A dynamical test of phase transition order: New things in old places or old wine in new bottles

We first discuss nonlinear aspects of phase transition theory applied to a particular liquid crystal phase transition. A simple derivation is given to show how two coupled Goldstone modes (one appearing as gauge fluctuations of the ordered phase) can force a phase transition, against all expectations, to take place discontinuously (theory of Halperin, Lubensky, and Ma)-but the discontinuity may be immeasurably small. Then, we describe a new dynamical test of phase transition order, developed by Cladiset al., that turns out to be more sensitive than x-ray diffraction and adiabatic calorimetry. Quantitative data found by this new method are in excellent agreement with the measurements of adiabatic calorimetry and x-ray diffraction as well as expectations implicit in the predictions of HLM.This is the text of an after-banquet talk given at the CNLS Workshop on the Dynamics of Concentrated Systems.     

Theory of interfacial phase transitions in surfactant systems

The spin-1 Ising model, which is equivalent to the three-component lattice gas model, is used to study wetting transitions in three-component surfactant systems consisting of an oil, water, and a nonionic surfactant. Phase equilibria, interfacial profiles, and interfacial tensions for three-phase equilibrium are determined in mean field approximation, for a wide range of temperature and interaction parameters. Surfactant interaction parameters are found to strongly influence interfacial tensions, reducing them in some cases to ultralow values. Interfacial tensions are used to determine whether the middle phase, rich in surfactant, wets or does not wet the interface between the oil-rich and water-rich phases. By varying temperature and interaction parameters, a wetting transition is located and found to be of the first order. Comparison is made with recent experimental results on wetting transitions in ternary surfactant systems.This paper is dedicated to J. K. Percus in honor of his 65th birthday.     

Rehabilitation of the Gauss-Jordan algorithm

Summary In this paper a Gauss-Jordan algorithm with column interchanges is presented and analysed. We show that, in contrast with Gaussian elimination, the Gauss-Jordan algorithm has essentially differing properties when using column interchanges instead of row interchanges for improving the numerical stability. For solutions obtained by Gauss-Jordan with column interchanges, a more satisfactory bound for the residual norm can be given. The analysis gives theoretical evidence that the algorithm yields numerical solutions as good as those obtained by Gaussian elimination and that, in most practical situations, the residuals are equally small. This is confirmed by numerical experiments. Moreover, timing experiments on a Cyber 205 vector computer show that the algorithm presented has good vectorisation properties.     

Three New Polyoxygenated Steroids from Two Species of the South China Sea Gorgonian Muricella flexuosa and Menella verrucosa Brundin

Three new polyoxygenated steroids, muricesteroid ( 1 ), and menellsteroids A ( 2 ) and B ( 3 ), were isolated from two species of the South China Sea gorgonian Muricella flexuosa and Menella verrucosa Brundin , respectively. The structures of these new compounds were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, chemical methods and comparison with known related compounds.     

Nd0.5Ca0.5Mn1-xAlxO3 (x=0,0.03)体系中电荷有序态的超声研究

系统研究了Nd0．5Ca0．5Mn1-xAlxO3(x=0,0．03)单相多晶样品在低温下的电磁性质和超声特性．电阻和磁化率测量表明,Nd0．5Ca0.5O3体系在TCO-257 K处发生了电荷有序相变．超声声速从室温开始随着温度的降低逐渐减小,并在TCO附近达到最小,之后,随着温度的进一步降低,声速急刷增加,同时伴随着一个尖锐的超声衰减峰出现.TCO附近的超声异常表明体系中存在着强烈的电-声子相互作用,该电-声子耦合来源于Mn3 的Jahn-Teller效应．在低温下,出现了另一个超声衰减峰,它的出现归结为反铁磁相与顺磁相之间的相分离现象.随着Al在Mn位的掺入,超声声速的最低点和衰减峰向低温移动,表明体系中的电荷有序态和反铁磁相均被部分抑制,     

空气/水界面水分子的取向和运动

对四种不同的实验构型下空气／水界面自由O-H键在3700cm~(-1)的和频振动光谱的分析表明,水分子在空气／水界面的取向运动只可能是在平衡位置附近有限角度之内的受限转动。界面水分子的自由O-H键取向距界面法线约33°,而取向分布或运动的宽度不超过15°。这一图像显著地不同于Wei等人(Phys. Rev. Lett.86,4799(2001))只通过单一的SFG实验构型所得出结论,即：空气／水界面的水分子在超快的振动弛豫时间内在很大的角度范围内运动。     

Growth studies of m-GaN layers on LiAlO2 by MOCVD

This paper reports that the m-plane GaN layer is grown on （200）-plane LiAlO2 substrate by metal-organic chemical wpour deposition （MOCVD） method. Tetragonal-shaped crystallites appear at the smooth surface. Raman measurement illuminates the compressive stress in the layer which is released with increasing the layer＇s thickness. The high transmittance （80%）, sharp band edge and excitonic absorption peak show that the GaN layer has good optical quality. The donor acceptor pair emission peak located at -3.41 eV with full-width at half maximum of 120 meV and no yellow peaks in the photoluminescence spectra partially show that no Li incorporated into GaN layer from the LiAlO2 substrate.     

A method for calculating invariant subspaces of symmetric hyperbolic equations

An algorithm is constructed for calculating invariant subspaces of symmetric hyperbolic systems arising in electromagnetic, acoustic, and elasticity problems. Discrete approximations are calculated for subspaces that correspond to minimal eigenvalues and smooth eigenfunctions. Difficulties related to the presence of an infinite-dimensional kernel in the differential operator are successfully handled. The efficiency of the algorithm is demonstrated using acoustics equations.     

Commuting and stable feedback design for switched linear systems

In the paper, commuting and stable feedback design for switched linear systems is investigated. This problem is formulated as to build up suitable state feedback controller for each subsystem such that the closed-loop systems are not only asymptotically stable but also commuting each other. A new concept, common admissible eigenvector set (CAES), is introduced to establish necessary/sufficient conditions for commuting and stable feedback controllers. For second-order systems, a necessary and sufficient condition is established. Moreover, a parametrization of the CAES is also obtained. The motivation comes from stabilization of switched linear systems which consist of a family of LTI systems and a switching law specifying the switching between them, where if all the subsystems are stable and commuting each other, then the total system is stable under arbitrary switching.     

Generalized quasilinearization method for reaction-diffusion equations under nonlinear and nonlocal flux conditions

In this paper we consider an initial boundary value problem for a reaction-diffusion equation under nonlinear and nonlocal Robin type boundary condition. Assuming the existence of an ordered pair of upper and lower solutions we establish a generalized quasilinearization method for the problem under consideration whose characteristic feature consists in the construction of monotone sequences converging to the unique solution within the interval of upper and lower solutions, and whose convergence rate is quadratic. Thus this method provides an efficient iteration technique that produces not only improved approximations due to the monotonicity of its iterates, but yields also a measure of the convergence rate.