On the existence of the thermodynamic limit for classical systems with nonspherical potentials

It is shown, that the configurational partition function for a classical system of molecules interacting with nonspherical pair potential is proportionals to the configurational partition function for a system of particles interacting with temperature-dependent spherical k-body potentials (k ?2). Therefore, the thermodynamic limit for nonspherical molecules exists if the effective k-body interaction is stable and tempered. A number of criteria for the nonspherical potential are developed which ensure these properties. In case the nonsphericity is small in a certain sense, stability and temperedness of the angle-averaged nonspherical potential are sufficient to ensure thermodynamic behaviour.     

A reduction relation for the trace over a finite set of many-fermion states with a definite symmetry U (N)

The n-body trace of a general k-body operator, defined over a finite set of n-fermion states with a definite unitary symmetry U(N), is reduced to a weighted sum of the k-body traces. The result is restated further in terms of symmetric group characters.     

On the linear response theory of infinite quantum systems

The perturbation of a C¹-dynamics α by a time-dependent unbounded 1-derivation of the form μ?(t)δ′ is considered. The existence of the perturbed dynamics and that of the linear responce oftthe C¹-dynamical system ($\text{A}$, $\text{R}$, α) is shown. The existence of the corresponding generalized susceptibility and some convergence problems are discussed.     

On the relation between k-body interaction and k-particle density

A generalization of the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is given. It is shown, that the k-particle density determines the k-body potential up to equivalence. The k-body potential is separated in irreducible κ-body parts. The derivation includes the case of degenerate ground states.     

Mean-Field Dynamics: Singular Potentials and Rate of Convergence

We consider the time evolution of a system of N identical bosons whose interaction potential is rescaled by N ⁻¹. We choose the initial wave function to describe a condensate in which all particles are in the same one-particle state. It is well known that in the mean-field limit N → ∞ the quantum N-body dynamics is governed by the nonlinear Hartree equation. Using a nonperturbative method, we extend previous results on the mean-field limit in two directions. First, we allow a large class of singular interaction potentials as well as strong, possibly time-dependent external potentials. Second, we derive bounds on the rate of convergence of the quantum N-body dynamics to the Hartree dynamics.     

Many-body atomic potentials in Thomas-Fermi theory

Many-body atomic potentials, ?, are functions of the nuclear coordinates, and are defined by differences of ground state energies, E, e.g., ?(1, 2) ≡ E(1, 2) ? E(1) ? E(2). We prove that in Thomas-Fermi theory the n-body potential always has the sign (?1)ⁿ for all coordinates. We also prove that the remainder in the expansion of the total energy E in terms of the ?'s, when truncated at the n-body terms, has the sign (?1)ⁿ⁺¹.     

Dynamics and potentials

A dynamics (i.e. a one-parameter group of automorphisms) of a system described by a C*-algebra with a local structure in terms of C*-subalgebras A(I) for local domains I of the physical space (a discrete lattice) is normally constructed out of potentials P(I), each of which is a self-adjoint element of the subalgebra A(I), such that the the first time derivative of the dynamical change of any local observable A is i times the convergent sum of the commutator [P(I), A] over all finite regions I. We will invert this relation under the assumption (obviously assumed in the usual approach) that local observables all have the first time derivative, i.e. we prove the existence of potentials for any given dynamics satisfying the above-stated condition. Furthermore, by imposing a further condition for the potential P(I) to be chosen for each I that it does not have a portion which can be shifted to potentials for any proper subset of I, we also show (1) the existence, (2) uniqueness, (3) an automatic convergence property for the sum over I, and (4) a quite convenient property for the chosen potential. The so-obtained properties (3) and (4) are not assumed and are very useful, though they were never noticed nor used before.     

Standard Potentials for Non-Even Dynamics

The notion of standard potentials is introduced for a general dynamics. This is a generalization of earlier works of Araki and Moriya which is restricted to even dynamics. Most formulae in the present analysis are the same as the case of even dynamics: The time derivative of a local observable is times the sum of commutators with all potentials, and application of the conditional expectation to the local algebra for a region I to a potential for a region J leave the potential unchanged if and annihilate it otherwise (the standardness of the potential). However, the convergence condition for the potential takes a different form for the odd part of the potential. The equivalence of various characterizations of equilibrium states remain valid, except that the variational principle is out of the game for non-even dynamics because the translation invariance and non-evenness of dynamics are incompatible as is already known.     

