Boundary relations and their Weyl families

The concepts of boundary relations and the corresponding Weyl families are introduced. Let be a closed symmetric linear operator or, more generally, a closed symmetric relation in a Hilbert space , let be an auxiliary Hilbert space, let

and let be defined analogously. A unitary relation from the Krein space to the Krein space is called a boundary relation for the adjoint if . The corresponding Weyl family is defined as the family of images of the defect subspaces , , under . Here need not be surjective and is even allowed to be multi-valued. While this leads to fruitful connections between certain classes of holomorphic families of linear relations on the complex Hilbert space and the class of unitary relations , it also generalizes the notion of so-called boundary value space and essentially extends the applicability of abstract boundary mappings in the connection of boundary value problems. Moreover, these new notions yield, for instance, the following realization theorem: every -valued maximal dissipative (for ) holomorphic family of linear relations is the Weyl family of a boundary relation, which is unique up to unitary equivalence if certain minimality conditions are satisfied. Further connections between analytic and spectral theoretical properties of Weyl families and geometric properties of boundary relations are investigated, and some applications are given.

     

Monte Carlo study of supramolecular polymer fractionation: selective removal of chain stoppers by phase separation

Supramolecular polymers consist of bifunctional monomers that join and break reversibly. Supramolecular polymer solutions are often polluted by monofunctional contaminants, which drastically reduce the chain-forming capabilities of the system. Unfortunately, the monofunctional contaminants are difficult to remove due to the physical and chemical resemblance with the bifunctional counterparts. In this paper, we present a method to specifically remove the monofunctional contaminants from a supramolecular polymer solution. The general idea is to induce phase separation by decreasing the solvent quality and to remove the most dilute phase. This concept is explored by means of a recently developed Monte Carlo scheme to calculate the compositions of the coexisting liquid phases. The simulations provide a proof of principle that the proposed purification method is suitable to remove the monofunctional contaminants efficiently. The calculations indicate that, at the right experimental conditions, the vast majority of the monofunctional contaminants can be removed in this way while retaining most of the bifunctional monomers. Because of the general nature of the arguments presented here, it is to be expected that the results are applicable to a large variety of supramolecular systems. Moreover, the method is very suitable for large-scale applications because only solvent is added and no tedious chromatographic steps are required.     

Correlated Fractal Percolation and the Palis Conjecture

Let F ₁ and F ₂ be independent copies of one-dimensional correlated fractal percolation, with almost sure Hausdorff dimensions dim?_H(F ₁) and dim?_H(F ₂). Consider the following question: does dim?_H(F ₁)+dim?_H(F ₂)>1 imply that their algebraic difference F ₁?F ₂ will contain an interval? The well known Palis conjecture states that ‘generically’ this should be true. Recent work by Kuijvenhoven and the first author (Dekking and Kuijvenhoven in J. Eur. Math. Soc., to appear) on random Cantor sets cannot answer this question as their condition on the joint survival distributions of the generating process is not satisfied by correlated fractal percolation. We develop a new condition which permits us to solve the problem, and we prove that the condition of Dekking and Kuijvenhoven (J. Eur. Math. Soc., to appear) implies our condition. Independently of this we give a solution to the critical case, yielding that a strong version of the Palis conjecture holds for fractal percolation and correlated fractal percolation: the algebraic difference contains an interval almost surely if and only if the sum of the Hausdorff dimensions of the random Cantor sets exceeds one.     

Persistence Properties of Normally Hyperbolic Tori

Near-resonances between frequencies notoriously lead to small denominators when trying to prove persistence of invariant tori carrying quasi-periodic motion. In dissipative systems external parameters detuning the frequencies are needed so that Diophantine conditions can be formulated, which allow to solve the homological equation that yields a conjugacy between perturbed and unperturbed quasi-periodic tori. The parameter values for which the Diophantine conditions are not fulfilled form so-called resonance gaps. Normal hyperbolicity can guarantee invariance of the perturbed tori, if not their quasi-periodicity, for larger parameter ranges. For a 1-dimensional parameter space this allows to close almost all resonance gaps.     

Suppression of thermally excited capillary waves by shear flow

We investigate the thermal fluctuations of the colloidal gas-liquid interface subjected to a shear flow parallel to the interface. Strikingly, we find that the shear strongly suppresses capillary waves, making the interface smoother. This phenomenon can be described by introducing an effective interfacial tension that increases with the shear rate. The increase of sigma(eff) is a direct consequence of the loss of interfacial entropy caused by the flow, which affects especially the slow fluctuations. This demonstrates that the interfacial tension of fluids results from an intrinsic as well as a fluctuation contribution.     

Nonsmooth bifurcations of equilibria in planar continuous systems

In this paper we present a procedure to find all limit sets near bifurcating equilibria in a class of hybrid systems described by continuous, piecewise smooth differential equations. For this purpose, the dynamics near the bifurcating equilibrium is locally approximated as a piecewise affine systems defined on a conic partition of the plane. To guarantee that all limit sets are identified, conditions for the existence or absence of limit cycles are presented. Combining these results with the study of return maps, a procedure is presented for a local bifurcation analysis of bifurcating equilibria in continuous, piecewise smooth systems. With this procedure, all limit sets that are created or destroyed by the bifurcation are identified in a computationally feasible manner.     

The height of minimal Hilbert bases

For an integral polyhedral cone C = pos{a¹,…,a^m, a ⁱ ∈ ?^d, a subset $\cal B$ (C) ? C ∩ ?^d is called a minimal Hilbert basis of C iff (i) each element of C∩?^d can be written as a non-negative integral combination of elements of $\cal B$ (C) and (ii) $\cal B$ (C) has minimal cardinality with respect to all subsets of C ∩ ?^d for which (i) holds. We give a tight bound for the so-called height of an element of the basis which improves on former results.     

Formation of nematic liquid crystals of sterically stabilized layered double hydroxide platelets

Colloidal platelets of hydrotalcite, a layered double hydroxide, have been prepared by coprecipitation at pH 11-12 of magnesium nitrate and aluminum nitrate at two different magnesium to aluminum ratios. Changing the temperature and ionic strength during hydrothermal treatment, the platelets were tailored to different sizes and aspect ratios. Amino-modified polyisobutylene molecules were grafted onto the platelets following a convenient new route involving freeze-drying. Organic dispersions in toluene were prepared of the particles with the largest size and highest aspect ratio. The colloidal dispersions prepared in this way showed isotropic-nematic phase transitions above a limiting concentration in a matter of days. The number density at the transition and the width of the biphasic region were determined and compared to theory. The orientation of the platelets in nematic droplets (tactoids) and at the isotropic-nematic interface were analyzed by polarization microscopy. It was observed that sedimentation induces a nematic layer in samples that are below the limiting concentration for isotropic-nematic phase separation. No nematic phase was observed in the initial aqueous suspensions of the ungrafted particles.