Stochastic resonance in a bias monostable system with frequency mixing force and multiplicative and additive noise

The stochastic resonance in a bias monostable system subject to frequency mixing force and multiplicative and additive noise is investigated. Based on the adiabatic elimination theory, the analytic expressions of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the fundamental and higher harmonics are obtained. It is shown that the SNR is a non-monotonic function of the intensities of the multiplicative and additive noise, as well as the system parameter. Moreover, the SNR for the fundamental harmonic decreases with the increase of the system bias, while the SNR for the higher harmonics behaves non-monotonically as the system bias varies.     

Interface slip and the buildup of hydrodynamic pressure in nanoscale bearings

A new type of hydrodynamic bearing is presented. Instead of physically forming a wedged space by two plates, the bearing consists of two parallel plates, with regions of different wettability on one of the surfaces. With the introduction of such a wettability-patterned surface, the hydrodynamic pressure can be built up because the local slip length over different regions in the bearing is different and results in similar velocity profiles to that in a traditional wedged bearing. Molecular dynamics simulation results indicate that the hydrodynamic pressure is proportional to the shear velocity. However, as the shear velocity exceeds a critical value, the slip length becomes infinite and the hydrodynamic bearing loses its function.     

Charge exchange collisions of H<Superscript>+</Superscript>/D<Superscript>+</Superscript> ions with alkaline Earth atoms (Ca,Mg)

The Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) Method has been used to calculate the differential, partial and total single electron capture cross sections for the collision of H⁺/D⁺ with Ca and Mg atoms in the energy range of 1–100 keV. The differential cross sections at angles near the diffraction limit (<0.1^○) in both systems show a forward peak followed by an asymptotic fall at higher angles. Total and partial capture cross sections are found to be in good agreement with the experimental observations. Oscillations in the partial capture cross sections have been explained due to the swapping of the field electron. Isotope effect in the electron transfer is reported to be negligible.     

Autonomous coupled oscillators with hyperbolic strange attractors

We propose several examples of smooth low-order autonomous dynamical systems which have apparently uniformly hyperbolic attractors. The general idea is based on the use of coupled self-sustained oscillators where, due to certain amplitude nonlinearities, successive epochs of damped and excited oscillations alternate. Because of additional, phase sensitive coupling terms in the equations, the transfer of excitation from one oscillator to another is accompanied by a phase transformation corresponding to some chaotic map (in particular, an expanding circle map or Anosov map of a torus). The first example we construct is a minimal model possessing an attractor of the Smale-Williams type. It is a four-dimensional system composed of two oscillators. The underlying amplitude equations are similar to those of the predator-pray model. The other three examples are systems of three coupled oscillators with a heteroclinic cycle. This scheme presents more variability for the phase manipulations: in the six-dimensional system not only the Smale-Williams attractor, but also an attractor with Arnold cat map dynamics near a two-dimensional toral surface, and a hyperchaotic attractor with two positive Lyapunov exponents, are realized.     

Enhanced luminescence of GdTaO4:Eu thin-film phosphors by K doping

The effect of K⁺ ions on GdTaO₄:Eu³⁺ thin-film phosphors was investigated in order to improve their luminescent properties. The GdTaO₄:Eu_0.1, K_x thin films were synthesized by sol-gel process, and characterized through measuring their microstructure and luminescence. The results indicated that photoluminescence (PL) intensity of GdTaO₄:Eu³⁺ film was improved remarkably by K doping. There were two maxima in the curve of PL intensity against K⁺ dopant concentration, where one was improved up to 2.1 times at x = 0.001 and the other was enhanced up to 2.7 times at x = 0.05. The first maximum was regarded as the alteration of the local environment surrounding the Eu³⁺ activator by incorporation of K⁺ ions, and the second maximum was due to the flux effect. Additionally, the luminescence increased with the increase of firing temperature from 800 °C to 1200 °C.     

