Wetting transition of a nematic liquid crystal on a periodic wedge-structured substrate

It is known that the wetting behaviour of a fluid is deeply altered by the presence of rough or structured substrates. We first review some simple considerations about isotropic fluids and rough substrates, and then we generalize Wenzel's law, which assigns an effective contact angle to a droplet on a rough substrate, when the wetting layer has an ordered phase, like a nematic. We estimate the conditions for which the wetting behavior of an ordered fluid can be qualitatively different from that usually found in a simple fluid. To support our general considerations, we use the Landau-de Gennes mean field approach to investigate theoretically and numerically the wetting transition of a nematic phase on a periodic triangular structured substrate.     

Equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter and the tidal deformability of neutron star

The European Physical Journal A - In recent years there has been much progress on the investigation of the QCD phase diagram with lattice QCD simulations. In this review we focus on the...     

Graphs with maximal signless Laplacian spectral radius

By the signless Laplacian of a (simple) graph G we mean the matrix Q(G)=D(G)+A(G), where A(G),D(G) denote respectively the adjacency matrix and the diagonal matrix of vertex degrees of G. It is known that connected graphs G that maximize the signless Laplacian spectral radius ρ(Q(G)) over all connected graphs with given numbers of vertices and edges are (degree) maximal. For a maximal graph G with n vertices and r distinct vertex degrees δ_r>δ_r-1>?>δ₁, it is proved that ρ(Q(G))<ρ(Q(H)) for some maximal graph H with n+1 (respectively, n) vertices and the same number of edges as G if either G has precisely two dominating vertices or there exists an integer such that δ_i+δ_r+1-i?n+1 (respectively, δ_i+δ_r+1-i?δ_l+δ_r-l+1). Graphs that maximize ρ(Q(G)) over the class of graphs with m edges and m-k vertices, for k=0,1,2,3, are completely determined.     

Properties of functions with monotone graphs

A metric space (X,d) is monotone if there is a linear order < on X and a constant c>0 such that d(x,y)≦cd(x,z) for all x<y<z∈X. Properties of continuous functions with monotone graph (considered as a planar set) are investigated. It is shown, for example, that such a function can be almost nowhere differentiable, but must be differentiable at a dense set, and that the Hausdorff dimension of the graph of such a function is 1.     

Microstructure and Red Luminescence of ZnO Nanoparticles/Nanofibers Synthesized by Electrospinning Followed by Thermal Annealing

Journal of Applied Spectroscopy - This paper reports the red visible luminescence of ZnO nanofibers synthesized by electrospinning followed by thermal annealing. The ZnO nanofibers were prepared by...     

Dynamics of gain-guided solitons in an all-normal-dispersion fiber laser

We report experimental and numerical results on the dynamics of gain-guided solitons in a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser made of purely normal dispersion fibers. We show that formation of the soliton in the laser is a result of mutual interaction and balance among the cavity transmission, fiber Kerr nonlinearity, gain saturation, and filtering over one cavity round trip.     

Reanalysis of the neutron electric dipole moment in Higgs models of CP-violation

We point out new contributions to the electric dipole moment of the neutron which arise in any model with spontaneous CP-violation. The effect is due to processes involving the exchange of a Higgs boson between the quarks constituting the neutron. In Weinberg's model, these new contributions are small compared to the single-quark contribution.     

Thermodynamic characteristics of acid–base equilibria of glycyl-glycyl-glycine in water–ethanol solutions at 298 K

The enthalpies of the acid dissociation of glycyl-glycyl-glycine zwitterions and triglycinium ions are determined calorimetrically in water–ethanol solvents containing 0.0, 0.10, 0.30, and 0.50 molar fractions of ethanol at ionic strengths of 0.1 (maintained by sodium perchlorate) and Т = 298.15 K. It is found that increasing the ethanol content in the solvent enhances the endothermic effect of triglycinium ion dissociation and reduces the endothermic effect of glycyl-glycyl-glycine dissociation. The results are discussed in terms of the solvation thermodynamics.     

Surface plasmon resonance within ion implanted silver clusters

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) belongs to the most sensitive indicators for changes in analyte concentrations or other sample properties, which depend on the refractive index in the medium. Surface plasmons represent collective electron oscillations in metal cluster or metal layers of diameter or thickness in the nanometer range. Such layers or clusters are used in many optical sensors in order to enhance the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and analyte. Clusters are preferred to enhance Raman scattering and IR absorption, whereas layers are used for SPR in the visible range. We tested the applicability of ion implanted clusters in order to enhance the stability of the metal coatings of the SPR sensor elements. A model based on the effective media theory was developed in order to enhance the sensor capabilities. The potential of the SPR with ion implanted metal clusters consists in durable resonance layers for biochemical sensors. Received: 21 December 1997 / Revised: 6 March 1998 / Accepted: 12 March 1998