Boundary Harnack estimates in slit domains and applications to thin free boundary problems

We provide a higher order boundary Harnack inequality for harmonic functions in slit domains. As a corollary we obtain the $C^\infty$ regularity of the free boundary in the Signorini problem near non-degenerate points

The two membranes problem for different operators

We study the two membranes problem for different operators, possibly nonlocal. We prove a general result about the H\"older continuity of the solutions and we develop a viscosity solution approach to this problem. Then we obtain $C^{1,\gamma}$ regularity of the solutions provided that the orders of the two operators are different. In the special case when one operator coincides with the fractional Laplacian, we obtain the optimal regularity and a characterization of the free boundary

Is H3+ cooling ever important in primordial gas?

Studies of the formation of metal-free Population III stars usually focus primarily on the role played by H2 cooling, on account of its large chemical abundance relative to other possible molecular or ionic coolants. However, while H2 is generally the most important coolant at low gas densities, it is not an effective coolant at high gas densities, owing to the low critical density at which it reaches local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and to the large opacities that develop in its emission lines. It is therefore possible that emission from other chemical species may play an important role in cooling high density primordial gas. A particularly interesting candidate is the H3+ molecular ion. This ion has an LTE cooling rate that is roughly a billion times larger than that of H2, and unlike other primordial molecular ions such as H2+ or HeH+, it is not easily removed from the gas by collisions with H or H2. It is already known to be an important coolant in at least one astrophysical context -- the upper atmospheres of gas giants -- but its role in the cooling of primordial gas has received little previous study. In this paper, we investigate the potential importance of H3+ cooling in primordial gas using a newly-developed H3+ cooling function and the most detailed model of primordial chemistry published to date. We show that although H3+ is, in most circumstances, the third most important coolant in dense primordial gas (after H2 and HD), it is nevertheless unimportant, as it contributes no more than a few percent of the total cooling. We also show that in gas irradiated by a sufficiently strong flux of cosmic rays or X-rays, H3+ can become the dominant coolant in the gas, although the size of the flux required renders this scenario unlikely to occur.Comment: 60 pages, 22 figures. Submitted to MNRA

Statistics of conductance and shot-noise power for chaotic cavities

We report on an analytical study of the statistics of conductance, $g$, and shot-noise power, $p$, for a chaotic cavity with arbitrary numbers $N_{1,2}$ of channels in two leads and symmetry parameter $\beta = 1,2,4$. With the theory of Selberg's integral the first four cumulants of $g$ and first two cumulants of $p$ are calculated explicitly. We give analytical expressions for the conductance and shot-noise distributions and determine their exact asymptotics near the edges up to linear order in distances from the edges. For $0<g<1$ a power law for the conductance distribution is exact. All results are also consistent with numerical simulations.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Proc. of the 3rd Workshop on Quantum Chaos and Localisation Phenomena, Warsaw, Poland, May 25-27, 200

Lie algebra and invariant tensor technology for g2

Proceeding in analogy with su(n) work on lambda matrices and f- and d-tensors, this paper develops the technology of the Lie algebra g2, its seven dimensional defining representation gamma and the full set of invariant tensors that arise in relation thereto. A comprehensive listing of identities involving these tensors is given. This includes identities that depend on use of characteristic equations, especially for gamma, and a good body of results involving the quadratic, sextic and (the non-primitivity of) other Casimir operators of g2.Comment: 29 pages, LaTe