New and Old Concepts in Thermoelectric Materials

Herein we cover the key concepts in the field of thermoelectric materials research, present the current understanding, and show the latest developments. Current research is aimed at increasing the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) by maximizing the power factor and/or minimizing the thermal conductivity. Attempts at maximizing the power factor include the development of new materials, optimization of existing materials by doping, and the exploration of nanoscale materials. The minimization of the thermal conductivity can come through solid‐solution alloying, use of materials with intrinsically low thermal conductivity, and nanostructuring. Herein we describe the most promising bulk materials with emphasis on results from the last decade. Single‐phase bulk materials are discussed in terms of chemistry, crystal structure, physical properties, and optimization of thermoelectric performance. The new opportunities for enhanced performance bulk nanostructured composite materials are examined and a look into the not so distant future is attempted.     

Magnitude of Finite‐Nucleus‐Size Effects in Relativistic Density Functional Computations of Indirect NMR Nuclear Spin–Spin Coupling Constants

A spherical Gaussian nuclear charge distribution model has been implemented for spin‐free (scalar) and two‐component (spin–orbit) relativistic density functional calculations of indirect NMR nuclear spin–spin coupling (J‐coupling) constants. The finite nuclear volume effects on the hyperfine integrals are quite pronounced and as a consequence they noticeably alter coupling constants involving heavy NMR nuclei such as W, Pt, Hg, Tl, and Pb. Typically, the isotropic J‐couplings are reduced in magnitude by about 10 to 15 % for couplings between one of the heaviest NMR nuclei and a light atomic ligand, and even more so for couplings between two heavy atoms. For a subset of the systems studied, viz. the Hg atom, Hg₂²⁺, and Tl? X where X=Br, I, the basis set convergence of the hyperfine integrals and the coupling constants was monitored. For the Hg atom, numerical and basis set calculations of the electron density and the 1s and 6s orbital hyperfine integrals are directly compared. The coupling anisotropies of TlBr and TlI increase by about 2 % due to finite‐nucleus effects.     

Triangle path transit functions, betweenness and pseudo-modular graphs

The geodesic and induced path transit functions are the two well-studied interval functions in graphs. Two important transit functions related to the geodesic and induced path functions are the triangle path transit functions which consist of all vertices on all u,v-shortest (induced) paths or all vertices adjacent to two adjacent vertices on all u,v-shortest (induced) paths, for any two vertices u and v in a connected graph G. In this paper we study the two triangle path transit functions, namely the I^Δ and J^Δ on G. We discuss the betweenness axioms, for both triangle path transit functions. Also we present a characterization of pseudo-modular graphs using the transit function I^Δ by forbidden subgraphs.     

The Leray–Schauder approach to the degree theory for -perturbations of maximal monotone operators in separable reflexive Banach spaces

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the fact that the topological degree theory of Leray and Schauder may be used for the development of the topological degree theory for bounded demicontinuous (S₊)-perturbations f of strongly quasibounded maximal monotone operators T in separable reflexive Banach spaces. Certain basic homotopy properties and the extension of this degree theory to (possibly unbounded) strongly quasibounded perturbations f are shown to hold. This work uses the well known embedding of Browder and Ton, and extends the work of Berkovits who developed this theory for the case T=0. Besides being an interesting mathematical problem, the existence of such a degree theory may, conceivably, become useful in situations where the use of the Leray–Schauder degree (via infinite dimensional compactness) is necessary.     

Positive solutions for one-dimensional -Laplacian boundary value problems with sign changing nonlinearity

This paper deals with the existence of positive solutions for the one-dimensional p-Laplacian

subject to the boundary value conditions:

where _p(s)=|s|^p−2s,p>1. We show that it has at least one or two positive solutions under some assumptions by applying the fixed point theorem. The interesting points are that the nonlinear term f is involved with the first-order derivative explicitly and f may change sign.     

Successive iteration and positive symmetric solution for a Sturm–Liouville-like four-point boundary value problem with a -Laplacian operator

In this paper, we consider the following Sturm–Liouville-like four-point p-Laplacian boundary value problem with the nonlinear term f depending on the first-order derivative subject to the boundary conditions By using a monotone iterative technique, the existence of symmetric positive solutions and corresponding iterative schemes are obtained.     

Iterative approximation of a zero of accretive operator in Banach space

This paper introduces an iteration scheme for viscosity approximation of a zero of accretive operator in a reflexive Banach space with weakly continuous duality mapping. A new iterative sequence is introduced and strong convergence of the algorithm {x_n} is proved. The results improve and extend the results of Su [Xiaolong Qin, Yongfu Su, Approximation of a zero point of accretive operator in Banach spaces, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 320 (2007) 415-424] and some others.     

On uniqueness of Gibbs measure for -adic countable state Potts model on the Cayley tree

In the present paper we consider countable state of p-adic Potts model on the tree. Under some condition on weights we establish uniqueness of Gibbs measures for the model. Note that this condition does not depend on values of the prime p. An analogous fact is not true when the number of spins is finite.     

Inverse eigenproblem for -symmetric matrices and their approximation

Let be a nontrivial involution, i.e., R=R⁻¹≠±I_n. We say that is R-symmetric if RGR=G. The set of all -symmetric matrices is denoted by . In this paper, we first give the solvability condition for the following inverse eigenproblem (IEP): given a set of vectors in and a set of complex numbers , find a matrix such that and are, respectively, the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A. We then consider the following approximation problem: Given an n×n matrix , find such that , where is the solution set of IEP and is the Frobenius norm. We provide an explicit formula for the best approximation solution by means of the canonical correlation decomposition.