Will gravitational waves confirm Einstein's General Relativity?

Even if Einstein's General Relativity achieved a great success and overcame lots of experimental tests, it also showed some shortcomings and flaws which today advise theorists to ask if it is the definitive theory of gravity. In this proceeding paper it is shown that, if advanced projects on the detection of Gravitational Waves (GWs) will improve their sensitivity, allowing to perform a GWs astronomy, accurate angular and frequency dependent response functions of interferometers for GWs arising from various Theories of Gravity, i.e. General Relativity and Extended Theories of Gravity, will be the ultimate test for General Relativity. This proceeding paper is also a short review of the Essay which won Honorable Mention at the 2009 Gravity Research Foundation Awards.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics, Rethymno, Crete (near to Chania), Greece, 18-22 September 200

Gravitomagnetic effect in gravitational waves

After an introduction emphasizing the importance of the gravitomag- netic effect in general relativity, with a resume of some space-based appli- cations, we discuss the so-called magnetic components of gravitational waves (GWs), which have to be taken into account in the context of the total response functions of interferometers for GWs propagating from ar- bitrary directions.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics, Rethymno, Crete (near to Chania), Greece, 18-22 September 200

Feedback Stabilization Methods for the Numerical Solution of Systems of Ordinary Differential Equations

In this work we study the problem of step size selection for numerical schemes, which guarantees that the numerical solution presents the same qualitative behavior as the original system of ordinary differential equations, by means of tools from nonlinear control theory. Lyapunov-based and Small-Gain feedback stabilization methods are exploited and numerous illustrating applications are presented for systems with a globally asymptotically stable equilibrium point. The obtained results can be used for the control of the global discretization error as well.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures. Submitted for possible publication to BIT Numerical Mathematic

Matrix Structure Exploitation in Generalized Eigenproblems Arising in Density Functional Theory

In this short paper, the authors report a new computational approach in the context of Density Functional Theory (DFT). It is shown how it is possible to speed up the self-consistent cycle (iteration) characterizing one of the most well-known DFT implementations: FLAPW. Generating the Hamiltonian and overlap matrices and solving the associated generalized eigenproblems $Ax = \lambda Bx$ constitute the two most time-consuming fractions of each iteration. Two promising directions, implementing the new methodology, are presented that will ultimately improve the performance of the generalized eigensolver and save computational time.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of 8th International Conference on Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics (ICNAAM 2010

The Jacobi-Maupertuis Principle in Variational Integrators

In this paper, we develop a hybrid variational integrator based on the Jacobi-Maupertuis Principle of Least Action. The Jacobi-Maupertuis principle states that for a mechanical system with total energy E and potential energy V(q), the curve traced out by the system on a constant energy surface minimizes the action given by ∫√[2(E-V(q))] ds where ds is the line element on the constant energy surface with respect to the kinetic energy of the system. The key feature is that the principle is a parametrization independent geodesic problem. We show that this principle can be combined with traditional variational integrators and can be used to efficiently handle high velocity regions where small time steps would otherwise be required. This is done by switching between the Hamilton principle and the Jacobi-Maupertuis principle depending upon the kinetic energy of the system. We demonstrate our technique for the Kepler problem and discuss some ongoing and future work in studying the energy and momentum behavior of the resulting integrator

A p-adic look at the Diophantine equation x^{2}+11^{2k}=y^{n}

We find all solutions of Diophantine equation x^{2}+11^{2k} = y^{n} where x>=1, y>=1, n>=3 and k is natural number. We give p-adic interpretation of this equation.Comment: 4 page

Optimization of Dengue Epidemics: a test case with different discretization schemes

The incidence of Dengue epidemiologic disease has grown in recent decades. In this paper an application of optimal control in Dengue epidemics is presented. The mathematical model includes the dynamic of Dengue mosquito, the affected persons, the people's motivation to combat the mosquito and the inherent social cost of the disease, such as cost with ill individuals, educations and sanitary campaigns. The dynamic model presents a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The problem was discretized through Euler and Runge Kutta schemes, and solved using nonlinear optimization packages. The computational results as well as the main conclusions are shown.Comment: Presented at the invited session "Numerical Optimization" of the 7th International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics (ICNAAM 2009), Rethymno, Crete, Greece, 18-22 September 2009; RepositoriUM, id: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/1083

Modeling of Hydrogen Storage Materials: A Reactive Force Field for NaH

Parameterization of a reactive force field for NaH is done using ab initio derived data. The parameterized force field(ReaxFFNaH) is used to study the dynamics governing hydrogen desorption in NaH. During the abstraction process of surface molecular hydrogen charge transfer is found to be well described by the parameterized force field. To gain more insight into the mechanism governing structural transformation of NaH during thermal decomposition a heating run in a molecular dynamics simulation is done. The result shows that a clear signature of hydrogen desorption is the fall in potential energy surface during heating