The combined effect of optical laser and microwave radiations on a metal surface

In this paper, it is shown that the laser radiation intensity required for complete ionization of vapors produced on an irradiated metal surface can be reduced by more than an order of magnitude through using pulsed laser radiation in combination with microwave radiation.     

Biomaterials for molecular electronics development of optical biosensor for retinol

Molecular electronics involves expertise from several branches of science. Various biomaterials and electronics are involved in the fabrication of such devices. While passive biomaterials are involved in anchoring the active biomolecules, the latter are involved in switching and/or signal transduction. In the present investigation we have used a glass-capillary-based approach to design a biosensor for retinol. The sensing element is retinol-binding protein (RBP). The affinity of retinoic-acid-horseradish peroxidase (conjugate) to RBP is tested using a surface plasmon resonance technique. A simple photomultiplier-tube-based system is exploited to monitor the chemiluminescent signal generated upon reaction of hydrogen peroxide and luminol with the conjugate bound to RBP. The photomultiplier tube is directly coupled to a computer for data logging.     

Probing the effect of anion structure on the physical properties of cationic 1,2,3‐triazolium‐based poly(ionic liquid)s

To extensively explore the influence of anion structure on the physical properties of poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) a series of PILs having main‐chain 1,2,3‐triazolium cations was synthesized via copper(I)‐catalyzed azide‐alkyne 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition (CuAAC) followed by N‐alkylation with iodomethane and anion metathesis with different metal salts, that is, Li(CF₃SO₂)₂N, Li(CF₃CF₂SO₂)₂N, K(FSO₂)₂N, K(CF₃SO₂)N(CN), Ag(CN)₂N, and sodium 4,5‐dicyano‐1,2,3‐triazolate. To isolate the effect of anion on physical properties of PILs, a common iodide precursor was used to maintain constant the average degree of polymerization (DP_n) and chain dispersity. Detailed structure/properties relationship analyses demonstrated a lack of correlation between anion chemical structure, ionic conductivity, and glass transition temperatures. Among synthesized series, the PIL derivative having bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide counter anion showed the best compromise in performance: low glass transition temperature (T_g = ?68 °C), high thermal stability (T_onset = 340 °C) and superior ionic conductivity (σ_DC = 8.5 × 10^{? 6} S/cm at 30 °C), which makes it an interesting candidate for various key modern electrochemical applications. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 2191–2199     

Tomographic Discord and Quantum Correlations in a System of Qubits

We introduce the difference in quantum mutual information for a bipartite system of qubits and the minimum taken with respect to the local unitary transformation group as a characteristic of quantum correlations of the system tomographic mutual information. We study in detail the example of two qubits and the X state of two qubits.     

Structure and dynamics of water confined in silica nanopores

We report the results of molecular simulation of water in silica nanopores at full hydration and room temperature. The model systems are approximately cylindrical pores in amorphous silica, with diameters ranging from 20 to 40 ?. The filled pores are prepared using grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation and molecular dynamics simulation is used to calculate the water structure and dynamics. We found that water forms two distinct molecular layers at the interface and exhibits uniform, but somewhat lower than bulk liquid, density in the core region. The hydrogen bond density profile follows similar trends, with lower than bulk density in the core and enhancements at the interface, due to hydrogen bonds between water and surface non-bridging oxygens and OH groups. Our studies of water dynamics included translational mean squared displacements, orientational time correlations, survival probabilities in interfacial shells, and hydrogen bond population relaxation. We found that the radial-axial anisotropy in translational motion largely follows the predictions of a model of free diffusion in a cylinder. However, both translational and rotational water mobilities are strongly dependent on the proximity to the interface, with pronounced slowdown in layers near the interface. Within these layers, the effects of interface curvature are relatively modest, with only a small increase in mobility in going from the 20 to 40 ? diameter pore. Hydrogen bond population relaxation is nearly bulk-like in the core, but considerably slower in the interfacial region.     

Randomized first order algorithms with applications to ℓ 1-minimization

In this paper we propose randomized first-order algorithms for solving bilinear saddle points problems. Our developments are motivated by the need for sublinear time algorithms to solve large-scale parametric bilinear saddle point problems where cheap online assessment of the solution quality is crucial. We present the theoretical efficiency estimates of our algorithms and discuss a number of applications, primarily to the problem of ? ₁ minimization arising in sparsity-oriented signal processing. We demonstrate, both theoretically and by numerical examples, that when seeking for medium-accuracy solutions of large-scale ? ₁ minimization problems, our randomized algorithms outperform significantly (and progressively as the sizes of the problem grow) the state-of-the art deterministic methods.     

Optimal Mathematical Models for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems

We propose a new method for the optimal causal representation of nonlinear systems. The proposed approach is based on the best constrained approximation of mappings in probability spaces by operators constructed from matrices of special form so that the approximant preserves the causality property. It is supposed that the observable input is contaminated with noise. The approximant minimises the mean-square difference between a desired output signal and the output signal of the approximating model. The method provides a numerically realisable mathematical model of the system. An analysis is given of the error associated with this representation.     

Phase space representation of quantum dynamics

We discuss a phase space representation of quantum dynamics of systems with many degrees of freedom. This representation is based on a perturbative expansion in quantum fluctuations around one of the classical limits. We explicitly analyze expansions around three such limits: (i) corpuscular or Newtonian limit in the coordinate-momentum representation, (ii) wave or Gross-Pitaevskii limit for interacting bosons in the coherent state representation, and (iii) Bloch limit for the spin systems. We discuss both the semiclassical (truncated Wigner) approximation and further quantum corrections appearing in the form of either stochastic quantum jumps along the classical trajectories or the nonlinear response to such jumps. We also discuss how quantum jumps naturally emerge in the analysis of non-equal time correlation functions. This representation of quantum dynamics is closely related to the phase space methods based on the Wigner-Weyl quantization and to the Keldysh technique. We show how such concepts as the Wigner function, Weyl symbol, Moyal product, Bopp operators, and others automatically emerge from the Feynmann's path integral representation of the evolution in the Heisenberg representation. We illustrate the applicability of this expansion with various examples mostly in the context of cold atom systems including sine-Gordon model, one- and two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, Dicke model and others.     

Relativistic Dynamics of Accelerating Particles Derived from Field Equations

In relativistic mechanics the energy-momentum of a free point mass moving without acceleration forms a four-vector. Einstein’s celebrated energy-mass relation E=mc ² is commonly derived from that fact. By contrast, in Newtonian mechanics the mass is introduced for an accelerated motion as a measure of inertia. In this paper we rigorously derive the relativistic point mechanics and Einstein’s energy-mass relation using our recently introduced neoclassical field theory where a charge is not a point but a distribution. We show that both the approaches to the definition of mass are complementary within the framework of our field theory. This theory also predicts a small difference between the electron rest mass relevant to the Penning trap experiments and its mass relevant to spectroscopic measurements.