Synthesis and characterisation of polyaniline (PAni) membranes for fuel cell

Over the past decade or so, alternative energy plays a pivotal role in addressing challenges posed by nature. Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell is one of the promising alternative energy and there has been significant research and technological investments done in this field. The key information and future prospective of the field is energy conversion and storage, both of which are essential in order to meet the challenges of global warming and the limited fossil fuel supply. However, polymer membrane in particular plays a crucial role in advancing this technology further. The utilization of conducting polymers in manufacturing membranes combining their electrochemical properties along with mechanical properties is of primary importance to enhance the efficiency of this system. In the present study blends of high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and polyaniline (PAni) were obtained with the aim of producing membranes for fuel cell. HIPS and PAni were dissolved in tetrachloroethylene, a common solvent for both materials. After dissolution, PAni was dispersed in an HIPS polymeric matrix. The membranes were molded on to glass plates using a laminator to keep thickness constant, and the solvent evaporated slowly for 24 h under room temperature. The amount of polyaniline used was 10 and 20 % weight. The electronic and structural properties were carried out using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) Raman spectroscopy, Scanning electronic microscopic (SEM). The analysis indicate that PAni incorporation and its dispersion into the polymeric matrix modifies the membranes properties and show improvement in efficiency

A Note on Dimer Models and D-brane Gauge Theories

The connection between quiver gauge theories and dimer models has been well studied. It is known that the matter fields of the quiver gauge theories can be represented using the perfect matchings of the corresponding dimer model.We conjecture that a subset of perfect matchings associated with an internal point in the toric diagram is sufficient to give information about the charge matrix of the quiver gauge theory. Further, we perform explicit computations on some aspects of partial resolutions of toric singularities using dimer models. We analyse these with graph theory techniques, using the perfect matchings of orbifolds of the form \BC^3/\Gamma, where the orbifolding group $\Gamma$ may be noncyclic. Using these, we study the construction of the superpotential of gauge theories living on D-branes which probe these singularities, including the case where one or more adjoint fields are present upon partial resolution. Applying a combination of open and closed string techniques to dimer models, we also study some aspects of their symmetries.Comment: Discussions expanded, clarifications added, typos fixed. 1+49 page

Mastering the Master Space

Supersymmetric gauge theories have an important but perhaps under-appreciated notion of a master space, which controls the full moduli space. For world-volume theories of D-branes probing a Calabi-Yau singularity X the situation is particularly illustrative. In the case of one physical brane, the master space F is the space of F-terms and a particular quotient thereof is X itself. We study various properties of F which encode such physical quantities as Higgsing, BPS spectra, hidden global symmetries, etc. Using the plethystic program we also discuss what happens at higher number N of branes. This letter is a summary and some extensions of the key points of a longer companion paper arXiv:0801.1585.Comment: 10 pages, 1 Figur

Supersymmetry Breaking from a Calabi-Yau Singularity

We conjecture a geometric criterion for determining whether supersymmetry is spontaneously broken in certain string backgrounds. These backgrounds contain wrapped branes at Calabi-Yau singularites with obstructions to deformation of the complex structure. We motivate our conjecture with a particular example: the $Y^{2,1}$ quiver gauge theory corresponding to a cone over the first del Pezzo surface, $dP_1$. This setup can be analyzed using ordinary supersymmetric field theory methods, where we find that gaugino condensation drives a deformation of the chiral ring which has no solutions. We expect this breaking to be a general feature of any theory of branes at a singularity with a smaller number of possible deformations than independent anomaly-free fractional branes.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures, latex, v2: minor changes, refs adde

Hadron-nucleon Total Cross Section Fluctuations from Hadron-nucleus Total Cross Sections

