Fast fragmentation in core-excited molecules

Symmetry breaking is an important phenomenon connected to the excitation of core electrons in molecules. The fundamental question of whether inner-shell electronic-state orbitals are delocalized, and what the underlying mechanism for breaking the symmetry of a molecule upon dissociation are the subject of much debate, especially for the case of diatomic molecules. One method for studying molecular fragmentation, which is based upon a symmetry picture, is multicoincidence ion spectroscopy. Here we give a brief presentation of some of the applications of this technique, where symmetry, nuclear motion and the temporal signature are of importance.     

Is the non-physical states conjecture valid?

The canonical quantization for N = 1 supergravity in the context of gravitational minisuperspace described by Gowdy T ³ and Bianchi class A cosmological models is analyzed in order to search for physical states. There are indeed physical states in the minisuperspace sector of the theory. This fact entails that the non-physical states conjecture has a restricted validity, and in consequence it cannot be considered a general result.     

Postulated biogenesis of WS9885B and progress toward an enantioselective synthesis

[formula: see text] WS9885B promotes the assembly of microtubules in vitro and displays cytotoxicity as potent as paclitaxel against several cancer cell lines. In this Letter, we propose a biogenesis for this architecturally complex bacterial metabolite from a much simpler, polyunsaturated precursor. We also present significant progress toward a convergent, enantioselective synthesis of WS9885B. Our work features a chemoselective palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of two advanced building blocks and an uncommon Claisen-like cyclization.     

The structure of some virtually free pro- groups

We prove two conjectures on pro- groups made by Herfort, Ribes and Zalesskii. The first says that a finitely generated pro- group which has an open free pro- subgroup of index is a free pro- product , where the are free pro- of finite rank and the are cyclic of order . The second says that if is a free pro- group of finite rank and is a finite -group of automorphisms of , then is a free factor of . The proofs use cohomology, and in particular a ``Brown theorem' for profinite groups.

     

Subthreshold tunable OPO: a source of nonclassical light for atomic physics experiments

Received: 11 March 1998/Revised version: 1 April 1998