General covariance of the non-abelian DBI-action: checks and balances

We perform three tests on our proposal to implement diffeomorphism invariance in the non-abelian D0-brane DBI action as a base-point independence constraint between matrix Riemann normal coordinate systems. First, we show that T-duality along an isometry correctly interchanges the potential and kinetic terms in the action. Second, we show that the method to impose base-point independence using an auxiliary dN²-dimensional nonlinear sigma model also works for metrics which are curved along the brane, provided a physical gauge choice is made at the end. Third, we show that without alteration this method is applicable to higher order in velocities. Testing specifically to order 4, we elucidate the range of validity of the symmetrized trace approximation to the non-abelian DBI action.     

On the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the Piston Problem

The piston problem is investigated in the case where the length of the cylinder is infinite (on both sides) and the ratio m/M is a very small parameter, where m is the mass of one particle of the gaz and M is the mass of the piston. Introducing initial conditions such that the stochastic motion of the piston remains in the average at the origin (no drift), it is shown that the time evolution of the fluids, analytically derived from Liouville equation in a previous work, agrees with the Second Law of thermodynamics. We thus have a non equilibrium microscopical model whose evolution can be explicitly shown to obey the two laws of thermodynamics.     

Analytic continuation and identities involving heat,Poisson, wave and Bessel kernels

In this article we use classical formulas involving the K–Bessel function in two variables to express the Poisson kernel on a Riemannian manifold in terms of the heat kernel. We then use the small time asymptotics of the heat kernel on certain Riemannian manifolds to obtain a meromorphic continuation of the associated Poisson kernel to all values of complex time with identifiable singularities. This result reproves in a different setting by different means a well–known theorem due to Duistermaat and Guillemin [DG 75]. Also, we develop analytic expressions for the heat kernel beyond asymptotic expansions. (© 2003 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Rank,covering number and a simple spectrum

For a dynamical system (X, B, T, μ) we investigate the connections between metric invariants, the rankr(T) and the covering numberF ^*(T) and a spectral property for having a simple spectrum. Given a positive integerr≥2, a real numberb, 0<b<1 such thatr·b≥1, we construct examples of systems withr(T)=r, F ^*(T)=b and having a simple spectrum.     

Pentopyranosyl Oligonucleotide Systems. 9th Communication

Pyranosyl‐RNA (‘p‐RNA’ ) is an oligonucleotide system isomeric to natural RNA and composed of the very same building blocks as RNA. Its generational, chemical, and informational properties are deemed to be those of an alternative nucleic acid system that could have been a candidate in Nature's evolutionary choice of the molecular basis of genetic function. We consider the study of the chemistry of p‐RNA as etiologically relevant in the sense that knowledge of its structural, chemical, and informational properties on the chemical level offers both a perspective and reference points for the recognition of specific structural assets of the RNA structure that made it the (supposedly) superior system among possible alternatives and, therefore, the system that became part of biology as we know it today. The paper describes the chemical synthesis of β‐d‐ (and L )‐ribopyranosyl‐(4′→2′)‐oligonucleotide sequences, presents a resume of their structural and chemical properties, and cautiously discusses what we may and may not have learned from the pyranosyl isomer of RNA with respect to the conundrum of RNA's origin.