On a class of operators related to second-order differential equations

In the present paper, we find a class of linear homogeneous differential equations of order n + 1 (n > 1) whose fundamental system of solutions is constructed from the fundamental system of solutions of a second-order differential equation. The spectral properties of differential operators generated by these differential expressions are investigated. In particular, sufficient conditions are obtained for the coefficients of a second-order differential equation under which the case of maximal deficiency indices is realized. Dedicated to the memory of B. M. Levitan     

High pressure X-ray diffraction study of CdAl2Se4 and Raman study of AAl2Se4 (A=Hg, Zn) and CdAl2X4 (X=Se, S)

We report the results of an X-ray diffraction study of CdAl₂Se₄ and of Raman studies of HgAl₂Se₄ and ZnAl₂Se₄ at room temperature, and of CdAl₂S₄ and CdAl₂Se₄ at 80 K at high pressure. The ambient pressure phase of CdAl₂Se₄ is stable up to a pressure of 9.1 GPa above which a phase transition to a disordered rock salt phase is observed. A fit of the volume pressure data to a Birch-Murnaghan type equation of state yields a bulk modulus of 52.1 GPa. The relative volume change at the phase transition at ∼9 GPa is about 10%. The analysis of the Raman data of HgAl₂Se₄ and ZnAl₂Se₄ reveals a general trend observed for different defect chalcopyrite materials. The line widths of the Raman peaks change at intermediate pressures between 4 and 6 GPa as an indication of the pressure induced two stage order-disorder transition observed in these materials. In addition, we include results of a low temperature Raman study of CdAl₂S₄ and CdAl₂Se₄, which shows a very weak temperature dependence of the Raman-active phonon modes.     

Smart Geodesic Tracing in GRworkbench

We have developed a new tool for numerical work in General Relativity: GRworkbench. We discuss how GRworkbench's implementation of a numerically-amenable analogue to Differential Geometry facilitates the development of robust and chart-independent numerical algorithms. We consider, as an example, geodesic tracing on two charts covering the exterior Schwarzschild space-time.     

On the Reality of the Eigenvalues for a Class of -Symmetric Oscillators

 We study the eigenvalue problem with the boundary conditions that decays to zero as z tends to infinity along the rays , where is a real polynomial and . We prove that if for some we have for all , then the eigenvalues are all positive real. We then sharpen this to a larger class of polynomial potentials. In particular, this implies that the eigenvalues are all positive real for the potentials when with , and with the boundary conditions that decays to zero as z tends to infinity along the positive and negative real axes. This verifies a conjecture of Bessis and Zinn-Justin. Received: 16 January 2002 / Accepted: 1 May 2002 Published online: 6 August 2002     

Eigenvalue distributions of random unitary matrices

 Let U be an n × n random matrix chosen from Haar measure on the unitary group. For a fixed arc of the unit circle, let X be the number of eigenvalues of M which lie in the specified arc. We study this random variable as the dimension n grows, using the connection between Toeplitz matrices and random unitary matrices, and show that (X -E [X])/(\Var (X))^1/2 is asymptotically normally distributed. In addition, we show that for several fixed arcs I ₁ , ..., I _m , the corresponding random variables are jointly normal in the large n limit. Received: 15 November 2000 / Revised version: 27 September 2001 / Published online: 17 May 2002     

Generalized Longo–Rehren Subfactors and α-Induction

We study the recent construction of subfactors by Rehren which generalizes the Longo–Rehren subfactors. We prove that if we apply this construction to a non-degenerately braided subfactor N⊂M and α^±-induction, then the resulting subfactor is dual to the Longo–Rehren subfactor M⊗M ^opp⊂R arising from the entire system of irreducible endomorphisms of M resulting from α^plusmn;-induction. As a corollary, we solve a problem on existence of braiding raised by Rehren negatively. Furthermore, we generalize our previous study with Longo and Müger on multi-interval subfactors arising from a completely rational conformal net of factors on S ¹ to a net of subfactors and show that the (generalized) Longo–Rehren subfactors and α-induction naturally appear in this context. Received: 11 September 2001 / Accepted: 7 October 2001     

A primer on perfect simulation for spatial point processes

This primer provides a self-contained exposition of the case where spatial birth-and-death processes are used for perfect simulation of locally stable point processes. Particularly, a simple dominating coupling from the past (CFTP) algorithm and the CFTP algorithms introduced in [13], [14], and [5] are studied. Some empirical results for the algorithms are discussed. Received: 30 June 2002     

Structural evolution in amorphous silicon and germanium thin films.

The structural evolution in amorphous silicon and germanium thin films has been investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) in conjunction with autocorrelation function (ACF) analysis. The results established that the structure of as-deposited semiconductor films is of a high density of nanocrystallites embedded in the amorphous matrix. In addition, from ACF analysis, the structure of a-Ge is more ordered than that of a-Si. The density of embedded nanocrystallites in amorphous films was found to diminish with annealing temperature first, then to increase. The conclusions also corroborate well with the results of diminished medium-range order in annealed amorphous films determined previously by a variable coherence microscopy method.