Comment on “The Free Will Theorem”

In a recent paper Conway and Kochen, Found. Phys. 36, 2006, claim to have established that theories of the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (RW) type, i.e., of spontaneous wave function collapse, cannot be made relativistic. On the other hand, relativistic GRW-type theories have already been presented, in my recent paper, J. Stat. Phys. 125, 2006, and by Dowker and Henson, J. Stat. Phys. 115, 2004. Here, I elucidate why these are not excluded by the arguments of Conway and Kochen.      

Precise chelatometric titrations of zinc, cadmium, and lead with molecular spectroscopy.

Spectral data during a chelatometric titration were utilized for determining an equivalence point of the titration. Three-dimensional titration data were analyzed by fitting to a theoretical equation that was derived from equilibrium equations among a metal ion, an indicator and EDTA. The equation with optimized parameters successfully explained the three-dimensional titration data. This method was applied to EDTA titration systems of zinc, cadmium and lead with xylenol orange (XO) as an indicator. These systems were analyzed while taking the formation of 1:1 and 2:1 metal-indicator complexes into account. By this method, an accurate equivalence point was determined as well as stability constants and molar absorption spectra of metal-indicator complexes in each titration system. Moreover, the comparability among the concentrations of the metal standard solutions prepared from pure metals (Zn, Pb, and Cd) was also confirmed by the proposed evaluation method.     

How many black holes fit on the head of a pin?

The Bekenstein–Hawking entropy of certain black holes can be computed microscopically in string theory by mapping the elusive problem of counting microstates of a strongly gravitating black hole to the tractable problem of counting microstates of a weakly coupled D-brane system, which has no event horizon, and indeed comfortably fits on the head of a pin. We show here that, contrary to widely held beliefs, the entropy of spherically symmetric black holes can easily be dwarfed by that of stationary multi-black-hole “molecules” of the same total charge and energy. Thus, the corresponding pin-sized D-brane systems do not even approximately count the microstates of a single black hole, but rather those of a zoo of entropically dominant multicentered configurations. Fourth Award in the 2007 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation.     

DSC analysis of strengthening precipitates in ultrafine Al–Mg–Si alloys

Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) was carried out on solution annealed samples of Al–Mg–Si–Zr and Al–Mg–Si–Zr–Sc alloys to achieve a substantial grain refinement of the materials. Post ECAP aging was then investigated on the ultrafine grained alloys by DSC and TEM analyses. DSC scans were carried out with heating rates ranging from 5 to 30°C min^–1. Peak identification was performed by the support of literature information and TEM analyses. Precipitation kinetics revealed to be similar for both alloys but the Sc-free alloy showed a recrystallization peak at temperatures ranging from 310 to 340°C, depending on the strain accumulated during ECAP. On the contrary, the Sc-containing alloy showed a greater grain stability. Analyses of peak positions and of activation energies as a function of ECAP passes experienced by the samples revealed large modifications of precipitation kinetics in the ultrafine-grained alloys with respect to the coarse-grained materials.     

Algebro-Geometric Approach in the Theory of Integrable Hydrodynamic Type Systems

The algebro-geometric approach for integrability of semi-Hamiltonian hydrodynamic type systems is presented. The class of symmetric hydrodynamic type systems is defined and the calculation of the associated Riemann surfaces is greatly simplified for this class. Many interesting and physically motivated examples are investigated.     

On the Zero-Energy-Limit Solution for the Modified Gross–Pitaevskii Equation

The modified Gross–Pitaevskii equation was derived and solved to obtain the 1D solution in the zero-energy limit. This stationary solution could account for the dominated contributions due to the kinetic effect as well as the chemical potential in inhomogeneous Bose gases.     

Estimating the Scale Parameter of a Lévy-stable Distribution via the Extreme Value Approach

The characteristic exponent α of a Lévy-stable law S _α (σ, β, μ) was thoroughly studied as the extreme value index of a heavy tailed distribution. For 1 < α < 2, Peng (Statist. Probab. Lett. 52: 255–264, 2001) has proposed, via the extreme value approach, an asymptotically normal estimator for the location parameter μ. In this paper, we derive by the same approach, an estimator for the scale parameter σ and we discuss its limiting behavior.