arXiv subjects

Louis Becker

Publications and source records attributed to Louis Becker.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Iterative Thermodynamic Augmentation of Spatially Resolved Analytic Microscopy for Fast-Diffusing Solutes

The spatially resolved quantification of fast-diffusing solutes presents several challenges in analytic microscopy. Given the critical role of interstitially alloyed elements in physical metallurgy, we propose a computational framework that addresses this limitation by augmenting spatially resolved composition maps of substitutional elements with computationally derived interstitial distributions. The underlying methodology is an iterative thermodynamic model: exploiting the stark differences in solid-state diffusion kinetics, the model assumes a state of partial chemical equilibrium exclusively for the mobile interstitial species. An optimization scheme iteratively adjusts an uniform interstitial chemical potential across the mapped microstructure until the integrated local concentration converges with an independently measured bulk value. Ultimately, this approach extracts thermodynamically consistent interstitial concentration maps from robust, low-noise microscopy data, yielding quantitative spatial arrays that are otherwise time- and resource-intensive to obtain at best.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Impact of hydrogen incorporation on electronic and magnetic structure of X2CrNi18-9 stainless steel

Hydrogen absorption significantly alters the mechanical properties of steel. However, absorbed hydrogen also influences its electronic and magneto-structural properties, helping to interpret how hydrogen is incorporated. This study therefore investigates the influence of hydrogen incorporation on the electronic and magneto-structural properties of X2CrNi18-9 stainless steel in different microstructural states. Microstructural characterization included analytic electron microscopy mapping, X-ray diffraction and thermodynamic stability maps to evaluate grain size, dislocation density and chemical homogeneity. The electronic properties were characterized using the Seebeck coefficient, while the magneto-structural properties were investigated using diffuse neutron scattering and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Hydrogen incorporation showed clear changes in the Seebeck coefficients. Magnetic SANS in conjunction with diffuse neutron scattering indicates the existence of nanoscale inhomogeneities with the same fcc structure as the bulk, but with correlation lengths of a few nanometres. The size of these inhomogeneities increased with hydrogen incorporation, suggesting that hydrogen preferentially accumulates in their vicinity. However, no direct correlation between the electronic and magneto-structural properties and the dislocation density could be demonstrated. We suggest that studies such as these will lead in the medium term to the development of guidelines for material design to make steels more resistant to hydrogen.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

$q$-deformed rational numbers and the 2-Calabi--Yau category of type $A_2$

We describe a family of compactifications of the space of Bridgeland stability conditions of any triangulated category following earlier work by Bapat, Deopurkar, and Licata. We particularly consider the case of the 2-Calabi--Yau category of the $A_2$ quiver. The compactification is the closure of an embedding (depending on $q$) of the stability space into an infinite-dimensional projective space. In the $A_2$ case, the three-strand braid group $B_3$ acts on this closure. We describe two distinguished braid group orbits in the boundary, points of which can be identified with certain rational functions in $q$. Points in one of the orbits are exactly the $q$-deformed rational numbers recently introduced by Morier-Genoud and Ovsienko, while the other orbit gives a new $q$-deformation of the rational numbers. Specialising $q$ to a positive real number, we obtain a complete description of the boundary of the compactification.

math.RT↗