The physicist's role in physical laws

The physicist not only observes phenomena, but he also has an active role in the formulation of some laws. For instance, laws involving irreversibility refer explicitly to what can or cannot be done by physicists. As the abilities of the latter may vary, we obtain sequences of laws, the convergence of which is discussed.     

The threshold for random -SAT is

Let be a random -CNF formula formed by selecting uniformly and independently out of all possible -clauses on variables. It is well known that if , then is unsatisfiable with probability that tends to 1 as . We prove that if , where , then is satisfiable with probability that tends to 1 as .

Our technique, in fact, yields an explicit lower bound for the random -SAT threshold for every . For our bounds improve all previously known such bounds.

     

Equivalence of positive Hausdorff measure and the open set condition for self-conformal sets

A compact set is self-conformal if it is a finite union of its images by conformal contractions. It is well known that if the conformal contractions satisfy the ``open set condition' (OSC), then has positive -dimensional Hausdorff measure, where is the solution of Bowen's pressure equation. We prove that the OSC, the strong OSC, and positivity of the -dimensional Hausdorff measure are equivalent for conformal contractions; this answers a question of R. D. Mauldin. In the self-similar case, when the contractions are linear, this equivalence was proved by Schief (1994), who used a result of Bandt and Graf (1992), but the proofs in these papers do not extend to the nonlinear setting.

     

Thin points for Brownian motion

Let Θ(x,r) denote the occupation measure of the ball of radius r centered at x for Brownian motion {W_t}_0≤t≤1 in . We prove that for any analytic set E in [0,1], we have

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, where dim_P(E) is the packing dimension of E. We deduce that for any a≥1, the Hausdorff dimension of the set of “thin points” x for which

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, is almost surely 2−2/a; this is the correct scaling to obtain a nondegenerate “multifractal spectrum” for the “thin” part of Brownian occupation measure. The methods of this paper differ considerably from those of our work on Brownian thick points, due to the high degree of correlation in the present case. To prove our results, we establish general criteria for determining which deterministic sets are hit by random fractals of ‘limsup type' in the presence of long-range correlations. The hitting criteria then yield lower bounds on Hausdorff dimension. This refines previous work of Khoshnevisan, Xiao and the second author, that required decay of correlations.     

Nonsymmetric solutions of a nonlinear boundary value problem

We study the existence and multiplicity of positive nonsymmetric and signchanging nonantisymmetric solutions of a nonlinear second order ordinary differential equation with symmetric nonlinear boundary conditions, where both of the nonlinearities are of power type. The given problem has already been studied by other authors, but the number of its positive nonsymmetric and sign-changing nonantisymmetric solutions has been determined only under some technical conditions. It was a long-standing open question whether or not these conditions can be omitted. In this article we provide the answer. Our main tool is the shooting method.     

Niobium oxide solid catalyst: esterification of fatty acids and modeling for biodiesel production

Biodiesel can be obtained from fatty acid raw materials through esterification. The reactivity of lauric, palmitic, stearic, oleic, and linoleic fatty acids with methanol using powdered niobic acid as a heterogeneous catalyst was investigated in this work, both experimentally (in a batch reactor) and theoretically. A 2³ experimental design was used, with methanol/fatty acid molar ratio, catalyst concentration, and temperature as main factors. An empirical model demonstrated that temperature is the most important variable. Fourteen heterogeneous and 56 homogeneous‐like kinetic models were tested. A homogeneous‐like model considering zero order for all species and inhibition by water was the most adequate for experiments without catalyst. A homogeneous‐like model considering a second‐order reaction in relation to the fatty acid and no water inhibition was the most adequate for niobic acid catalyzed reaction. Molecular modeling confirmed the experimental results showing that the reactivity is directly related to the increase of unsaturated bonds and the reduction of carbon chain length. The polarity of the fatty acid is determinant in the reactivity. At the molecular level, reaction occurs between the HOMO orbital of methanol and LUMO orbitals of fatty acids and reactivity is higher when the energy difference between these orbitals is lower. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.