Addressing the stability issue of perovskite solar cells for commercial applications.

Abstract When translating photovoltaic technology from laboratory to commercial products, low cost, high power conversion efficiency, and high stability (long lifetime) are the three key metrics to consider in addition to other factors, such as low toxicity, low energy payback time, etc. As one of the most promising photovoltaic materials with high efficiency, today organic–inorganic metal halide perovskites draw tremendous attention from fundamental research, but their practical relevance still remains unclear owing to the notorious short device operation time. In this comment, we discuss the stability issue of perovskite photovoltaics and call for standardized protocols for device characterizations that could possibly match the silicon industrial standards

The Minimal Total Irregularity of Graphs

In \cite{2012a}, Abdo and Dimitov defined the total irregularity of a graph $G=(V,E)$ as \hskip3.3cm $\rm irr_{t}$$(G) = \frac{1}{2}\sum_{u,v\in V}|d_{G}(u)-d_{G}(v)|,$ \noindent where $d_{G}(u)$ denotes the vertex degree of a vertex $u\in V$. In this paper, we investigate the minimal total irregularity of the connected graphs, determine the minimal, the second minimal, the third minimal total irregularity of trees, unicyclic graphs, bicyclic graphs on $n$ vertices, and propose an open problem for further research.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Linear relation for wind-blown bubble sizes of main-sequence OB stars in a molecular environment and implication for supernova progenitors

We find a linear relationship between the size of a massive star's main-sequence bubble in a molecular environment and the star's initial mass: R_b \approx 1.22M/Msun - 9.16 pc, assuming a constant interclump pressure. Since stars in the mass range of 8 to 25-30 Msun will end their evolution in the red supergiant phase without launching a Wolf-Rayet wind, the main-sequence wind-blown bubbles are mainly responsible for the extent of molecular gas cavities, while the effect of the photoionization is comparatively small. This linear relation can thus be used to infer the masses of the massive star progenitors of supernova remnants (SNRs) that are discovered to evolve in molecular cavities, while few other means are available for inferring properties of SNR progenitors. We have used this method to estimate the initial masses of the progenitors of eight SNRs: Kes 69, Kes 75, Kes 78, 3C 396, 3C 397, HC 40, Vela, and RX J1713-3946.Comment: 5 emulateapj pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. ApJ(Letters), 769, L16 (2013