Comment on "Optical conversion of conical intersection to avoided crossing" by Y. Arasaki and K. Takatsuka, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 1239

A recent paper in this journal proposed the conversion of conical intersections to avoided crossings by lowering the symmetry with an optical field. The article also claimed that the characters of nonadiabatic transitions caused by avoided crossings and conical intersections are qualitatively different. The present comment shows that this proposal and this claim result from an incorrect appreciation of the nature of conical intersections and avoided crossings. Conical intersections are moved, not removed, by almost all perturbations. Furthermore, there is no dichotomy between avoided crossing mechanisms and conical intersection mechanisms; as the parameters of the problem change and the typical locally avoided crossing involved in nonadiabatic dynamics becomes farther from the conical intersection, there is a gradual shift in the nature of the nonadiabatic transitions, with a continuum of possible behaviors, not just two.     

Synthesis of nanosized silver colloids by microwave dielectric heating

Silver nanosized crystallites have been synthesized in aqueous and polyols viz., ethylene glycol and glycerol, using a microwave technique. Dispersions of colloidal silver have been prepared by the reduction of silver nitrate both in the presence and absence of stabilizer poly(vinylpyrolidone) (PVP). It was observed that PVP is capable of complexing and stabilizing Ag nanoparticles formed through the reduction of Ag⁺ ions in water and ethylene glycol. In the case of ethylene glycol, it has been shown that the use of PVP leads to particles with a high degree of stability. The colloids are stable in glycerol for months even in the absence of stabilizer.     

Method of correlated basis functions for low levels of O

The ground-state energy of ¹⁶O is calculated variationally for simple models of the bare two-nucleon interaction, assumping a correlated trial function of Jastrow type. The low odd-parity levels are determined by configuration mixing in a truncated basis of likewise-correlated one-particle-one-hole states.     

A probabilistic inventory model for deteriorating items with lead time equal to one scheduling period

A probabilistic inventory model for continuously deteriorating items is developed, in which the lead time is assumed to be of one scheduling period, shortages are not allowed, time is treated as discrete variable, and deterioration is assumed to be a constant fraction of the on hand inventory. The developed model is related to the EOQ model for deteriorating items. An example is given to illustrate the derived results.     

Quantum geometry from coordinate transformations relating quantum observers

The relativity principle that the law of propagation for light has the same form for all macroscopic observers is extended to include quantum observers; i.e., observers who may be large, but not infinitely large, by comparison with quantum mechanical systems. This leads to the extension of the covariance group from the diffeomorphisms to the conservation group (which is the largest group of coordinate transformations under which conservation laws are covariant statements) and, thus, to the quantum geometry and quantum unified field theory considered in a previous paper.