Intramolecular polar addition reactions of active methylene moieties to aryl-substituted alkenes via photoinduced electron transfer

The synthesis of cycloalkane derivatives with ring sizes of 5-7 was achieved in moderate yields by photoirradiation of aqueous acetonitrile solutions, containing compounds that consist of active methylene moieties tethered to aryl-substituted alkenes along with sodium hydroxide and 9-cyanophenanthrene. When the substrate contains ethyl cyanoacetate as an asymmetric active methylene moiety, the reaction proceeds in a highly diastereoselective manner.     

The E(4) Πu state in K2 and its perturbations

The E(4) ¹Π_u←X ¹Σ⁺_g band system of the K₂ molecule is investigated by the technique of Doppler-free optical–optical double resonance polarization spectroscopy. The observed vibrational levels v=0 to 9 of the E state are subject to numerous rotational perturbations by the neighboring 4 ³Π_u, 4 ¹Σ⁺_u, and 5 ³Σ⁺_u electronic states. By using deperturbation methods, the potential curves of the 4 ¹Π_u and 4 ³Π_u states are determined as well as some properties of the 4 ¹Σ⁺_u and 5 ³Σ⁺_u state potentials. The results are compared with predictions of ab initio calculations.     

On the Duals of Segre Varieties

The reflexivity, the (semi-)ordinariness, the dimension of dual varieties and the structure of Gauss maps are discussed for Segre varieties, where a Segre variety is the image of the product of two or more projective spaces under Segre embedding. A generalization is given to a theorem of A. Hefez and A. Thorup on Segre varieties of two projective spaces. In particular, a new proof is given to a theorem of F. Knop, G. Menzel, I. M. Gelfand, M.M. Kapranov and A. V. Zelevinsky that states a necessary and sufficient condition for Segre varieties to have codimension one duals. On the other hand, a negative answer is given to a problem raised by S. Kleiman and R. Piene as follows: For a projective variety of dimension at least two, do the Gauss map and the natural projection from the conormal variety to the dual variety have the same inseparable degree?     

On the stable posture of a pair of parallel cylinders in a uniform flow *

The stable posture of a pair of parallel circular cylinders in a uniform flow was experimentally studied when it was free to rotate about an axis at the middle of the two cylinders. The cylinder pair comes to rest facing the oncoming flow side by side, the line connecting the centers of the two cylinders being perpendicular to the flow, when s/d = 0.5, where s is the distance between the center of rotation and the central axis of each cylinder and d is the diameter of the cylinder. When s/d = 1.0 or 1.5, the cylinder pair is stable both in tandem, with one cylinder behind the other, and in side-by-side arrangements to the oncoming flow. When s/d 2.0, the cylinder pair is stable only in tandem arrangements.     

Yang-Mills connections over compact strongly pseudoconvex CR manifolds

Dedicated to Professor Noboru Tanaka in his sixtieth birthday     

Furopyridines. XXXI. Birch reduction of furopyridines

Birch reduction of four furopyridines 1a‐d effected the characteristic cleavage of the furan ring, giving ethnylpyridinols 2a‐d , vinylpyridinols 3b,d , and ethylpyridinols 4a‐d , and the reduction of the furan ring, giving dihydrofuropyridine 5c,d.     

Optically induced mechanical interaction between semiconductor quantum dots under an electronic resonance condition

Assuming an electronic resonance condition, we study the shape-dependence of the radiation force (RF) on a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) floating in medium and the optically induced mechanical interaction (OIMI) between two QDs with Maxwell stress tensor (MST) method, where the response fields are calculated by the improved discrete dipole approximation (DDA). Main results are as follows: (1) Properties of the RF on an isolated QD drastically change due to its shape and polarization of an incident light, which can be used for shape-selective manipulation. (2) Anomalous OIMI between two QDs arises depending on the spatial structures of internal fields, which results from the interaction between polarizations in respective QDs when they are near each other.     

Palladium‐Catalyzed Asymmetric Reductive Heck Reaction of Aryl Halides

Asymmetric reductive Heck reaction of aryl halides is realized in high stereoselectivity. Hydrogen‐bond donors, trialkylammonium salts in a glycol solvent, were used to promote halide dissociation from neutral arylpalladium complexes to access cationic, stereoselective pathways.