A new recursion operator for Adler?s equation in the Viallet form

For Adler?s equation in the Viallet form and Yamilov?s discretisation of the Krichever-Novikov equation we present new recursion and Hamiltonian operators. This new recursion operator and the recursion operator found in [A.V. Mikhailov, et al., Theor. Math. Phys. 167 (2011) 421, arXiv:1004.5346] satisfy the spectral curve associated with the equation.     

Comment on “Piezonuclear decay of thorium” [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956]

Cardone et al. [F. Cardone, R. Mignani, A. Petrucci, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956] claim that cavitation speeds up radioactive decay of ²²⁸Th dissolved in water. The experimental evidence they presented was criticized by Ericsson et al. [G. Ericsson, S. Pomp, H. Sjöstrand, E. Traneus, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 3795]. This Comment focuses on a presumably-ignored trivial effect that might be responsible for the reported experimental results. It also contains suggestions for improving the quality of future investigations.     

Reply to “Comment on ‘Piezonuclear decay of thorium’ [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956]” [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 3795]

In a paper appearing in this issue of Physics Letters A, Ericsson et al. raise some critical comments on the experiment [F. Cardone, R. Mignani, A. Petrucci, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956] we carried out by cavitating a solution of thorium-228, which evidenced its anomalous decay behaviour, thus confirming the results previously obtained by Urutskoev et al. by explosion of titanium foils in solutions. In this Letter, we reply to these comments. In our opinion, the main shortcomings of the criticism by the Swedish authors are due to their omitting of inserting our experiment in the wider research stream of piezonuclear reactions, and to the statistical analysis they used, which does not comply with the rules generally accepted for samples with small numbers. However, apart from any possible theoretical speculation, there is the basic fact that two different experiments (ours and that by Urutskoev et al.), carried out independently and by different means, highlight an analogous anomaly in the decay of thorium subjected to pressure waves. Such a convergence of results shows that it is worth to further carry on experimental investigations, in order to get either a confirmation or a disproof of the induced-pressure anomalous behaviour of radioactive nuclides even different from thorium.     

Comparing Two Definitions of Work for a Biological Quantum Heat Engine

Systems of photosynthetic reaction centres have been modelled as heat engines, while it has also been reported that the efficiency and power of such heat engines can be enhanced by quantum interference|a trait that has attracted much interest. We compare two definitions of the work of such a photosynthetic heat engine, i.e. definition A used by Weimer et al. and B by Dorfman et al. We also introduce a coherent interaction between donor and acceptor (CIDA) to demonstrate a reversible energy transport. We show that these two definitions of work can impart contradictory results, that is, CIDA enhances the power and efficiency of the photosynthetic heat engine with definition B but not with A. Additionally, we find that both reversible and irreversible excitation-energy transport can be described with definition A, but definition B can only model irreversible transport. As a result, we conclude that definition A is more suitable for photosynthetic systems than definition B.     

On “multiparty quantum secret sharing with Bell states and Bell measurements”

Recently, Shi et al. proposed a multiparty quantum secret sharing (QSS) using Bell states and Bell measurements. This study shows that their scheme has a pitfall that could be mounted to a collusion attack if precaution has not been taken in implementation. That is, two dishonest agents can collude to reveal the secret without the help of the others. A possible solution is also presented to avoid the attack.     

Response to “Toward unified satellite climatology of aerosol properties. 3. MODIS versus MISR versus AERONET”

A recent paper by Mishchenko et al. compares near-coincident MISR, MODIS, and AERONET aerosol optical depth (AOD), and gives a much less favorable impression of the utility of the satellite products than that presented by the instrument teams and other groups. We trace the reasons for the differing pictures to whether known and previously documented limitations of the products are taken into account in the assessments. Specifically, the analysis approaches differ primarily in (1) the treatment of outliers, (2) the application of absolute vs. relative criteria for testing agreement, and (3) the ways in which seasonally varying spatial distributions of coincident retrievals are taken into account. Mishchenko et al. also do not distinguish between observational sampling differences and retrieval algorithm error. We assess the implications of the different analysis approaches, and cite examples demonstrating how the MISR and MODIS aerosol products have been applied successfully to a range of scientific investigations.     

