Charge-transfer photodissociation of adsorbed molecules via electron image states

The 248nm and 193nm photodissociation of submonolayer quantities of CH$_3$Br and CH$_3$I adsorbed on thin layers of n-hexane indicate that the dissociation is caused by dissociative electron attachment from sub-vacuum level photoelectrons created in the copper substrate. The characteristics of this photodissociation-- translation energy distributions and coverage dependences show that the dissociation is mediated by an image potential state which temporarily traps the photoelectrons near the n-hexane--vacuum interface, and then the charge transfers from this image state to the affinity level of a co-adsorbed halomethane which then dissociates.Comment: submitted to Journal of Chemical Physic

Nonuniversal Critical Spreading in Two Dimensions

Continuous phase transitions are studied in a two dimensional nonequilibrium model with an infinite number of absorbing configurations. Spreading from a localized source is characterized by nonuniversal critical exponents, which vary continuously with the density phi in the surrounding region. The exponent delta changes by more than an order of magnitude, and eta changes sign. The location of the critical point also depends on phi, which has important implications for scaling. As expected on the basis of universality, the static critical behavior belongs to the directed percolation class.Comment: 21 pages, REVTeX, figures available upon reques

Critical exponents of the pair contact process with diffusion

We study the pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD) using Monte Carlo simulations, and concentrate on the decay of the particle density $\rho$ with time, near its critical point, which is assumed to follow $\rho(t) \approx ct^{-\delta} +c_2t^{-\delta_2}+...$. This model is known for its slow convergence to the asymptotic critical behavior; we therefore pay particular attention to finite-time corrections. We find that at the critical point, the ratio of $\rho$ and the pair density $\rho_p$ converges to a constant, indicating that both densities decay with the same powerlaw. We show that under the assumption $\delta_2 \approx 2 \delta$, two of the critical exponents of the PCPD model are $\delta = 0.165(10)$ and $\beta = 0.31(4)$, consistent with those of the directed percolation (DP) model

A solvable non-conservative model of Self-Organized Criticality

We present the first solvable non-conservative sandpile-like critical model of Self-Organized Criticality (SOC), and thereby substantiate the suggestion by Vespignani and Zapperi [A. Vespignani and S. Zapperi, Phys. Rev. E 57, 6345 (1998)] that a lack of conservation in the microscopic dynamics of an SOC-model can be compensated by introducing an external drive and thereby re-establishing criticality. The model shown is critical for all values of the conservation parameter. The analytical derivation follows the lines of Broeker and Grassberger [H.-M. Broeker and P. Grassberger, Phys. Rev. E 56, 3944 (1997)] and is supported by numerical simulation. In the limit of vanishing conservation the Random Neighbor Forest Fire Model (R-FFM) is recovered.Comment: 4 pages in RevTeX format (2 Figures) submitted to PR

New Insights on Interstellar Gas-Phase Iron

In this paper, we report on the gas-phase abundance of singly-ionized iron (Fe II) for 51 lines of sight, using data from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). Fe II column densities are derived by measuring the equivalent widths of several ultraviolet absorption lines and subsequently fitting those to a curve of growth. Our derivation of Fe II column densities and abundances creates the largest sample of iron abundances in moderately- to highly-reddened lines of sight explored with FUSE, lines of sight that are on average more reddened than lines of sight in previous Copernicus studies. We present three major results. First, we observe the well-established correlation between iron depletion and and also find trends between iron depletion and other line of sight parameters (e.g. f(H_2), E_(B-V), and A_V), and examine the significance of these trends. Of note, a few of our lines of sight probe larger densities than previously explored and we do not see significantly enhanced depletion effects. Second, we present two detections of an extremely weak Fe II line at 1901.773 A in the archival STIS spectra of two lines of sight (HD 24534 and HD 93222). We compare these detections to the column densities derived through FUSE spectra and comment on the line's f-value and utility for future studies of Fe II. Lastly, we present strong anecdotal evidence that the Fe II f-values derived empirically through FUSE data are more accurate than previous values that have been theoretically calculated, with the probable exception of f_1112.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 669, 378; see ApJ version for small updates. 53 total pages (preprint format), 7 tables, 11 figure