Twister quintessence scenario

We study generic solutions in a non-minimally coupled to gravity scalar field cosmology. It is shown that dynamics for both canonical and phantoms scalar fields with the potential can be reduced to the dynamical system from which the exact forms for an equation of the state parameter can be derived. We have found the stationary solutions of the system and discussed their stability. Within the large class of admissible solutions we have found a non-degenerate critical points and we pointed out multiple attractor type of trajectory travelling in neighborhood of three critical points at which we have the radiation dominating universe, the barotropic matter dominating state and finally the de Sitter attractor. We have demonstrated the stability of this trajectory which we call the twister solution. Discovered evolutional path is only realized if there exist the non-minimal coupling constant. We have found simple duality relations between twister solutions in phantom and canonical scalar fields in the radiation domination phase. For the twister trajectory we have found an oscillating regime of approaching the de Sitter attractor.     

Evolution of massive scalar fields in the spacetime of a tense brane black hole

In the spacetime of a d-dimensional static tense brane black hole we elaborate the mechanism by which massive scalar fields decay. The metric of a six-dimensional black hole pierced by a topological defect is especially interesting. It corresponds to a black hole residing on a tensional 3-brane embedded in a six-dimensional spacetime, and this solution has gained importance due to the planned accelerator experiments. It happened that the intermediate asymptotic behaviour of the fields in question was determined by an oscillatory inverse power-law. We confirm our investigations by numerical calculations for five- and six-dimensional cases. It turned out that the greater the brane tension is, the faster massive scalar field decay in the considered spacetimes.     

The dynamics of multidimensional cosmological models in the presence of quantum effects. I. The case FRW ×T D at high temperatures

The dynamical system approach is applied to the study of dynamics of multidimensional cosmological models with topology FRW ×T ^D (D-dimensional torus) in the presence of high-temperature quantum effects. The stability methods developed in the paper of Szydowski (Gen. Rel. Grav.,20, 221, 1988) are used in the analysis of typical states of the metric in the neighborhood of singularities and for large time values. The problems of dynamical dimensional reduction, structure of singularities, isotropization, etc., are discussed in this context.     

First-principles study of the electro-optic effect in ferroelectric oxides

We first present a method to compute the electro-optic tensor from first principles, explicitly taking into account the electronic, ionic and piezoelectric contributions. We then study the nonlinear optic behavior of three paradigmatic ferroelectric oxides. Our calculations reveal the dominant contribution of the soft mode to the electro-optic coefficients in LiNbO3 and BaTiO3 and its minor role in PbTiO3. We identify the coupling between the electric field and the polar atomic displacements along the B-O chains as the origin of the large electro-optic response in perovskite ABO3 compounds.     

Evolution of density perturbations in a realistic universe

Prompted by the recent more precise determination of the basic cosmological parameters and growing evidence that the matter-energy content of the universe is now dominated by dark energy and dark matter we present the general solution of the equation that describes the evolution of density perturbations in the linear approximation. It turns out that as in the standard CDM model the density perturbations grow very slowly during the radiation dominated epoch and their amplitude increases by a factor of about 4000 in the matter and later dark energy dominated epoch of expansion of the universe.     

Algebraization of Spectral Problems in the Bargmann—Fock Representation

Examples of quasi-exactly solvable hamiltonians in the Bargmann—Fock representation are given. The existence of an invariant subspace is studied as a result of hidden symmetry of the spectral problem.     

Dissipative or conservative cosmology with dark energy?

