Performance evaluation of fiber Bragg grating sensors by digital holographic technique, strain gauge measurement

In view of the growing interest for non-destructive tests of materials, geodynamical monitoring and in general remote sensing, there is a great effort to bring practical optical sensors from research labs to industrial and environmental applications. In this paper, we employ digital holographic technique as an efficient tool for evaluating the strain measurement capability of fiber Bragg gratings (FBG). A cantilever beam has been employed as a test structure under loading test. The strain measurements results obtained by fiber-based sensors have been compared to those obtained by using full-field digital holographic technique and point-wise strain gauge sensors glued on the same cantilever beam. A simple theoretical model is also presented to interpret and compare the experimental results coming from different techniques.     

Giant shot-like voltage noise in high current density Nb–AlOx–Nb superconducting tunnel junctions

The flat voltage noise component of current biased, high-transparency Nb/AlO_x/Nb superconducting tunnel junctions has been investigated at frequencies up to 70 kHz. Several aspects of the analyzed phenomena suggest the presence of current noise effects induced by the discreteness of the charge carriers. At subgap voltages, where excess currents occur, a behavior coherent with a multiple Andreev reflection-assisted transport through the tunnel barrier has been found. However, the measured charge values exceed any theoretical prediction.     

Involutions for upper triangular matrix algebras

In this paper we describe completely the involutions of the first kind of the algebra UT_n(F) of n×n upper triangular matrices. Every such involution can be extended uniquely to an involution on the full matrix algebra. We describe the equivalence classes of involutions on the upper triangular matrices. There are two distinct classes for UT_n(F) when n is even and a single class in the odd case.Furthermore we consider the algebra UT₂(F) of the 2×2 upper triangular matrices over an infinite field F of characteristic different from 2. For every involution *, we describe the *-polynomial identities for this algebra. We exhibit bases of the corresponding ideals of identities with involution, and compute the Hilbert (or Poincaré) series and the codimension sequences of the respective relatively free algebras.Then we consider the *-polynomial identities for the algebra UT₃(F) over a field of characteristic zero. We describe a finite generating set of the ideal of *-identities for this algebra. These generators are quite a few, and their degrees are relatively large. It seems to us that the problem of describing the *-identities for the algebra UT_n(F) of the n×n upper triangular matrices may be much more complicated than in the case of ordinary polynomial identities.     

Fermi, Majorana and the Statistical Model of Atoms

We give an account of the appearance and first developments of the statistical model of atoms proposed by Thomas and Fermi, focusing on the main results achieved by Fermi and his group in Rome. Particular attention is addressed to the unknown contribution to this subject by Majorana, anticipating some important results reached later by leading physicists.     

The Chaotic Mixmaster and the Suppression of Chaos in Scalar–Tensor Cosmologies

We show that there is a threshold in energy for the onset of chaos in cosmology for the Universe described as a dynamical system derived from the Einstein equations of General Relativity (GR). In the case of the mixmaster model (homogeneous and anisotropic cosmology with a Bianchi IX metric), the chaos occurs precisely at the prescribed necessary value H _vac=0 of the GR for the energy of the Universe while the system is found to be regular for H<0 and chaotic for H>0 with respect to its pure vacuum part. In the case of generalized scalar tensor theories within the Bianchi IX model, we show using the ADM formalism and a conformal transformation that the energy of the dynamical system as compared to vacuum lies below the zero energy threshold. The system is thus not exhibiting chaos and the conclusion still holds in the presence of ordinary matter as well. The suppression of chaos occurs in a similar way for stiff matter alone.     

Groups in which every non-abelian subgroup is permutable

A subgroupH of a groupG is said to bepermutable ifHX=XH for every subgroupX ofG. In this paper the structure of groups in which every subgroup either is abelian or permutable is investigated. This work was done while the last author was visiting the University of Napoli Federico II. He thanks the “Dipartimento di Matematica e Applicazioni” for its financial support.     

Stable determination of an inhomogeneous inclusion by local boundary measurements

We deal with the problem of determining an inclusion within an electrostatic conductor from boundary measurements. Under mild a priori assumptions we establish optimal stability estimates. Measurements are performed on a portion of the boundary of the conductor.     

关于三维各向同性谐振子径向矩阵元计算的讨论

根据广义Laguerre多项式的数学性质，导出了较为简单的三维各向同性谐振子径向矩阵元的普遍公式,并在这基础上计算了一些重要特殊情形的径向矩阵元: 矢径r整数次幂的平均值，电偶极跃迁矩阵元和电四极跃迁矩阵元. 关键词： 三维各向同性谐振子 径向矩阵元 广义Laguerre多项式 偶极跃迁 四极跃迁     

Some properties of multi-degree-of-freedom potential systems and application to statistical equivalent non-linearization

This paper presents some properties of two restricted classes of multi-degree-of-freedom potential systems subjected to Gaussian white-noise excitations. Specifically, potential systems which exhibit damping terms with energy-dependent polynomial form are referred to. In this context, first systems with coupled stiffness terms and damping terms depending on the total energy are investigated. Then, systems with uncoupled stiffness terms and damping terms depending on the total energy in each degree-of-freedom are considered. For these two classes, it is found that algebraic relations among the stationary statistical moments of the energy functions can be derived by applying standard tools of Itô calculus. Further, it is noted that these relations are very useful within the framework of an equivalent statistical non-linearization technique to build approximate solutions for arbitrary non-linear systems.     

Higher order bad loci

Zero-schemes on smooth complex projective varieties, forcing all elements of ample and free linear systems to be reducible, are studied. Relationships among the minimal length of such zero-schemes, the positivity of the line bundle associated with the linear system, and the dimension of the variety are established. Bad linear spaces are also investigated.