Cyclic reduction and FACR methods for piecewise hermite bicubic orthogonal spline collocation

Cyclic reduction and Fourier analysis-cyclic reduction (FACR) methods are presented for the solution of the linear systems which arise when orthogonal spline collocation with piecewise Hermite bicubics is applied to boundary value problems for certain separable partial differential equations on a rectangle. On anN×N uniform partition, the cyclic reduction and Fourier analysis-cyclic reduction methods requireO(N ²log₂ N) andO(N ²log₂log₂ N) arithmetic operations, respectively.     

On the possibility of designing interacting semiconductor quantum wells with zero perturbation coupling

The paper describes the possibility of designing matched interacting semiconductor quantum wells. It is shown that for a given eigenstate of a quantum well (QW), it is always possible to find another QW in such a way that the coupling leaves the original eigenstate of the host QW unperturbed irrespective of the strength of interaction. For rectangular QWs, the condition is met with whenever the second QW has appropriate width and depth so that phase travelled by an electron wave through it is an integral multiple of π.     

A convection/reaction/switching system

We consider a spatially distributed hybrid system consisting of a convection/reaction system in which the reaction switches discontinuously in time between modes, independently at each spatial point on reaching “switching thresholds”. The model involves a novel formulation for evolution of the free boundary between the modal regions.     

New stereoselective synthesis of the peptidic aminopeptidase inhibitors bestatin, phebestin and probestin

Peptidic aminopeptidase inhibitors, bestatin, phebestin and probestin have been prepared by stereo- and regiocontrolled reactions from a common α,β-epoxy ester precursor.     

Tunneling of two interacting electrons in a quantum wire

A model calculation is reported for the tunneling probability of one as well as two interacting electrons from a quantum well within a narrow channel. We discuss the cases when the two electrons are spin polarized or unpolarized by transforming the system to a noninteracting one with the use of quantal density functional theory to obtain an effective single-particle confining potential. A semiclassical approach is used to obtain the tunneling probability from this effective potential. The calculation is motivated by recent measurements of the conductance of an electron gas in a narrow channel but is not meant to explain the anomalous behavior that has been reported since, for example, we deal with a simplified two-level system. Numerical results for the tunneling probability are presented.     

A symmetry-adapted force-constant lattice-dynamical model for single-walled carbon nanotubes

We develop a lattice-dynamical model based on the screw symmetry of single-walled carbon nanotubes that allows for reducing the size of the dynamical matrix to six, for all tube chiralities. The model uses force constants derived from fitting to the phonon dispersion of 2D graphite. We present the calculation procedure in a clear and transparent way, making the model easier to follow. We calculate the phonon dispersions of a number of nanotubes of different chiralities. The splitting of two highest Raman active modes and the radial breathing mode frequency are studied by changing the tube diameter and chirality.     

Two differential equation systems for equality-constrained optimization

This paper presents two differential systems, involving first and second order derivatives of problem functions, respectively, for solving equality-constrained optimization problems. Local minimizers to the optimization problems are proved to be asymptotically stable equilibrium points of the two differential systems. First, the Euler discrete schemes with constant stepsizes for the two differential systems are presented and their convergence theorems are demonstrated. Second, we construct algorithms in which directions are computed by these two systems and the stepsizes are generated by Armijo line search to solve the original equality-constrained optimization problem. The constructed algorithms and the Runge–Kutta method are employed to solve the Euler discrete schemes and the differential equation systems, respectively. We prove that the discrete scheme based on the differential equation system with the second order information has the locally quadratic convergence rate under the local Lipschitz condition. The numerical results given here show that Runge–Kutta method has better stability and higher precision and the numerical method based on the differential equation system with the second information is faster than the other one.     

Existence of a solution for two phase flow in porous media: The case that the porosity depends on the pressure

In this paper we prove the existence of a solution of a coupled system involving a two phase incompressible flow in the ground and the mechanical deformation of the porous medium where the porosity is a function of the global pressure. The model is strongly coupled and involves a nonlinear degenerate parabolic equation. In order to show the existence of a weak solution, we consider a sequence of related uniformly parabolic problems and apply the Schauder fixed point theorem to show that they possess a classical solution. We then prove the relative compactness of sequences of solutions by means of the Fréchet-Kolmogorov theorem; this yields the convergence of a subsequence to a weak solution of the parabolic system.     

A study of type I intermittency of a circular differential equation under a discontinuous right-hand side

In this paper we study a circular differential equation under a discontinuous periodic input, developing a quadratic differential equations system on S¹ and a linear differential equations system in the Minkowski space M³. The symmetry groups of these two systems are, respectively, PSOo(2,1) and SOo(2,1). The Poincaré circle map is constructed exactly, and a critical value αc of the parameter is identified. Depending on α of the input amplitude the equation may exhibit periodic, subharmonic or quasiperiodic motions. When α varies from α>αc to α<αc, there undergoes an inverse tangent bifurcation; consequently, the resultant Poincaré circle map offers one route to the quasiperiodicity via a type I intermittency. In the parameter range of α<αc the orbit generated by the Poincaré circle map is either m-periodic or quasiperiodic when n/m is a rational or an irrational number.     

Asymptotic properties of an HIV/AIDS model with a time delay

A mathematical model for HIV/AIDS with explicit incubation period is presented as a system of discrete time delay differential equations and its important mathematical features are analysed. The disease-free and endemic equilibria are found and their local stability investigated. We use the Lyapunov functional approach to show the global stability of the endemic equilibrium. Qualitative analysis of the model including positivity and boundedness of solutions, and persistence are also presented. The HIV/AIDS model is numerically analysed to asses the effects of incubation period on the dynamics of HIV/AIDS and the demographic impact of the epidemic using the demographic and epidemiological parameters for Zimbabwe.