Comment on: “Entanglement purification via controlled-controlled-NOT operations” [Phys. Lett. A 271 (2000) 44]

In this comment we show that some results presented by Feng et al. [X.-L. Feng, S.-Q. Gong, Z.-Z. Xu, Phys. Lett. A 271 (2000) 44] are incorrect.     

Potential Formation in a Bounded Plasma System which is Terminated by an Electron Emitting Floating Collector Studied by a Particle‐in‐Cell Computer Simulation

Potential formation in one‐dimensional bounded plasma system terminated by a floating, electron emitting collector is studied by particle‐in‐cell (PIC) computer simulation. Attention is focused to the case of rather strong space charge limited emission. Formation of a potential well (virtual cathode) in front of the collector is observed. As emission increases the floating potential of the electrode and the potential of the bottom of the potential well both increase. The floating potential increases faster than the virtual cathode potential and consequently the depth of the potential well in front of the collector increases also. As long as the emission is not to large (up to approximately 40 times the critical emission) the relation between the depth of the potential well and the normalized emission follows a simple logarithmic formula. For larger emissions the depth of the potential well is larger than predicted by the model. It seems that at very large emission the floating potential of the collector might even exceed the zero reference potential of the source electrode. Such phenomenon has been reported by [A. Marek et al. Contrib. Plasma Phys., 48 , 491 (2008)], where it was observed that the floating potential of a strongly emissive probe exceeded the plasma potential determined from the knee of the current‐voltage characteristics when the same probe was used as a Langmuir probe. But before this actually happens the simulation breaks down. When positive ions start to be repelled by the positive collector back towards the source the system becomes unstable so that a steady state can not be reached and no results can be read from the output of the simulations. That electron emission may destabilize the sheath in front of it, was found also in Hall thrusters, see e.g. [Daren Yu et al. Phys. Plasmas, 15 , 104501, 2008] and [F. Taccogna et al Appl. Phys. Lett., 94 , 251502, 2009]. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Source point discovery through high frequency asymptotic time reversal

Given local frequency domain wave data, the Numerical Micro-Local Analysis (NMLA) method (Benamou et al., 2004) [5] and its recent improved version (Benamou et al., 2011) [4] gives a pointwise numerical approximation of the number of rays, their slowness vectors and corresponding wavefront curvatures. With time domain wave data and assuming the source wavelet is given, the method also estimates the travel-time. The paper provides a non technical presentation of the improved NMLA algorithm and presents a numerical application which can be interpreted as a high frequency asymptotic version of the classical time reversal method (Borcea et al., 2003) [7]. A detailed technical presentation of the algorithm is available in Benamou et al. (2011) [4] and more numerical experiments can be found in Collino and Marmorat (2011) [15].     

Cryptanalysis and improvement of multiparty quantum secret sharing schemes

A scheme of multiparty quantum secret sharing of classical messages (QSSCM) [Z.J. Zhang et al., Opt. Commun. 269 (2007) 418] was proposed. Lin et al. [S. Lin et al., Opt. Commun. 281 (2008) 4553] showed the last agent can obtain half of the secret in Z.J. Zhang's et al. three-party QSSCM scheme and gave an improved version. We further show the first agent and the last agent can obtain all the secret without introducing any error in Zhang's et al. multiparty QSSCM scheme by a special attack with quantum teleportation. We also present an improved version.     

Reconstructing the cosmic expansion history up to redshift <Emphasis Type="Italic">z</Emphasis>=6.29 with the calibrated gamma-ray bursts

Recently, Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) were proposed to be a complementary cosmological probe to type Ia supernovae (SNIa). GRBs have been advocated to be standard candles since several empirical GRB luminosity relations were proposed as distance indicators. However, there is a so-called circularity problem in the direct use of GRBs. Recently, a new idea to calibrate GRBs in a completely cosmology independent manner has been proposed, and the circularity problem can be solved. In the present work, following the method proposed by Liang et al., we calibrate 70 GRBs with the Amati relation using 307 SNIa. Then, following the method proposed by Shafieloo et al., we smoothly reconstruct the cosmic expansion history up to redshift z=6.29 with the calibrated GRBs. We find some new features in the reconstructed results.     

