Fundamental processes in long air gap discharges

The development of atmospheric lightning is initiated and sustained by the formation in virgin air of ‘streamer corona’ and ‘leader’ discharges, very similar to those observed in laboratory long sparks. Therefore, the experimental and theoretical investigations of these laboratory discharges have become of large interest to improve the physical knowledge of the lightning process and to develop self-consistent models that could be applied to new protection concepts.In the present paper the fundamental processes of the subsequent phases of long air gap discharges are analyzed, from the first corona inception and development to the leader channel formation and propagation. For all these processes simulations models are discussed that have been essentially derived and simplified by the authors, in order to develop sequential time-dependent simulation of the laboratory breakdown, with both positive and negative voltages. The possibility of extending these models to the case of natural lightning is discussed in the companion paper, presented in this same volume. To cite this article: I. Gallimberti et al., C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 1335–1359.     

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.     

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 finite model property for RMImin

It is proved that the variety of relevant disjunction lattices has the finite embeddability property. It follows that Avron's relevance logic RMI _min has a strong form of the finite model property, so it has a solvable deducibility problem. This strengthens Avron's result that RMI _min is decidable. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

环保意识调查问卷的Logistic模型

本文应用多元统计分析中的方差分析 ,logistic模型等方法对环保意识调查问卷反馈的信息进行统计分析 ,建立被调查企业对环境保护意识的logistic模型 ,进而可对企业家的环境保护意识的好坏进行判断。     

中国证券市场股指波动的条件异方差特性分析

股指的波动具有持续性、集聚性 ,如何进行判别 ?本文用 Garch模型理论探讨沪深股指的这种条件异方差特征 ,进一步分析波动是否影响股指未来变化 ,以及股市对利好、利空的消息是否存在不对称的反映。同时 ,比较不同类型的股指的共性及差异 ,并对上述现象作了解释和说明。     

The entropy of Garfinkle-Horne dilaton black hole due to arbitrary spin fields

Using the membrane model which is based on brick wall model, we calculated the free energy and entropy of Garfinkle-Horne dilatonic black hole due to arbitrary spin fields. The result shows that the entropy of scalar field and the entropy of Fermionic field have similar formulas. There is only a coefficient between them.     

Cosmic dust and our origins

The small solid particles in the space between the stars provide the surfaces for the production of many simple and complex molecules. Processes involving the effects of ultraviolet irradiation of the thin (hundredth micron) mantles are shown to produce a wide range of molecules and ions also seen in comets. Some of the more complex ones inferred from laboratory experiments are expected to play an important role in the origin of life. An outline of the chemical evolution of interstellar dust as observed and as studied in the laboratory is presented. Observations of comets are shown to provide substantial evidence for their being fluffy aggregates of interstellar dust as it was in the protosolar nebula, i.e. the interstellar cloud which collapsed to form the solar system. The theory that comets may have brought the progenitors of life to the earth is summarized.