The linear polarization constant of R n

Summary He present work deals with estimations of the n-th linear polarization constant c(H)_n of an n-dimensional real Hilbert space H. We provide some new lower bounds on the value of sup_║y║=1 │1,y> ... n,y>│, where x₁, ... ,x_n are unit vectors in H. In particular, the results improve an earlier estimate of Marcus. However, the intriguing conjecture c(H) _n= n^n/2 remains open.     

Analytic solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the modified quartic oscillator

No analytic solutions of the Schrödinger equation are known for the quartic anharmonic oscillator. We show in this paper that there are closely related modified quartic oscillators with the potential depending on |x| for which analytic solutions for some states exist. These results can be extended to the higher order oscillators     

Study of the gas-phase parameters affecting the silicon-oxide film deposition induced by an ArF laser

A study of the gas-phase parameters involved in ArF laser induced chemical vapour deposition of silicon-oxide thin films is presented. A complete set of experiments has been performed showing the influence of the concentration of the precursor gases, N₂O and SiH₄, and their influence on total and partial pressures on film growth and properties. In this paper we demonstrate the ability of this LCVD method to deposit silicon oxide films of different compositions and densities by appropriate control of gas composition and total pressure. Moreover, a material specific calibration plot comprising data obtained using different preparation techniques is presented, allowing determination of the stoichiometry of SiO _x films by using FTIR spectroscopy independently of the deposition method. For the range of processing conditions examined, the experimental results suggest that chemical processes governing deposition take place mainly in the gas phase.     

Additive-subtractive phase-modulated speckle interferometry: Fringe visibility under partial decorrelation

Additive-subtractive phase modulated speckle interferometry (ASPMSI) is a technique that minimizes the susceptibility of speckle methods to environmental noise while providing fringes of good visibility. The method requires the acquisition of two consecutive video frames of additive-speckle images of the same two deformed states of an object at a rapid enough rate such that ambient noise is not a problem. The additive-speckle images as expected are of very poor visibility due to the presence of the self-interference term. An interframe phase-modulation is introduced and the two additive-speckle images are digitally subtracted to improve the fringe visibility by removing the self-interference term. The ASPM-SI method works with in-plane and out-of-plane deformation sensitive ESPI as well as with displacement-gradient sensitive speckle-shearing interferometry. It is shown that the ASPM-SI scheme has higher visibility than conventional additive-SI and performs consistently better than subtractive-SI schemes in the presence of partial interframe speckle decorrelating optical noise. Furthermore, it is shown that the fringe visibility of the out-of-plane displacement sensitive interferometer which uses a protected reference beam separate from the object beam can be made to be essentially unity even at complete interframe decorrelation.     

Molecular dynamics simulations of the oligonucleotide with the modified phosphate/phosphonate internucleotide linkage

Impact of the internucleotide linkage modification by inserting a methylene group to the P-O bond (—O—PO ₂ ^— —O— chain changed for —O—PO ₂ ^— —CH₂—O—), on the modified oligonucleotide binding ability to the natural DNA strand was studied by molecular dynamics simulation. Complex of (dT)₁₁ with a deoxyadenosine undecamer containing alternating modified and natural internucleotide linkage was studied as a model system. The Amber force field was completed by a set of new parameters needed to model the modified part of the nucleotide. The simulations confirmed existence of a double-helical complex the melting point of which is considerably higher than 300 K. While the thymidine (unmodified) strand possesses a B-type secondary structure, the conformation of the adenosine (modified) strand is not stable at 300 K. The -ggt conformation of the modified linkages is highly preferred, temporary jumps to the -g-gt and ggt conformations were, however, observed.     

Quadratic Functionals with General Boundary Conditions

The purpose of this paper is to give the Reid ``Roundabout Theorem' for quadratic functionals with general boundary conditions. In particular, we describe the so-called coupled point and regularity condition introduced in [16] in terms of Riccati equation solutions. Accepted 27 February 1996     

Thermal diffusivity measurements in porous ceramics by photothermal methods

Received: 16 September 1996/Accepted: 6 January 1997     

Approximation in weighted Hardy spaces

This paper is concerned with several approximation problems in the weighted Hardy spacesH ^p(Ω) of analytic functions in the open unit disc D of the complex plane ℂ. We prove that ifX is a relatively closed subset of D, the class of uniform limits onX of functions inH ^p(Ω) coincides, moduloH ^p(Ω), with the space of uniformly continuous functions on a certain hull ofX which are holomorphic on its interior. We also solve the simultaneous approximation problems of describing Farrell and Mergelyan sets forH ^p(Ω), giving geometric characterizations for them. By replacing approximating polynomials by polynomial multipliers of outer functions, our results lead to characterizations of the same sets with respect to cyclic vectors in the classical Hardy spacesH ^p(D), 1 ⪯p < ∞. Dedicated to Professor Nácere Hayek on the occasion of his 75th birthday.