On non-measurability of in its second dual

We show that with the weak topology is not an intersection of Borel sets in its Cech-Stone extension (and hence in any compactification). Assuming (CH), this implies that has no continuous injection onto a Borel set in a compact space, or onto a Lindelöf space. Under (CH), this answers a question of Arhangel'ski.

     

Light scattering observations of spin reversal excitations in the fractional quantum Hall regime

Resonant inelastic light scattering experiments access the low lying excitations of electron liquids in the fractional quantum Hall regime in the range 2/5≥ν≥1/3. Modes associated with changes in the charge and spin degrees of freedom are measured. Spectra of spin reversed excitations at filling factor ν?1/3 and at ν?2/5 identify a structure of lowest spin-split Landau levels of composite fermions (CFs) that is similar to that of electrons. Observations of spin wave excitations enable determinations of energies required to reverse spin. The spin reversal energies obtained from the spectra illustrate the significant residual interactions of composite fermions. At ν=1/3 energies of spin reversal modes are larger but relatively close to spin conserving excitations that are linked to activated transport. Predictions of composite fermion theory are in good quantitative agreement with experimental results.     

Intrinsic volumes of symmetric cones and applications in convex programming

Mathematical Programming - We express the probability distribution of the solution of a random (standard Gaussian) instance of a convex cone program in terms of the intrinsic volumes and curvature...     

Efficient terahertz coupling lens based on planar photonic crystals on silicon on insulator

We present a promising coupling device, namely, a terahertz (THz) planar photonic crystal (PhC) lens based on the effective refractive-index contrast between the PhC and the surrounding unpatterned area. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain calculations show a 90% power transfer from a 100-microm silicon waveguide to a 10-microm waveguide, and 45% coupling efficiency is confirmed experimentally. These results demonstrate the utility of the PhC lens as an effective approach to coupling into PhC THz circuits.     

On robust cross-validation for nonparametric smoothing

An essential problem in nonparametric smoothing of noisy data is a proper choice of the bandwidth or window width, which depends on a smoothing parameter $k$ . One way to choose $k$ based on the data is leave-one-out-cross-validation. The selection of the cross-validation criterion is similarly important as the choice of the smoother. Especially, when outliers are present, robust cross-validation criteria are needed. So far little is known about the behaviour of robust cross-validated smoothers in the presence of discontinuities in the regression function. We combine different smoothing procedures based on local constant fits with each of several cross-validation criteria. These combinations are compared in a simulation study under a broad variety of data situations with outliers and abrupt jumps. There is not a single overall best cross-validation criterion, but we find Boente-cross-validation to perform well in case of large percentages of outliers and the Tukey-criterion in case of data situations with jumps, even if the data are contaminated with outliers.     

Products of mixed covering arrays of strength two

A covering array CA(N;t,k, v is an N × k array such that every N × t subarray contains all t‐tuples from v symbols at least once, where t is the strength of the array. Covering arrays are used to generate software test suites to cover all t‐sets of component interactions. The particular case when t = 2 (pairwise coverage) has been extensively studied, both to develop combinatorial constructions and to provide effective algorithmic search techniques. In this paper, a simple “cut‐and‐paste” construction is extended to covering arrays in which different columns (factors) admit different numbers of symbols (values); in the process an improved recursive construction for covering arrays with t = 2 is derived. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 124–138, 2006     

