Application to argon ions of a new technique to measure the two-electron contribution to the ground state energy of helium-like ions

We have measured the two-electron contribution of the ground state energy of helium-like argon ions using an electron beam ion trap (EBIT). A two-dimensional map was measured showing the intensity of x-rays from the trap passing through a krypton-filled absorption cell. The independent axes of this map were electron beam energy and x-ray energy. From this map, we deduced the two-electron contribution of the ground state of helium-like argon. This experimentally determined Value (312.4 +/- 9.5 eV) was found to be in good agreement with our calculated values (about 303.35 eV) and previous calculations of the same quantity. Based on these measurements, we have shown that a ten-day absorption spectroscopy run with a super-EBIT should be sufficient to provide a new benchmark value for the two-electron contribution to the ground state of helium-like krypton. Such a measurement would then constitute a test of quantum electrodynamics to second order.

Electronic structure and total energy of interstitial hydrogen in iron: Tight-binding models

An application of the tight binding approximation is presented for the description of electronic structure and interatomic force in magnetic iron, both pure and containing hydrogen impurities. We assess the simple canonical d-band description in comparison to a non orthogonal model including s and d bands. The transferability of our models is tested against known properties including the segregation energies of hydrogen to vacancies and to surfaces of iron. In many cases agreement is remarkably good, opening up the way to quantum mechanical atomistic simulation of the effects of hydrogen on mechanical properties.

Structural information content of networks: Graph entropy based on local vertex functionals

In this paper we define the structural information content of graphs as their corresponding graph entropy. This definition is based on local vertex functionals obtained by calculating-spheres via the algorithm of Dijkstra. We prove that the graph entropy and, hence, the local vertex functionals can be computed with polynomial time complexity enabling the application of our measure for large graphs. In this paper we present numerical results for the graph entropy of chemical graphs and discuss resulting properties. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the maximum energy of shock-accelerated cosmic rays at ultra-relativistic shocks

The maximum energy to which cosmic rays can be accelerated at weakly magnetised ultra-relativistic shocks is investigated. We demonstrate that for such shocks, in which the scattering of energetic particles is mediated exclusively by ion skin-depth scale structures, as might be expected for a Weibel-mediated shock, there is an intrinsic limit on the maximum energy to which particles can be accelerated. This maximum energy is determined from the requirement that particles must be isotropized in the downstream plasma frame before the mean field transports them far downstream, and falls considerably short of what is required to produce ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. To circumvent this limit, a highly disorganized field is required on larger scales. The growth of cosmic ray-induced instabilities on wavelengths much longer than the ion-plasma skin depth, both upstream and downstream of the shock, is considered. While these instabilities may play an important role in magnetic field amplification at relativistic shocks, on scales comparable to the gyroradius of the most energetic particles, the calculated growth rates have insufficient time to modify the scattering. Since strong modification is a necessary condition for particles in the downstream region to re-cross the shock, in the absence of an alternative scattering mechanism, these results imply that acceleration to higher energies is ruled out. If weakly magnetized ultra-relativistic shocks are disfavoured as high-energy particle accelerators in general, the search for potential sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays can be narrowed.

Vertex Clustering of Augmented Graph Streams

In this paper we propose a graph stream clustering algorithm with a unied similarity measure on both structural and attribute properties of vertices, with each attribute being treated as a vertex. Unlike others, our approach does not require an input parameter for the number of clusters, instead, it dynamically creates new sketch-based clusters and periodically merges existing similar clusters. Experiments on two publicly available datasets reveal the advantages of our approach in detecting vertex clusters in the graph stream. We provide a detailed investigation into how parameters affect the algorithm performance. We also provide a quantitative evaluation and comparison with a well-known offline community detection algorithm which shows that our streaming algorithm can achieve comparable or better average cluster purity.

