We report the design and experimental demonstration of a gyrotron oscillator using a photonic-band-gap (PBG) structure to eliminate mode competition in a highly overmoded resonator. The PBG cavity supports a ${\mathrm{TE}}_{041}$-like mode at 140 GHz and is designed to have no competing modes over a minimum frequency range $\delta \omega /\omega$ of $30\%$ about the design mode. Experimental operation of a PBG gyrotron at 68 kV and 5 A produced 25 kW of peak power in the design mode. No other modes were observed over the full predicted operating range about the design mode. PBG cavities show great promise for applications in vacuum electron devices in the millimeter- and submillimeter-wave bands.

Neutrino fluxes from proto-neutron stars with and without quarks are studied. Observable differences become apparent after 10–20 s of evolution. Sufficiently massive stars containing negatively charged, strongly interacting, particles collapse to black holes during the first minute of evolution. Since the neutrino flux vanishes when a black hole forms, this is the most obvious signal that quarks (or other types of strange matter) have appeared. The metastability time scales for stars with quarks are intermediate between those containing hyperons and kaon condensates.

This work represents the first experimental demonstration that planar molecules tend to travel as a “frisbee” when a gaseous mixture with lighter carriers expands into a vacuum, the orientation being due to collisions. The molecule is benzene, the prototype of aromatic chemistry. The demonstration is via two complementary experiments: interrogating benzene by IR-laser light and controlling its orientation by selective scattering on rare gas targets. The results cast new light on the microscopic mechanisms of collisional alignment and suggest a useful way to produce intense beams of aligned molecules, permitting studies of steric effects in gas-phase processes and in surface catalysis.

The spectrum of the luminescence emitted at the collapse of single laser-induced bubbles in water is measured for different maximum bubble radii. Bubbles as large as 2 mm show a molecular ${\mathrm{OH}}^{*}$ band at 310 nm in the spectrum, which otherwise can be fitted approximately with a blackbody curve at a temperature of 7800 K. This finding provides a connection between the light emission of single bubbles and multibubble sonoluminescence, since in the latter case the same molecular band is observed. Surface instabilities are observed in the larger bubbles, and may be connected with the ${\mathrm{OH}}^{*}$ emission.

We describe full multiple-scattering calculations of localized surface photonic states set up by lithographically designed nanostructures made of a finite number of dielectric pads deposited on a planar surface. The method is based on a numerical solution of the dyadic Dyson's equation. When the pads are arranged to form a closed circle, we find field patterns that look like the electronic charge density recently observed above quantum corrals. We propose two experimental techniques that could be used to observe these electromagnetic modes in direct space.

The evolution of a foam is determined by drainage flow of the continuous (liquid) phase and coarsening (aging) of the dispersed phase (gas bubbles). Free-drainage experiments with slow- and fast-coarsening gases show markedly different dynamics and elucidate the importance of the coupling of the two effects. Strong coarsening leads to drainage times that are shorter (accelerated drainage) and independent of the initial liquid content (self-limiting drainage). A model incorporating the physics of both drainage and diffusive coarsening shows quantitative agreement with experiment.

A nonequilibrium population of spin-up and spin-down states in quantum well structures has been achieved applying circularly polarized radiation. The spin polarization results in a directed motion of free carriers in the plane of a quantum well perpendicular to the direction of light propagation. Because of the spin selection rules the direction of the current is determined by the helicity of the light and can be reversed by switching the helicity from right to left handed. A microscopic model is presented which describes the origin of the photon helicity driven current. The model suggests that the system behaves as a battery which generates a spin polarized current.

We have measured shot noise in aluminum atomic point contacts containing a small number of conduction channels of known transmissions. In the normal state, we find that the noise power is reduced from its Poissonian value and reaches the partition limit, as calculated from the transmissions. In the superconducting state, the noise reveals the large effective charge associated with each elementary transfer process, in excellent agreement with the predictions of the quantum theory of multiple Andreev reflections.

Wigner crystallization of electrons in 2D quantum dots is reported. It proceeds in two stages: (i) via radial ordering of electrons on shells and (ii) freezing of the intershell rotation. The phase boundary of the crystal is computed in the whole temperature-density plane, and the influences of quantum effects and the particle number are analyzed.

Pairing of DNA fragments with homologous sequences occurs in gene shuffling, DNA repair, and other vital processes. While chemical individuality of base pairs is hidden inside the double helix, x ray and NMR revealed sequence-dependent modulation of the structure of DNA backbone. Here we show that the resulting modulation of the DNA surface charge pattern enables duplexes longer than $\sim 50$ base pairs to recognize sequence homology electrostatically at a distance of up to several water layers. This may explain the local recognition observed in pairing of homologous chromosomes and the observed length dependence of homologous recombination.

Equipartition is a first principle in wave transport, based on the tendency of multiple scattering to homogenize phase space. We report observations of this principle for seismic waves created by earthquakes in Mexico. We find qualitative agreement with an equipartition model that accounts for mode conversions at the Earth's surface.