Compact complex homogeneous manifolds with large automorphism groups

Let X be a compact complex homogeneous manifold and let Aut(X) be the complex Lie group of holomorphic automorphisms of X. It is well-known that the dimension of Aut(X) is bounded by an integer that depends only on n=dim X. Moreover, if X is K?hler then dimAut (X)≤n(n+2) with equality only when X is complex projective space. In this article examples of non-K?hler compact complex homogeneous manifolds X are given that demonstrate dimAut(X) can depend exponentially on n. Let X be a connected compact complex manifold of dimension n. The group of holomorphic automorphisms of X, Aut(X), is a complex Lie group [3]. For a fixed n>1, the dimension of Aut(X) can be arbitrarily large compared to n. Simple examples are provided by the Hirzebruch surfaces F _m , m∈N, for which dimAut(F _m )=m+5, see, e.g. [2, Example 2.4.2]. If X is homogeneous, that is, any point of X can be mapped to any other point of X under a holomorphic automorphism, then the dimension of the automorphism group of X is bounded by an integer that depends only on n, see [1, 2, 6]. The estimate given in [2, Theorem 3.8.2] is roughly dimAut(X)≤(n+2) ⁿ . For many classes of manifolds, however, the dimension of the automorphism group never exceeds n(n+2). For example, it follows directly from the classification given by Borel and Remmert [4], that if X is a compact homogeneous K?hler manifold, then dimAut(X)≤n(n+2) with equality only when X is complex projective space P ⁿ . It is an old question raised by Remmert, see [2, p. 99], [6], whether this same bound applies to all compact complex homogeneous manifolds. In this note we show that this is not the case by constructing non-K?hler compact complex homogeneous manifolds whose automorphism group has a dimension that depends exponentially on n. The simplest case among these examples has n=3m+1 and dimAut(X)=3m+3 ^m , so the above conjectured bound is exceeded when n≥19. These manifolds have the structure of non-trivial fiber bundles over products of flag manifolds with parallelizable fibers given as the quotient of a solvable group by a discrete subgroup. They are constructed using the original ideas of Otte [6, 7] and are surprisingly similar to examples found there. Generally, a product of manifolds does not result in an automorphism group with a large dimension relative to n. Nevertheless, products are used in an essential way in the construction given here, and it is perhaps this feature that caused such examples to be previously overlooked. Oblatum 13-X-97 & 24-X-1997     

Manifolds with almost nonnegative curvature operator and principal bundles

We study closed manifolds with almost nonnegative curvature operator (ANCO) and derive necessary and/or sufficient conditions for the total spaces of principal bundles over (A)NCO manifolds to admit ANCO connection metrics. In particular, we provide first examples of closed simply connected ANCO manifolds which do not admit metrics with nonnegative curvature operator.     

Synthesis of α-fluoro-α,β-unsaturated esters monitored by 1D and 2D benchtop NMR spectroscopy

For optimization and control of pharmaceutically and industrially important reactions, chemical information is required in real time. Instrument size, handling, and operation costs are important criteria to be considered when choosing a suitable analytical method apart from sensitivity and resolution. This present study explores the use of a robust and compact nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer to monitor the stereo-selective formation of α-fluoro-α,β-unsaturated esters from α-fluoro-β-keto esters via deprotonation and deacylation in real time. These compounds are precursors of various pharmaceutically active substances. The real-time study revealed the deprotonation and deacylation steps of the reaction. The reaction was studied at temperatures ranging from 293 to 333 K by interleaved one-dimensional ¹H and ¹⁹F and two-dimensional ¹H–¹H COSY experiments. The kinetic rate constants were evaluated using a pseudo first-order kinetic model. The activation energies for the deprotonation and deacylation steps were determined to 28 ± 2 and 63.5 ± 8 kJ/mol, respectively. This showed that the deprotonation step is fast compared with the deacylation step and that the deacylation step determines the rate of the overall reaction. The reaction was repeated three times at 293 K to monitor the repeatability and stability of the system. The compact NMR spectrometer provided detailed information on the mechanism and kinetics of the reaction, which is essential for optimizing the synthetic routes for stepwise syntheses of pharmaceutically active substances.     

Catalytic enantioselective allyl- and crotylboration of aldehydes using chiral diol x SnCl4 complexes. optimization, substrate scope and mechanistic investigations

We report a novel class of C2-symmetric chiral diols derived from the hydrobenzoin skeleton. The combination of these diols with SnCl4 under Yamamoto's concept of Lewis acid assisted Br?nsted acidity (LBA catalysis) leads to high levels of asymmetric induction in the allylboration of aldehydes by commercially available allylboronic acid pinacol ester 1a. The corresponding homoallylic alcohol products of synthetically useful aliphatic aldehydes are obtained in excellent yields with up to 98:2 er. This combined acid manifold is also efficient in catalyzing the diastereo- and enantioselective crotylboration of aldehydes, thus providing the propionate units in >95:5 dr and up to 98:2 er. The X-ray crystal structure of the optimal diol x SnCl4 complex, Vivol (4m) x SnCl4, unambiguously shows the Br?nsted acidic character of this LBA catalyst and its highly dissymmetrical environment. Further controls have ruled out a possible boron trans-esterification mechanism with the chiral diol and point to LBA catalyst-derived activation of the pinacol allylic boronates 1. Due to slow dissociation of the diol x SnCl4 complex, a small excess of diol is required in order to suppress a competing racemic cycle catalyzed by free SnCl4.