On exotic saturated fusion systems

In this paper,we prove that a product F_1×F_2 of saturated fusion systems is exotic if and only if at least one of the factors is exotic.This result provides a method to construct new exotic fusion systems by known exotic fusion systems.We also investigate central products of saturated fusion systems.     

Aspects concerning the acoustical performance of school buildings in Portugal

Acoustic measurements were performed in eight schools of different levels of education (from kindergarten to college) located in Viseu – Portugal. The acoustic evaluation was made in order to analyze the most common problems that may condition the acoustic environment inside school building.     

Study by thermal analysis of mortars belonging to wall paintings corresponding to some historical buildings of Sevillian art

Mortars taken from the walls of three historical buildings in Seville: Pond of Patio de las Doncellas in Real Alcazar of Seville, the Monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas and the Church of El Salvador were investigated. The techniques employed were thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA), XRD, FTIR, SEM with EDAX, Bernard calcimeter, granulometry, mercury intrusion porosimetry and mechanical strength tests. The majority of the studied mortars consist of calcite and silica. Gypsum was detected in samples of four mortars from the Santa Maria de las Cuevas Monastery and two from the El Salvador Church, whose samples were taken from the upper layers of the walls, but gypsum was not detected in the internal mortars layers. Only in two of the samples of the Monastery, the presence of cellulosic material as an organic additive was detected. All the studied mortars could be regarded hydraulic, so much by results from ratios between mass loss due to CO₂ and H₂O, hydraulic module and assays of compressive strength. The values obtained by these three techniques are related, providing good agreements between them. These results give useful information that aids in understanding the technology of historic mortars, and how to plan the restoration of these wall paintings.     

Random walk duality and the valuation of discrete lookback options

Use is made of the duality property of random walks to develop a numerical method for the valuation of discrete-time lookback options. This method leads to a recursive numerical integration procedure which is fast, accurate and easy to implement.     

On kaonic deuterium. Quantum field-theoretic and relativistic covariant approach

We study kaonic deuterium, the bound K^-d state A_{K d}. Within a quantum field-theoretic and relativistic covariant approach we derive the energy level displacement of the ground state of kaonic deuterium in terms of the amplitude of K^-d scattering for arbitrary relative momenta. Near threshold our formula reduces to the well-known DGBT formula. The S-wave amplitude of K^-d scattering near threshold is defined by the resonances (1405), (1750) and a smooth elastic background, and the inelastic channels K^-d NY and K^-d NY, where Y = ^±,^{0} and ^{0}, where the final-state interactions play an important role. The Ericson-Weise formula for the S-wave scattering length of K^-d scattering is derived. The total width of the energy level of the ground state of kaonic deuterium is estimated using the theoretical predictions of the partial widths of the two-body decays A_Kd NY and experimental data on the rates of the NY pair production in the reactions K^-d NY. We obtain _{1s} = (630±100)eV. For the shift of the energy level of the ground state of kaonic deuterium we predict _{1s} = (325±60)eV.     

Groups acting simply transitively on the vertices of a building of typeà 2, II: The casesq=2 andq=3

If (P, L) is a projective plane and is a triangle presentation compatible with a point-line correspondence :P L, then gives rise to a group and a thick building of typeà ₂ on the vertices of which acts simply transitively. We find all triangle presentations (up to natural equivalence) compatible with some point-line correspondence :P L, when (P, L) is the projective plane of orderq=2 orq=3. For some, but not all, of these , is isomorphic to the building associated withG=PGL(3,K) whereK is a local field with discrete valuation and residual field of orderq. We identify the for which this is the case, and in these cases, find embeddings of intoG. We also describe the arithmetic nature of these groups.     

Kinetics of muon catalyzed fusion processes in solid H/D mixture

This paper presents the final results of an experimental study of the kinetics of the muon catalysed fusion (MCF) in solid hydrogen-deuterium mixtures (H/D) at a temperature of 3 K. The experiment E742 was carried out on a TRIUMF meson facility in Canada. Four exposures were performed at different deuterium concentrations in the H/D mixture: c_d = 0.0005, 0.02, 0.15 and 0.75. A simultaneous analysis of the measured time distributions of the 5.5 MeV γ-quanta and the 5.3 MeV conversion muons obtained from nuclear fusion in the pdμ molecule allowed to extract the values of MCF chain parameters in the H/D mixture: the fusion partial rates for different nuclear spin states of the pdμ molecule, and the pdμ molecule formation rate. The experimental data fitting procedure was conducted in two ways: using solely the analytical formulae describing the kinetics of the MCF processes in the H/D mixture, and the detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the entire experiment. The results obtained by these two methods are consistent with each other and confirm the existence of the Wolfenstein-Gerstein effect.     

Evaluación probabilista de la capacidad,fragilidad y daño sísmico de edificios de hormigón armado

Currently, many structures existing in seismic areas are highly vulnerable because they have been built without the use of seismic design codes or by using outdated codes. Often, methods for assessing the vulnerability of the structures do not take into account that their seismic behavior is dynamic and highly nonlinear and, moreover, that the structural characteristics and action have large uncertainties. This article aims to assess the vulnerability of structures taking into account that the mechanical properties of materials and the seismic action are random variables, by using advanced techniques based on the Monte Carlo method and on the nonlinear stochastic dynamics. The results obtained with these techniques are compared with those corresponding to a standard vulnerability assessment, based on deterministic models, in order to highlight the differences between both approaches. The main conclusion of this work is the need to address the vulnerability assessment problem from a probabilistic perspective which, combined with advanced nonlinear static and dynamic structural analysis techniques, provides a powerful tool giving information impossible to be captured by means of deterministic models. Finally, detailed results obtained for a building with waffle slabs, which is a structural typology widely used in Spain, are included and discussed.     

Thin-shell wormholes in Einstein–Maxwell theory with a Gauss–Bonnet term

We study five dimensional thin-shell wormholes in Einstein–Maxwell theory with a Gauss–Bonnet term. The linearized stability under radial perturbations and the amount of exotic matter are analyzed as a function of the parameters of the model. We find that the inclusion of the quadratic correction substantially widens the range of possible stable configurations, and besides it allows for a reduction of the exotic matter required to construct the wormholes.     

Why did World Trade Center collapse? – Simple analysis

Summary  Simplified approximate analysis of the overall collapse of the World Trade Center towers is presented. It is shown that if prolonged heating causes the majority of columns of a single floor to lose their load-carrying capacity, the whole tower is doomed. Received and accepted for publication 2 October 2001