Aryl Boronic Acid Catalysed Dehydrative Substitution of Benzylic Alcohols for C−O Bond Formation

A combination of pentafluorophenylboronic acid and oxalic acid catalyses the dehydrative substitution of benzylic alcohols with a second alcohol to form new C−O bonds. This method has been applied to the intermolecular substitution of benzylic alcohols to form symmetrical ethers, intramolecular cyclisations of diols to form aryl-substituted tetrahydrofuran and tetrahydropyran derivatives, and intermolecular crossed-etherification reactions between two different alcohols. Mechanistic control experiments have identified a potential catalytic intermediate formed between the aryl boronic acid and oxalic acid.     

Defining Integrality at Prime Sets of High Density over Function Fields

 Let F be a function field of characteristic over a finite field . Then for any finite set of F-primes S and any , there exists a set of F-primes W of density greater than such that and has a Diophantine definition over . (Here and is defined analogously.)     

Shell model interaction between proton holes and between proton holes and neutron particles around 208Pb

An effective residual interaction between particles and holes for shell model calculations around ²⁰⁸Pb, derived from the interaction between free nucleons, is compared with the measured properties of proton-hole neutron states in ²⁰⁸Tl and the interaction between proton holes is adjusted to newly measured level energies in ²⁰⁶Hg. These interaction elements are particularly relevant for neutron-rich nuclei. The adjustment of two mixing elements reproduces the known γ-decay data in ²⁰⁸Tl. Received: 2 April 2002 / Accepted: 2 May 2002     

Effective Mode Volume of Nanoscale Plasmon Cavities

The controlled squeezing of electromagnetic energy into nanometric volumes via surface plasmon-polariton excitations in plasmonic nanoresonators is analyzed using the concept of an effective electromagnetic mode volume V _eff, while taking careful account of the plasmon-polariton dispersion and the electromagnetic energy stored in the metal. Together with the quality factor Q of the cavity resonance, this enables a comparison with dielectric optical cavities, where V _eff is limited by diffraction. For a Fabry–Perot type planar metallic cavity, a one-dimensional analytic model as well as a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulation reveal that V _eff is not bounded by diffraction, and that Q/V _eff increases for decreasing cavity size. In this picture, matter–plasmon interactions can be quantified in terms of Q and V _eff, and a resonant cavity model for the enhancement of spontaneous Raman scattering is presented.     

Continuous modified Newton’s-type method for nonlinear operator equations

A nonlinear operator equation F(x)=0, F:H→H, in a Hilbert space is considered. Continuous Newton’s-type procedures based on a construction of a dynamical system with the trajectory starting at some initial point x ₀ and becoming asymptotically close to a solution of F(x)=0 as t→+∞ are discussed. Well-posed and ill-posed problems are investigated. Received: June 29, 2001; in final form: February 26, 2002?Published online: February 20, 2003 This paper was finished when AGR was visiting Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Giessen. The author thanks DAAD for support     

Certified reference materials for the quality control of analysis in the environment

Summary The Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) has undertaken the production of a wide range of certified reference materials (CRMs) for the improvement of accuracy and measurement harmony in various areas of concern at European Community level. This paper provides an overview of the sectors of the BCR-programme in the field of environment i.e. for water systems (water, sediment, biota), soil analysis (soil, fertiliser, waste), plant analysis (aquatic and terrestrial plants), analysis related to animals (e.g. muscle or liver) or man (e.g. industry and food).     

Colliding stacks: A large deviations analysis

We analyze the performance of a prototypical scheme for shared storage allocation: two initially empty stacks evolving in a contiguous block of memory of size m. We treat the case in which the stacks are more likely to shrink than grow, but with the probabilities of insertion and deletion allowed to depend arbitrarily on stack height as a fraction of m. New results are obtained on the m → ∞ asymptotics of the stack collision time, and of the final stack heights. The results of Wentzell and Freidlin on the large deviations of Markov chains are used, and the relation of their formalism to the Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics is emphasized. Certain results on higher-order asymptotics follow from WKB expansions.     

Diophantine Undecidability of Function Fields of Characteristic Greater than 2, Finitely Generated over Fields Algebraic over a Finite Field

Let F be a function field of characteristic p > 2, finitely generated over a field C algebraic over a finite field C _p and such that it has an extension of degree p. Then Hilbert's Tenth Problem is not decidable over F.