Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonians defined as quadratic forms

We study Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonians-self-adjoint operators describing a small quantum system interacting with a bosonic field. Using quadratic form techniques, we extend the results of Dereziński-Gérard and Gérard about the self-adjointness, the location of the essential spectrum and the existence of a ground state to a large class of Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonians.     

Design of the cold atom PHARAO space clock and initial test results

In this paper we describe the cold atom clock PHARAO, designed for microgravity operation. All elements of the PHARAO engineering model have been manufactured and delivered to CNES, the French space agency. We present the clock design, its main characteristics, and initial science operation. PHARAO is one of the main components of the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space payload that is scheduled to fly on board the International Space Station in 2010. PACS 07.87.+v; 06.30.Ft; 95.55.Sh; 32.80.Pj     

Sur la R-équivalence de torseurs sous un groupe fini

We give criteria for R-equivalence of torsors under finite constant group schemes over a field. In particular, using bitorsors, we obtain a Galois dévissage result which formalises and generalises a theorem of Philippe Gille in the case of local fields; for instance, Gille's theorem is shown to extend to higher local fields.     

Double-thresholded estimator of extreme value index

The purpose of this Note is to propose an estimator of the extreme value index constructed by using only the number of points exceeding random thresholds. We prove the weak consistency and the asymptotic normality of this estimator. We deduce from this last result that the rate of convergence of our estimator is in a power of the sample size. To our knowledge, this rate of convergence is not reached by any other estimate of the extreme value index. Through a simulation, we compare our estimator to the moment estimator (Dekkers et al., Ann. Statist. 17 (1989) 1833–1855). To cite this article: L. Gardes, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 337 (2003).     

A Wilson group of non-uniformly exponential growth

This Note constructs a finitely generated group W whose word-growth is exponential, but for which the infimum of the growth rates over all finite generating sets is 1 – in other words, of non-uniformly exponential growth.This answers a question by Mikhael Gromov (Structures métriques pour les variétés riemanniennes, in: J. Lafontaine, P. Pansu (Eds.), CEDIC, Paris, 1981).The construction also yields a group of intermediate growth V that locally resembles W in that (by changing the generating set of W) there are isomorphic balls of arbitrarily large radius in V and W's Cayley graphs. To cite this article: L. Bartholdi, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 336 (2003).     

Algebraic Dirichlet-to-Neumann mapping for linear elasticity problems with extreme contrasts in the coefficients

The convergence of iterative based domain decomposition methods is linked with the absorbing boundary conditions defined on the interface between the sub-domains. For linear elasticity problems, the optimal absorbing boundary conditions are associated with non-local Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps. Most of the methods to approximate these non-local maps are based on a continuous analysis. In this paper, an original algebraic technique based on the computation of local Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps is investigated. Numerical experiments are presented for linear elasticity problems with extreme contrasts in the coefficients.