The spline collocation method for parabolic boundary integral equations on smooth curves

Summary. We consider the spline collocation method for a class of parabolic pseudodifferential operators. We show optimal order convergence results in a large scale of anisotropic Sobolev spaces. The results cover the classical boundary integral equations for the heat equation in the general case where the spatial domain has a smooth boundary in the plane. Our proof is based on a localization technique for which we use our recent results proved for parabolic pseudodifferential operators. For the localization we need also some special spline approximation results in anisotropic Sobolev spaces. Received May 17, 2001 / Revised version received February 19, 2002 / Published online April 17, 2002     

Crack path instabilities in DCDC experiments in the low speed regime

We studied the low speed fracture regime (10⁻⁴-10⁻⁹ m s⁻¹) in different glassy materials (soda-lime glass, glass ceramics) with variable but controlled length scale of heterogeneity. The chosen mechanical system enabled us to work in pure mode I (tensile) and at a fixed load on double cleavage drilled compression specimen. The internal residual stresses of studied samples were carefully relaxed by appropriate thermal treatment. By means of optical and atomic force microscopy techniques fracture surfaces have been examined. We have shown for the first time that the crack front line underwent an out-of-plane oscillating behavior as a result of a reproducible sequence of instabilities. The wavelength of such a phenomenon is in the micrometer range and its amplitude in the nanometer range. These features were observed for different glassy materials providing that a typical length scale characterizing internal heterogeneities was lower than a threshold limit estimated to few nanometers. This effect is the first clear experimental evidence of crack path instabilities in the low speed regime in a uniaxial loading experiment. This phenomenon has been interpreted by referring to the stability criterion for a straight crack propagation as presented by Adda-Bedia et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 76 (1996) 1497].     

Speciation Analysis of Inorganic Tin (Sn(II)/Sn(IV)) by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry Following Ion-Exchange Separation

A new method based on anion exchange resin separation and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) detection is proposed for the determination of inorganic tin species. The result showed that Sn(IV) was quantitatively retained on the resin when [HCl] = 9.0 mol · L⁻¹, but Sn(II) could not be adsorbed on the resin under the same condition. Thus, a separation of Sn(II) and Sn(IV) has been realized. When the concentration of NaOH solution was between 2.0–7.0 mol · L⁻¹, Sn(IV) that adsorbed on the resin could be eluated from the resin completely. Meanwhile, under the atmosphere and the nitrogen states, the translation between Sn(II) and Sn(IV) was investigated. Under the optimal conditions, the detection limit of Sn(IV) is 0.40 μg · L⁻¹ with RSD of 2.3% (n = 5, c = 2.0 μg · L⁻¹). The proposed method was applied to the speciation analysis of tin in different water samples and the recovery of total Sn was in the range of 98.7–101.7%. In order to verify the accuracy of the method, a certified reference water sample was analyzed and the results obtained were in good agreement with the certified value.     

Affine threefolds whose log canonical bundles are not numerically effective

Let X?(T,D) be a compactification of an affine 3-fold X into a smooth projective 3-fold T such that the (reduced) boundary divisor D is SNC. In this paper, as an affine counterpart to the work due to S. Mori (cf. [S. Mori, Threefolds whose canonical bundles are not numerically effective, Ann. of Math. 116 (1982) 133-176]), we shall classify (K+D)-negative extremal rays on T. In particular, if such an extremal ray R=R₊[C] intersects K non-negatively, we shall describe the log flips and divisorial contractions appearing explicitly.     

Asymptotic and boundary integral formulae for the computational reconstruction of small conductivity imperfections

In this paper we investigate the electrostatic problem of determining conductivity profiles from the knowledge of boundary currents and voltages. We obtain an improved estimate for the voltage potential of a two-dimensional conductor having finitely many circular inclusions and piecewise constant conductivity profile. We derive an asymptotic expansion for the voltage potential in terms of the reference voltage potential and the location, size, and conductivity of the inhomogeneities. This representation is used to formulate the nonlinear least squares problem for estimating the location and size of the inhomogeneities. Required boundary data for the voltage potential are generated numerically by solving a system of integral equations. Computational experiments are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our identification procedure.     

GLq(N)-covariant braided differential bialgebras

We study the possibility of defining the (braided) comultiplication for the GL _q (N)-covariant differential complexes on some quantum spaces. We discover suchdifferential bialgebras (and Hopf algebras) on the bosonic and fermionic quantum hyperplanes (with additive coproduct) and on the braided matrix algebra BM _q (N) with both multiplicative and additive coproducts. The latter case is related (forN = 2) to theq-Minkowski space andq-Poincaré algebra.     

On a phase-change problem arising from inductive heating

In this paper we study a phase-change problem arising from induction heating. The mathematical model consists of time-harmonic Maxwell’s system in a quasi-stationary field coupled with nonlinear heat conduction. The enthalpy form is used to characterize the phase-change in the material. It is shown that the problem has a global solution. Moreover, it is shown that the solution is unique and regular in one-space dimension even with an unbounded resistivity. This work is supported in part by a NSF grant: DMS-0102261     

Some geometrical aspects of semidefinite linear complementarity problems

This article studies some geometrical aspects of the semidefinite linear complementarity problem (SDLCP), which can be viewed as a generalization of the well-known linear complementarity problem (LCP). SDLCP is a special case of a complementarity problem over a closed convex cone, where the cone considered is the closed convex cone of positive semidefinite matrices. It arises naturally in the unified formulation of a pair of primal-dual semidefinite programming problems. In this article, we introduce the notion of complementary cones in the semidefinite setting using the faces of the cone of positive semidefinite matrices and show that unlike complementary cones induced by an LCP, semidefinite complementary cones need not be closed. However, under R₀-property of the linear transformation, closedness of all the semidefinite complementary cones induced by L is ensured. We also introduce the notion of a principal subtransformation with respect to a face of the cone of positive semidefinite matrices and show that for a self-adjoint linear transformation, strict copositivity is equivalent to strict semimonotonicity of each principal subtransformation. Besides the above, various other solution properties of SDLCP will be interpreted and studied geometrically.