Mathematical modeling of SF6 puffer circuit breakers.II. Current zero region

For pt.I see ibid., vol.24, p.490 (1996). A mathematical model of arc behavior in an SF₆ puffer gas-blast circuit breaker in the high current phase was reported in a previous paper. This model is extended to the current zero region by solving the full partial differential are conservation equations taking account of both turbulent and radiation effects. The critical RRRV for the breaker can therefore be calculated based on the whole arcing history. The predicted values are compared with the experimental results of Noeske et al. (1983), and good agreement is found providing that the free parameter in the turbulence model is set appropriately. Results for temperature, electric field, and velocity are also presented and analyzed     

Reply to “Comment on ‘Piezonuclear decay of thorium’ [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956]” [Phys. Lett. A 374 (2009) 696]

In a Letter appearing in this issue of Physics Letters A, Kowalski raises some critical comments on the experiment [F. Cardone, R. Mignani, A. Petrucci, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956] that we carried out by cavitating a solution of Thorium-228. The experiment highlighted the anomalous decay of Thorium, thus confirming the results previously obtained by Urutskoev et al. by explosion of titanium foils in solutions. In this Letter, we reply to these comments. We agree with Kowalski that critical comments are one of the key factors of the process to improve the quality of experiments and the interpretation of results. However we do hope that these comments together with the details provided in the replies will promote further and better experiments which are certainly worth performing in order to shed a brighter light on this issue, as Kowalski himself suggests in his comment.     

Infrared spectrum involving forbidden transitions & coriolis interaction and identification of optically pumped far infrared laser lines in asymmetrically mono-deuterated methanol (Methanol-D1)

In this paper new type of ΔK = 2 and 0 transitions have been identified in the Fourier Transform spectrum of Methanol-D₁ (CH₂DOH). These transitions are normally forbidden but a “Coriolis” type interaction with nearby states is believed to be contributing sufficient transition strength through intensity borrowing effect. This is the first time such forbidden transitions are reported to be identified in the excited states, in this molecule. The present conjecture is supported by observation of a many strong allowed transitions to upper terminating levels which are seen to be highly perturbed. This conclusion has been reached by comparing calculated energy levels using known molecular parameters (Pearson et al., 2012; Coudert et al., 2014; El Hilali et al., 2011; Quade et al., 1998; Richard Quade, 1998, 1999; Mukhopadhyay, 1997) and the actually observed FIR lines. The upper levels are seen to be upshifted from expected position. A closer look at the calculated energy values seems to indicate a possible interaction between the above states and other proximate torsional–rotational states could occur. The possible candidates for the interacting level manifolds are narrowed down through the presence of the forbidden transition. We also take the opportunity to propose alternate rotational quantum numbers for some of the assignments recently reported in the literature (El Hilali et al., 2011). Some ambiguities are pointed out on the data and the reported analysis. There remain too many such irregularities and we propose to gather a large body assigned transitions in a future catalog. Assignments and relevant comments on optically pumped FIR laser radiation are also made.     

Reply to a note by T. G. Shepherd

Summary In a recent note by Shepherd it is claimed that the main conclusions discussed in a paper by Petroniet al. about certain instability mechanisms for steady equivalent barotropic flows are incorrect and, although no criticism is made regarding the analytical treatment, two counterexamples are presented to support this thesis. In addition to this it is asserted that the envisaged necessity for energy and enstrophy to be transferred in both spatial directions in a normal-mode instability is ?extremely well known?. Here we demonstrate that Shepherd's conclusions are without foundation and confirm the validity and originality of Petroniet al. results by showing that:a) the first counterexample describes a situation that is in fact provided for by Petroniet al.'s analysis;b) the second counterexample is not dynamically realizable and, even if it were, the related conclusions would not apply to flows defined in doubly periodic or bounded domains such as those considered by Petroniet al.; c) the mechanism cited above is not known at all in the specific context dealt with by Petroniet al. We emphasize this by pointing out that for steady equivalent barotropic flows the range of parameters for which such an instability mechanism is allowed complements exactly the range for which the steady states are stable according to Benziet al.     

