On the null-controllability of the heat equation in unbounded domains

We make two remarks about the null-controllability of the heat equation with Dirichlet condition in unbounded domains. Firstly, we give a geometric necessary condition (for interior null-controllability in the Euclidean setting) which implies that one cannot go infinitely far away from the control region without tending to the boundary (if any), but also applies when the distance to the control region is bounded. The proof builds on heat kernel estimates. Secondly, we describe a class of null-controllable heat equations on unbounded product domains. Elementary examples include an infinite strip in the plane controlled from one boundary and an infinite rod controlled from an internal infinite rod. The proof combines earlier results on compact manifolds with a new lemma saying that the null-controllability of an abstract control system and its null-controllability cost are not changed by taking its tensor product with a system generated by a non-positive self-adjoint operator.     

Electronic structure of the wrong-bond states in amorphous germanium sulphides

First-principles calculations of the electronic structures of the wrong bonds were performed for amorphous germanium sulphides in order to explain their compositional dependence. Model cluster calculations of the density of states using a set of geometry similar to the crystalline-GeS₂ coordination can reproduce the peak structure of the experimental valence band photoemission spectra. The bonding and anti-bonding states of the covalent Ge-S bonds form valence and conduction band respectively, and the top of the valence band is occupied with S 3p lone-pair states. The bonding states are modified by S-S bonds and the anti-bonding states are modified by Ge-Ge bonds, mainly through their hybridization with the wrong-bond states between p-orbitals. The lone-pair states do not interact either of them to form a different band, and obscure the modification induced by the S-S wrong bonds. Therefore, we can conclude that the narrowing of the bandgap with increasing Ge content from GeS₂ composition is due to that of the conduction-band bottom with increasing germanium wrong bonds, though the narrowing with increasing S content is moderate due to the presence of the lone-pair states at the valence-band top.     

A gas-kinetic scheme for shallow-water equations with source terms

In this paper, the Kinetic Flux Vector Splitting (KFVS) scheme is extended to solving the shallow water equations with source terms. To develop a well-balanced scheme between the source term and the flow convection, the source term effect is accounted in the flux evaluation across cell interfaces. This leads to a modified gas-kinetic scheme with particular application to the shallow water equations with bottom topography. Numerical experiments show better resolution of the unsteady solution than conventional finite difference method and KFVS method with little additional cost. Moreover, some positivity properties of the gas-kinetic scheme is established.     

Some 3-manifolds with 2-generated fundamental group

We describe a family of graph manifolds that have 2-generated fundamental group but do not admit a Heegaard splitting of genus 2. They are closely related to the examples provided by Boileau and Zieschang if these are considered as (non-proper) graph manifolds.Received: 14 August 2002     

Nonlinear electron transport properties of InAlAs/InGaAs based Y-branch junctions for microwave rectification at room temperature

A detailed analysis of nonlinear effects-electron switching and rectification, in InAlAs/InGaAs based Y-branch junction (YBJ) devices is presented to investigate the potential of YBJ for high frequency applications at 300 K. Results based on semi-classical simulations yield good qualitative agreement with measurements and previously reported theoretical and experimental results. The nonlinear parabolic behaviour of our device is attributed to device geometry and space charge effects. RF analysis shows that the YBJ has tremendous intrinsic potential to function as a frequency doubler and microwave rectifier when operated in the parabolic regime. The present analysis serves as a tool to optimize the bias conditions for RF measurements and to estimate the effect of interconnects and parasitic elements on the RF performance of real devices.     

Arithmetic expressions of Selberg's zeta functions for congruence subgroups

In [P. Sarnak, Class numbers of indefinite binary quadratic forms, J. Number Theory 15 (1982) 229-247], it was proved that the Selberg zeta function for SL₂(Z) is expressed in terms of the fundamental units and the class numbers of the primitive indefinite binary quadratic forms. The aim of this paper is to obtain similar arithmetic expressions of the logarithmic derivatives of the Selberg zeta functions for congruence subgroups of SL₂(Z). As applications, we study the Brun-Titchmarsh type prime geodesic theorem and the asymptotic formula of the sum of the class number.     

An almost fourth order uniformly convergent difference scheme for a semilinear singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problem

Summary. This paper is concerned with a high order convergent discretization for the semilinear reaction-diffusion problem: , for , subject to , where . We assume that on , which guarantees uniqueness of a solution to the problem. Asymptotic properties of this solution are discussed. We consider a polynomial-based three-point difference scheme on a simple piecewise equidistant mesh of Shishkin type. Existence and local uniqueness of a solution to the scheme are analysed. We prove that the scheme is almost fourth order accurate in the discrete maximum norm, uniformly in the perturbation parameter . We present numerical results in support of this result. Received February 25, 1994     

A robust and efficient adaptive reweighted estimator of multivariate location and scatter

This article proposes a reweighted estimator of multivariate location and scatter, with weights adaptively computed from the data. Its breakdown point and asymptotic behavior under elliptical distributions are established. This adaptive estimator is able to attain simultaneously the maximum possible breakdown point for affine equivariant estimators and full asymptotic efficiency at the multivariate normal distribution. For the special case of hard-rejection weights and the MCD as initial estimator, it is shown to be more efficient than its non-adaptive counterpart for a broad range of heavy-tailed elliptical distributions. A Monte Carlo study shows that the adaptive estimator is as robust as its non-adaptive relative for several types of bias-inducing contaminations, while it is remarkably more efficient under normality for sample sizes as small as 200.