Composite poly(ethylene carbonate) electrolytes with electrospun silica nanofibers

We prepared a ternary composite polymer electrolyte from poly(ethylene carbonate) (PEC), lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide (LiTFSI) and non‐calcined silica nanofibers (SNFs) having 3 average diameters (300, 700, and 1000 nm). The SNF composite electrolytes were obtained as homogeneous, self‐standing membranes. The ionic conductivity of PEC/LiTFSI 100 mol% was increased by the addition of SNFs, and the thinner SNFs with average diameter 300 nm were most effective in improving the conductivity. The conductivity was of the order of 10⁻⁴ S/cm at 60°C. The lithium transference number of the SNF₃₀₀ composite was greater than 0.7. Stress‐strain curves of the composites indicated significant increases in Young's modulus and maximum stress for the PEC electrolytes. The 5% weight‐loss temperature of the composites also improved with the addition of SNF.     

Bouncing and Coalescence of Bubble Pairs Rising at High Reynolds Number in Pure Water or Aqueous Surfactant Solutions

The encounter of bubble pairs of O(1 mm) in both pure water and aqueous surfactant solutions was studied experimentally. In pure water, two equally sized bubbles were found to coalesce if the Weber number, W = V² R/, based on the velocity of approach, V, was below a critical value, W_cr = 0.18, where and are the density and surface tension of the liquid respectively and R the equivalent radius of the bubbles. After coalescence bubbles perform volume and shape oscillations.When W_cr is exceeded, bubbles bounce. After bouncing, bubbles can either coalesce or separate without coalescing. This was found to depend on the Weber number, based on the rise velocity U, We = U² R/. If this number was below a critical value, bubbles coalesced after bouncing. The relative motion of the bubbles was found to be damped out by acoustic damping due to surface oscillations rather then by viscosity.If We was above a critical value, which was close to that for path instability of a single bubble (We = 3.3), the bubbles separated after bouncing. This is probably caused by shedding of vortices which dominate the relative motion of the bubbles. This mechanism may cause bubbles in bubbly flows not aggregating in horizontal planes, as was found in calculations based on potential flow theory. For modelling bubbly flows it will therefore be essential to incorporate the influence of vorticity.When surfactants are added to the water it was found that bubbles are prevented to coalesce above a critical concentration, which is nearly identical to that of single rising bubbles. Above this critical concentration, bubbles behave as rigid spheres and trajectories cannot be predicted by potential flow theory.     

Estimating Diffusion Coefficients From Count Data: Einstein-Smoluchowski Theory Revisited

The problem of estimating diffusion coefficients has been considered extensively in both discrete and continuous time. We consider here an approach based on counting occupation numbers of diffusing particles. The problem, and our approach, are motivated by statistical mechanics.     

The Expected Number of Local Maxima of a Random Algebraic Polynomial

In this work we obtain an asymptotic estimate for the expected number of maxima of the random algebraic polynomial , where a _j (j=0, 1,...,n–1) are independent, normally distributed random variables with mean and variance one. It is shown that for nonzero , the expected number of maxima is asymptotic to log n, when n is large.     

Lower bound for Ln/2 curvature norm and its application

We control the number of critical points of a height function arising from the Nash isometric embedding of a compact Riemanniann-manifoldM. The L^n/2 curvature norm ∥R∥ and a similar scalar ∥R∥ are introduced and their integralR(M) andR(M) overM. We prove thatR(M) is bounded below by a constant depending only onn and the Betti numbers ofM. Thus a new sphere theorem is proved by eliminating allith Betti numbers fori = 1, .…n −1. The emphasis is that our sphere theorem imposes no restriction on the range of curvature. Research partially supported by Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research, grant no. 07454018.     

On the Absolute Convergence of Fourier Series

The necessary and sufficient conditions of the absolute convergence of a trigonometric Fourier series are established for continuous 2-periodic functions which in [0, 2] have a finite number of intervals of convexity, and whose nth Fourier coefficients are O((l/n; f)/n), where ( f) is the continuity modulus of the function f.     

An Extremal Characterization of the Incidence Graphs of Projective Planes

Let G be a 4-cycle free, bipartite graph on 2n vertices with partitions of equal cardinality n. Let c₆(G) denote the number of cycles of length 6 in G. We prove that for n 3, c₆(G) , where , with equality if and only if G is the incidence point-line graph of a projective plane.     

Bordism of two commuting involutions

In this paper we obtain conditions for a Whitney sum of three vector bundles over a closed manifold, , to be the fixed data of a -action; these conditions yield the fact that if is the fixed data of a -action, where is the trivial one dimensional bundle, then the same is true for . The results obtained, together with techniques previously developed, are used to obtain, up to bordism, all possible -actions fixing the disjoint union of an even projective space and a point.

     

Average Number of Real Roots of Random Harmonic Equations

Let {g_k}be a sequence of normally distributed independent random variables with mathematical expectation zero and variance unity. Let _k (t ) (k = 0, 1, 2,...) be the normalized Jacobi polynomials orthogonal with respect to the interval [ – 1, 1 ]. Then it is proved that the average number of real roots of the random equations, _k=0 ⁿ g_kk(1)=C where Cis a constant, is asymptotically equal to n/in the same interval when nis large and even for C as long as C=O (n ²).     

Remarks on the Schoof-Elkies-Atkin algorithm

Schoof's algorithm computes the number of points on an elliptic curve defined over a finite field . Schoof determines modulo small primes using the characteristic equation of the Frobenius of and polynomials of degree . With the works of Elkies and Atkin, we have just to compute, when is a ``good" prime, an eigenvalue of the Frobenius using polynomials of degree . In this article, we compute the complexity of Müller's algorithm, which is the best known method for determining one eigenvalue and we improve the final step in some cases. Finally, when is ``bad", we describe how to have polynomials of small degree and how to perform computations, in Schoof's algorithm, on -values only.