Electron acoustic soliton energy of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation in the Earth’s magnetotail region at critical ion density

The nonlinear properties of small amplitude electron-acoustic solitary waves (EAWs) in a homogeneous system of unmagnetized collisionless plasma consisted of a cold electron fluid and isothermal ions with two different temperatures obeying Boltzmann type distributions have been investigated. A reductive perturbation method was employed to obtain the Kadomstev-Petviashvili (KP) equation. At the critical ion density, the KP equation is not appropriate for describing the system. Hence, a new set of stretched coordinates
is considered to derive the modified KP equation. Moreover, the solitary solution, soliton energy and the associated electric field at the critical ion density were computed. The present investigation can be of relevance to the electrostatic solitary structures observed in various space plasma environments, such as Earth’s magnetotail region.

Adaptive automated construction of hybrid heuristics for exam timetabling and graph colouring problems

In this paper, we present a random iterative graph based hyper-heuristic to produce a collection of heuristic sequences to construct solutions of different quality. These heuristic sequences can be seen as dynamic hybridisations of different graph colouring heuristics that construct solutions step by step. Based on these sequences, we statistically analyse the way in which graph colouring heuristics are automatically hybridised. This, to our knowledge, represents a new direction in hyper-heuristic research. It is observed that spending the search effort on hybridising Largest Weighted Degree with Saturation Degree at the early stage of solution construction tends to generate high quality solutions. Based on these observations, an iterative hybrid approach is developed to adaptively hybridise these two graph colouring heuristics at different stages of solution construction. The overall aim here is to automate the heuristic design process, which draws upon an emerging research theme on developing computer methods to design and adapt heuristics automatically. Experimental results on benchmark exam timetabling and graph colouring problems demonstrate the effectiveness and generality of this adaptive hybrid approach compared with previous methods on automatically generating and adapting heuristics. Indeed, we also show that the approach is competitive with the state of the art human produced methods.

SO2 Saturation of the Room Temperature Ionic Liquid [C(2)mim][NTf2] Much Reduces the Activation Energy for Diffusion

The physical effect of high concentrations of reversibly dissolved SO2 on [C(2)mim][NTf2] was examined using cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and ESR spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammetry of the oxidation of solutions of ferrocene, N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine (TMPD), and chloride in the room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesufonyl)imide ([C(2)mim][NTf2]) reveals an increase in limiting current of each species corresponding to the addition of increasing concentrations of sulfur dioxide. Quantitative chronoamperometry reveals an increase in each species' diffusion coefficient with SO2 concentration. When chronoamperometric data were obtained for ferrocene in [C(2)mim][NTf2] at a range of temperatures, the translational diffusion activation energy (29.0 +/- 0.5 kJ mol(-1)) was found to be in good agreement with previous studies. Adding SO2 results in apparent near-activationless translational diffusion. A significant decrease in the activation energy of rotational diffusion with the SO2 saturation of a 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxyl (TEMPO) solution in [C(2)mim][NTf2] (29.9 +/- 2.0 to 7.7 +/- 5.3 kJ mol(-1)) was observed using electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. The reversible physical absorption Of SO2 by [C(2)mim][NTf2] should have no adverse effect on the ability of that ionic liquid to be employed as a solvent in an electrochemical gas sensor, and it is possible that the SO2-mediated reduction of RTIL viscosity could have intrinsic utility.

Dependence of the ion energy on the parameters of the laser pulse and target in the radiation-pressure-dominated regime of acceleration

When the dominant mechanism for ion acceleration is the laser radiation pressure, the conversion efficiency of the laser energy into the energy of relativistic ions may be very high. Stability analysis of a thin plasma layer accelerated by the radiation pressure shows that Raleigh-Taylor instability may enhance plasma inhomogeneity. In the linear stage of instability, the plasma layer decays into separate bunches, which are accelerated by the radiation pressure similarly to clusters accelerated under the action of an electromagnetic wave. The energy and luminosity of an ion beam accelerated in the radiation-pressure-dominated regime are calculated.

