Low-energy direct muon transfer from H to Ne10+, S16+ and Ar18+ using the two-state close-coupling approximation to the Faddeev-Hahn-type equation

We perform a three-body calculation of direct muon-transfer rates from thermalized muonic hydrogen isotopes to bare nuclei Ne10+, S16+ and Ar18+ employing integro-differential Faddeev-Hahn-type equations in configuration space with a two-state close-coupling approximation scheme. All Coulomb potentials including the strong final-state Coulomb repulsion are treated exactly. A long-range polarization potential is included in the elastic channel to take into account the high polarizability of the muonic hydrogen. The transfer rates so-calculated are in good agreement with recent experiments. We find that the muon is captured predominantly in the n = 6, 9 and 10 states of muonic Ne10+, S16+ and Ar18+, respectively.

Low-energy quenching of positronium by helium

Very-low-energy scattering of orthopositronium by helium has been investigated for the simultaneous study of elastic cross section and pickoff quenching rate using a model exchange potential. The present calculational scheme, while it agrees with the measured cross section of Skalsey et nl., reproduces successfully the parameter (1)Z(eff), the effective number of electrons per atom in a singlet state relative to the positron. Together with the fact that this model potential also leads to an agreement with measured medium energy cross sections of this system, this study seems to resolve the long-standing discrepancy at low energies among different theoretical calculations and experimental measurements.

Consistency of superspace low energy equations of motion of 4D Type II superstring with Type II sigma model at tree-level

We derive the torsion constraints and show the consistency of equations of motion of four-dimensional Type II supergravity in superspace. with Type II sigma model. This is achieved by coupling the four-dimensional compactified Type II Berkovits' superstring to an N = 2 curved background and requiring that the sigma-model has superconformal invariance at tree-level. We compute this in a manifestly 4D N = 2 supersymmetric way. The constraints break the target conformal and SU(2) invariances and the dilaton will be a conformal, SU(2) x U(1) compensator. For Type II superstring in four dimensions, worldsheet supersymmetry requires two different compensators. One type is described by chiral and anti-chiral superfields. This compensator can be identified with a vector multiplet. The other Type II compensator is described by twist-chiral and twist-anti-chiral superfields and can be identified with a tensor hypermultiplet. Also, the superconformal invariance at tree-level selects a particular gauge, where the matter is fixed, but not the compensators. After imposing the reality conditions, we show that the Type II sigma model at tree-level is consistent with the equations of motion for Type II supergravity in the string gauge. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

A few-body treatment of low energy atomic collisions involving exotic particles

Faddeev-type equations are applied to three-charged particle systems. The rather satisfactory results are obtained for low energy e(+)H elastic scattering and muonic transfer reactions. The cross sections for antihydrogen formation from antiproton-positronium collisions are calculated using a six state model (Ps[1s2s2p], (H) over bar[1s2s2p]).

Low-Energy Scattering of Heavy-Light Mesons from Nucleons

We study the low-energy scattering of charmed (D) and strange (K) mesons by nucleons. The short-distance part of the interaction is due to quark-gluon interchanges derived from a model that realizes dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and confines color. The quark-gluon interaction incorporates a confining Coulomb-like potential extracted from lattice QCD simulations in Coulomb gauge and a transverse hyperfine interaction consistent with a finite gluon propagator in the infrared. The long-distance part of the interaction is due to single vector (rho, omega) and scalar (sigma) meson exchanges. We show results for scattering cross-sections for isospin I = 0 and I = 1.

A comparative study of the low energy HD plus o-/p-H-2 rotational excitation/de-excitation collisions and elastic scattering

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Plasma immersion ion implantation of nitrogen into H13 steel under moderate temperatures

Ion implantation of nitrogen into samples of tempered and quenched H13 steel was carried out by plasma immersion technique. A glow discharge plasma of nitrogen species was the ion source and the negative high voltage pulser provided 10-12 kV, 60 mu s duration and 1.0-2.0 kHz frequency, flat voltage pulses. The temperatures of the samples remained between 300 and 450 degrees C, sustained solely by the ion bombardment. In some of the discharges, we used a N-2 + H-2 gas mixture with 1:1 ratio. PIII treatments as long as 3, 6, 9 and up to 12 h were carried out to achieve as thickest treated layer as possible, and we were able to reach over 20 mu m treated layers, as a result of ion implantation and thermal (and possibly radiation enhanced) diffusion. The nitrogen depth profiles were obtained by GDOS (Glow Discharge Optical Spectroscopy) and the exact composition profiles by AES (Auger Electron Spectroscopy). The hardness of the treated surface was increased by more than 250%, reaching 18.8 GPa. No white layer was seen in this case. A hardness profile was obtained which corroborated a deep hardened layer, confirming the high efficacy of the moderate temperature PIII treatment of steels. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Numerical simulation of magnetic-field-enhanced plasma immersion ion implantation in cylindrical geometry

Recent studies have demonstrated that the sheath dynamics in plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) is significantly affected by an external magnetic field. In this paper, a two-dimensional computer simulation of a magnetic-field-enhanced PHI system is described. Negative bias voltage is applied to a cylindrical target located on the axis of a grounded vacuum chamber filled with uniform molecular nitrogen plasma. A static magnetic field is created by a small coil installed inside the target holder. The vacuum chamber is filled with background nitrogen gas to form a plasma in which collisions of electrons and neutrals are simulated by the Monte Carlo algorithm. It is found that a high-density plasma is formed around the target due to the intense background gas ionization by the magnetized electrons drifting in the crossed E x B fields. The effect of the magnetic field intensity, the target bias, and the gas pressure on the sheath dynamics and implantation current of the PHI system is investigated.

