SOME GENERAL EFFECTS OF STRONG HIGH-FREQUENCY EXCITATION: STIFFENING, BIASING AND SMOOTHENING

Mechanical high-frequency (HF) excitation provides a working principle behind many industrial and natural applications and phenomena. This paper concerns three particular effects of HF excitation, that may change the apparent characteristics of mechanical systems: (1) stiffening, by which the apparent linear stiffness associated with an equilibrium is changed, along with derived quantities such as stability and natural frequencies; (2) biasing by which the system is biased towards a particular state, static or dynamic, which does not exist or is unstable in the absence of the HF excitation; and (3) smoothening, referring to a tendency for discontinuities to be effectively “smeared out” by HF excitation. Illustrating first these effects for a few specific systems, analytical results are provided that quantify them for a quite general class of mechanical systems. This class covers systems that can be modelled by a finite number of second order ordinary differential equations, generally non-linear, with periodically oscillating excitation terms of high frequency and small amplitude. The results should be useful for understanding the effects in question in a broader perspective than is possible with specific systems, for calculating effects for specific systems using well-defined formulas, and for possibly designing systems that display prescribed characteristics in the presence of HF excitation.     

The remainder in Weyl's law for random two-dimensional

We prove that the average order of the remainder in counting the number of points of a random lattice inside a disc of radius . Our proof is spectral in nature. Submitted: July 2001, Revised: August 2001, Revised: March 2002.     

Temperature dependence of excitonic luminescence from nanocrystalline ZnO films

The properties of the excitonic luminescence for nanocrystalline ZnO thin films are investigated by using the dependence of excitonic photoluminescence (PL) spectra on temperature. The ZnO thin films are prepared by thermal oxidation of ZnS films prepared by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicates that ZnO thin films have a polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure with a preferred (0 0 2) orientation. A strong ultraviolet (UV) emission peak at 3.26 eV is observed, while the deep-level emission band is barely observable at room temperature. The strength of the exciton-longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon coupling is deduced from the temperature dependence of the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the fundamental excitonic peak, decrease in exciton-longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon coupling strength is due to the quantum confinement effect.     

LIDAR mapping of ozone-episode dynamics in Paris and intercomparison with spot analyzers Supplementary material available at http://link.springer.de/journals/apb

Continuous mapping of an ozone episode in Paris in June 1999 has been performed using a differential absorption lidar system. The 2D ozone concentration vertical maps recorded over 33 h at the Champ de Mars are compiled in a video clip that gives access to local photochemical dynamics with unprecedented precision. The lidar data are compared over the whole period with point monitors located at 0-, 50-, and 300-m altitudes on the Eiffel Tower. Very good agreement is found when spatial resolution, acquisition time, and required concentration accuracy are optimized. Sensitivity to these parameters for successful intercomparison in urban areas is discussed. Received: 11 February 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

Anharmonic effects in large-amplitude vibrations of metal clusters

Two types of extreme collective motion, large-amplitude many-phonon vibration of the ionic core and rotation of the cluster with high angular momenta, are considered. The interplay between vibration and collective motion towards fission is discussed. A new mechanism of formation and rupture of the neck is proposed which is based on the Franck-Condon principle, and accounts for the interplay between vibration and fission. Under rotation, the change of the shape of the cluster and a phase transition from axially symmetric to triaxial ellipsoid are predicted. For studying the effects, vibrational motion can be induced by laser radiation. Rotational motion may arise in collisions of clusters. Received 26 April 2001 and Received in final form 15 October 2001     

Bosonic Monocluster Expansion

We compute Green's functions of a Bosonic field theory with cutoffs by means of a “minimal” expansion which in a single move, interpolating a generalized propagator, performs the usual tasks of the cluster and Mayer expansion. In this way it allows a direct construction of the infinite volume or thermodynamic limit and it brings constructive Bosonic expansions closer to constructive Fermionic expansions and to perturbation theory. Received: 18 May 2000 / Accepted: 21 March 2001     

The limits of hamiltonian structures in three-dimensional elasticity,shells, and rods

Summary This paper uses Hamiltonian structures to study the problem of the limit of three-dimensional (3D) elastic models to shell and rod models. In the case of shells, we show that the Hamiltonian structure for a three-dimensional elastic body converges, in a sense made precise, to that for a shell model described by a one-director Cosserat surface as the thickness goes to zero. We study limiting procedures that give rise to unconstrained as well as constrained Cosserat director models. The case of a rod is also considered and similar convergence results are established, with the limiting model being a geometrically exact director rod model (in the framework developed by Antman, Simo, and coworkers). The resulting model may or may not have constraints, depending on the nature of the constitutive relations and their behavior under the limiting procedure. The closeness of Hamiltonian structures is measured by the closeness of Poisson brackets on certain classes of functions, as well as the Hamiltonians. This provides one way of justifying the dynamic one-director model for shells. Another way of stating the convergence result is that there is an almost-Poisson embedding from the phase space of the shell to the phase space of the 3D elastic body, which implies that, in the sense of Hamiltonian structures, the dynamics of the elastic body is close to that of the shell. The constitutive equations of the 3D model and their behavior as the thickness tends to zero dictates whether the limiting 2D model is a constrained or an unconstrained director model. We apply our theory in the specific case of a 3D Saint Venant-Kirchhoff material andderive the corresponding limiting shell and rod theories. The limiting shell model is an interesting Kirchhoff-like shell model in which the stored energy function is explicitly derived in terms of the shell curvature. For rods, one gets (with an additional inextensibility constraint) a one-director Kirchhoff elastic rod model, which reduces to the well-known Euler elastica if one adds an additional single constraint that the director lines up with the Frenet frame. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Juan C. Simo This paper was solicited by the editors to be part of a volume dedicated to the memory of Juan Simo.