Critical phenomena in FINEMET alloy

The Fe_73.5Cu₁Nb₃Si_13.5B₉ FINEMET alloy has been prepared by the rapid solidification technique. The critical behaviour of this alloy in the amorphous as well as in its nanocrystalline states has been studied near their respective Curie temperatures. From the values of the critical exponents one can conclude that the alloy behaves like a 3D Heisenberg ferromagnet in the amorphous and nanocrystalline states. But there exists a slight increase in the value of β for the alloy annealed at 823 K (the nanocrystalline state) as observed in most of the amorphous alloys.     

Comparison of the boundary theory with the contact rule of phase regions and Gupta’s method

The phase boundary theory and the contact rule of phase regions are compared, and some weaknesses of the latter are manifested. The comparison between the Gupta’s method and the boundary theory method for constructing multicomponent isobaric sections is also presented.     

A Joint Integral Test for the Locations of Extrema for Brownian Motion

Let μ⁺(t) and μ⁻(t) be the locations of the maximum and minimum, respectively, of a standard Brownian motion in the interval [0,t]. We establish a joint integral test for the lower functions of μ⁺(t) and μ⁻(t), in the sense of Paul Lévy. In particular, it yields the law of the iterated logarithm for max(μ⁺(t),μ⁻(t)) as a straightforward consequence. Our result is in agreement with well-known theorems of Chung and Erdős [(1952) Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 72, 179–186.], and Csáki, F?ldes and Révész [(1987) Prob. Theory Relat. Fields 76, 477–497].      

Surface morphologies of anthracene single crystals grown from vapor phase

The morphologies and lattice structures of anthracene single crystals grown from the vapor phase were investigated using optical microscopy, phase contrast microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction analysis. Common morphologies with hexagonal large planes were observed irrespective of crystal size. The observation of certain surface morphologies with a phase contrast microscopy revealed that the spiral steps originated from screw dislocations present on the (0 0 1) planes. Moreover, the center and edge of the (0 0 1) planes had large curvatures, similar to hills. Resultantly, quarter-monolayer (ML) steps were observed on the large and flat planes between both hills.     

Jensen’s Inequality for Backward Stochastic Differential Equations

Abstract Under the Lipschitz assumption and square integrable assumption on g, the author proves that Jensen’s inequality holds for backward stochastic differential equations with generator g if and only if g is independent of y, g(t, 0) ≡ 0 and g is super homogeneous with respect to z. This result generalizes the known results on Jensen’s inequality for g- expectation in [4, 7–9]. *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.10325101) and the Science Foundation of China University of Mining and Technology.     

An implicit method for linear ill‐posed problems with perturbed operators

An implicit iterative method is applied to solving linear ill‐posed problems with perturbed operators. It is proved that the optimal convergence rate can be obtained after choosing suitable number of iterations. A generalized Morozov's discrepancy principle is proposed for the problems, and then the optimal convergence rate can also be obtained by an a posteriori strategy. The convergence results show that the algorithm is a robust regularization method. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theoretical and numerical analysis on multispectral bioluminescence tomography

Recently, molecular imaging has been rapidly developed to studyphysiological and pathological processes in vivo at the cellularand molecular levels. Among molecular imaging modalities, opticalimaging has attracted a major attention for its unique advantages.In this paper, we establish a mathematical framework for multispectralbioluminescence tomography (BLT) that allows simultaneous studiesof multiple optical reporters. We show solution existence, uniquenessand continuous dependence on data as well as the limiting behaviourswhen the regularization parameter approaches zero or when thepenalty parameter approaches infinity. Then, we propose twonumerical schemes for multispectral BLT and derive error estimatesfor the corresponding solutions.     

Ekeland’s principle for vector equilibrium problems

In this paper, the authors deal with bifunctions defined on complete metric spaces and with values in locally convex spaces ordered by closed convex cones. The aim is to provide a vector version of Ekeland’s theorem related to equilibrium problems. To prove this principle, a weak notion of continuity of a vector-valued function is considered, and some of its properties are presented. Via the vector Ekeland’s principle, existence results for vector equilibria are proved in both compact and noncompact domains.     

On the solution of Maxwell's equations in polygonal domains

This paper is concerned with the structure of the singular and regular parts of the solution of time‐harmonic Maxwell's equations in polygonal plane domains and their effective numerical treatment. The asymptotic behaviour of the solution near corner points of the domain is studied by means of discrete Fourier transformation and it is proved that the solution of the boundary value problem does not belong locally to H² when the boundary of the domain has non‐acute angles. A splitting of the solution into a regular part belonging to the space H², and an explicitly described singular part is presented. For the numerical treatment of the boundary value problem, we propose a finite element discretization which combines local mesh grading and the singular field methods and derive a priori error estimates that show optimal convergence as known for the classical finite element method for problems with regular solutions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the third largest Laplacian eigenvalue of a graph

In this article, a sharp lower bound for the third largest Laplacian eigenvalue of a graph is given in terms of the third largest degree of the graph.