Second Quantization of the Stueckelberg Relativistic Quantum Theory and Associated Gauge Fields

The gauge compensation fields induced by the differential operators of the Stueckelberg-Schrödinger equation are discussed, as well as the relation between these fields and the standard Maxwell fields; An action is constructed and the second quantization of the fields carried out using a constraint procedure. The properties of the second quantized matter fields are discussed.     

Extinction Rates for Fluctuation-Induced Metastabilities: A Real-Space WKB Approach

The extinction of a single species due to demographic stochasticity is analyzed. The discrete nature of the individual agents and the Poissonian noise related to the birth-death processes result in local extinction of a metastable population, as the system hits the absorbing state. The Fokker-Planck formulation of that problem fails to capture the statistics of large deviations from the metastable state, while approximations appropriate close to the absorbing state become, in general, invalid as the population becomes large. To connect these two regimes, a real space WKB method based on the master equation is presented, and is shown to yield an excellent approximation for the decay rate and the extreme events statistics all the way down to the absorbing state. The details of the underlying microscopic process, smeared out in a mean field treatment, are shown to be crucial for an exact determination of the extinction exponent. This general scheme is shown to reproduce the known results in the field, to yield new corollaries and to fit quite precisely the numerical solutions. Moreover it allows for systematic improvement via a series expansion where the small parameter is the inverse of the number of individuals in the metastable state.     

Slicing and Dicing the Genome: A Statistical Physics Approach to Population Genetics

The inference of past demographic parameters from current genetic polymorphism is a fundamental problem in population genetics. The standard techniques utilize a reconstruction of the gene-genealogy, a cumbersome process that may be applied only to small numbers of sequences. We present a method that compares the total number of haplotypes (distinct sequences) with the model prediction. By chopping the DNA sequence into pieces we condense the immense information hidden in sequence space into a function for the number of haplotypes versus subsequence size. The details of this curve are robust to statistical fluctuations and are seen to reflect the process parameters. This procedure allows for a clear visualization of the quality of the fit and, crucially, the numerical complexity grows only linearly with the number of sequences. Our procedure is tested against both simulated data as well as empirical mtDNA data from China and provides excellent fits in both cases.     

PRESSURE-VELOCITY EQUILIBRIUM HYDRODYNAMIC MODELS

This article describes mathematical models for phase separated mixtures of materials that are in pressure and velocity equilibrium but not necessarily temperature equilibrium. General conditions for constitutive models for such mixtures that exhibit a single mixture sound speed are discussed and specific examples are described.     

Spin model for inverse melting and inverse glass transition

A spin model that displays inverse melting and inverse glass transition is presented and analyzed. Strong degeneracy of the interacting states of an individual spin leads to entropic preference of the "ferromagnetic" phase, while lower energy associated with the noninteracting states yields a "paramagnetic" phase as temperature decreases. An infinite range model is solved analytically for constant paramagnetic exchange interaction, while for its random exchange analogous results based on the replica symmetric solution are presented. The qualitative features of this model are shown to resemble a large class of inverse melting phenomena. First and second order transition regimes are identified.     

Correlation between biological activity and energies of electronic transitions in benzodiazepines. Negative ion mass spectrometry and ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy study of some derivatives

A correlation between the energies of electronic singlet transitions in benzodiazepines and their biological activity, which was revealed earlier by means of negative ion mass spectrometry with resonance electron capture, has been verified with a UV absorption spectroscopy investigation. Also, it has been noted that the energies of electronic singlet transitions in benzodiazepines are close in value to the ionization energies of atoms Cs, Rb, K, Na, Li and Tl, the cations of which are known to play an important role in nerve cell excitation processes. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microscopic noise,adaptation and survival in hostile environments

The survival of autocatalytic agents in hostile environments depends on their ability to adapt their spatial configuration to local fluctuations. A model of diffusive reactants that extract the advantage of spatio-temporal fluctuations associated with the stochastic wandering of diffusive catalysts is discussed. Two arguments are presented for the basic processes behind this extraordinary behavior. In the first, the local colonies that evolve around any spatially advantageous region overlap in space-time and an infinite directed percolation cluster emerges. The second argument is based on the return probability of a diffusive agent that is shown to yield finite density of active “oases" with an exponentially large contribution to the reactant population. The different range of applicability of these survival lower bounds to small systems is discussed.     

Gas-phase deprotonation of arylalkylamines. A collision-induced dissociation study

The collision-induced dissociation (CID) of deprotonated arylalkylamines of general formula R(1)C(6)H(4)CHR(2)CH(2)NR(3)(2) (where R(1) = H, OH, F or NO(2); R(2) = H or OH; R(3) = H or CH(3)) generated by negative chemical ionization with H(2)O and D(2)O as ionizing reagents, is discussed. The negative chemical ionization mass spectra show that, in the absence of a hydroxy group in the aromatic ring, deprotonation takes place at the benzylic position whereas the proton is lost from the OH group when present. The nitro compound forms only M(-.) ions. The CID spectra of the deprotonated molecules show that fragmentations are strongly dependent on the structural features of the molecules, namely the presence or absence of substituents in the aromatic ring or aliphatic chain. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.