Superfluidity in the inner crust of neutron stars

We present a mean-field quantum calculation of the specific heat in the inner crust of neutron stars, taking into account the inhomogeneous character of the system, in which a lattice of neutron-rich nuclei coexists with a gas of unbound neutrons.Received: 10 December 2002, Published online: 24 February 2004PACS: 21.60.-n Nuclear structure models and methods - 26.60. + c Nuclear matter aspects of neutron stars - 97.60.Jd Neutron stars     

Assessment of heavy metal background values in the soils of inland coastal areas of Venice,Italy

The main aim of this project was to assess background levels of heavy metals in soil in the inland coastal area of Venice, Italy. The pilot study area is located near the industrial area of Porto Marghera, considered of national interest in terms of contaminated soil remediation (Environmental Ministerial Decree n. 471/1999). The Decree under consideration emphasises the importance of the assessment of background values in soil remediation. Results will show cases (As and Sn) in which background values are greater than concentration limit standards given by legislation.     

1S0 Superfluid phase transition in neutron matter with realistic nuclear potentials and modern many-body theories

The 1S0 pairing in neutron matter is studied using realistic two- and three-nucleon interactions. The auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo method and correlated basis function theory are employed to get quantitative and reliable estimates of the gap. The two methods are in good agreement up to the maximum gap density and both point to a slight reduction with respect to the standard BCS value. In fact, the maximum gap is about 2.5 MeV at kF approximately 0.8 fm(-1) in BCS and 2.2-2.4 MeV at kF approximately 0.6 fm(-1)in correlated matter. In general, the computed medium polarization effects are much smaller than those previously estimated within all theories. Truncations of Argonne to simpler forms give the same gaps in BCS, provided the truncated potentials have been refitted to the same data set. The three-nucleon interaction provides an additional increase of the gap of about 0.35 MeV.     

Secure deterministic communication without entanglement

We propose a protocol for deterministic communication that does not make use of entanglement. It exploits nonorthogonal states in a two-way quantum channel to attain unconditional security and high efficiency of the transmission. We explicitly show the scheme is secure against a class of individual attacks regardless of the noise on the channel. Its experimental realization is feasible with current technology.     

Nonadiabatic Landau-Zener tunneling in waveguide arrays with a step in the refractive index

Landau-Zener tunneling is discussed in connection with optical waveguide arrays. Light injected in a specific band of the Bloch spectrum in the propagation constant can be transmitted to another band, changing its physical properties. This can be achieved using two coupled waveguide arrays with different refractive indices. The step in the refractive index causes wave "acceleration" and thus induces strongly nonadiabatic Landau-Zener tunneling. Theoretically, the analysis is performed by considering a Schr?dinger equation in a periodic potential with a step. The region of physical parameters where this phenomenon can occur is analytically determined and a realistic experimental setup is suggested. Its application could allow the realization of light filters.     

Optical necklace states in Anderson localized 1D systems

We report on the observation of nonlocalized modes or necklace states of light waves in disordered systems in the Anderson localized regime. The samples consist of positional-disordered binary multilayer systems. Anderson localized modes manifest themselves as narrow high-transmission peaks in the transmission spectrum, whereas the average of the logarithm of the transmission coefficient decreases linearly with thickness. Optical necklace states are observed as modes with a characteristic multiresonance time response and relatively fast decay time.     

A combinatorial characterization of quadrics

In this paper we prove that in a projective space of dimension three and orderq the two plane characterk-sets fork {q ²+ 1,(q+1)²} are of the same type as the elliptic or the hyperbolic quadric, respectively. As a corollary we obtain a characterization of the elliptic and the hyperbolic quadrics.     

Constructive techniques for approximating collocation linear systems

A high order discretization by spectral collocation methods of the elliptic problem $$\begin{gathered} \left\{ \begin{gathered} A_{A,b} u \equiv - \nabla [A(x)\nabla u(x)] + b(x)u(x) = c(x){\text{ on}}\;\Omega \; = ( - 1,1)^2 \hfill \\ u\left| {\partial \Omega \equiv 0,} \right. \hfill \\ \end{gathered} \right. \hfill \\ \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$ is considered where A(x)=a(x)I ₂, x=(x ^[1],x ^[2]) and I ₂ denotes the 2×2 identity matrix, giving rise to a sequence of dense linear systems that are optimally preconditioned by using the sparse Finite Difference (FD) matrix-sequence {A _n } _n over the nonuniform grid sequence defined via the collocation points [11]. Here we propose a preconditioning strategy for {A _n } _n based on the “approximate factorization” idea. More specifically, the preconditioning sequence {P _n } _n is constructed by using two basic structures: a FD discretization of (1) with A(x)=I ₂ over the collocation points, which is interpreted as a FD discretization over an equidistant grid of a suitable separable problem, and a diagonal matrix which adds the informative content expressed by the weight function a(x). The main result is the proof that the sequence {P _n ^?1 A _n } _n is spectrally clustered at unity so that the solution of the nonseparable problem (1) is reduced to the solution of a separable one, this being computationally more attractive [2,3]. Several numerical experiments confirm the goodness of the discussed proposal.     

Synthesis and liquid crystalline properties of low molecular mass compounds containing the 1,4-bis(5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazolyl)benzene unit

The synthesis and characterization of low molecular mass compounds containing 1,4-bis(5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazolyl)benzene is reported. All compounds are fluorescent in solution. Due to the flat shape of the conjugated unit, smectic-like packing is observed at high temperatures for some of the synthesized compounds. Moreover the insertion of a lateral flexible alkoxy unit strongly destabilizes the smectic order whilst promoting the appearance of a nematic phase in the case of the shortest methoxy unit. The mesogenic character of this unit may be of interest in the synthesis of liquid crystalline polymeric systems, taking advantage of both the fluorescent properties and the peculiar molecular structure of the liquid crystalline state.     

Projective Planes, Coverings and a Network Problem

A problem concerning packet switched networks leads to a natural combinatorial design problem, whose solution involves (k, n)-arcs in projective planes, 3-dimensional linear codes, the theory of fractional matchings and designs which approximate projective planes.