Critical dynamics of the Potts model in several dimensionalities

We study critical dynamics of general q-state Potts models on d-dimensional hypercubic lattices. The master equation is formulated according to a theory recently presented by the author. A simple bond moving technique, followed by decimation, is used to obtain the dynamical exponents. Although this approximation yields poor results for the static exponents, the dynamic behaviour is closer to Monte Carlo simulations. We compare our results with those obtained with a different formulation of dynamics. A final discussion is included.     

Effect of crack tip sharpness on the strength of vulcanized rubbers

The effect of crack tip sharpness on crack propagation in vulcanized rubbers has been studied. For very sharp cracks, tearing is found to occur on a small scale at very low energies not far above the threshold required for the onset of mechanical crack growth. The “small-scale” tearing energies show relatively little variation for rubbers that differ widely in tear strength as normally measured. Thus the latter property appears to be strongly influenced by variations in the ability of rubbers to promote tip blunting. The small-scale tear behavior is of relevance to other fracture phenomena, including cutting by sharp objects and tensile failure. Natural variations in tip sharpness occur during cyclic or time-dependent mechanical crack growth and influence the form of the crack growth characteristics.     

Markarian 8星系的包层辐射

使用美国甚大天线阵(VLA).对Markarian 8星系进行了多频观测.多频VLA观测表明,Markarian 8星系有三个主要的射电子成份,它们浸在一个弥漫的星系包层中.包层的射电谱是陡的非热谱.本文根据VLA观测确定了包层的物理参量,并讨论了包层中相对论性电子的可能起因.本文估计了包层非热辐射所要求的超新星爆发率.     

A note on the Lyapunov equation for discrete linear systems in Hilbert space

It is given a simple and unified new proof for the following well-known stability condition: an infinite-dimensional time-invariant discrete linear system is uniformly asymptotically stable if and only if the associate Lyapunov equation has a unique strictly positive solution. The proof is partially based on an application of Rota's model construction technique.     

Relative embeddings of discs into convex domains

Dedicated to the memory of my father     

Viscometric properties of dilute polystyrene/dioctyl phthalate solutions

We report viscometric data collected in a Couette rheometry on dilute, single‐solvent polystyrene (PS)/dioctyl phthalate (DOP) solutions over a variety of polymer molecular weights (5.5 × 10⁵ ≤ M_w ≤ 3.0 × 10⁶ Da) and system temperatures (288 K ≤ T ≤ 318 K). In view of the essential viscometric features, the current data may be classified into three categories: The first concerns all the investigated solutions at low shear rates, where the solution properties are found to agree excellently with the Zimm model predictions. The second includes all sample solutions, except for high‐molecular‐weight PS samples (M_w ≥ 2.0 × 10⁶ Da), where excellent time–temperature superposition is observed for the steady‐state polymer viscosity at constant polymer molecular weights. No similar superposition applies at a constant temperature but varied polymer molecular weights, however. The third appears to be characteristic of dilute high‐molecular‐weight polymer solutions, for which the effects of temperature on the viscosity curve are further complicated at high shear rates. The implications concerning the relative importance of hydrodynamic interactions, segmental interactions, and chain extensibility with increasing polymer molecular weight, system temperature, and shear rate are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 787–794, 2006     

Molecular orbital momentum distributions and binding energies for nitric oxide

Binding energy spectra of the valence electrons of the open shell molecule NO have been obtained up to 55 eV at azimuthal angles of 0° and 7° using binary (e, 2e) spectroscopy at an impact energy of 1200 eV. The momentum distribution has been obtained for the least tightly bound (unpaired) electron, removal of which leads to formation of the X ¹Σ⁺ ground state of NO⁺. Momentum distributions have also been measured at 21.0 and 40.5 eV. The measured momentum distributions are compared with several literature wavefunctions of varying complexity. They are found to be in excellent agreement with those calculated using the natural spin orbital wavefunctions of Kouba and Ohrn.     

Stabilization of needle-crystals by the Gibbs-Thomson effect

We develop a scheme based on pseudo-differential operators to analyze the propagation of excitations in inhomogeneous extended systems. This method is used in a very specific situation, however we think that it has some generality and should apply to various other problems of current interest. We study the well known two-dimensionalsymmetric model of solidification introduced by Langer and Turski. Assuming the existence of Ivantsov-like steady-state solutions, we calculate their excitation spectrum. We show that there are no unstable propagating modes if the Gibbs-Thomson effect is taken into account. This proves that the growth of needle-crystals is stable with respect to side-branching.