Special metrics and scales in parabolic geometry

Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry - Given a parabolic geometry, it is sometimes possible to find special metrics characterised by some invariant conditions. In conformal geometry, for example,...     

Convergent synthesis of a complex oxime library using chemical domain shuffling

[reaction: see text] The synthesis of a complex hybrid oxime library is reported utilizing convergent ligation of alkoxyamine and carbonyl monomers via "chemical domain shuffling". Initial biological screening of the library against human small cell lung carcinoma (A549) cells led to the identification of a novel hybrid dimer in contrast to the corresponding monomeric compounds which were found to be inactive.     

Local Constraints on Einstein–Weyl Geometries: The 3-Dimensional Case

Following an earlier study [3], we consider the Einstein–Weyl equations on a fixed (complex) background metric as an equation for a 1-form and its first few derivatives. If the background is flat then we conclude that the only solutions are conformal rescalings of constant curvature metrics. If the background is a homogeneous 3-geometry in Bianchi class A (i.e., with unimodular isometry group), we find necessary and sufficient conditions on the 3-geometry for solutions of the Einstein–Weyl equations to exist. The solutions we find are complexifications of known ones. In particular, we find that the general left-invariant metric on S³ and the metric 'Sol' admit no local solutions of the Einstein–Weyl equations.     

Finding off‐diagonal entries of the inverse of a large symmetric sparse matrix

The method fast inverse using nested dissection (FIND) was proposed to calculate the diagonal entries of the inverse of a large sparse symmetric matrix. In this paper, we show how the FIND algorithm can be generalized to calculate off‐diagonal entries of the inverse that correspond to ‘short’ geometric distances within the computational mesh of the original matrix. The idea is to extend the downward pass in FIND that eliminates all nodes outside of each node cluster. In our advanced downwards pass, it eliminates all nodes outside of each ‘node cluster pair’ from a subset of all node cluster pairs. The complexity depends on how far (i,j) is from the main diagonal. In the extension of the algorithm, all entries of the inverse that correspond to vertex pairs that are geometrically closer than a predefined length limit l will be calculated. More precisely, let α be the total number of nodes in a two‐dimensional square mesh. We will show that our algorithm can compute O(α^{3 ∕ 2 + 2ε}) entries of the inverse in O(α^{3 ∕ 2 + 2ε}) time where l = O(α^{1 ∕ 4 + ε}) and 0 ≤ ε ≤1 ∕ 4. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acoustic scattering by benthic and planktonic shelled animals

Acoustic backscattering measurements and associated scattering modeling were recently conducted on a type of benthic shelled animal that has a spiral form of shell (Littorina littorea). Benthic and planktonic shelled animals with this shape occur on the seafloor and in the water column, respectively, and can be a significant source of acoustic scattering in the ocean. Modeling of the scattering properties allows reverberation predictions to be made for sonar performance predictions as well as for detection and classification of animals for biological and ecological applications. The studies involved measurements over the frequency range 24 kHz to 1 MHz and all angles of orientation in as small as 1 degree increments. This substantial data set is quite revealing of the physics of the acoustic scattering by these complex shelled bodies and served as a basis for the modeling. Specifically, the resonance structure of the scattering was strongly dependent upon angle of orientation and could be traced to various types of rays (e.g., subsonic Lamb waves and rays entering the opercular opening). The data are analyzed in both the frequency and time domain (compressed pulse processing) so that dominant scattering mechanisms could be identified. Given the complexity of the animal body (irregular elastic shell with discontinuities), approximate scattering models are used with only the dominant scattering properties retained. Two models are applied to the data, both approximating the body as a deformed sphere: (1) an averaged form of the exact modal-series-based solution for the spherical shell, which is used to estimate the backscattering by a deformed shell averaged over all angles of orientation, and produces reasonably accurate predictions over all k1a(esr) (k1 is the acoustic wave number of the surrounding water and a(esr) is the equivalent spherical radius of the body), and (2) a ray-based formula which is used to estimate the scattering at fixed angle of orientation, but only for high k1a(esr). The ray-based model is an extension of a model recently developed for the shelled zooplankton Limacina retroversa that has a shape similar to that of the Littorina littorea but swims through the water [Stanton et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 236-253 (1998b)]. Applications of remote detection and classification of the seafloor and water column in the presence of shelled animals are discussed.