Rupture energy of a pendular liquid bridge

We propose a simple expression for the rupture energy of a pendular liquid bridge between two spheres, taking into account capillary and viscous (lubrication) forces. In the case of capillary forces only, the results are in accordance with curve fitting expressions proposed by Simons et al. [2] and Willett et al. [5]. We performed accurate measurements of the force exerted by liquid bridges between two spheres. Experimental results are found to be close to theoretical values. A reasonable agreement is also found in the presence of viscous forces. Finally, for small bridge volumes, the rupture criterion given by Lian et al. [10] is modified, taking into account additional viscous effects. Received 18 September 2000 and Received in final form 10 June 2001     

Nonadditivity of bipartite distillable entanglement follows from a conjecture on bound entangled Werner states

Assuming the validity of a conjecture given by DiVincenzo et al. [Phys. Rev. A 61, 062312 (2000)] and by Dür et al. [Phys. Rev. A 61, 062313 (2000)], we show that the distillable entanglement for two bipartite states, each of which individually has zero distillable entanglement, can be nonzero. We show that this also implies that the distillable entanglement is not a convex function. Our example consists of the tensor product of a bound entangled state based on an unextendible product basis with an entangled Werner state which lies in the class of conjectured undistillable states.     

Pseudo-Hermitian Reduction of a Generalized Heisenberg Ferromagnet Equation. II. Special Solutions

This paper is a continuation of our previous work in which we studied a sl (3, ?) Zakharov-Shabat type auxiliary linear problem with reductions of Mikhailov type and the corresponding integrable hierarchy of nonlinear evolution equations. Now, we shall demonstrate how one can construct special solutions over constant back- ground through Zakharov-Shabat’s dressing technique. That approach will be illustrated on the example of the generalized Heisenberg ferromagnet equation related to the linear problem for sl (3, ?). In doing this, we shall discuss the differences between the Hermitian and pseudo-Hermitian cases.     

Path integral approach for superintegrable potentials on spaces of non-constant curvature: II. Darboux spaces <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis><Subscript>III</Subscript> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis><Subscript>IV</Subscript>

This is the second paper on the path integral approach of superintegrable systems on Darboux spaces, spaces of non-constant curvature. We analyze five and four superintegrable potentials in the spaces D _III and D _IV, respectively; these potentials were first given by Kalnins et al. We are able to evaluate the path integral in most of the separating coordinate systems, leading to expressions for the Green’s functions, the discrete and continuous wavefunctions, and the discrete energy spectra. In some cases, however, the discrete spectrum cannot be stated explicitly because it is determined by a higher-order polynomial equation. We also show that the free motion in a Darboux space of type III can contain bound states, provided the boundary conditions are appropriate. We can state the corresponding energy spectrum and the wavefunctions. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

A quasi-classical trajectory study of the Cl + H<Subscript>2</Subscript> (D<Subscript>2</Subscript>) reaction on a new BW3 potential energy surface

Molecular reaction dynamics of Cl + H₂ (D₂) has been studied on the latest analytical potential energy surface called BW3 using the Monte Carlo quasi-classical trajectory method. Excitation functions, differential cross sections and angular distributions of HCl and DCl products have been calculated. The excitation functions of the Cl (²P_3/2) + n-H₂ and Cl(²P_3/2) + n-D₂ reactions are also studied. The results are compared with those of quasi-classical trajectory [M. Alagia et al.: Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2 (2000); F. J. Aoiz et al.: J. Phys. Chem. 100 (1996)], quantum mechanical (QM) calculations [F. J. Aoiz et al.:J. Chem. Phys. 115 (2001)] and experimental data [S. H. Lee et al.: J. Chem. Phys. 110 (1999); F. Dong et al.: J. Chem. Phys. 115 (2001)]. Discussions are given to some new results.