A simple electronic speckle shearing interferometer

A new speckle shearing interferometer with simple setup is proposed. The interferometer can be converted easily from a speckle referenced speckle pattern interferometer into a speckle shearing interferometer and vice versa. A beamsplitter and a mirror are used to generate the shear. The amount of shear can be adjusted by simply rotating the mirror. The costs involved are low and it is particularly useful for fast inspection in non-destructive testing of structural integrity. Both the theoretical studies of the method of measurement and the experimental results are presented.     

Linear nonstationary optical dimensional resonances in atomic nanostructures

The existence of linear nonstationary optical resonances in a diatomic nanostructural object with a dipole-dipole atomic interaction has been proved. A new solution to the joint system of modified Bloch optical equations and nonlocal field equations is obtained for time intervals much shorter than the times of phase and energy relaxation. Formulas for effective polarizabilities of the object’s atoms, which have a set of dimensional resonances, are derived. The frequencies of these resonances significantly differ from the eigenfrequencies of the object’s atoms, and their properties depend on the interatomic distance, light-pulse duration, initial atomic inversions, and the orientation of the object’s axis relative to the direction of incidence of the external light wave.     

Non-universal critical behaviour of heteronuclear dimers on a square lattice––A Monte Carlo study

Monte Carlo simulation within the grand canonical ensemble, the histogram reweighting technique, and finite size scaling analysis are used to explore the phase behaviour of heteronuclear dimers, composed of A and B type atoms, on a square lattice. We have found that for the models with attractive BB and AB nearest-neighbour energy, u_BB=u_AB=−1, and for non-repulsive energy between AA nearest-neighbour sites, u_AA<0, the system belongs to the universality class of the two-dimensional Ising model. However, when u_AA>0, the system exhibits a non-universal critical behaviour. We have evaluated the dependences of the critical point characteristics on the value of u_AA.     

Miscibility of bisphenol-A polycarbonate with poly(methyl methacrylate)

The miscibility of bisphenol-A polycarbonate (PC) with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) has been reexamined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and optical indications for phase separation on heating, i.e., lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behavior. Various methods have been used to prepare the blends including methylene chloride (CH₂Cl₂) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution casting, melt mixing, and precipitation of PC and PMMA simultaneously from THF solution by using the nonsolvents methanol and heptane. It is shown that the resulting phase behavior for PC/PMMA blends is strongly affected by the blend preparation method. However, these blends are miscible over the whole blend composition range (unambiguous single composition-dependent T_g's and LCST behavior) when prepared by precipitation from solution using heptane as the nonsolvent. To the contrary, solution-cast and melt-mixed PC/PMMA blends were all phase separated, which may be attributed to the “solvent” effect and LCST behavior, respectively, not discovered in previous reports. Methanol precipitation does not lead to fully mixed blends, which demonstrates the importance of the choice of nonsolvent when using the precipitation method.     

Polyhedral <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">2</Emphasis></Subscript>

 Using elementary graded automorphisms of polytopal algebras (essentially the coordinate rings of projective toric varieties) polyhedral versions of the group of elementary matrices and the Steinberg and Milnor groups are defined. They coincide with the usual K-theoretic groups in the special case when the polytope is a unit simplex and can be thought of as compact/polytopal substitutes for the tame automorphism groups of polynomial algebras. Relative to the classical case, many new aspects have to be taken into account. We describe these groups explicitly when the underlying polytope is 2-dimensional. Already this low-dimensional case provides interesting classes of groups. Received: 13 December 2001 / Revised version: 24 June 2002 The second author was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, INTAS grant 99-00817 and TMR grant ERB FMRX CT-97-0107 Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 14L27, 14M25, 19C09, 52B20     

Singularity conjecture and constructions of Jacobi forms

This paper verifies the singularity conjecture for Jacobi forms with higher degree in some typical cases, and gives constructions for the Jacobi cusp forms whose Fourier coefficients can be expressed by some kind of Rankin-typeL-series.     

Instability of quark matter core in a compact newborn neutron star with moderately strong magnetic field

It is explicitly shown that if phase transition occurs at the core of a newborn neutron star with moderately strong magnetic field strength, which populates only the electron’s Landau levels, then in the β -equilibrium condition, the quark core is energetically much more unstable than the neutron matter of identical physical condition.     

Experimental observation of quantum corrections to electrical resistivity in nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloys

X-ray diffraction patterns of nanocrystalline Fe-Cu-Nb-Si-B (FINEMET) alloys reveal that bcc α-Fe/α-FeSi crystallites with the average grain size of 20(5) nm are dispersed in amorphous matrix. Enhanced electron—electron interaction (EEI) and quantum interference (QI) effects as well as electron-magnon (and/or electron-spin fluctuation) scattering turn out to be the main mechanisms that govern the temperature dependence of resistivity. Of all the inelastic scattering processes, inelastic electron-phonon scattering is the most effective mechanism to destroy phase coherence of electron wave functions. The diffusion constant, density of states at the Fermi level and the inelastic scattering time have been estimated, for the first time, for the alloys in question Article presented at the International Symposium on Advances in Superconductivity and Magnetism: Materials, Mechanisms and Devices, ASMM2D-2001, 25–28 September 2001, Mangalore, India.     

Conformational analysis of dipeptide‐derived polyisocyanides

The conformational properties of polymers derived from isocyanodipeptides have been investigated with a combination of model calculations, X‐ray diffraction, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Depending on the configuration of the side chains, defined arrays of hydrogen bonds along the polymeric backbone are formed. This leads to a well‐defined conformation as, for example, expressed in the formation of lyotropic liquid‐crystalline phases and increased helical stability. Upon the disruption of the hydrogen bonds by a strong acid, a less well‐defined macromolecular conformation is observed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 1725–1736, 2003