Steganography and authentication in image sharing without parity bits

Recently, a polynomial-based (k, n) steganography and authenticated image sharing (SAIS) scheme was proposed to share a secret image into n stego-images. At the same time, one can reconstruct a secret image with any k or more than k stego-images, but one cannot obtain any information about the secret from fewer than k stego-images. The beauty of a (k, n)-SAIS scheme is that it provides the threshold property (i.e., k is the threshold value), the steganography (i.e., stego-images look like cover images), and authentication (i.e., detection of manipulated stego-images). All existing SAIS schemes require parity bits for authentication. In this paper, we present a novel approach without needing parity bits. In addition, our (k, n)-SAIS scheme provides better visual quality and has higher detection ratio with respect to all previous (k, n)-SAIS schemes.     

On the exact mean-field description of continuous quantum systems in equilibrium

The thermodynamic limit of free energy density is investigated for quantum systems of n particles obeying Boltzmann, Fermi and Bose statistics, interacting via spin-independent 2-body bounded separable potentials and confined to a bounded region Λ ? R^v. The technique used exploits the Feynman-Kac theorem in finite volume and the saddle-point method of Tindemans and Capel. It is shown that the limiting free energy density of such systems is equal to that of a system of noninteracting particles subject to a mean field which is equal to the averaged 2-body interaction. The equations for the mean field of n particles obeying Boltzmann, Fermi or Bose statistics represent self-consistent field problems and their forms comply with the well-known theorems on mean occupation numbers of single-particle eigenstates of ideal quantum gases at inverse temperature β.     

The optical constants of di-iso-octyl phthalate and di-n-butyl phthalate

The optical constants-refractive index (n) and absorptive index (k) have been found for di-iso-octyl phthalate [C₆H₄(COO · C₈H₁₇)₂] and di-n-butyl phthalate [C₆H₄(COO · C₄H₉)₂] for a wave-length range extending from 2 to 16 μm. The absorptive index has been found by transmission measurements using a variable path length cell. Relative specular reflectances, at a near normal angle of incidence, were measured with distilled water as the reflectance standard. The reflectances and the measured k values were substituted into a form of the Fresnel equation to give the corresponding refractive index values. In the wavelength regions where the k value proved too great to be measured directly by the transmission technique the n and k values were found using a Kramers-Kronig dispersion analysis.     

A general multi-secret visual cryptography scheme

In a (k, n) visual cryptography scheme (VCS), a secret image is encoded into n shadow images that are distributed to n participants. Any k participants can reveal the secret image by stacking their shadow images, and less than k participants have no information about the secret image. In this paper we consider the case when the secret image is more than one, and this is a so-called multi-secret VCS (MVCS). The previous works on MVCS are all the simple 2-out-of-2 cases. In this paper, we discuss a general (k, n)-MVCS for any k and n. This paper has three main contributions: (1) our scheme is the first general (k, n)-MVCS, which can be applied on any k and n, (2) we give the formal security and contrast conditions of (k, n)-MVCS and (3) we theoretically prove that the proposed (k, n)-MVCS satisfies the security and contrast conditions.     

Generalized Flinn operators with applications to multi-component alloys

The relationship between the occupation operator, spin operator and Flinn operator formalisms for a substitutional binary alloy is presented. These three methods are generalized to multicomponent alloys with irreducible static n-body potentials. In this manner the concept of generalized Flinn operators is introduced. The configurational Hamiltonians and generalized Flinn operators are then explicitly presented for ternary and quaternary alloys with static two-body potentials. The merits of the generalized Flinn operator approach are discussed.     

A new proof for the convergent iterative solution of the degenerate quantum double-well potential and its generalization

We present a new and simpler proof for the convergent iterative solution of the one-dimensional degenerate double-well potential. This new proof depends on a general theorem, called the hierarchy theorem, that shows the successive stages in the iteration to form a monotonically increasing sequence of approximations to the energy and to the wavefunction at any point x. This important property makes possible a much simpler proof of convergence than the one given before in the literature. The hierarchy theorem proven in this paper is applicable to a much wider class of potentials which includes the quartic potential.     

