Packing T-joins

A consequence of Seymour's characterization of binary clutters with the Max Flow Min Cut property is that the minimum cardinality of a T-cut is equal to the largest number of edge-disjoint T-joins in every graph that cannot be T-contracted to an odd K_2,3. We give a simple “graphic” proof of this fact. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Chaotic advection in compressible helical flow

Compressible helical flow with div v not equal to 0 drastically increases the area of chaotic dynamics and mixing properties when the helicity parameter is spatially dependent. We show that the density dependence on the z coordinate can be incorporated in new variables in a way that leads to a Hamiltonian formulation of the system. This permits the application of various important results like the Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theory and, particularly, an understanding of why and in which sense the compressible helical flow is "more chaotic" than the incompressible one. Simulation demonstrates this property for an analog of the ABC flow. An interesting type of the dynamical system with "dense" island chains is described.     

Diffusion Monte Carlo method with lattice regularization

We introduce an efficient lattice regularization scheme for quantum Monte Carlo calculations of realistic electronic systems. The kinetic term is discretized by a finite difference Laplacian with two mesh sizes, a and a', chosen so that the electrons can diffuse in a configuration space which is in practice indistinguishable from the continuum, and the different length scales in the system can be efficiently taken in account. The regularized Hamiltonian goes to the continuous limit for a --> 0 and allows the inclusion of nonlocal potentials in a consistent variational scheme, substantially improving the accuracy upon previous nonvariational approaches.     

Manifestation of scarring in a driven system with wave chaos

We consider wave propagation in a model of a deep ocean acoustic wave guide with a periodic range dependence. It is assumed that the wave field is governed by the parabolic equation. Formally the mathematical model of the wave guide coincides with that of a quantum system with time-dependent Hamiltonian. From the analysis of Floquet modes of the wave guide it is shown that there exists a "scarring" effect similar to that observed in quantum systems. It turns out that the segments of an unstable periodic ray trajectory may be distinguished in the spatial distribution of the wave field intensity at a finite wavelength. Besides the scarring effect, it is found that the so-called "stable islands" in the phase space of ray dynamics reveal themselves in the coarse-grained Wigner functions of the Floquet modes.     

Importance of van der Waals interaction for organic molecule-metal junctions: adsorption of thiophene on Cu(110) as a prototype

We report ab initio calculations for the interface energetics of a weakly adsorbed organic molecule on a metal surface, which serves as a model interface relevant for organic electronics. The studied thiophene ring is found to be physisorbed on the Cu(110) surface with an adsorption energy of -0.50 eV. Nonlocal correlations, i.e., van der Waals interactions, are solely responsible for the binding in this weakly interacting system, and the choice of the proper exchange-correlation function is crucially important. The adsorption of thiophene lowers the metal work function due to the formation of surface dipoles while no sizable charge transfer is found.     

Micro‐Raman and stratigraphic studies of the paintings on the ‘Cembalo’ model musical instrument (A.D. 1650) and laser‐induced degradation of the detected pigments

Micro‐fragments of the painted part of the ‘Cembalo’ model by Michele Todini (1625–1689) are investigated. The technique used for painting the terracotta base was studied via the stratigraphic analyses. No background layer of inorganic materials, e.g. gypsum, was found. To prevent absorption effects due to the terracotta porosity, a very thin layer of proteinaceous material was probably used. The micro‐Raman analyses have revealed the use of pigments currently used in the post‐Renaissance period (lead white, indigo, yellow of iron hydroxide, gypsum, hematite and carbon black) mixed with a pigment, the Prussian blue, discovered in A.D . 1704. This raises the authenticity problem of the work of art, a problem analysed and discussed in presenting the history of the work of art, and after the pigment study. The presence of degraded lead white is recognized via the laser‐induced degradation of the irradiated material. The possibility of a restoring action of the painted parts, as opposite to the non‐originality of the work, is considered and discussed. Since most part of the investigated pigments shows laser‐induced effects, a careful study of this phenomenon is performed by using the modern counterparts of the ancient pigments. For different laser powers, the temperatures of the investigated zones have been obtained via the detailed balance principle and connected to the laser‐induced degradation effects. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Critical behavior of the absorbing state transition in the contact process with relaxing immunization

We introduce a model for the Contact Process with relaxing immunization CPRI  . In this model, local memory is introduced by a time and space dependence of the contamination probability. The model has two parameters: a typical immunization time τ$\tau$ and a maximum contamination probability a$a$. The system presents an absorbing state phase transition whenever the contamination probability a$a$ is above a minimum threshold. For short immunization times, the system evolves to a statistically stationary active state. Above _τc(a)${\tau }_c\left(a\right)$, immunization predominates and the system evolves to the absorbing vacuum state. We employ a finite-size scaling analysis to show that the transition belongs to the standard directed percolation universality class. The critical immunization time diverges in the limit of a→1$a\to 1$. In this regime, the density of active sites decays exponentially as τ$\tau$ increases, but never reaches the vacuum state in the thermodynamic limit.     

Suspension and fall of heavy particles in random two-dimensional flow

We investigate the settling of heavy particles in a steady, two-dimensional random velocity field, and find instances in which particle suspension occurs. This leads to a bimodal velocity distribution that may explain some apparently conflicting results reported in the literature. The bimodal distribution is typically smeared out by a time dependence of the ambient flow but, if the time variation is slow, the settling rates of some particles will be as well. The resulting broadbanded velocity distribution of the settling particles will have significance for processes such as rain drop formation, in which the spread of particle velocities affects the statistics of particle collisions.