2 photolysis reaction, which arises from uncertainty in laboratory-measured molecular cross sections at atmospherically important wavelengths. This estimated uncertainty in JCl 2O2 from laboratory measurements seriously hinders our ability to model polar ozone loss within useful quantitative error limits. Atmospheric observations, however, suggest that the Cl2O2 photolysis uncertainty may be less than that derived from the lab data. Comparisons to Match, South Pole ozonesonde, and Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) data all show that the nominal recommended rate simulations agree with data within uncertainties when the Cl2O2 photolysis error is reduced by a factor of two, in line with previous in situ ClOx measurements. Comparisons to simulations using recent cross sections from Pope et al. (2007) are outside the constrained error bounds in each case. Other reactions producing significant sensitivity in polar ozone loss include BrO + ClO and its branching ratios. These uncertainties challenge our confidence in modeling polar ozone depletion and projecting future changes in response to changing halogen emissions and climate. Further laboratory, theoretical, and possibly atmospheric studies are needed
Influence of entrance-channel magicity and isospin on quasi-fission
The role of spherical quantum shells in the competition between fusion and
quasi-fission is studied for reactions forming heavy elements. Measurements of
fission fragment mass distributions for different reactions leading to similar
compound nuclei have been made near the fusion barrier. In general, more
quasi-fission is observed for reactions with non-magic nuclei. However, the
Ca+Pb reaction is an exception, showing strong evidence for
quasi-fission, though both nuclei are doubly magic. Time-dependent Hartree-Fock
calculations predict fast equilibration of in the two fragments early in
the collision. This transfer of nucleons breaks the shell effect, causing this
reaction to behave more like a non-magic one in the competition between fusion
and quasi-fission. Future measurements of fission in reactions with exotic
beams should be able to test this idea with larger asymmetries.Comment: accepted for publication in Physics Letters
Stress-energy tensor for a quantised bulk scalar field in the Randall-Sundrum brane model
We calculate the vacuum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor for a
quantised bulk scalar field in the Randall-Sundrum model, and discuss the
consequences of its local behaviour for the self-consistency of the model. We
find that, in general, the stress-energy tensor diverges in the vicinity of the
branes. Our main conclusion is that the stress-energy tensor is sufficiently
complicated that it has implications for the effective potential, or radion
stabilisation, methods that have so far been used.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes made and references added. To
appear in Phys. Rev.
Quantum self-consistency of brane models
Continuing on our previous work, we consider a class of higher dimensional
brane models with the topology of , where
is a one-parameter compact manifold and two branes of codimension 1 are located
at the orbifold fixed points. We consider a set-up where such a solution arises
from Einstein-Yang-Mills theory and evaluate the one-loop effective potential
induced by gauge fields and by a generic bulk scalar field. We show that this
type of brane models resolves the gauge hierarchy between the Planck and
electroweak scales through redshift effects due to the warp factor . The value of is then fixed by minimizing the effective potential. We
find that, as in the Randall Sundrum case, the gauge field contribution to the
effective potential stabilises the hierarchy without fine-tuning as long as the
laplacian on has a zero eigenvalue. Scalar fields can
stabilise the hierarchy depending on the mass and the non-minimal coupling. We
also address the quantum self-consistency of the solution, showing that the
classical brane solution is not spoiled by quantum effects.Comment: 10 page
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