A New Look at Mourre’s Commutator Theory

Mourre’s commutator theory is a powerful tool to study the continuous spectrum of self-adjoint operators and to develop scattering theory. We propose a new approach of its main result, namely the derivation of the limiting absorption principle (LAP) from a so called Mourre estimate. We provide a new interpretation of this result. Received: September 20, 2006. Revised: February 1, 2007.     

On the impact of an event

Given an information structure a function that measures how the inferences made by the agents spread among the states is defined; it specifies for each event its impact at each state, for each agent. Several properties are established. Received November 1994/Revised version September 1996     

Synthesis of new 8-arylisoquinoline derivatives by application of palladium-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reactions

New 8-(het)aryltetrahydroisoquinolines (10-14), 8-aryltetrahydroisoquinolin-4-ols (15,16), and 8-phenylisoquinolin-4-ol (17), flexible analogues of aporphine, were synthesized in good yields using palladium-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reactions from 8-bromotetrahydroisoquinolin-4-one (6) as a common intermediate. We also describe the synthesis of this novel intermediate through an easy and efficient method, which involved intramolecular Friedel-Crafts cyclization.     

Simulation of the embryonic stage of ZnS formation from aqueous solution

We investigate the processes of cluster formation and growth of ZnS from aqueous solution using molecular dynamics simulation techniques. The influence of both temperature and concentration is studied. We show that, at lower temperatures, the crucial process is the transformation of an outer-sphere Zn/S complex to an inner-sphere ion pair. Further growth of the latter is fast to generate negatively charged planar clusters. These clusters interact to form more stable, closed structures, which are found to be the global minima configurations in vacuo. At higher temperatures, no outer-sphere ion pairs are formed, and the larger cluster configurations form much more quickly.     

Application of the laser beam deflection to the study of temperature fields in Rayleigh–Benard convection

An optical integral and unobtrusive method is developed to determine the temperature gradient field by measurement of laser beam deflection induced by optical index changes. The technique is inexpensive and easy to perform. It allows the study of the temperature gradient at a large number of points simultaneously (over 400/cm²). This technique is particularly adapted to two-dimensional convection flow in both unsteady and steady conditions. For illustration purposes, such a technique is applied to the roll pattern of Rayleigh-Bénard convection. The agreement between theory and experiments is fair.     

Quelques résultats sur les déformations équivariantes des courbes stables

Let G be a finite group, let g≥2 and g ′ ≥ 0 be integers. We introduce the algebraic stack classifying the stable curves of genus g endowed with an action of G faithful in each geometric fiber and such that the quotient of each fiber is a semi-stable curve of genus g′. We study the completion of the local rings of this algebraic stack. They are closely related to universal equivariant deformation rings R_C,G of stable curves endowed with a faithful action of G. A useful tool for this purpose is a local-global principle generalizing the one obtained by Bertin and Mézard in [BM00]. We then use the results we already proved in [Mau03b] and [Mau03a] to describe some properties of the space (purity, dimension).     

Galactose Oxidase models: 19F NMR as a powerful tool to study the solution chemistry of tripodal ligands in the presence of copper(II)

In copper(ii) complexes of tripodal ligands, the protonation state of the phenol moiety, and its position (axial vs. equatorial), are easily assessed by (19)F NMR.     

Laboratory singing sand avalanches

Some desert sand dunes have the peculiar ability to emit a loud sound up to 110 dB, with a well-defined frequency: this phenomenon, known since early travelers (Darwin, Marco Polo, etc.), has been called the song of dunes. But only in late 19th century scientific observations were made, showing three important characteristics of singing dunes: first, not all dunes sing, but all the singing dunes are composed of dry and well-sorted sand; second, this sound occurs spontaneously during avalanches on a slip face; third this is not the only way to produce sound with this sand.More recent field observations have shown that during avalanches, the sound frequency does not depend on the dune size or shape, but on the grain diameter only, and scales as the square root of g/d - with g the gravity and d the diameter of the grains - explaining why all the singing dunes in the same vicinity sing at the same frequency.We have been able to reproduce these singing avalanches in laboratory on a hard plate, which made possible to study them more accurately than on the field. Signals of accelerometers at the flowing surface of the avalanche are compared to signals of microphones placed above, and it evidences a very strong vibration of the flowing layer at the same frequency as on the field, responsible for the emission of sound.Moreover, other characteristics of the booming dunes are reproduced and analyzed, such as a threshold under which no sound is produced, or beats in the sound that appears when the flow is too large. Finally, the size of the coherence zones emitting sound has been measured and discussed.