Recommendations on determination of interfacial tension at the interface between two fluids by the spinning drop method

There are studied popular methods of B. Vonnegut, H. Princen, J. Slattery, S. Torza for measuring the interfacial tension at the interface between two immiscible fluids by the spinning drop method. There is provided the method for calculating the geometric parameters of the spinning drop, and its results to the emergence of a spinning drop at the centre of the severely cylindrical area that correspond to the range of the ratio of the cube of the drop`s length to its volume of 24–120, and the range of the ratio of the spinning drop`s length to its diameter 4.00–0.35. Based on the obtained calculation results there is offered the method for determining the interfacial tension by using approximation dependence of the interfacial tension from the given drop volume, its length, difference in fluid densities and the angular velocity of the drop rotation. There are assessed methodological errors of the offered and the known methods for determining interfacial tension according to the rotating drop method. A flow chart and the overall appearance of the device that implements the proposed method for measuring the interfacial tension is presented

Homogeneous bubble nucleation limit of mercury under the normal working conditions of the planned European Spallation Source

In spallation neutron sources, liquid mercury is the subject of big thermal and pressure shocks, upon adsorbing the proton beam. These changes can cause unstable bubbles in the liquid, which can damage the structural material. While there are methods to deal with the pressure shock, the local temperature shock cannot be avoided. In our paper we calculated the work of the critical cluster formation (i.e. for mercury micro-bubbles) together with the rate of their formation (nucleation rate). It is shown that the homogeneous nucleation rates are very low even after adsorbing several proton pulses, therefore the probability of temperature induced homogeneous bubble nucleation is negligible.Comment: 22 Pages, 11 figures, one of them is colour, we plan to publish it in Eur. Phys. J.

First observation of two hyperfine transitions in antiprotonic He-3

We report on the first experimental results for microwave spectroscopy of the hyperfine structure of antiprotonic He-3. Due to the helium nuclear spin, antiprotonic He-3 has a more complex hyperfine structure than antiprotonic He-4 which has already been studied before. Thus a comparison between theoretical calculations and the experimental results will provide a more stringent test of the three-body quantum electrodynamics (QED) theory. Two out of four super-super-hyperfine (SSHF) transition lines of the (n,L)=(36,34) state were observed. The measured frequencies of the individual transitions are 11.12559(14) GHz and 11.15839(18) GHz, less than 1 MHz higher than the current theoretical values, but still within their estimated errors. Although the experimental uncertainty for the difference of these frequencies is still very large as compared to that of theory, its measured value agrees with theoretical calculations. This difference is crucial to be determined because it is proportional to the magnetic moment of the antiproton.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, just published (online so far) in Physics Letters

Antideuteron and deuteron production in mid-central Pb+Pb collisions at 158AA GeV

Production of deuterons and antideuterons was studied by the NA49 experiment in the 23.5% most central Pb+Pb collisions at the top SPS energy of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=17.3 GeV. Invariant yields for $\bar{d}$ and $d$ were measured as a function of centrality in the center-of-mass rapidity range $-1.2<y<-0.6$. Results for $\bar{d}(d)$ together with previously published $\bar{p}(p)$ measurements are discussed in the context of the coalescence model. The coalescence parameters $B_2$ were deduced as a function of transverse momentum $p_t$ and collision centrality.Comment: 9 figure

Phase-space dependence of particle-ratio fluctuations in Pb+Pb collisions from 20A to 158A GeV beam energy

A novel approach, the identity method, was used for particle identification and the study of fluctuations of particle yield ratios in Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). This procedure allows to unfold the moments of the unknown multiplicity distributions of protons (p), kaons (K), pions ($\pi$) and electrons (e). Using these moments the excitation function of the fluctuation measure $\nu_{\text{\text{dyn}}}$[A,B] was measured, with A and B denoting different particle types. The obtained energy dependence of $\nu_{\text{dyn}}$ agrees with previously published NA49 results on the related measure $\sigma_{\text{dyn}}$. Moreover, $\nu_{\text{dyn}}$ was found to depend on the phase space coverage for [K,p] and [K,$\pi$] pairs. This feature most likely explains the reported differences between measurements of NA49 and those of STAR in central Au+Au collisions

Energy dependence of kaon-to-proton ratio fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions from sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 6.3 to 17.3 GeV

Kaons and protons carry large parts of two conserved quantities, strangeness and baryon number. It is argued that their correlation and thus also fluctuations are sensitive to conditions prevailing at the anticipated parton-hadron phase boundary. Fluctuations of the $(\mathrm{K}^+ + \mathrm{K}^-)/(\mathrm{p}+\bar{\mathrm{p}})$ and $\mathrm{K}^+/\mathrm{p}$ ratios have been measured for the first time by NA49 in central Pb+Pb collisions at 5 SPS energies between $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$= 6.3 GeV and 17.3 GeV. Both ratios exhibit a change of sign in $\sigma_{\mathrm{dyn}}$, a measure of non-statistical fluctuations, around $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 8 GeV. Below this energy, $\sigma_{\mathrm{dyn}}$ is positive, indicating higher fluctuation compared to a mixed event background sample, while for higher energies, $\sigma_{\mathrm{dyn}}$ is negative, indicating correlated emission of kaons and protons. The results are compared to UrQMD calculations which which give a good description at the higher SPS energies, but fail to reproduce the transition to positive values.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

System-size and centrality dependence of charged kaon and pion production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and158A GeV beam energy

Measurements of charged pion and kaon production are presented in centrality selected Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy as well as in semi-central C+C and Si+Si interactions at 40A GeV. Transverse mass spectra, rapidity spectra and total yields are determined as a function of centrality. The system-size and centrality dependence of relative strangeness production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy are derived from the data presented here and published data for C+C and Si+Si collisions at 158A GeV beam energy. At both energies a steep increase with centrality is observed for small systems followed by a weak rise or even saturation for higher centralities. This behavior is compared to calculations using transport models (UrQMD and HSD), a percolation model and the core-corona approach.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, typo table II correcte

Centrality dependence of proton and antiproton spectra in Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV measured at the CERN SPS

The yields of (anti-)protons were measured by the NA49 Collaboration in centrality selected Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV. Particle identification was obtained in the laboratory momentum range from 5 to 63 GeV/c by the measurement of the energy loss dE/dx in the TPC detector gas. The corresponding rapidity coverage extends 1.6 units from mid-rapidity into the forward hemisphere. Transverse mass spectra, the rapidity dependences of the average transverse mass, and rapidity density distributions were studied as a function of collision centrality. The values of the average transverse mass as well as the midrapidity yields of protons when normalized to the number of wounded nucleons show only modest centrality dependences. In contrast, the shape of the rapidity distribution changes significantly with collision centrality, especially at 40A GeV. The experimental results are compared to calculations of the HSD and UrQMD transport models.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PR