Patterns at the onset of electroconvection in freely suspended smectic films

We report the results of experiments on electrically driven convection that occurs in a thin, freely suspended film of smectic A liquid crystal when an electric field is applied in the plane of the film. Convection in a vortex pattern is found above a well-defined critical voltage. The film behaves as a two-dimensional isotropic liquid: neither its thickness nor the director field are modified by the flow. We present measurements of the critical voltage at the onset of convection in two experimental configurations—one which allows the injection of charges into the film from the electrodes, and one which does not. When injection is present, the critical voltage for the onset of flow increases monotonically with increasing frequency of applied field. With no injection, there is no instability at DC and the critical voltage diverges there. The nature of the flow pattern observed at onset changes with frequency. Below a certain frequency the film flows in vortices that extend over the width of the film; above this frequency the flow is confined to two lines of smaller vortices localized along the electrodes. We present a simple discussion of the mechanisms which drive the convection.     

Geometrical method for determining the surface damage threshold for femtosecond laser pulses

A new geometrical method to determine the surface damage threshold for ultrashort pulses is presented. It consists in the formation of a surface damage profile by a movement of the sample across the laser beam focus. A single measurement of the maximum transversal dimension of this damage profile, which depends solely on the laser beam power, is used to calculate the local damage threshold intensity. It is also theoretically shown that the damage in the transverse dimension can be controlled under the diffraction-limited spot.     

Global stability of the Armstrong-Frederick model with periodic biaxial inputs

The paper is concerned with the study of plasticity models described by differential equations with stop and play operators. We suggest sufficient conditions for the global stability of a unique periodic solution for the scalar models and for the vector models with biaxial inputs of a particular form, namely the sum of a uniaxial function and a constant term. For another class of simple biaxial inputs, we present an example of the existence of unstable periodic solutions. The paper was written during the research stay of D. Rachinskii at the Technical University Munich supported by the research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. His work was partially supported by the Russian Science Support Foundation, Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 01-01-00146, 03-01-00258), and the Grants of the President of Russia (Grant No. MD-87.2003.01, NS-1532.2003.1). The support is gratefully acknowledged.     

Sufficiency in Quantum Statistical Inference

This paper attempts to develop a theory of sufficiency in the setting of non-commutative algebras parallel to the ideas in classical mathematical statistics. Sufficiency of a coarse-graining means that all information is extracted about the mutual relation of a given family of states. In the paper sufficient coarse-grainings are characterized in several equivalent ways and the non-commutative analogue of the factorization theorem is obtained. As an application we discuss exponential families. Our factorization theorem also implies two further important results, previously known only in finite Hilbert space dimension, but proved here in generality: the Koashi-Imoto theorem on maps leaving a family of states invariant, and the characterization of the general form of states in the equality case of strong subadditivity. Supported by the EU Research Training Network Quantum Probability with Applications to Physics, Information Theory and Biology and Center of Excellence SAS Physics of Information I/2/2005. Supported by the Hungarian grant OTKA T032662     

Parametric resonance in the problem of a heavy rigid body rolling along a straight line on a plane

The problem of the stability of a heavy rigid body, bounded by the surface of an ellipsoid and with a cavity in the form of a coaxial ellipsoid, rolling along a straight line on a horizontal rough plane is investigated. It is shown that in the case of a body that is close to being dynamically symmetrical, parametric resonance always occurs leading to instability of the rolling. Each ellipsoid has its own “individual” resonance angular velocity. In the general case, regions in which the necessary stability conditions are satisfied can be distinguished in parameter space. The problem of calculating the resonance coefficient corresponding to instability for parametric resonance in a reversible third-order system is solved.     

Numerical solutions of the shallow water equations with discontinuous bed topography

A simple scheme is developed for treatment of vertical bed topography in shallow water flows. The effect of the vertical step on flows is modelled with the shallow water equations including local energy loss terms. The bed elevation is denoted with z_b^‐ for the left and z_b⁺ for the right values at each grid point, hence exactly representing a discontinuity in the bed topography. The surface gradient method (SGM) is generalized to reconstruct water depths at cell interfaces involving a vertical step so that the fluxes at the cell interfaces can accurately be calculated with a Riemann solver. The scheme is verified by predicting a surge crossing a step, a tidal flow over a step and dam‐break flows on wet/dry beds. The results have shown good agreements compared with analytical solutions and available experimental data. The scheme is efficient, robust, and may be used for practical flow calculations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Instability in a delay-PDE model of earthquake occurrence

Summary Ductile deformation prior to brittle fracture in rocks causes fracture to take place with a time delay after the critical stress for fracture is reached, in the presence of an increasing load stress. We discuss the stability of a stochastic model of interactive earthquake occurrence under the influence of time delays resulting from the ductile process. A threshold for oscillatory behavior is found for large enough coupling and discrete time delays. The system is stable if the time delays are spread over a broad time interval, even for large coupling.     

Reaction of methyl bromopropiolate with diamines as a method of synthesis of imidazolidine derivatives

A convenient method of synthesis of 2-(methoxycarbonylmethylene)-substituted imidazolidines and imidazolidinium bromides, and also of bicyclic diazo compounds has been developed starting from methyl bromopropiolate and ethylenediamine and its derivatives.Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 9, pp. 1205–1208, September, 1991.