Miscibility of bisphenol-A polycarbonate with poly(methyl methacrylate)

The miscibility of bisphenol-A polycarbonate (PC) with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) has been reexamined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and optical indications for phase separation on heating, i.e., lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behavior. Various methods have been used to prepare the blends including methylene chloride (CH₂Cl₂) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution casting, melt mixing, and precipitation of PC and PMMA simultaneously from THF solution by using the nonsolvents methanol and heptane. It is shown that the resulting phase behavior for PC/PMMA blends is strongly affected by the blend preparation method. However, these blends are miscible over the whole blend composition range (unambiguous single composition-dependent T_g's and LCST behavior) when prepared by precipitation from solution using heptane as the nonsolvent. To the contrary, solution-cast and melt-mixed PC/PMMA blends were all phase separated, which may be attributed to the “solvent” effect and LCST behavior, respectively, not discovered in previous reports. Methanol precipitation does not lead to fully mixed blends, which demonstrates the importance of the choice of nonsolvent when using the precipitation method.     

Polyhedral <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">2</Emphasis></Subscript>

 Using elementary graded automorphisms of polytopal algebras (essentially the coordinate rings of projective toric varieties) polyhedral versions of the group of elementary matrices and the Steinberg and Milnor groups are defined. They coincide with the usual K-theoretic groups in the special case when the polytope is a unit simplex and can be thought of as compact/polytopal substitutes for the tame automorphism groups of polynomial algebras. Relative to the classical case, many new aspects have to be taken into account. We describe these groups explicitly when the underlying polytope is 2-dimensional. Already this low-dimensional case provides interesting classes of groups. Received: 13 December 2001 / Revised version: 24 June 2002 The second author was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, INTAS grant 99-00817 and TMR grant ERB FMRX CT-97-0107 Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 14L27, 14M25, 19C09, 52B20     

Singularity conjecture and constructions of Jacobi forms

This paper verifies the singularity conjecture for Jacobi forms with higher degree in some typical cases, and gives constructions for the Jacobi cusp forms whose Fourier coefficients can be expressed by some kind of Rankin-typeL-series.     

Stochastic radiative transfer in a finite plane-parallel medium with general boundary conditions

The time-independent radiative transfer problem in a scattering and absorbing planar random medium with general boundary conditions and internal energy source is considered. The medium is assumed to consist of two randomly mixed immiscible fluids, with the mixing statistics described as a two-state homogeneous Markov process. The problem is solved in terms of the solution of the corresponding free-source problem with simple boundary conditions which is solved using Pomraning-Eddington approximation in the deterministic case. A formalism, developed to treat radiative transfer in statistical mixtures, is used to obtain the ensemble-averaged solution. The average partial heat fluxes are calculated in terms of the albedoes of the source-free problem. Results are obtained for isotropic and anisotropic scattering for specular and diffused reflecting boundaries.     

A Noninvasive, on Wafer Method to Determine the Intrinsic Stress of a Polymer Layer

The method described in this paper allows an investigator to determine the intrinsic stress of a polymer layer in a way that does not result in damage to devices or test structures. The method requires that a small area of the polymer be released from the substrate to form a diaphragm. The diaphragm is stimulated with acoustic white noise and the diaphragm movement is monitored with a laser vibrometer. The first few resonance frequencies of the diaphragm are obtained using a laser vibrometer and then those frequencies are used to calculate the membrane intrinsic bi-axial tension.     

Instability of quark matter core in a compact newborn neutron star with moderately strong magnetic field

It is explicitly shown that if phase transition occurs at the core of a newborn neutron star with moderately strong magnetic field strength, which populates only the electron’s Landau levels, then in the β -equilibrium condition, the quark core is energetically much more unstable than the neutron matter of identical physical condition.     

Coherence properties of the supercontinuum source

Mutual–temporal coherence of the supercontinuum (SC) generation has been experimentally investigated using a diffraction grating based interferometer. A broadband SC generation was produced in a pyrex glass plate with a 1.6-μm coherence length at 550-nm center wavelength. The degree of mutual coherence of 0.34 was measured for a wavefront shift for zero and first diffraction orders of half of the beam diameter. A design of SC source with the capability of manipulating the amplitudes and phases of optical frequency components within the SC pulse is presented for coherence applications.     

Analysis of tunable diode-laser spectra of Q(J,0) lines in CH3F near 1475 cm using a multispectrum fitting technique

We have analyzed the methyl fluoride ^RQ(J,0)Q branch lines located near 1475 cm⁻¹ using a simultaneous multi-spectrum fitting technique. In this analysis we have used previously recorded diode-laser data in which we collected many data points covering only one or two Q branch lines in a particular run. The analysis consists of simultaneously fitting 57 spectra collected with numerous pressure and path length conditions for all absorption lines. The data are concatenated to create one continuous spectrum of the Q branch. We have determined the intensity and self-broadened widths at 296 K for 23 ^RQ(J,0) lines.     

Nonequilibrium Ionization by Vibrationally Excited Molecules in Supersonic Flows

The results of experimental investigations on thermal nonequilibrium ionization in CO₂: N₂: He mixtures are presented. Measurements of electron density, n_e, in vibrationally excited nitrogen were made in a supersonic flow with different CO₂ contents as well as in a CO₂: N₂: He = 1 : 5 : 4 mixture laser gas. The mixtures were heated in a shock tube and expanded through a supersonic nozzle. Furthermore, supersonic mixing of N₂ and CO₂ + He was used in some experiments. The measured values of n_e in the plenum chamber and in the supersonic nozzle are reported, and the processes responsible for nonequilibrium ionization in a laser-active medium are discussed.