Influence of the sulfonate countercation on the thermal stability of nafion perfluorosulfonate membranes

We report a strong dependence of the thermal stability of Nafion® perfluorosulfonate ionomer on the nature of the counterion associated with the fixed sulfonate site. These results were obtained using thermal gravimetric analysis on a series of alkali metal and alkyl ammonium cation-exchanged Nafion films. We have found that the temperature of decomposition of Nafion is inversely dependent on the size of the exchanged cation; i.e., Nafion films show improved thermal stability as the size of the counter cation decreases. We attribute this inverse relationship of thermal stability with counterion size to an initial decomposition reaction which is strongly influenced by the strength of the sulfonate-coun-terion interaction. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Dynamic study of gated saturable absorbers

The capability of gated saturable absorbers for single-pulse selection is studied theoretically using the classical space-time-dependent rate-equation model. The dynamics of operation is followed experimentally by the well-known pump—probe technique. Comparing the theoretical and experimental results, it is found that gated saturable absorbers can efficiently be used for pulse forming and pulse selection of pulses longer than picosecond.     

Sufficiency in Quantum Statistical Inference

This paper attempts to develop a theory of sufficiency in the setting of non-commutative algebras parallel to the ideas in classical mathematical statistics. Sufficiency of a coarse-graining means that all information is extracted about the mutual relation of a given family of states. In the paper sufficient coarse-grainings are characterized in several equivalent ways and the non-commutative analogue of the factorization theorem is obtained. As an application we discuss exponential families. Our factorization theorem also implies two further important results, previously known only in finite Hilbert space dimension, but proved here in generality: the Koashi-Imoto theorem on maps leaving a family of states invariant, and the characterization of the general form of states in the equality case of strong subadditivity. Supported by the EU Research Training Network Quantum Probability with Applications to Physics, Information Theory and Biology and Center of Excellence SAS Physics of Information I/2/2005. Supported by the Hungarian grant OTKA T032662     

On an Application of Newton's Method to Nonlinear Operators with w-Conditioned Second Derivative

We present a new approach to study the convergence of Newton's method in Banach spaces, which relax the conditions appearing in the usual studies. The approach is based on the bound required for the second derivative of the operator involved. An application to a nonlinear integral equation is presented.     

On a conjecture of Cox and Katz

This note shows that a certain toric quotient of the quintic Calabi-Yau threefold in provides a counterexample to a recent conjecture of Cox and Katz concerning nef cones of toric hypersurfaces. Received: 8 February 2001; in final form: 17 September 2001 / Published online: 1 February 2002