Odd‐Even Effects in Homologous Series of 4‐Cyano‐4'‐Alkylbiphenyls(nCB): Role of Anisotropic Pair Potential

A quantum mechanical analysis has been carried out to determine the association energy of five homologous of 4‐Cyano‐4'‐Alkylbiphenyls series with alkyl group: propyl (3CB) ; butyl (4CB) ; pentyl (5CB) ; hexyl (6CB) ; hepty (7CB) using Rayleigh‐Schrodinger perturbation method for different nearest neighbour configurations of interacting pairs. The net atomic charges and dipoles have been computed using the CNDO/2 method. The complete association energy with all its components has been reported. An attempt has been made to explain the odd‐even effects at the molecular level on the basis of these results.     

Syntheses,characterization, and properties of multiblock copolymers consisting of polyisobutylene and poly(L‐lactide) segments

The syntheses of {‐poly(L ‐lactide) (PLLA)‐b‐polyisobutylene (PIB)‐}_n multiblock copolymers were accomplished for the first time by chain extension of PLLA‐b‐PIB‐b‐PLLA triblock copolymers. Well‐defined PLLA‐b‐PIB‐b‐PLLA triblock copolymers with predictable M_ns, low PDIs (1.10–1.18) and excellent blocking efficiencies were prepared by anionic ring‐opening polymerizations of L ‐lactide initiated with hydroxyallyl telechelic PIB (HO‐Allyl‐PIB‐Allyl‐OH) in toluene at 110 °C. The triblock copolymers were successfully chain extended with 4,4′‐methylenebis(phenylisocyanate) (MDI) to obtain the multiblock copolymers with good gravimetric yields of ～86 to 96%. The chain‐extended polymers were soluble in a range of common organic solvents. The block copolymers showed two glass transition temperatures in differential scanning calorimetric analysis for the PIB and PLLA blocks indicating microphase separation, which was supported by atomic force microscopy images. The as‐synthesized compression molded multiblock copolymers exhibited tensile strengths in the range of 8–24 MPa with elongations at break in the range of 2.5–400%. The static and dynamic mechanical properties showed a strong dependence on the relative PLLA content in the copolymer. The dynamic mechanical analysis also indicated microphase separation at higher PLLA compositions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 3490–3505, 2009     

Wachspress type rational complex planar splines of degree (3,1)

We study the existence, uniqueness and approximation properties of rational complex planar spline interpolants of order (3, 1). We also find sufficient conditions for such interpolants to be quasiregular and quasiconformal. Examples are given. This work was carried out with the aid of MACSYMA, a large symbolic manipulation program developed at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and supported from 1975 to 1983 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant NSG 1323, by the Office of Naval Research under grant N00014-77C-0641, by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant ET-78-C-024687, and by the U.S. Air Force under grant F49620-79-C-020, and since 1982 by Symbolics, Inc. of Burlington, MA.     

A theoretical study of the modal dispersion characteristics of an annular circular waveguide with helical winding as the outer cladding

In this present communication, we introduce a new type of annular optical waveguide whose outer cladding is made of sheath helix. The sheath helix is made up of the dielectric material of lower refractive index than the core materials. Using vector approach, the general characteristic equation for the proposed waveguide has been derived. The modal dispersion characteristics for the lowest-order modes for different pitch angles are determined and analyzed. We observe that there is no effect of pitch angles on dispersion curve nearly up to 89° but drastic change is observed at 90° and above pitch angle. On comparison of helically inner cladded annular circular waveguide, we have found that there is not the existence of the negative dispersion curve and photonic band gap in the helically outer cladded annular circular waveguide. It means only the inner cladding is responsible for the negative dispersion as well as photonic band gap. There is no effect of the outer cladding.     

Raman efficiencies of natural rocks and minerals: performance of a remote Raman system for planetary exploration at a distance of 10 meters

Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique for materials analysis, and we are developing and analyzing a remote Raman system for use on a planetary lander or rover. We have acquired data at a distance of 10m from a variety of geologic materials using different instrument designs. We have employed a pulsed laser with both an ungated detector and a gated detector. A gated detector can reduce long-lived fluorescence while still collecting all Raman signal. In order to design a flight instrument, we need to quantify how natural surfaces will respond to laser stimulus. We define remote Raman efficiency of natural surfaces as the ratio of radiant exitance leaving a natural surface to the irradiance of the incident laser. The radiant exitance of a natural surface is the product of the sample radiance, the projected solid angle, and the full-width-half-maximum of the Raman signal. We have determined the remote Raman efficiency for a variety of rocks and minerals. The best efficiencies are achieved for large, clear, single crystals that produce the most radiant exitance, while darker fine-grained mineral mixtures produce lower efficiencies. By implementing a pulsed laser, gated detector system we have improved the signal detection and have generally decreased the integration time necessary to detect Raman signal from natural surfaces.     

Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays,cosmological constant,and theta vacua

We propose that the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff and the origin of small cosmological constant can both be explained by vacuum tunneling effects in a theory with degenerate vacua and fermionic doublets. By considering the possibility of tunneling from a particular winding number state, accompanied by violation of some global quantum number of fermions, the small value of the vacuum dark energy and the production of high energy cosmic rays are shown to be related. We predict that the energy of such cosmic rays should be at least 5x10(14) GeV.     

Reality properties of conjugacy classes in<Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript>

LetG be an algebraic group over a fieldk. We callg εG(k) real ifg is conjugate tog ⁻¹ inG(k). In this paper we study reality for groups of typeG ₂ over fields of characteristic different from 2. LetG be such a group overk. We discuss reality for both semisimple and unipotent elements. We show that a semisimple element inG(k) is real if and only if it is a product of two involutions inG(k). Every unipotent element inG(k) is a product of two involutions inG(k). We discuss reality forG ₂ over special fields and construct examples to show that reality fails for semisimple elements inG ₂ over ℚ and ℚ_p. We show that semisimple elements are real forG ₂ overk withcd(k) ≤ 1. We conclude with examples of nonreal elements inG ₂ overk finite, with characteristick not 2 or 3, which are not semisimple or unipotent.     

Non-Gaussianity from preheating

We consider a two-field model for inflation where the second order metric perturbations can be amplified by a parametric resonance during preheating. We demonstrate that there can arise a considerable enhancement of non-Gaussianity sourced by the local terms generated through the coupled perturbations. We argue that the non-Gaussianity parameter could be as large as f(NL) approximately 50. Our results may provide a useful test of preheating in future cosmic microwave background experiments.