T-duality in Affine NA Toda Models

The construction of non-Abelian affine Toda models is discussed in terms of its underlying Lie algebraic structure. It is shown that a subclass of such non-conformal two-dimensional integrable models naturally leads to the construction of a pair of actions, which share the same spectra and are related by canonical transformations.     

Immobilized polysiloxanes as stationary phases for high-performance liquid chromatography and solid phase extraction

Polysiloxanes immobilized onto the surfaces of porous silica particles have proven to be good stationary phases for the separation of multiresidues of pesticides and their metabolic/degradation products by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Similar materials have proven effective for pre-concentration and clean-up procedures using solid phase extraction. The present paper describes the preparation and some applications of several of these packing materials.     

Multicuts in unweighted graphs and digraphs with bounded degree and bounded tree-width

The Multicut problem can be defined as: given a graph G and a collection of pairs of distinct vertices {s_i,t_i} of G, find a minimum set of edges of G whose removal disconnects each s_i from the corresponding t_i. Multicut is known to be NP-hard and Max SNP-hard even when the input graph is restricted to being a tree. The main result of the paper is a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for Multicut in unweighted graphs with bounded degree and bounded tree-width. That is, for any ε>0, we present a polynomial-time (1+ε)-approximation algorithm. In the particular case when the input is a bounded-degree tree, we have a linear-time implementation of the algorithm. We also provide some hardness results: we prove that Multicut is still NP-hard for binary trees and that it is Max SNP-hard if we drop any of the three conditions (unweighted, bounded-degree, bounded tree-width). Finally we show that some of these results extend to the vertex version of Multicut and to a directed version of Multicut.     

Disentangling the reaction mechanisms of weakly bound nuclei

Complete and incomplete fusion cross sections for the ⁹Be + ¹⁴⁴Sm reaction have been measured at near-barrier energies, using the delayed X-ray detection technique. At above-barrier energies these show a suppression of complete fusion for this weakly bound projectile on an intermediate mass target. The suppression factor, attributed to ⁹Be break-up, was deduced from a comparison of complete fusion yields with coupled-channels calculations, and appears consistent with measured incomplete fusion product yields. At ∼10%, it is considerably smaller than the value of ∼30% previously found for a ²⁰⁸Pb target. Simultaneous measurements of elastic and inelastic scattering permit a clearer picture of the reaction mechanisms.     

Polynomial expansion of basis sets: Alternatives to fully optimized exponents

Alternatives based on polynomial expansions of gaussian basis set exponents are introduced and evaluated. The formulas presented here outperform methods based upon the even-tempered formula or combinations of it. They closely match the performance of other methods based upon larger polynomial expansions of the logarithm of the exponents using the same or one less parameter per orbital angular symmetry.     

Erbium:YAG (2.94 mum) laser effects on dental tissues

Past trials with soft and calcified tissues have demonstrated that long pulse train (2.5 mus) Er:YAG (2.94 mum) laser may be used to ablate tooth structure of human teeth. Determination of physical and thermal damage to surrounding tissue during removal of enamel and dentin is a primary objective of this study. Extracted human teeth with thermal probes imbedded in the pulp chambers were submitted to cavity preparation using an Erbium YAG laser with water mist. Wavelength selection as well as use of a water mist during the procedure resulted in efficient tissue removal without significant surrounding damage. Ground sections and SEM sections of teeth showed little or no melting or ash formation in adjacent dentin and enamel and no visible change in the pulp chamber. The surfaces produced by laser ablation were rough and irregular with craters and grooves. Average temperature change in the pulp chamber monitored during tooth preparation was 2.2 degrees Centigrade. These findings suggest that constantly available water aids vaporization and microexplosions, increasing the efficiency of tooth structure removal, and aids in cooling of the tooth structures. The long pulse Er:YAG (2.94 mum) laser may be an effective method for tooth reduction applications when used with a water mist.     

Soliton Raman fibre-ring oscillators

Results are presented on the operation and optimization of soliton Raman fibre-ring lasers using a c.w. mode-locked Nd-YAG laser at 1.32m as the source of 100 ps pump pulses. Various lengths of standard single-mode silica fibre were used, and tunable pulses as short as 100 fs generated.On leave from Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceio, 57000-AL, Brazil