Sudoku’s french ancestors

This column is a place for those bits of contagious mathematics that travel from person to person in the community, because they are so elegant, suprising, or appealing that one has an urge to pass them on. Contributions are most welcome.     

Spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction study of high Tc epitaxial YBCO thin films obtained by pulsed laser deposition

We report spectroscopic characterization of epitaxial YBCO thin films grown on LaAlO₃ by pulsed laser deposition. Raman spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry were used for film characterization and the results were correlated with X-ray diffraction measurements. The mentioned techniques allowed us to analyze crystallographic, micro-structural, and morphological properties of YBCO thin films. We also demonstrated that relatively low resolution Raman spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry are reliable techniques for a rapid and non-destructive characterization of epitaxial YBCO thin films.     

Extremal Convex Planar Sets

Each convex planar set K has a perimeter C, a minimum width E, an area A, and a diameter D. The set of points (E,C, A^1/2, D) corresponding to all such sets is shown to occupy a cone in the non-negative orthant of R⁴with its vertex at the origin. Its three-dimensional cross section S in the plane D = 1 is investigated. S lies in a rectangular parallelepiped in R³. Results of Lebesgue, Kubota, Fukasawa, Sholander, and Hemmi are used to determine some of the boundary surfaces of S, and new results are given for the other boundary surfaces. From knowledge of S, all inequalities among E, C ,A, and D can be found.     

Lifetime analysis of quasibound states in coupled quantum wells

A simple time-dependent model is presented to investigate lifetimes of the quasibound states in coupled quantum wells (CQWs). The transfer matrix approach is employed to discretize the conduction-band profile of the heterostructure and form a dispersion equation whose zeros correspond to the complex eigenenergies. Both the bound and quasibound states are extracted numerically in the complex plane by Newton's method. The lower and higher well subbands are found to have negative and positive energy shift, respectively, as following the no level crossing theorem. Besides, the decay rate of the quasibound state is approximately proportional to the absolute energy shift. The quasibound states, which have larger energy shift, have shorter lifetime and decay more quickly. Furthermore, the differences in lifetime between the quasibound states in CQWs can be easily realized as all the wave functions are specially adjusted to form the relative probability density distributions.     

Networks, Fields and Organizations: Micro-Dynamics, Scale and Cohesive Embeddings

Social action is situated in fields that are simultaneously composed of interpersonal ties and relations among organizations, which are both usefully characterized as social networks. We introduce a novel approach to distinguishing different network macro-structures in terms of cohesive subsets and their overlaps. We develop a vocabulary that relates different forms of network cohesion to field properties as opposed to organizational constraints on ties and structures. We illustrate differences in probabilistic attachment processes in network evolution that link on the one hand to organizational constraints versus field properties and to cohesive network topologies on the other. This allows us to identify a set of important new micro-macro linkages between local behavior in networks and global network properties. The analytic strategy thus puts in place a methodology for Predictive Social Cohesion theory to be developed and tested in the context of informal and formal organizations and organizational fields. We also show how organizations and fields combine at different scales of cohesive depth and cohesive breadth. Operational measures and results are illustrated for three organizational examples, and analysis of these cases suggests that different structures of cohesive subsets and overlaps may be predictive in organizational contexts and similarly for the larger fields in which they are embedded. Useful predictions may also be based on feedback from level of cohesion in the larger field back to organizations, conditioned on the level of multiconnectivity to the field.     

A Hilbert Space Approach to Bounded Analytic Interpolation

We generalize several results on bounded analytic interpolation of Fitzgerald and Horn, which work by majorization by positive definite kernels, to the cases of several complex variables and operator-valued interpolation. Using a lemma of Kolmogorov, we complement a simplification due to Szafraniec in the proofs of the theorems. Received: November 21, 2006. Accepted: August 03, 2007.     

Inhibition of the reduction of Cr(VI) at the magnetite–water interface by calcium carbonate coatings

The effect of calcium carbonate coatings on the reduction of aqueous chromate on the magnetite(1 1 1) surface has been investigated using a combination of synchrotron based X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (PES) and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy, along with laboratory-based powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). CaCO₃ coatings (dominantly calcite with minor quantities of aragonite and vaterite) of thicknesses ranging from 10 Å to 20 m were grown on magnetite(1 1 1) surfaces by exposure to supersaturated aqueous solutions followed by evaporation of the solution—a process that mimics pore-water evaporation in vadose zones leading to the formation of caliche and calcium carbonate coatings on mineral grains. Coating thicknesses were determined from attenuation of the Fe 2p photoemission signal by the carbonate coating. For coatings less than 15 Å thick, Cr 2p photoemission and Cr L_II, L_III-edge XANES spectra show that chromate is reduced by the underlying magnetite surface; however, as the minimum coating thickness increases beyond 15 Å, the magnetite surface becomes passivated and further chromate reduction ceases. Our findings suggest that carbonate coatings on natural magnetite grains can significantly reduce or eliminate their ability to reduce Cr(VI), which is a toxic and highly mobile environmental contaminant.     

Investigation of the chemical state of ultrathin Hf-Al-O films during high temperature annealing

Al₂O₃ incorporated HfO₂ films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) were investigated by high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HRXPS). The core level energy state of a 15 Å thick film showed a shift to higher binding energy, as the result of a silicate formation and Al₂O₃ incorporation. The incorporation of Al₂O₃ into the HfO₂ film had no effect on silicate formation at the interface between the film and Si, while the ionic bonding characteristics and hybridization effects were enhanced compared to a pure HfO₂ film. The dissociation of the film in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) is effectively suppressed compared to a pure HfO₂ film, indicating an enhanced thermal stability of Hf-Al-O. Any dissociated Al₂O₃ on the film surface was completely removed into the vacuum by vacuum annealing treatment over 850 °C, while HfO₂ contributed to Hf silicide formation on the film surface.     

Evidence for the absence of gluon orbital angular momentum in the nucleon

The Sivers mechanism for the single-spin asymmetry in unpolarized lepton scattering from a transversely polarized nucleon is driven by the orbital angular momentum carried by its quark and gluon constituents, combined with QCD final-state interactions. Both quark and gluon mechanisms can generate such a single-spin asymmetry, though only the quark mechanism can explain the small single-spin asymmetry measured by the COMPASS Collaboration on the deuteron, suggesting the gluon mechanism is small relative to the quark mechanism. We detail empirical studies through which the gluon and quark orbital angular momentum contributions, quark-flavor by quark-flavor, can be elucidated.