[en] The study of heavy water, conducted on volumes between a few cubic centimeters and a few cubic microns, leads to same results as those found with similar volumes of natural water. The metastable behavior of heavy water under volumes between a few cubic centimeters and a few cubic microns is especially considered

No abstract available

[en] Attention is drawn to the insufficient validity of a number of conclusions concerning the fundamentals of statistical physics made in a paper of A M Tkachev and S I Yakovlenko [Quantum Electron. 30 1077 (2000)] (discussion)

[en] Short communication; 8 refs

[en] The suggestion that some atomic nuclei would be able to exist in more than one stable or metastable configuration was proposed by Soddy in 1917. Subsequently, the first experimental example of such an isomeric pair was reported by Hahn in 1921, in the form of two metastable states of ²³⁴Pa, then known as UZ and UX₂. Nowadays, of the 3437 nuclides listed in the most recent NUBASE evaluation, 1318 have at least one metastable excited state with a half-life of 100 ns or longer. The present work reviews historical aspects of nuclear isomers, and the different physical mechanisms that lead to their formation. Selected frontiers of contemporary isomer research are discussed, with an emphasis on remote regions of the nuclear landscape. Some possibilities for the electromagnetic manipulation of isomers are included. (paper)

[en] The probability is calculated for the quantum decay of a metastable vacuum in (I+I) dimensions induced by a massive boson or fermion, which serves as a center for the formation of a critical nucleus of a lower phase. The presence of the particle leads to an exponential factor for an intensification of the decay. Sufficiently heavy particles annihilate the metastable state essentially instantaneously. During the expansion of the critical nucleus, the particle itself is carried off to infinity in the form of a zero mode coupled to a soliton

[en] A two-qubit quantum gate is realized using electronically excited states in a single ion with an energy separation on the order of a terahertz times the Planck constant as a qubit. Two phase-locked lasers are used to excite a stimulated Raman transition between two metastable states D_3/2 and D_5/2 separated by 1.82 THz in a single trapped ⁴⁰Ca⁺ ion to construct a qubit, which is used as the target bit for the Cirac-Zoller two-qubit controlled NOT gate. Quantum dynamics conditioned on a motional qubit is clearly observed as a fringe reversal in Ramsey interferometry.

No abstract available

[en] The experiments on metastable antiprotonic helium atoms are reviewed

[en] One of the main challenges of thermodynamics is to predict and measure accurately the properties of metastable fluids. Investigation of these fluids is hindered by their spontaneous transformation by nucleation into a more stable phase. We show how small closed containers can be used to completely prevent nucleation, achieving infinitely long-lived metastable states. Using a general thermodynamic framework, we derive simple formulas to predict accurately the conditions (container sizes) at which this superstabilization takes place and it becomes impossible to form a new stable phase. This phenomenon opens the door to control nucleation of deeply metastable fluids at experimentally feasible conditions, having important implications in a wide variety of fields