A normalized solitary wave solution of the Maxwell-Dirac equations

We prove the existence of a $L^2$-normalized solitary wave solution for the Maxwell-Dirac equations in (3+1)-Minkowski space. In addition, for the Coulomb-Dirac model, describing fermions with attractive Coulomb interactions in the mean-field limit, we prove the existence of the (positive) energy minimizer.     

优化端点条件的平面二次均匀B样条插值曲线

在利用反求法构造B样条插值曲线时，往往需要选取端点条件。 因此，可对端点条件进行优化选取，使得构造的B样条插值曲线满足特定要求。提出了一种利用曲线内能极小选取平面二次均匀B样条插值曲线端点条件的算法。首先给出了二次均匀B样条插值曲线分控制顶点与首个控制顶点（即端点条件）的递推关系式；然后给出了利用曲线内能极小优化选取首个控制顶点的算法，证明了利用该算法构造的C¹连续二次均匀B样条插值曲线为保形插值，并通过数值算例证明了算法的有效性；最后，为便于实际应用，基于MATLAB平台设计了算法所对应的图形用户界面，用户通过简单的操作即可获得光顺的C¹连续二次均匀B样条保形插值曲线。     

Optical Trapping with Focused Surface Waves

Near-field optical trapping can be realized with focused evanescent waves that are excited at the water–glass interface due to the total internal reflection, or with focused plasmonic waves excited on the water–gold interface. Herein, the performance of these two kinds of near-field optical trapping techniques is compared using the same optical microscope configuration. Experimental results show that only a single-micron polystyrene bead can be trapped by the focused evanescent waves, whereas many beads are simultaneously attracted to the center of the excited region by focused plasmonic waves. This difference in trapping behavior is analyzed from the electric field intensity distributions of these two kinds of focused surface waves and the difference in trapping behavior is attributed to photothermal effects due to the light absorption by the gold film.     

Electrodynamics of Magnetoelectric Media and Magnetoelectric Fields

The relationship between magnetoelectricity and electromagnetism is a subject of a strong interest and numerous discussions in microwave and optical wave physics and material sciences. The definition of the energy and momentum of the electromagnetic (EM) field in a magnetoelectric (ME) medium is not a trivial problem. The question of whether electromagnetism and magnetoelectricity can coexist without an extension of Maxwell's theory arises when the effects of EM energy propagation are studied and the group velocity of the waves in an ME medium is considered. The energy balance equation reveals unusual topological structure of fields in ME materials. Together with certain constraints on the constitutive parameters of a medium, definite constraints on the local field structure should be imposed. Analyzing the EM phenomena inside an ME material, the question “what kind of the near fields arising from a sample of such a material can be measured?” should be answered. The visualization of the ME states requires an experimental technique that is based on an effective coupling to the violation of spatial as well as temporal inversion symmetry. To observe the ME energy in a subwavelength region, it is necessary to assume the existence of first-principle near fields—the ME fields. These are non-Maxwellian near fields with specific properties of violation of spatial and temporal inversion symmetry. A particular interest to the ME fields arises in studies of metamaterials with “artificial-atoms” ME elements.     

Global stability of rarefaction waves for a viscous radiative and reactive gas with temperature-dependent viscosity

We study the nonlinear stability of rarefaction waves to the Cauchy problem of a one-dimensional viscous radiative and reactive gas when the viscosity and heat conductivity coefficients depend on both density and absolute temperature. Our main idea is to use the smallness of the strength of the rarefaction waves to control the possible growth of its solutions induced by the nonlinearity of the system and the interactions of rarefaction waves from different families. The proof is based on some detailed analysis on uniform positive lower and upper bounds of the specific volume and the absolute temperature.     

Jordan–Cattaneo waves: Analogues of compressible flow

We review work of Jordan on a hyperbolic variant of the Fisher–KPP equation, where a shock solution is found and the amplitude is calculated exactly. The Jordan procedure is extended to a hyperbolic variant of the Chafee–Infante equation. Extension of Jordan’s ideas to a model for traffic flow are also mentioned. We also examine a diffusive susceptible–infected (SI) model, and generalizations of diffusive Lotka–Volterra equations, including a Lotka–Volterra–Bass competition model with diffusion. For all cases we show how a Jordan–Cattaneo wave may be analysed and we indicate how to find the wavespeeds and the amplitudes. Finally we present details of a fully nonlinear analysis of acceleration waves in a Cattaneo–Christov poroacoustic model.