Dependence of laser accelerated protons on laser energy following the interaction of defocused, intense laser pulses with ultra-thin targets

The scaling of the flux and maximum energy of laser-driven sheath-accelerated protons has been investigated as a function of laser pulse energy in the range of 15-380 mJ at intensities of 10(16)-10(18) W/cm(2). The pulse duration and target thickness were fixed at 40 fs and 25 nm, respectively, while the laser focal spot size and drive energy were varied. Our results indicate that while the maximum proton energy is dependent on the laser energy and laser spot diameter, the proton flux is primarily related to the laser pulse energy under the conditions studied here. Our measurements show that increasing the laser energy by an order of magnitude results in a more than 500-fold increase in the observed proton flux. Whereas, an order of magnitude increase in the laser intensity generated by decreasing the laser focal spot size, at constant laser energy, gives rise to less than a tenfold increase in observed proton flux.

Measurements of energy transport patterns in solid density laser plasma interactions at intensities of 5x10(20) W cm(-2)

K-alpha x-ray emission, extreme ultraviolet emission, and plasma imaging techniques have been used to diagnose energy transport patterns in copper foils ranging in thickness from 5 to 75 mu m for intensities up to 5x10(20) Wcm(-20). The K-alpha emission and shadowgrams both indicate a larger divergence angle than that reported in the literature at lower intensities [R. Stephens , Phys. Rev. E 69, 066414 (2004)]. Foils 5 mu m thick show triple-humped plasma expansion patterns at the back and front surfaces. Hybrid code modeling shows that this can be attributed to an increase in the mean energy of the fast electrons emitted at large radii, which only have sufficient energy to form a plasma in such thin targets.

What is the energy balance of grass biomethane in Ireland and other temperate northern European climates?

Biofuels have had bad press in recent years. There are primarily two distinct issues. The biofuel crops with the best yields (such as sugarcane or oil palm) grow in tropical countries where habitat destruction has occurred in association with the biofuel system. First generation indigenous energy crops commonly used for transport fuel in Europe (such as rapeseed and wheat) have low yields and/or the energy balance of the associated biofuel system is poor. This paper shows that grass is a crop with significant yields and grass biomethane (a gaseous renewable transport biofuel) has a very good energy balance and does not involve habitat destruction, land use change, new farming practices or annual tilling. The gross and net energy production per hectare are almost identical to palm oil biodiesel; the net energy of the grass system is at least 50% better than the next best indigenous European biofuel system investigated. Ten percent of Irish grasslands could fuel over 55% of the Irish private car fleet. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surface energy and surface proton order of the ice Ih basal and prism surfaces

Density-functional theory (DFT) is used to examine the basal and prism surfaces of ice Ih. Similar surface energies are obtained for the two surfaces; however, in each case a strong dependence of the surface energy on surface proton order is identified. This dependence, which can be as much as 50% of the absolute surface energy, is significantly larger than the bulk dependence (< 1%) on proton order, suggesting that the thermodynamic ground state of the ice surface will remain proton ordered well above the bulk order-disorder temperature of about 72 K. On the basal surface this suggestion is supported by Monte Carlo simulations with an empirical potential and solution of a 2D Ising model with nearest neighbor interactions taken from DFT. Order parameters that define the surface energy of each surface in terms of nearest neighbor interactions between dangling OH bonds (those which point out of the surface into vacuum) have been identified and are discussed. Overall, these results suggest that proton order-disorder effects have a profound impact on the stability of ice surfaces and will most likely have an effect on ice surface reactivity as well as ice crystal growth and morphology. S Supplementary data are available from stacks.iop.org/JPhysCM/22/074209/mmedia

Surface Energy and Surface Proton Order of Ice Ih

Ice Ih is comprised of orientationally disordered water molecules giving rise to positional disorder of the hydrogen atoms in the hydrogen bonded network of the lattice. Here we arrive at a first principles determination of the surface energy of ice Ih and suggest that the surface of ice is significantly more proton ordered than the bulk. We predict that the proton order-disorder transition, which occurs in the bulk at similar to 72 K, will not occur at the surface at any temperature below surface melting. An order parameter which defines the surface energy of ice Ih surfaces is also identified.