Using near-field optical microscopy, we investigate propagation and scattering of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP's) excited in the wavelength range of 780–820 nm at nanostructured gold-film surfaces with areas of 200-nm-wide scatterers arranged in a 400-nm-period triangular lattice containing line defects. We observe the SPP reflection by such an area and SPP guiding along line defects at 782 nm, as well as significant deterioration of these effects is 815 nm, thereby directly demonstrating the SPP band gap effect and showing first examples of SPP channel waveguides in surface band gap structures.

The Internet has a very complex connectivity recently modeled by the class of scale-free networks. This feature, which appears to be very efficient for a communications network, favors at the same time the spreading of computer viruses. We analyze real data from computer virus infections and find the average lifetime and persistence of viral strains on the Internet. We define a dynamical model for the spreading of infections on scale-free networks, finding the absence of an epidemic threshold and its associated critical behavior. This new epidemiological framework rationalizes data of computer viruses and could help in the understanding of other spreading phenomena on communication and social networks.

We consider inertial particles suspended in an incompressible turbulent flow. Because of particles' inertia their flow is compressible, which leads to fluctuations of concentration significant for heavy particles. We show that the statistics of these fluctuations is independent of details of the velocity statistics, which allows us to predict that the particles cluster on the viscous scale of turbulence and describe the probability distribution of concentration fluctuations. We discuss the possible role of the clustering in the physics of atmospheric aerosols, in particular, in cloud formation.

Composites with negative stiffness inclusions in a viscoelastic matrix are shown to have higher stiffness and mechanical damping $\tan \delta$ than that of either constituent and exceeding conventional bounds. The causal mechanism is a greater deformation in and near the inclusions than the composite as a whole. Though a block of negative stiffness is unstable, negative stiffness inclusions in a composite can be stabilized by the surrounding matrix. Such inclusions may be made from single domains of ferroelastic material below its phase transition temperature or from prebuckled lumped elements.

We describe in situ synthesis and characterization of single-walled BN nanotubes terminated by fullerenelike structures using electron-cyclotron resonance nitrogen and electron beam boron sources onto polycrystalline tungsten substrates. Detailed comparisons of experimental high-resolution electron microscopy images and simulations based upon molecular models show a dominance of kinks and bends involving fourfold and eightfold ring structures as against fivefold or sevenfold which have been found with carbon. Analysis of the structures as a function of film thickness indicates that they are growing by addition of atoms to the exposed ends of single sheets, not at the substrate-nanostructure interface.

We report on the first measurement of a hypernuclear $\gamma$-transition probability. $\gamma$ rays emitted in the $E2\mathrm{}(5/2^{+}\to 1/2^{+})$ transition of ${}_{\Lambda }^7\mathrm{Li}$ were detected by a large-acceptance germanium detector array (Hyperball), and the lifetime of the parent state ( $5/2^{+}$) was determined by the Doppler shift attenuation method. The obtained result, ${5.8}_{-0.7\mathrm{}}^{+0.9\mathrm{}}\pm 0.7\mathrm{ps}$, was then converted into the reduced transition probability [ $B\left(E2\mathrm{}\right)$] to be $B({E2;5/2\mathrm{}}^{+}\to {1/2}^{+})=3.6\mathrm{}\pm {0.5}_{-0.4\mathrm{}}^{+0.5\mathrm{}}{e}^2{\mathrm{fm}}^4$. Compared with the $B\left(E2\mathrm{}\right)$ of the corresponding $E2\mathrm{}(3^{+}\to 1^{+})$ transition in the ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ nucleus, our result gives evidence that the size of the ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ core in ${}_{\Lambda }^7\mathrm{Li}$ is smaller than the ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ nucleus in the free space.

A principle for stereoscopic photographs that enables viewing three-dimensional atomic arrangements is proposed. The azimuthal shifts of forward-focusing peaks in the photoelectron diffraction pattern obtained by left and right helicity lights enables a stereoscopic image when the two images are, respectively, viewed by the left eye and the right eye simultaneously. By taking advantage of this phenomenon, a display-type spherical-mirror analyzer can obtain stereoscopic photographs directly on the screen without any computer-aided conversion process.

Motivated by higher-dimensional theories that predict new effects, we tested the gravitational $1/r^2$ law at separations ranging down to $218\mu \mathrm{m}$ using a 10-fold symmetric torsion pendulum and a rotating 10-fold symmetric attractor. We improved previous short-range constraints by up to a factor of 1000 and find no deviations from Newtonian physics.

We find that tracer material can be concentrated into invariant regions of flows due exclusively to transient effects, as are produced when tracers temporarily become more buoyant than the surrounding fluid. This can occur either as a single event, e.g., if the tracer is initially weakly buoyant, or under periodic forcing, e.g., when external effects (such as solar heating) change the tracer density periodically. We study both cases in experiments, in a model, and in direct numerical simulations of laminar flow in a stirred tank. Focusing occurs for very small tracer size and inertia in flows that are instantaneously strictly volume conserving.