Cycle and circle tests of balance in gain graphs: Forbidden minors and their groups

We examine two criteria for balance of a gain graph, one based on binary cycles and one on circles. The graphs for which each criterion is valid depend on the set of allowed gain groups. The binary cycle test is invalid, except for forests, if any possible gain group has an element of odd order. Assuming all groups are allowed, or all abelian groups, or merely the cyclic group of order 3, we characterize, both constructively and by forbidden minors, the graphs for which the circle test is valid. It turns out that these three classes of groups have the same set of forbidden minors. The exact reason for the importance of the ternary cyclic group is not clear. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Dielectric and optical properties of polymer-liquid crystal composite

Dielectric properties of polymer-liquid crystal mixture, having constituent polymer, poly-butyl methacrylate (PBMA) and liquid crystal, cholesteryl nonanoate, are reported as a function of frequency and temperature. The measurement has been done in a temperature range of 300-375 K and frequency range of 100 Hz-10 MHz. The dielectric permittivity and dielectric loss shows significant changes with the addition of polymer molecules in liquid crystal. The significant feature of composite formation is that the pure liquid crystal and polymer do not show dielectric relaxation in the frequency range covered, while the composite shows relaxation peak at a particular frequency. The optical transmittance of pure liquid crystal and composite has also been measured and compared.     

Characterization of low molecular weight hydrocarbon oligomers by laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry using a solvent-free sample preparation method.

A new solvent-free sample preparation method using silver trifluoroacetate (AgTFA) was developed for the analysis of low molecular weight paraffins and microcrystalline waxes by laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LDI-TOFMS). Experiments show that spectral quality can be enhanced by dispersing AgTFA directly in liquid paraffins without the use of additional solvents. This preparation mixture is applied directly to the MALDI probe. Solid waxes could be examined by melting prior to analysis. The method also provides sufficiently reproducible spectra that peak area ratios between mono- and bicyclic alkane peaks indicated variations in the cycloalkane content of paraffin samples. Dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons observed during the desorption/ionization process was studied by analysis of alkane standards.     

Charged Black Holes and Multidimensional Gravity

A multidimensional generalization of the Reissner-Nordström solution of general relativity is obtained for the case of n Ricci-flat internal spaces. A two-parameter family of black-hole solutions for an arbitrary dimensionality D is selected. Nontrivial black holes with D > 4 are shown to exist only with a nonzero electric charge. Observational consequences are discussed, in particular, a violation of Coulomb's law.     

Investigation of the structure of a melt and molecular dynamics of ortho- and pyrophosphates by Raman spectroscopy

Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 535–540, October, 1991.     

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.     

AGE method simulations of a turbulent far‐wake compared to spectral DNS

Turbulent flow simulation methods based on finite differences are attractive for their simplicity, flexibility and efficiency, but not always for accuracy or stability. This paper demonstrates that a good compromise is possible with the advected grid explicit (AGE) method. Starting from the same initial field as a previous spectral DNS, AGE method simulations of a planar turbulent wake were carried out as DNS, and then at three levels of reduced resolution. The latter cases were in a sense large‐eddy simulations (LES), although no specific sub‐grid‐scale model was used. Results for the two DNS methods, including variances and power spectra, were very similar, but the AGE simulation required much less computational effort. Small‐scale information was lost in the reduced resolution runs, but large‐scale mean and instantaneous properties were reproduced quite well, with further large reductions in computational effort. Quality of results becomes more sensitive to the value chosen for one of the AGE method parameters as resolution is reduced, from which it is inferred that the numerical stability procedure controlled by the parameter is acting in part as a sub‐grid‐scale model. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.