Preface

Journal of Statistical Physics -     

Equilibrium statistics of a vortex filament with applications

The thermodynamic functions and scaling exponents (including the Kolmogorov and Flory exponents) of a vortex filament in thermal equilibrium are calculated, giving a quantitative content to earlier qualitative analyses. The numerical results uncover a percolation property of vortex filaments near the maximum entropy state. The implications of the results for the onset of turbulence, for the structure of its inertial range, and for superfluid vortices are discussed. In particular, it is shown that vortex stretching pushes a vortex system to a polymeric state and a Kolmogorov spectrum.This work was supported in part by the Applied Mathematical Sciences subprogram of the Office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy, under contract DE-AC03-76SF-00098, and in part by the National Science Foundation under grant number DMS89-19074     

An optimization approach for planning daily drayage operations

Daily drayage operations involve moving loaded or empty equipment between customer locations and rail ramps. Our goal is to minimize the cost of daily drayage operations in a region on a given day. Drayage orders are generally pickup and delivery requests with time windows. The repositioning of empty equipment may also be required in order to facilitate loaded movements. The drayage orders are satisfied by a heterogeneous fleet of drivers. Driver routes must satisfy various operational constraints. We present an optimization methodology for finding cost-effective schedules for regional daily drayage operations. The core of the formulation is a set partitioning model whose columns represent routes. Routes are added to the formulation by column generation. We present numerical results for real-world data which demonstrate that our methodology produces low cost solutions in a reasonably short time.     

Unstable minimal surfaces and Heegaard splittings

Partially supported by NSF grant DMS-8701746     

Can you feel the double jump?

When p = c/n and c goes from less than one to greater than one, the random graph G(n, p) experiences the double jump. The first order language is too weak to recognize this change while there are properties expressable in the second order monadic language for which the change is clear. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The decisive role of calorimetric measurements in equilibrium phase diagram calculations

In this paper, examples are given of how calorimetric values can give greater certainty to phase equilibria calculated from thermodynamic data. Errors that may arise when phase diagram evaluations are carried out largely from the basis of Gibbs energy information only are illustrated by reference to recent evaluations of the Ti?Si system and the resulting calculated oxidation behaviour of titanium silicides. The importance of calorimetric values for calculation of metastable phase equilibria is demonstrated by results of work on the AlN?TiN hard-metal coating system. Finally, suggestions are made with regard to areas of work where calorimetric data are urgently needed.     

Synthesis and photophysical properties of fluorescent 2-aryl-1,3-dialkylbenzimidazolium ions and a l-alkyl-2-arylbenzimidazole with excited state intramolecular proton-transfer

To improve the solubility, photostability and fluorescence quantum yield (Φ) of 2-arylbenzimidazolium ions the N-1 hydrogen was replaced by an alkyl group before N-3 was quatemized; this substitution did not reduce Φ, proving the absence of steric inhibition to attainment of coplanarity in the excited state. A related symmetrical 2,2′-arylenebis(1,3-dimethyldibenzimidazolium ion) had Φ = 0.86. The related 2,5-bis(1-methyl-2-benzimidazolyl)phenol had Φ = 0.38 at 22° as well as a very large Stokes' shift due to proton-transfer. These findings supported a new insight into the electron distribution of the first excited singlet state of oligophenylenes. The compounds are of interest as laser dyes and scintillation fluors.     

Spectra in Standard-like Z3 Orbifold Models

General features of the spectra of matter states in all 175 models found in a previous work by the author are discussed. Only 20 patterns of representations are found to occur. Accomodation of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) spectrum is addressed. States beyond those contained in the MSSM and nonstandard hypercharge normalization are shown to be generic, though some models do allow for the usual hypercharge normalization found in SU(5) embeddings of the standard model gauge group. The minimum value of the hypercharge normalization consistent with accommodation of the MSSM is determined for each model. In some cases, the normalization can be smaller than that corresponding to an SU(5) embedding of the standard model gauge group, similar to what has been found in free fermionic models. Bizarre hypercharges typically occur for exotic states, allowing for matter which does not occur in the decomposition of SU(5) representations—a result which has been noted many times before in four-dimensional string models. Only one of the 20 patterns of representations, comprising seven of the 175 models, is found to be without an anomalous U(1). The sizes of nonvanishing vacuum expectation values induced by the anomalous U(1) are studied. It is found that large radius moduli stabilization may lead to the breakdown of σ-model perturbativity. Various quantities of interest in effective supergravity model building are tabulated for the set of 175 models. In particular, it is found that string moduli masses appear to be generically quite near the gravitino mass. String scale gauge coupling unification is shown to be possible, albeit contrived, in an example model. The intermediate scales of exotic particles are estimated and the degree of fine-tuning is studied.