Equilibrium statistics of a vortex filament with applications

The thermodynamic functions and scaling exponents (including the Kolmogorov and Flory exponents) of a vortex filament in thermal equilibrium are calculated, giving a quantitative content to earlier qualitative analyses. The numerical results uncover a percolation property of vortex filaments near the maximum entropy state. The implications of the results for the onset of turbulence, for the structure of its inertial range, and for superfluid vortices are discussed. In particular, it is shown that vortex stretching pushes a vortex system to a polymeric state and a Kolmogorov spectrum.This work was supported in part by the Applied Mathematical Sciences subprogram of the Office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy, under contract DE-AC03-76SF-00098, and in part by the National Science Foundation under grant number DMS89-19074     

An optimization approach for planning daily drayage operations

Daily drayage operations involve moving loaded or empty equipment between customer locations and rail ramps. Our goal is to minimize the cost of daily drayage operations in a region on a given day. Drayage orders are generally pickup and delivery requests with time windows. The repositioning of empty equipment may also be required in order to facilitate loaded movements. The drayage orders are satisfied by a heterogeneous fleet of drivers. Driver routes must satisfy various operational constraints. We present an optimization methodology for finding cost-effective schedules for regional daily drayage operations. The core of the formulation is a set partitioning model whose columns represent routes. Routes are added to the formulation by column generation. We present numerical results for real-world data which demonstrate that our methodology produces low cost solutions in a reasonably short time.     

Unstable minimal surfaces and Heegaard splittings

Partially supported by NSF grant DMS-8701746     

Can you feel the double jump?

When p = c/n and c goes from less than one to greater than one, the random graph G(n, p) experiences the double jump. The first order language is too weak to recognize this change while there are properties expressable in the second order monadic language for which the change is clear. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Synthesis and photophysical properties of fluorescent 2-aryl-1,3-dialkylbenzimidazolium ions and a l-alkyl-2-arylbenzimidazole with excited state intramolecular proton-transfer

To improve the solubility, photostability and fluorescence quantum yield (Φ) of 2-arylbenzimidazolium ions the N-1 hydrogen was replaced by an alkyl group before N-3 was quatemized; this substitution did not reduce Φ, proving the absence of steric inhibition to attainment of coplanarity in the excited state. A related symmetrical 2,2′-arylenebis(1,3-dimethyldibenzimidazolium ion) had Φ = 0.86. The related 2,5-bis(1-methyl-2-benzimidazolyl)phenol had Φ = 0.38 at 22° as well as a very large Stokes' shift due to proton-transfer. These findings supported a new insight into the electron distribution of the first excited singlet state of oligophenylenes. The compounds are of interest as laser dyes and scintillation fluors.     

Spectra in Standard-like Z3 Orbifold Models

General features of the spectra of matter states in all 175 models found in a previous work by the author are discussed. Only 20 patterns of representations are found to occur. Accomodation of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) spectrum is addressed. States beyond those contained in the MSSM and nonstandard hypercharge normalization are shown to be generic, though some models do allow for the usual hypercharge normalization found in SU(5) embeddings of the standard model gauge group. The minimum value of the hypercharge normalization consistent with accommodation of the MSSM is determined for each model. In some cases, the normalization can be smaller than that corresponding to an SU(5) embedding of the standard model gauge group, similar to what has been found in free fermionic models. Bizarre hypercharges typically occur for exotic states, allowing for matter which does not occur in the decomposition of SU(5) representations—a result which has been noted many times before in four-dimensional string models. Only one of the 20 patterns of representations, comprising seven of the 175 models, is found to be without an anomalous U(1). The sizes of nonvanishing vacuum expectation values induced by the anomalous U(1) are studied. It is found that large radius moduli stabilization may lead to the breakdown of σ-model perturbativity. Various quantities of interest in effective supergravity model building are tabulated for the set of 175 models. In particular, it is found that string moduli masses appear to be generically quite near the gravitino mass. String scale gauge coupling unification is shown to be possible, albeit contrived, in an example model. The intermediate scales of exotic particles are estimated and the degree of fine-tuning is studied.     

A co‐ordinate system independent streamwise upwind method for fluid flow computation

A new co‐ordinate invariant streamwise upwind formulation for convection dominated flows is developed. The eddy diffusivity/viscosity is added directly to the equations in order to remove the oscillations in the solution. The equations then can be solved by any high‐order scheme and the solution retains the accuracy of the high‐order scheme. The accuracy and reduced lateral thickness growth rate are demonstrated with several numerical examples, including pure convective flows and lid‐driven cavity flow. The lateral spreading due to the numerical diffusion is controlled by the anisotropic tensor. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A statistical study of the analysis of congested spectra by total spectrum fitting

Heavily overlapped, or congested spectra often display much structure but few individual “lines.” Methods have been devised for analyzing such spectra through nonlinear least-squares fitting of the intensity as a function of wavelength or wavenumber. Such total spectrum fitting (TSF) methods are examined statistically for a simple diatomic model and compared with the standard “measure-assign-fit” (MAF) approach in use since the dawn of spectroscopy. Monte Carlo computations on typically 1000 synthetic spectra at a time verify that the predictions of the variance-covariance matrix are reliable under many circumstances. However in regions where the P and R branches double up, the predicted standard errors in the key spectroscopic constants rise sharply and greatly exceed estimates from the Monte Carlo ensemble statistics. In the same regions, the MAF method actually gives better precision. However, for imperfectly overlapped R and P branches, the MAF standard errors are typically three times larger than the TSF values; moreover, the MAF statistical errors are dwarfed by bias. The TSF approach, while clearly superior in these tests, has a practical drawback: it, too, can give significant bias if the spectra are analyzed with an incorrect model, as illustrated here through calculations employing the wrong function to describe the spectral lineshape.     

Expert consensus in solo voice performance evaluation

Experts were interviewed to identify criteria for evaluation of vocal performance. A scale was then constructed and inter- and intrajudge reliability assessed. Experts listened to 19 different performances, plus 6 presented a second time. Interjudge reliability for one judge was modest, but increased dramatically as the size of the judge panel increased. The most reliable items were overall score and intonation accuracy. Diction was less reliable than other items. Intrajudge reliability was higher for overall score than for any other item. A factor analysis on the test items yielded factors labelled intrinsic quality, execution, and diction. Another factor analysis, using the experts as variables, revealed two underlying evaluative dimensions. It was found that 13 experts were primarily influenced by execution, and that 8 were mainly affected by intrinsic quality. Interjudge and intrajudge reliabilities of these two groups differed.