Statistical Physics Approach to Liquid Crystals: Dynamics of Mobile Potts Model Leading to Smectic Phase,Phase Transition by Wang–Landau Method

We study the nature of the smectic–isotropic phase transition using a mobile 6-state Potts model. Each Potts state represents a molecular orientation. We show that with the choice of an appropriate microscopic Hamiltonian describing the interaction between individual molecules modeled by a mobile 6-state Potts spins, we observe the smectic phase dynamically formed when we cool the molecules from the isotropic phase to low temperatures (T). In order to elucidate the order of the transition and the low-T properties, we use the high-performance Wang–Landau flat energy-histogram technique. We show that the smectic phase goes to the liquid (isotropic) phase by melting/evaporating layer by layer starting from the film surface with increasing T. At a higher T, the whole remaining layers become orientationally disordered. The melting of each layer is characterized by a peak of the specific heat. Such a succession of partial transitions cannot be seen by the Metropolis algorithm. The successive layer meltings/evaporations at low T are found to have a first-order character by examining the energy histogram. These results are in agreement with experiments performed on some smectic liquid crystals.     

A model for crack formation during active solid pyrolysis of a char-forming solid: crack patterns; surface area generation; volatile mass efflux

A model is developed for the formation and propagation of cracks in a material sample that is heated at its top surface, pyrolyses, and then thermally degrades to form char. In this work the sample is heated uniformly over its entire top surface by a hypothetical flame (a heat source). The pyrolysis mechanism is described by a one-step overall reaction that is dependent nonlinearly on the temperature (Arrhenius form). Stresses develop in response to the thermal degradation of the material by means of a shrinkage strain caused by local mass loss during pyrolysis. When the principal stress exceeds a prescribed threshold value, the material forms a local crack. Cracks are found to generally originate at the surface in response to heating, but occasionally they form in the bulk, away from ever-changing material boundaries. The resulting cracks evolve and form patterns whose characteristics are described. Quantities examined in detail are: the crack spacing in the pyrolysis zone; the crack length evolution; the formation and nature of crack loops which are defined as individual cracks that have joined to form loops that are disconnected from the remaining material; the formation of enhanced pyrolysis area; and the impact of all of the former quantities on mass flux. It is determined that the mass flux from the sample can be greatly enhanced over its nominal (non-cracking) counterpart. The mass efflux profile qualitatively resembles those observed in Cone Calorimeter tests.     

Cohen–Macaulayness of monomial ideals and symbolic powers of Stanley–Reisner ideals

We present criteria for the Cohen–Macaulayness of a monomial ideal in terms of its primary decomposition. These criteria allow us to use tools of graph theory and of linear programming to study the Cohen–Macaulayness of monomial ideals which are intersections of prime ideal powers. We can characterize the Cohen–Macaulayness of the second symbolic power or of all symbolic powers of a Stanley–Reisner ideal in terms of the simplicial complex. These characterizations show that the simplicial complex must be very compact if some symbolic power is Cohen–Macaulay. In particular, all symbolic powers are Cohen–Macaulay if and only if the simplicial complex is a matroid complex. We also prove that the Cohen–Macaulayness can pass from a symbolic power to another symbolic powers in different ways.     

A modified integral equation method of the semilinear backward heat problem

The paper is concerned with the non-linear backward heat equation in the rectangle domain. The problem is severely ill-posed. We shall use a modified integral equation method to regularize the nonlinear problem. The error estimates of Hölder type of the regularized solutions are obtained. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the method. This work is a generalization of many earlier papers, including the recent paper [D.D. Trong, N.H. Tuan, Regularization and error estimate for the nonlinear backward heat problem using a method of integral equation, Nonlinear Anal. 71 (9) (2009) 4167-4176].     

Exponential Stability and Uniform Boundedness of Solutions for Nonautonomous Periodic Abstract Cauchy Problems. An Evolution Semigroup Approach

Let u _{μ, x, s} (., 0) be the solution of the following well-posed inhomogeneous Cauchy Problem on a complex Banach space X $$\left \{\begin{array}{ll}\dot{u}(t) = A(t)u(t) + e^{i\mu t}x, \quad t > s \\ u(s) = 0. \end{array} \right.$$ Here, x is a vector in X,?μ is a real number, q is a positive real number and A(·) is a q-periodic linear operator valued function. Under some natural assumptions on the evolution family ${\mathcal{U} = \{U(t, s): t \geq s\}}$ generated by the family {A(t)}, we prove that if for each?μ, each s?≥ 0 and every x the solution u _{μ, x, s} (·, 0) is bounded on R ₊ by a positive constant, depending only on x, then the family ${\mathcal{U}}$ is uniformly exponentially stable. The approach is based on the theory of evolution semigroups.     

Spherical classes and the Lambda algebra

Let be Singer's invariant-theoretic model of the dual of the lambda algebra with , where denotes the mod 2 Steenrod algebra. We prove that the inclusion of the Dickson algebra, , into is a chain-level representation of the Lannes-Zarati dual homomorphism

The Lannes-Zarati homomorphisms themselves, , correspond to an associated graded of the Hurewicz map

Based on this result, we discuss some algebraic versions of the classical conjecture on spherical classes, which states that Only Hopf invariant one and Kervaire invariant one classes are detected by the Hurewicz homomorphism. One of these algebraic conjectures predicts that every Dickson element, i.e. element in , of positive degree represents the homology class in for 2$">.

We also show that factors through , where denotes the differential of . Therefore, the problem of determining should be of interest.

     

Conical Algorithm in Global Optimization for Optimizing over Efficient Sets

The problem of optimizing some contiuous function over the efficient set of a multiple objective programming problem can be formulated as a nonconvex global optimization problem with special structure. Based on the conical branch and bound algorithm in global optimization, we establish an algorithm for optimizing over efficient sets and discuss about the implementation of this algorithm for some interesting special cases including the case of biobjective programming problems.     

Morrey global bounds and quasilinear Riccati type equations below the natural exponent

We obtain global bounds in Lorentz–Morrey spaces for gradients of solutions to a class of quasilinear elliptic equations with low integrability data. The results are then applied to obtain sharp existence results in the framework of Morrey spaces for Riccati type equations with a gradient source term having growths below the natural exponent of the operator involved. A special feature of our results is that they hold under a very general assumption on the nonlinear structure, and under a mild natural restriction on the boundary of the ground domain.     

Variable sampling interval Shewhart control charts for monitoring the multivariate coefficient of variation

In many industrial manufacturing processes, the ratio of the variance to the mean of a quantity of interest is an important characteristic to ensure the quality of the processes. This ratio is called the coefficient of variation (CV). A lot of control charts have been designed for monitoring the CV of univariate quantity in the literature. However, the CV control charts for multivariate quantity have not received much attention yet. In this paper, we investigate a variable sampling interval (VSI) Shewhart control chart for monitoring multivariate CV. The time between two consecutive samples is allowed to vary according to the previous value of the multivariate CV, which will help the chart to detect the process shifts faster. The comparison with the fixed sampling interval Shewhart chart is implemented to highlight the advantage of the VSI method. Finally, an illustrative example is demonstrated on real data.