All evolutional paths for all admissible initial conditions of FRW cosmological models with dissipative dust fluid (described by dark matter, baryonic matter and dark energy) are analyzed using dynamical system approach. With that approach, one is able to see how generic the class of solutions leading to the desired property—acceleration—is. The theory of dynamical systems also offers a possibility of investigating all possible solutions and their stability with tools of Newtonian mechanics of a particle moving in a one-dimensional potential which is parameterized by the cosmological scale factor. We demonstrate that flat cosmology with bulk viscosity can be treated as a conservative system with a potential function of the Chaplygin gas type. We characterize the class of dark energy models that admit late time de Sitter attractor solution in terms of the potential function of corresponding conservative system. We argue that inclusion of dissipation effects makes the model more realistic because of its structural stability. We also confront viscous models with SNIa observations. The best fitted models are obtained by minimizing the χ² function which is illustrated by residuals and χ² levels in the space of model independent parameters. The general conclusion is that SNIa data supports the viscous model without the cosmological constant. The obtained values of χ² statistic are comparable for both the viscous model and ΛCDM model. The Bayesian information criteria are used to compare the models with different power-law parameterization of viscous effects. Our result of this analysis shows that SNIa data supports viscous cosmology more than the ΛCDM model if the coefficient in viscosity parameterization is fixed. The Bayes factor is also used to obtain the posterior probability of the model.     

Rigorous Analysis of Discontinuous Phase Transitions via Mean-Field Bounds

 We consider a variety of nearest-neighbor spin models defined on the d-dimensional hypercubic lattice ℤ ^d . Our essential assumption is that these models satisfy the condition of reflection positivity. We prove that whenever the associated mean-field theory predicts a discontinuous transition, the actual model also undergoes a discontinuous transition (which occurs near the mean-field transition temperature), provided the dimension is sufficiently large or the first-order transition in the mean- field model is sufficiently strong. As an application of our general theory, we show that for d sufficiently large, the 3-state Potts ferromagnet on ℤ ^d undergoes a first-order phase transition as the temperature varies. Similar results are established for all q-state Potts models with q≥3, the r-component cubic models with r≥4 and the O(N)-nematic liquid-crystal models with N≥3. Received: 22 July 2002 / Accepted: 12 January 2003 Published online: 5 May 2003 RID="⋆" ID="⋆" ? Copyright rests with the authors. Reproduction of the entire article for non-commercial purposes is permitted without charge. Communicated by J. Z.Imbrie     

[11]Anthrahelicene on TiO2 surfaces

Helicenes are carbon-rich materials with an ordered structure that possess interesting and remarkable electronic, chiroptical, mechanical and magnetic properties either in bulk or as single molecule devices. We report on the first attempt to anchor and organize [11]anthrahelicene ([11]AH) molecules onto a metal oxide surface. Molecular structures obtained on the (110) and (011) faces of rutile titania are characterized using scanning probe microscopy. On the (110) surface, [11]AH molecules form islands that are comprised of small domains of two types that are mirror reflections of each other and have an ordered quasi-hexagonal lattice. In contrast, molecules form unordered clusters on the (011) surface. Single molecules on both faces are imaged with sub-molecular resolution.     

A ToF-SIMS and XPS study of protein adsorption and cell attachment across PEG-like plasma polymer films with lateral compositional gradients

In this work we report a detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) study of poly(ethylene glycol) PEG-like chemical gradients deposited via plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) at two different load powers using diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (DG) as a monomer. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the ToF-SIMS data both before and after protein adsorption on the plasma polymer thin films. Results of the PCA loadings indicated a higher content of hydrocarbon fragments across the higher load power gradient, which adsorbed higher amounts of proteins. Gradients deposited at a lower load power retained a higher degree of monomer like functionality as did the central region directly underneath the knife edge electrode. Analysis of the adsorption of serum proteins (human serum albumin and fetal bovine serum) was monitored across the gradient films and increased with decreasing ether (PEG-like) film chemistries. The effect of protein incubation time on the levels adsorbed fetal bovine serum on the plasma polymer films was critical, with significantly more protein adsorbing after 24 hour incubation times on both gradient films. The attachment of HeLa cells on the gradients appeared to be dictated not only by the surface chemistry, but also by the adsorption of serum proteins. XPS analysis revealed that at surface ether concentrations of less than 70% in the gradient films, significant increases in protein and cell attachment were observed.