Acoustic measurement of the low-energy excitations in Nd2-xCexCuO4+delta

The complex dynamic Young's modulus of ceramic Nd2-xCexCuO4 with x = 0, 0.05 and 0.20 has been measured from 1.5 to 100 K at frequencies of 1 - 10 kHz. In the undoped sample the modulus starts decreasing below similar to 20 K, instead of approaching a constant value as in a normal solid. The modulus minimum has been interpreted in terms of paraelastic contribution from the relaxation of the Nd3+ 4f electrons between the levels of the ground state doublet, which is split by the interaction with the antiferromagnetically ordered Cu sublattice. The value of the splitting is found to be 0.34 meV, in excellent agreement with inelastic neutron scattering, infrared and specific heat experiments. With doping, the anomaly shifts to lower temperature and decreases in amplitude, consistently with a reduction of the local field from the Cu sublattice. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of the high-temperature plasma immersion ion-implantation treatment on corrosion behavior of Ti-6Al1-4V

Nitrogen implantation into Ti alloys at higher temperatures improves their mechanical and corrosion resistance properties by forming a thicker nitride layer. In this paper, two different sets of Ti-6Al-4V samples were plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII)-treated using nitrogen plasma, varying the treatment time from 30 to 150 min (800 degrees C) and the process temperature from 400 degrees C to 800 degrees C (t = 60 min). Nanoindentation measurements of the PIII-treated samples at 800 C during 150 min showed the highest hardness value, 24 GPa, which is about four times bigger than untreated sample hardness. The N penetration at these conditions reached approximately 150 nm as analyzed by Auger spectroscopy. on the other hand, the lowest passive current density (3 x 10(-7) A. cm(-2)) was obtained for a PIII-treated sample during 30 min at higher temperature (800 degrees C). The corrosion resistance of this sample is almost the same as for the untreated specimen. Corrosion behavior evidenced that in strong oxidizing media, all PIII-treated samples are more corrosion resistant than the untreated one. PIII processing at higher temperatures promotes smoothing of the sample surface as observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction analyses of the untreated samples identified the two typical Ti phases, Ti alpha and Ti beta. After the implantation, Ti2N and TiO2 phases were also detected.

LOW-ENERGY BEHAVIOR OF FEW-PARTICLE SCATTERING-AMPLITUDES IN 2 DIMENSIONS

A study of the analytic behavior of different few-particle scattering amplitudes at low energies in two space dimensions is presented. Such a study is of use in modeling and understanding different few-particle processes at low energies. A detailed discussion of the energy and the momentum dependence of the partial-wave on-the-energy-shell and off-the-energy-shell two-particle t matrices is given. These t-matrix elements tend to zero as the energy and momentum variables tend to zero. The multiple-scattering series is used to show that the connected three-to-three amplitudes diverge in the low-energy-momentum limit. Unitarity relations are used to show that the connected two-to-three and one-to-three amplitudes have specific logarithmic singularities at the m-particle breakup threshold. The subenergy singularity in the two-to-three amplitudes is also studied, and comments are made on some applications of the present study in different problems of ph cal interest.

Hydrophilization of PVC surfaces by argon plasma immersion ion implantation

Commercial polyvinylchloride (PVC) sheets were treated by plasma immersion ion implantation, PIII. Samples were immersed in argon glow discharges and biased with 25 kV negative pulses. Exposure time to the bombardment plasma changed from 900 to 10,800 s. Through contact angle measurements, the effect of the exposure time on the PVC wettability was investigated. Independent of t, all samples presented contact angles, theta, equal to zero after the treatment. However, in some cases, surface hydrophilization was not stable, as revealed by the temporal evolution of theta. Samples bombarded for shorter periods recovered partially or totally the hydrophobic character while the one exposed for the longest time stayed highly hydrophilic. These modifications are ascribed to the Cl loss and O incorporation as shown by XPS measurements. Furthermore, the mobility of surface polar groups and the variation in the cross-linking degree can also affect the PVC wettability.

Ghost poles in the nucleon propagator in the linear sigma model approach and its role in pi N low-energy theorems

Complex mass poles, or ghost poles, are present in the Hartree-Fock solution of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the nucleon propagator in renormalizable models with Yukawa-type meson-nucleon couplings, as shown many years ago by Brown, Puff and Wilets (BPW), These ghosts violate basic theorems of quantum field theory and their origin is related to the ultraviolet behavior of the model interactions, Recently, Krein et.al, proved that the ghosts disappear when vertex corrections are included in a self-consistent way, softening the interaction sufficiently in the ultraviolet region. In previous studies of pi N scattering using ''dressed'' nucleon propagator and bare vertices, did by Nutt and Wilets in the 70's (NW), it was found that if these poles are explicitly included, the value of the isospin-even amplitude A((+)) is satisfied within 20% at threshold. The absence of a theoretical explanation for the ghosts and the lack of chiral symmetry in these previous studies led us to re-investigate the subject using the approach of the linear sigma-model and study the interplay of low-energy theorems for pi N scattering and ghost poles. For bare interaction vertices we find that ghosts are present in this model as well and that the A((+)) value is badly described, As a first approach to remove these complex poles, we dress the vertices with phenomenological form factors and a reasonable agreement with experiment is achieved, In order to fix the two cutoff parameters, we use the A((+)) value for the chiral limit (m(pi) --> 0) and the experimental value of the isoscalar scattering length, Finally, we test our model by calculating the phase shifts for the S waves and we find a good agreement at threshold. (C) 1997 Elsevier B.V. B.V.