Quench dynamics of edge states in 2-D topological insulator ribbons

We study the dynamics of edge states of the two dimensional BHZ Hamiltonian in a ribbon geometry following a sudden quench to the quantum critical point separating the topological insulator phase from the trivial insulator phase. The effective edge state Hamiltonian is a collection of decoupled qubit-like two-level systems which get coupled to bulk states following the quench. We notice a pronounced collapse and revival of the Lochschmidt echo for low-energy edge states illustrating the oscillation of the state between the two edges. We also observe a similar collapse and revival in the spin Hall current carried by these edge states, leading to a persistence of its time-averaged value.     

Design of a highly sensitive photonic crystal waveguide platform for refractive index based biosensing

In this paper, a photonic crystal waveguide platform on silicon-on-insulator substrate is proposed in order to realize a highly sensitive refractive index based biosensor. Following the design, the analysis of the sensor structure are made by using the three dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain method. The principle of sensing is based on the change in refractive index, which in turn changes the output spectrum of the waveguide. Results show that the sensitivity of the sensor depends mainly on the geometrical properties of the defect region of the photonic crystal structure. The phenomenon is verified for various samples having refractive index ranging from 1 (air) to 1.57 (Bovine serum albumin). Further, the structure is compared with few other conventional photonic crystal waveguide designs to analyze the sensing performance. The estimated value of sensitivity of the sensor is found to be 260 nm/RIU with a detection limit of 0.001 RIU. This high sensitivity can enhance the performance of low-concentration analytes detection.     

Risk Minimizing Option Pricing for a Class of Exotic Options in a Markov-Modulated Market

We address risk minimizing option pricing in a regime switching market where the floating interest rate depends on a finite state Markov process. The growth rate and the volatility of the stock also depend on the Markov process. Using the minimal martingale measure, we show that the locally risk minimizing prices for certain exotic options satisfy a system of Black-Scholes partial differential equations with appropriate boundary conditions. We find the corresponding hedging strategies and the residual risk. We develop suitable numerical methods to compute option prices.     

Genetic evolutionary algorithm for optimal allocation of wavelength converters in WDM optical networks

In this article, a genetic evolutionary algorithm is proposed for efficient allocation of wavelength converters in WDM optical networks. Since wavelength converters are expensive, it is desirable that each node in WDM optical networks uses a minimum number of wavelength converters to achieve a near-ideal performance. The searching capability of genetic evolutionary algorithm has been exploited for this purpose. The distinguished feature of the proposed approach lies in handling the conflicting circumstances during allocation of wavelength converters considering various practical aspects (e.g., spatial problem, connectivity of a node with other nodes) rather than arbitrarily to possibly improve the overall blocking performance of WDM optical networks. The proposed algorithm is compared with a previous approach to establish its effectiveness and the results demonstrate the ability of the proposed algorithm to efficiently solve the problem of Optimal Wavelength Converters Allocation (OWCA) in practical WDM optical networks.

Media-independent pre-authentication supporting secure interdomain handover optimization [architectures and protocols for mobility management in all-IP mobile networks]

Handovers may cause delays and packet losses that affect real-time communication performance. Mobility protocols at several layers are designed to support handover, but they need to be optimized to ensure high-quality application performance. Existing optimization techniques are not sufficient to take care of interdomain and intertechnology handovers involving different access technologies, such as Wi-Fi, GSM, CDMA, and WiMAX. We categorize several types of handover, describe handover delay components, and propose a handover optimization framework called media independent pre-authentication that can provide optimizations for interdomain and intertechnology handover in a manner that is transparent to mobility management protocols. In addition, we also present experimental results demonstrating that this framework can achieve a significant reduction in handover delays for both network-layer and application-layer mobility management protocols.     

Adhesion and fingering in the lifting Hele-Shaw cell: Role of the substrate

The lifting Hele-Shaw cell (LHSC) is used to study adhesion as well as viscous fingering. In the present paper we report a series of observations of development of the interface for different viscous fluids, both Newtonian and non-Newtonian, in a LHSC operated at a constant lifting force. Glass and perspex are used as the plates in two different sets of experiments. The objectives are 1) to measure the time required to separate the plates as a function of the lifting force and 2) to note the force above which viscous fingering appears. We find that for the Newtonian fluids, the plate separation time follows a universal power law with the lifting force, irrespective of fluid and substrate. The non-Newtonian fluids too, with proper scaling obey the same power law. The appearance of fingering, however, depends on the properties of the fluid as well as the substrate. We suggest a modified form of the capillary number which controls the onset of fingering; this new quantity, termed the “fingering parameter” involves the dielectric constants of the substrate and fluid in addition to the viscosity and surface tension.     

Organocatalytic Green Approach Towards the Fabrication of Fused Benzo N,N‐containing Heterocycles Facilitated by Ultrasonic Irradiation

The development of a metal‐free protocol for transformations in organic synthesis offers a significant potential environmental benefit. This article reports the exploration of meglumine, a nontoxic and biodegradable amino sugar, as an organocatalyst for the synthesis of biologically active 1H‐dibenzo[b,e][1,4]diazepin‐1‐ones, highly regioselective benzimidazole derivatives and derivatives of quinoxalines. Operational simplicity, mild reaction conditions, shorter reaction times, and use of green solvents are the highlights of this protocol. The advantage of ultrasonic irradiation has been significantly explored for the synthesis of the aforesaid compounds. Furthermore, the multifaceted use of o‐phenylenediamine has also been accentuated in the study.     

Alkyne Versus Ynamide Reactivity: Regioselective Radical Cyclization of Yne‐Ynamides

Ynamides are typically more reactive than simple alkynes and olefins. However, a serendipitous observation revealed a rare case where the reactivity of simple alkynes exceeds that of ynamides. This led to the development of a unique sulfur‐radical‐triggered cyclization of yne‐tethered ynamides, which involves attack of the alkyne by a thiyl radical followed by cyclization with the ynamide. A wide range of novel 4‐thioaryl pyrroles that could tolerate common functional moieties and N‐protecting groups were expediently constructed by this strategy. The current method contrasts with the typical cyclization of yne‐ynamides, which involves the attack of the alkyne moiety by the ynamide core. Control experiments and DFT calculations supported the participation of the sulfur radical in the reaction and the regioselective cyclization. The synthetic potential of the substituted pyrroles is also discussed.     

Creating kinks from particles

We study the creation of solitons from particles, using the lambdaphi(4) model as a prototype. We consider the scattering of small, identical, wave pulses, which are equivalent to a sequence of particles, and find that kink-antikink pairs are created for a large region in parameter space. We also find that scattering at low velocities is favorable for creating solitons that have large energy compared to the mass of a particle.