Solid-State Thin-Film Sensors Based on Chalcogenide Materials Obtained by Planar Technology and Pulsed Laser Deposition

Methods of silicon planar technology and pulsed laser deposition were applied to fabricate fully solid-state chemical sensors for determining ions of copper, lead, cadmium, thallium, and also sulfide and chloride ions on the basis of thin chalcogenide films as ion-sensitive membranes.     

The Laplacian and Dirac operators on critical planar graphs

On a periodic planar graph whose edge weights satisfy a certain simple geometric condition, the discrete Laplacian and Dirac operators have the property that their determinants and inverses only depend on the local geometry of the graph. We obtain explicit expressions for the logarithms of the (normalized) determinants, as well as the inverses of these operators. We relate the logarithm of the determinants to the volume plus mean curvature of an associated hyperbolic ideal polyhedron. In the associated dimer and spanning tree models, for which the determinants of the Dirac operator and the Laplacian respectively play the role of the partition function, this allows us to compute the entropy and correlations in terms of the local geometry. In addition, we define a continuous family of special discrete holomorphic functions which, via convolutions, gives a general process for constructing discrete holomorphic functions and discrete harmonic functions on critical planar graphs. Oblatum 6-III-2002 & 12-VI-2002?Published online: 6 August 2002     

Sortability of Multi-partitions

Recently, the theory of sortability of partition property has been shown to be an effective tool to prove the existence of an optimal partition with that property. In this paper, we extend the theory to multi-partition where the partition is on t types of components. We apply our results to settle an optimal assignment problem whose proof was incomplete as given in the literature.     

Needle Variations and Almost Lower Semicontinuous Differential Inclusions

It is shown that the construction of needle variations can be carried out for almost lower semicontinuous differential inclusions rather than for the case of ordinary single-valued continuously differentiable vector fields usually considered in the literature. The construction leads to needle variations whose flows are in general set-valued but still have good differentiability properties. The variations are constructed by using single-valued selections that are not necessarily continuous with respect to the state variable, but have instead a much weaker 'integral continuity' property, somewhat more general that the 'directional continuity' considered in previous work by A. Cambini and S. Querci, A. Pucci, and A. Bressan. The existence of many such selections is proved by slightly adapting an argument due to Bressan, extending it from the lower semicontinuous to the almost lower semicontinuous case, and strengthening it to yield not only directional continuity at all points but also full continuity at a specified point.     

Holonomy and path structures in general relativity and Yang-Mills theory

This article is about a different representation of the geometry of the gravitational field, one in which the paths of test bodies play a crucial role. The primary concept is the geometry of the motion of a test body, and the relation between different such possible motions. Space-time as a Lorentzian manifold is regarded as a secondary construct, and it is shown how to construct it from the primary data. Some technical problems remain. Yang-Mills fields are defined by their holonomy in an analogous construction. I detail the development of this idea in the literature, and give a new version of the construction of a bundle and connection from holonomy data. The field equations of general relativity are discussed briefly in this context.     

One-dimensional non-nearest-neighbor random walks in the presence of traps

A one-dimensional lattice random walk in the presence ofm equally spaced traps is considered. The step length distribution is a symmetric exponential. An explicit analytic expression is obtained for the probability that the random walk will be trapped at thejth trapping site.     

Galactic model of element formation

A cosmological model is presented that produces He, C, O, D, Li, Be, and B in their observed abundances without a Big Bang. The elements are produced during the 1.5-Gy formation period of a galaxy, with C, O, and other heavy elements produced by stars of M>12 M₃ , He by stars of 6 M_s<M<12 M_s, and D, Li, Be, and B by cosmic-ray reactions in a nearly pure H plasma halo. Thus, the model shows that the major elements used in astrophysical studies can be produced during galactic formation by exactly the same processes known to function today at much lower rates