Optical metrics and birefringence of anisotropic media

The material tensor of linear response in electrodynamics is constructed out of products of two symmetric second rank tensor fields which in the approximation of geometrical optics and for uniaxial symmetry reduce to “optical” metrics, describing the phenomenon of birefringence. This representation is interpreted in the context of an underlying internal geometrical structure according to which the symmetric tensor fields are vectorial elements of an associated two-dimensional space.     

A Short Remark on Weierstrass Points at Infinity on <Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis><Subscript>0</Subscript>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>)

We point out that the formalism of the trace map and reduction modulo p can be used to give a short proof for the fact first proved by Ogg that is not a Weierstrass point on X₀(pM) where p is a prime not dividing M and the genus of X₀(M) is zero.     

Divisorial Linear Algebra of Normal Semigroup Rings

We investigate the minimal number of generators and the depth of divisorial ideals over normal semigroup rings. Such ideals are defined by the inhomogeneous systems of linear inequalities associated with the support hyperplanes of the semigroup. The main result is that for every bound C there exist, up to isomorphism, only finitely many divisorial ideals I such that (I)C. It follows that there exist only finitely many Cohen–Macaulay divisor classes. Moreover, we determine the minimal depth of all divisorial ideals and the behaviour of and depth in arithmetic progressions in the divisor class group.The results are generalized to more general systems of linear inequalities whose homogeneous versions define the semigroup in a not necessarily irredundant way. The ideals arising this way can also be considered as defined by the nonnegative solutions of an inhomogeneous system of linear diophantine equations.We also give a more ring-theoretic approach to the theorem on minimal number of generators of divisorial ideals: it turns out to be a special instance of a theorem on the growth of multigraded Hilbert functions.     

Cosmological Two-Fluid Thermodynamics

We reveal unifying thermodynamic aspects of so different phenomena as the cosmological electron-positron annihilation, the evaporation of primordial black holes with a narrow mass range, and the "deflationary" transition from an initial de Sitter phase to a subsequent standard Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) behavior.     

Nonvanishing of symmetric square -functions of cusp forms inside the critical strip

We shall give a certain nonvanishing result for the symmetric square -function of an elliptic cuspidal Hecke eigenform w.r.t. the full modular group inside the critical strip.

     

Homoclinic bifurcation in a Hodgkin-Huxley model of thermally sensitive neurons

We study global bifurcations of the chaotic attractor in a modified Hodgkin-Huxley model of thermally sensitive neurons. The control parameter for this model is the temperature. The chaotic behavior is realized over a wide range of temperatures and is visualized using interspike intervals. We observe an abrupt increase of the interspike intervals in a certain temperature region. We identify this as a homoclinic bifurcation of a saddle-focus fixed point which is embedded in the chaotic attractors. The transition is accompanied by intermittency, which obeys a universal scaling law for the average length of trajectory segments exhibiting only short interspike intervals with the distance from the onset of intermittency. We also present experimental results of interspike interval measurements taken from the crayfish caudal photoreceptor, which qualitatively demonstrate the same bifurcation structure. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.     

A Mössbauer effect study of Dy impurities in the h.c.p. metal Zr

The 86.8 keV, 2⁺ → 0⁺ Mössbauer resonance of ¹⁶⁰Dy has been employed to study the paramagnetic hyperfine (hf) structure of Dy impurities in the hexagonal transition metal Zr. From the observed hf splitting it is concluded that the crystalline electric field ground state is an almost pure $\text{J}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>z</mtext>}}\text{= ±}\text{1}\text{2}\text{Γ}{}_7$ Kramers' doublet with g_⊥ ? g_|. The quadrupole hf interaction and the effects of paramagnetic relaxation on the ME spectrum are also discussed.