Development of Lead-Free Radiation Shielding Material Utilizing Barium Sulfate and Magnesium Oxide as Fillers in Addition Cure Liquid Silicone Rubber.

The radiological protection has the purpose of safeguarding the physical well-being of the user, preventing exposure to detrimental levels of ionizing radiation. This study introduces a novel, cost-effective category of lead-free elastomeric material designed for radiation shielding. The filler compounds utilized are notably lighter than conventional lead-based materials, enhancing user ergonomics during application. They comprise of a blend of barium sulfate combined or not with magnesium oxide with addition-cure liquid silicone rubber. To ensure the effectiveness of the radiation shielding, X-ray transmission measurements were performed for the different thicknesses of the materials and the results compared with Monte Carlo simulations. Additionally, the physical properties of the new materials, such as density, homogeneity, tensile strength, viscosity, and wettability, were also evaluated. The findings indicate that both materials fulfill the requirement for application in radiation protection garments.

Adiabatic-nonadiabatic transition in warm long-range interacting systems: the transport of intense inhomogeneous beams.

We investigate the role of the temperature in the onset of singularities and the consequent breakdown in a macroscopic fluid model for long-range interacting systems. In particular, we consider an adiabatic fluid description for the transport of intense inhomogeneous charged particle beams. We find that there exists a critical temperature below which the fluid model always develops a singularity and breaks down as the system evolves. As the critical temperature is approached, however, the time for the occurrence of the singularity diverges. Therefore, the critical temperature separates two distinct dynamical phases: a nonadiabatic transport at lower temperatures and a completely adiabatic evolution at higher temperatures. These findings are verified with the aid of self-consistent N-particle simulations.

Using recurrences to characterize the hyperchaos-chaos transition.

Hyperchaos occurs in a dynamical system with more than one positive Lyapunov exponent. When the equations governing the time evolution of the dynamical system are known, the transition from chaos to hyperchaos can be readily obtained when the second largest Lyapunov exponent crosses zero. If the only information available on the system is a time series, however, such method is difficult to apply. We propose the use of recurrence quantification analysis of a time series to characterize the chaos-hyperchaos transition. We present results obtained from recurrence plots of coupled chaotic piecewise-linear maps and Chua-Matsumoto circuits, but the method can be applied as well to other systems, even when one does not know their dynamical equations.