Emission secondaire de petits agregats NipCn par des carbures de nickel

The intensities of emission of Ni_pC_n⁺(p = 1–3) and NiC_n^? secondary ions given by two alloys: Ni₃C and NiC 5% at. C, show off a saw-toothed behaviour according to the parity of the number n of carbon atoms. Maxima occur when n is odd for NiC_n⁺ ions and when n is even in the other cases (p = 2, 3; negative ions). Besides, the influence of the carbon concentration in the alloy can be observed.The alternations of NiC_n⁺ and Ni₂C_n⁺ ions can be interpreted from Pitzer and Clementi model (the clusters are supposed to be linear). Thus it can be found greater stabilities for NiC_2k+1 and Ni₂C_2k chains than for NiC_2k and Ni₂C_2k+1 chains respectively, which very well agrees with the “correspondence rule” between the emissions of different species of ions and their electronic properties.     

Finiteness of integrable n-dimensional homogeneous polynomial potentials

We consider natural Hamiltonian systems of n>1$n>1$ degrees of freedom with polynomial homogeneous potentials of degree k. We show that under a genericity assumption, for a fixed k, at most only a finite number of such systems is integrable. We also explain how to find explicit forms of these integrable potentials for small k.     

Quark confinement and vortices in massive gauge-invariant QCD

Massive gauge-invariant QCD can support vortices (analogous to Nielsen-Olesen strings) of nearly finite classical action per unit area (there is a logarithmic short-distance singularity which is of little consequence). These vortices lead, in analogy to Abelian lattice-gauge theories, to confinement of fractionally charged quarks and color screening for gluons. In this paper, we make some qualitative remarks about the (Minkowski-space) dynamics which follows from this sort of confinement, studying not only $\text{q}\text{q}$ processes but also qqq processes. For the latter, the effective long-range vortex-induced interaction is approximately described as a sum of two-body potentials each of half the strength of the $\text{q}\text{q}$ potential (just as for the asymptotically free short-distance potentials), and linearly rising non-relativistically. There is an essential two-dimensionality about the confinement process which suppresses what would be the transverse degrees of freedom of strings joining quarks. A fully relativistic dynamics is given which is amenable to a simple phenomenological joining of long- and short-distance effects, with a running coupling constant such that g²(k) ～ k^?2 for small k. Spin-dependent potentials have no linearly-rising parts, and there are no strong Van der Waals forces. Little is said about gluon dynamics, except to point out the existence of rather massive hadronic glueballs and of (classically singular) instanton-like solutions which are screened at large distances.     

On the Mean Field and Classical Limits of Quantum Mechanics

The main result in this paper is a new inequality bearing on solutions of the N-body linear Schrödinger equation and of the mean field Hartree equation. This inequality implies that the mean field limit of the quantum mechanics of N identical particles is uniform in the classical limit and provides a quantitative estimate of the quality of the approximation. This result applies to the case of C^1,1 interaction potentials. The quantity measuring the approximation of the N-body quantum dynamics by its mean field limit is analogous to the Monge–Kantorovich (or Wasserstein) distance with exponent 2. The inequality satisfied by this quantity is reminiscent of the work of Dobrushin on the mean field limit in classical mechanics [Func. Anal. Appl. 13, 115–123, (1979)]. Our approach to this problem is based on a direct analysis of the N-particle Liouville equation, and avoids using techniques based on the BBGKY hierarchy or on second quantization.     

Constructions and properties of k out of n scalable secret image sharing

Recently, Wang et al. introduced a novel (2, n) scalable secret image sharing (SSIS) scheme, which can gradually reconstruct a secret image in a scalable manner in which the amount of secret information is proportional to the number of participants. However, Wang et al.’s scheme is only a simple 2-out-of-n case. In this paper, we consider (k, n)-SSIS schemes where a qualified set of participants consists of any k participants. We provide two approaches for a general construction for any k, 2 ? k ? n. For the special case k = 2, Approach 1 has the lesser shadow size than Wang et al.’s (2, n)-SSIS scheme, and Approach 2 is reduced to Wang et al.’s (2, n)-SSIS scheme. Although the authors claim that Wang et al.’s (2, n)-SSIS scheme can be easily extended to a general (k, n)-SISS scheme, actually the extension is not that easy as they claimed. For the completeness of describing the constructions and properties of a general (k, n)-SSIS scheme, both approaches are introduced in this paper.