Study of archaeological ceramics by total-reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry: Semi-quantitative approach

Total-reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry has been compared with Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis in order to test its potential application to the study of archaeological ceramics in the archaeometric field. Two direct solid non-chemical sample preparation procedures have been checked: solid sedimentation and solid chemical homogenization. For sedimentation procedure, total-reflection X-ray fluorescence allows the analysis of the elemental composition with respect to the size fraction but not the average evaluation of the composition. For solid chemical homogenization procedure, total-reflection X-ray fluorescence provides precise (from 0.8% to 27% of coefficient of variation) and accurate results (from 91% to 110% of recovery) for 15 elements (Cr, Hf, Ni, Rb, Al, Ba, Ca, K, Mn, Ti, V, Cu, Ga, Y and Fe) with an easy sample preparation process of the solid clay and without previous chemical treatment. The influence of the particle sizes has been checked by total-reflection X-ray fluorescence sample angle scans and anomalous behaviors have been found for three additional detected elements: As, Sr and Zn, which can be attributed to interference effects of the mineral grain sizes of their associated chemical phases in the total-reflection X-ray fluorescence interference region. The solid chemical homogenization procedure produces data useful for archaeological interpretation, which is briefly illustrated by a case-study. Finally, the decantation procedure data can be also useful for size chemical speciation and, consequently, for alternative environmental total-reflection X-ray fluorescence applications.     

Photothermal techniques applied to the determination of the water vapor diffusion coefficient and thermal diffusivity of edible films.

Water vapor diffusion coefficient (WVDC) and thermal diffusivity (alpha) were determined in gelatin-starch films through photothermal techniques. The effect of different variables in the elaboration of these films, such as starch and glycerol concentrations and pH, were evaluated through the response surface methodology. The results indicated that an increase in the glycerol concentration and pH favored the WVDC of the films. On the other hand, alpha was influenced principally by the starch content and pH of the film-forming solution. The minimum alpha value was 4.5 x 10(-4) cm2/s, which is compared with alpha values reported for commercial synthetic polymers.     

Monstrous Branes

 We study D-branes in the bosonic closed string theory whose automorphism group is the Bimonster group (the wreath product of the Monster simple group with ℤ₂). We give a complete classification of D-branes preserving the chiral subalgebra of Monster invariants and show that they transform in a representation of the Bimonster. Our results apply more generally to self-dual conformal field theories which admit the action of a compact Lie group on both the left- and right-moving sectors. Received: 20 February 2002 / Accepted: 17 August 2002 Published online: 19 December 2002 Communicated by R.H. Dijkgraaf     

不等式约束优化问题的一个势函数

基于Carroll(1961)建立的罚函数，本文给出了不等式约束优化问题的一个势函数，并且讨论了该函数的性质．最后证明了在此基础上建立的对偶算法具有Q-线性收敛性．     

Special representations of the group SP(4,q) with minimal degrees

Let G be a finite group. Let p(G) denote the minimal degree of a faithful permutation representation ofG and let q(G) and c(G) denote the minimal degree of a faithful representation of G by quasi-permutation matrices over the rational and the complex numbers, respectively. Finally r(G) denotes the minimal degree of a faithful rational valued complex character of G. The purpose of this paper is to calculate p(G), q(G), c(G) and r(G) for the group SP(4,q). This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Timelike Compton scattering: exclusive photoproduction of lepton pairs

We investigate the exclusive photoproduction of a heavy timelike photon which decays into a lepton pair, . This can be seen as the analog of deeply virtual Compton scattering, and we argue that the two processes are complementary for studying generalized parton distributions in the nucleon. In an unpolarized experiment the angular distribution of the leptons readily provides access to the real part of the Compton amplitude. We estimate the possible size of this effect in kinematics where the Compton process should be dominated by quark exchange. Received: 9 October 2001 / Published online: 5 April 2002     

Quantum Mutual Entropy for a Multilevel Atom Interacting with a Cavity Field

We derive an explicit formula for the quantum mutual entropy as a measure of the total correlations in a multi-level atom interacting with a cavity field. We describe its theoretical basis and discuss its practical relevance. The effect of the number of levels involved on the quantum mutual entropy is demonstrated via examples of three-, four- and five-level atom. Numerical calculations under current experimental conditions are performed and it is found that the number of levels present changes the general features of the correlations dramatically. PACS numbers: 32.80.−t, 42.50.Ct, 03.65.Ud, 03.65.Yz.