Ab initio investigation of hydrogenation of (BN)12

Ab initio molecular orbital theory was used to examine the hydrogenation of a B₁₂N₁₂ molecule. The 1,2 addition of the 4,6 bond is an energetically favorable adsorption site in one-hydrogen-molecule adsorption. We found that the averaged bind energy of hydrogen molecule is maximized in B₁₂N₁₂H₁₂. The largest energy gaps of B₁₂N₁₂H₁₂ and B₁₂N₁₂H₂₄ suggest they have special stability. Moreover, calculation of the Gibbs free energy of the B₁₂N₁₂ + 12H₂ → B₁₂N₁₂H₂₄ reaction showed that this reaction becomes endothermic above 320 K.     

The saturation scale and its x-dependence from Λ polarization studies

The transverse polarization of forward Λ   hyperons produced in high-energy p–A$p\text{–}A$ collisions is expected to display an extremum at a transverse momentum around the saturation scale. This was first observed within the context of the McLerran–Venugopalan model which has an x  -independent saturation scale. The extremum arises due to the kt$k_t$-odd nature of the polarization-dependent fragmentation function, which probes approximately the derivative of the dipole scattering amplitude. The amplitude changes most strongly around the saturation scale, resulting in a peak in the polarization. We find that the observation also extends to the more realistic case in which the saturation scale Qs$Q_s$ is x-dependent. Since a range of x   and therefore Qs$Q_s$ values is probed at a given transverse momentum and rapidity, this result is a priori not expected. Moreover, the measurement of Λ   polarization over a range of xF$x_F$ values actually provides a direct probe of the x-dependence of the saturation scale. This novel feature is demonstrated for typical LHC kinematics and for several phenomenological models of the dipole scattering amplitude. We show that although the measurement will be challenging, it may be feasible at LHC. The situation at RHIC is not favorable, because the peak will likely be at too low transverse momentum of the Λ to be a trustworthy measure of the saturation scale.     

Two-scale image fusion of visible and infrared images using saliency detection

Military, navigation and concealed weapon detection need different imaging modalities such as visible and infrared to monitor a targeted scene. These modalities provide complementary information. For better situation awareness, complementary information of these images has to be integrated into a single image. Image fusion is the process of integrating complementary source information into a composite image. In this paper, we propose a new image fusion method based on saliency detection and two-scale image decomposition. This method is beneficial because the visual saliency extraction process introduced in this paper can highlight the saliency information of source images very well. A new weight map construction process based on visual saliency is proposed. This process is able to integrate the visually significant information of source images into the fused image. In contrast to most of the multi-scale image fusion techniques, proposed technique uses only two-scale image decomposition. So it is fast and efficient. Our method is tested on several image pairs and is evaluated qualitatively by visual inspection and quantitatively using objective fusion metrics. Outcomes of the proposed method are compared with the state-of-art multi-scale fusion techniques. Results reveal that the proposed method performance is comparable or superior to the existing methods.     

A new three-dimensional chaotic system with wide range of parameters

A new three-dimensional chaotic system with large scope of parameters is proposed. Its properties such as equilibrium points, Poincaré map, the largest Lyapunov exponent spectra and bifurcation diagrams are analyzed theoretically and numerically. Theoretical analyses and simulation tests indicate that the proposed chaotic system can keep chaotic in a wide range of parameters. The system is recommendable for many engineering applications such as secure communications, cryptology, information processing, etc.     

Cryptanalysis and improvement of a digital image encryption method with chaotic map lattices

A digital image encryption scheme using chaotic map lattices has been proposed recently. In this paper, two fatal flaws of the cryptosystem are pointed out. According to these two drawbacks, cryptanalysts could recover the plaintext by applying the chosen plaintext attack. Therefore, the proposed cryptosystem is not secure enough to be used in the image transmission system. Experimental results show the feasibility of the attack. As a result, we make some improvements to the encryption scheme, which can completely resist our chosen plaintext attack.