The extent to which information about fluctuations in hadron-nucleon total cross sections in the frozen approximation can be extracted from very high energy hadron-nucleus total cross section measurements for a range of heavy nuclei is discussed. The corrections to the predictions of Glauber theory due to these fluctuations are calculated for several models for the distribution functions, and differences of the order of 50 mb are found for heavy nuclei. The generating function for the moments of the hadron-nucleon cross section distributions can be approximately determined from the derivatives of the hadron-nucleus total cross sections with respect to the nuclear geometric cross section. The argument of the generating function, however, it limited to the maximum value of a dimensionless thickness function obtained at zero impact parameter for the heaviest nuclear targets: about 1.8 for pions and 3.0 for nucleons.Comment: 14 pages, revtex 3.0, 4 figures available upon reques

Comments on the non-conformal gauge theories dual to Ypq manifolds

We study the infrared behavior of the entire class of Y(p,q) quiver gauge theories. The dimer technology is exploited to discuss the duality cascades and support the general belief about a runaway behavior for the whole family. We argue that a baryonic classically flat direction is pushed to infinity by the appearance of ADS-like terms in the effective superpotential. We also study in some examples the IR regime for the L(a,b,c) class showing that the same situation might be reproduced in this more general case as well.Comment: 48 pages, 27 figures; updated reference

Brane Tilings and M2 Branes

Brane tilings are efficient mnemonics for Lagrangians of N=2 Chern-Simons-matter theories. Such theories are conjectured to arise on M2-branes probing singular toric Calabi-Yau fourfolds. In this paper, a simple modification of the Kasteleyn technique is described which is conjectured to compute the three dimensional toric diagram of the non-compact moduli space of a single probe. The Hilbert Series is used to compute the spectrum of non-trivial scaling dimensions for a selected set of examples.Comment: 47 pages, 23 figure

New checks and subtleties for AdS/CFT and a-maximization

We provide a cross-check of AdS/CFT and a-charge maximization for a four dimensional $N$=1 SCFT with irrational R-charges. The gauge theory is the low energy effective theory of N D3-branes at the tip of the complex cone over the first del Pezzo surface. By carefully taking into account the subtle issue of flavor symmetry breaking at the fixed point, we show, using a-maximization, that this theory has in fact irrational central charge and R-charges. Our results perfectly match with those inherited from the recently discovered supergravity dual background. Along analogous lines, we make novel predictions for the still unknown AdS dual of the quiver theory for the second del Pezzo surface. This should flow to a SCFT with irrational charges, too. All of our results differ from previous findings in the literature and outline interesting subtleties in a-maximization and AdS/CFT techniques overlooked in the past.Comment: Latex, 16 pagex, 2 figures; v2, comments and a reference added; v3, typos correcte

Comments on Anomalies and Charges of Toric-Quiver Duals

We obtain a simple expression for the triangle `t Hooft anomalies in quiver gauge theories that are dual to toric Sasaki-Einstein manifolds. We utilize the result and simplify considerably the proof concerning the equivalence of a-maximization and Z-minimization. We also resolve the ambiguity in defining the flavor charges in quiver gauge theories. We then compare coefficients of the triangle anomalies with coefficients of the current-current correlators and find perfect agreement.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figure

Cascading RG Flows from New Sasaki-Einstein Manifolds

In important recent developments, new Sasaki-Einstein spaces $Y^{p,q}$ and conformal gauge theories dual to $AdS_5\times Y^{p,q}$ have been constructed. We consider a stack of N D3-branes and M wrapped D5-branes at the apex of a cone over $Y^{p,q}$. Replacing the D-branes by their fluxes, we construct asymptotic solutions for all p and q in the form of warped products of the cone and $R^{3,1}$. We show that they describe cascading RG flows where N decreases logarithmically with the scale. The warp factor, which we determine explicitly, is a function of the radius of the cone and one of the coordinates on $Y^{p,q}$. We describe the RG cascades in the dual quiver gauge theories, and find an exact agreement between the supergravity and the field theory beta functions. We also discuss certain dibaryon operators and their dual wrapped D3-branes in the conformal case M=0.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; v2 minor corrections; v3 refs, orbifold discussion added; v4 more ref