Vibrational energy transfer in hydrogen liquid and its isotopes

The transfer of vibrational energy (V-V) from H₂ to isotopic impurities (HD or D₂) has been studied in the liquid state, between 15 and 30 K. The subsequent relaxation (V-T) of the excited impurity by the H₂ liquid host has also been measured and contrasted with the vibrational relaxation behaviour of pure H₂ and D₂ liquids. The isothermal density dependence of both V-V and V-T transfer has been investigated in the fluid state at 30 K. High density relaxation rates are also compared to our data in the pure gases and to other available gas phase results. Measurements in the solid, near the triple point temperature, are equally reported for each process studied.     

On Genericity and Ershov's Hierarchy

It is natural to wish to study miniaturisations of Cohen forcing suitable to sets of low arithmetic complexity. We consider extensions of the work of Schaeffer [9] and Jockusch and Posner [6] by looking at genericity notions within the Δ₂ sets. Different equivalent characterisations of 1‐genericity suggest different ways in which the definition might be generalised. There are two natural ways of casting the notion of 1‐genericity: in terms of sets of strings and in terms of density functions, as we will see here. While these definitions coincide at the first level of the difference hierarchy, they turn out to differ at other levels. Furthermore, these differences remain when the remainder of the Δ⁰₂ sets are considered. While the string characterization of 1‐genericity collapses at the second level of the difference hierarchy to 2‐genericity, the density function definition gives a very interesting hierarchy at level w and above. Both of these results point towards the deep similarities exhibited by the n‐c.e. degrees for n ≥ 2.     

Effect of cyclobutane carbonitrile rings on the glass transition temperature of vinyl copolymers

A wide compositional range of copolymers of 1-cyclobutene carbonitrile (CBCN) and 1-bicyclobutance carbonitrile (BBCN) with common vinyl monomers was prepared in order to study systematically the effect of cyclobutane carbonitrile ring incorporation on the glass transition temperature (T_g). In general, the T_g's of the copolymers are increased in proportion to the weight percent of the small-ring monomer incorporated, but the 1,2-mode of incorporation raises T_g more than the 1,3-mode. Attempts were made to correlate data with quantitative T_g–composition relationships (Fox–Johnston equations). Prediction for nitrile homopolymer T_g's are compared with literature values.     

Preparation of ethyl 2-aryl 2,3-alkadienoates via palladium-catalyzed selective cross-coupling reactions

Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of aryl iodides containing not only an electron-donating group but also an electron-withdrawing group on the aryl ring with organoindium reagents generated in situ from indium and ethyl 4-bromo-2-alkynoates produced selectively ethyl 2-aryl-2,3-alkadienoates in good yield.     

Quasi-Stationarity of Discrete-Time Markov Chains with Drift to Infinity

We consider a discrete-time Markov chain on the non-negative integers with drift to infinity and study the limiting behavior of the state probabilities conditioned on not having left state 0 for the last time. Using a transformation, we obtain a dual Markov chain with an absorbing state such that absorption occurs with probability 1. We prove that the state probabilities of the original chain conditioned on not having left state 0 for the last time are equal to the state probabilities of its dual conditioned on non-absorption. This allows us to establish the simultaneous existence, and then equivalence, of their limiting conditional distributions. Although a limiting conditional distribution for the dual chain is always a quasi-stationary distribution in the usual sense, a similar statement is not possible for the original chain.     

Uniqueness,Extinction and Explosivity of Generalised Markov Branching Processes with Pairwise Interaction

We examine basic properties regarding uniqueness, extinction, and explosivity for the generalised Markov branching processes with pairwise interaction. First we establish uniqueness criteria, proving that in the essentially-explosive case the process is honest if and only if the mean death rate is greater than or equal to the mean birth rate, while in the sub-explosive case the process is dishonest only in exceptional circumstances. Explicit expressions are then obtained for the extinction probabilities, the mean extinction times and the conditional mean extinction times. Explosivity is also investigated and an explicit expression for mean explosion time is established.     

A -deformation of a trivial symmetric group action

Let be the arrangement of hyperplanes consisting of the reflecting hyperplanes for the root system . Let be the Varchenko matrix for this arrangement with all hyperplane parameters equal to . We show that is the matrix with rows and columns indexed by permutations with entry equal to where is the number of inversions of . Equivalently is the matrix for left multiplication on by

Clearly commutes with the right-regular action of on . A general theorem of Varchenko applied in this special case shows that is singular exactly when is a root of for some between and . In this paper we prove two results which partially solve the problem (originally posed by Varchenko) of describing the -module structure of the nullspace of in the case that is singular. Our first result is that

in the case that where Lie denotes the multilinear part of the free Lie algebra with generators. Our second result gives an elegant formula for the determinant of restricted to the virtual -module with characteristic the power sum symmetric function .

     

On the Dynamics of Space Debris: 1:1 and 2:1 Resonances

We study the dynamics of the space debris in the 1:1 and 2:1 resonances, where geosynchronous and GPS satellites are located. By using Hamiltonian formalism, we consider a model including the geopotential contribution for which we compute the secular and resonant expansions of the Hamiltonian. Within such model we are able to detect the equilibria and to study the main features of the resonances in a very effective way. In particular, we analyze the regular and chaotic behavior of the 1:1 and 2:1 resonant regions by analytical methods and by computing the Fast Lyapunov Indicators, which provide a cartography of the resonances. This approach allows us to detect easily the location of the equilibria, the amplitudes of the libration islands and the main dynamical stability features of the resonances, thus providing an overview of the 1:1 and 2:1 resonant domains under the effect of Earth’s oblateness. The results are validated by a comparison with a model developed in Cartesian coordinates, including the geopotential, the gravitational attraction of Sun and Moon and the solar radiation pressure.     

A Hodge decomposition interpretation for the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial

Let be a simple graph with nodes. The coloring complex of , as defined by Steingrimsson, has -faces consisting of all ordered set partitions, in which at least one contains an edge of . Jonsson proved that the homology of the coloring complex is concentrated in the top degree. In addition, Jonsson showed that the dimension of the top homology is one less than the number of acyclic orientations of .

In this paper, we show that the Eulerian idempotents give a decomposition of the top homology of into components . We go on to prove that the dimensions of the Hodge pieces of the homology are equal to the absolute values of the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial of . Specifically, if we write , then .