From K.A.M. Tori to Isospectral Invariants and Spectral Rigidity of Billiard Tables

This article is a part of a project investigating the relationship between the dynamics of completely integrable or close to completely integrable billiard tables, the integral geometry on them, and the spectrum of the corresponding Laplace-Beltrami operators. It is concerned with new isospectral invariants and with the spectral rigidity problem for families of Laplace-Beltrami operators with Dirichlet, Neumann or Robin boundary conditions, associated with C^1 families of billiard tables. We introduce a notion of weak isospectrality for such deformations. The main dynamical assumption on the initial billiard table is that the corresponding billiard ball map or an iterate of it has a Kronecker invariant torus with a Diophantine frequency and that the corresponding Birkhoff Normal Form is nondegenerate in Kolmogorov sense. Then we obtain C^1 families of Kronecker tori with Diophantine frequencies. If the family of the Laplace-Beltrami operators satisfies the weak isospectral condition, we prove that the average action on the tori and the Birkhoff Normal Form of the billiard ball maps remain the same along the perturbation. As an application we obtain infinitesimal spectral rigidity for Liouville billiard tables in dimensions two and three. Applications are obtained also for strictly convex billiard tables of dimension two as well as in the case when the initial billiard table admits an elliptic periodic billiard trajectory. Spectral rigidity of billard tables close elliptical billiard tables is obtained. The results are based on a construction of C^1 families of quasi-modes associated with the Kronecker tori and on suitable KAM theorems for C^1 families of Hamiltonians.Comment: 170 pages; new results about the spectral rigidity of elliptical billiard tables; new Modified Iterative Lemma in the proof of KAM theorem with parameter

Characterisation of MEAs for Electrochemical Energy Conversion Using an Easy Test Technique

The paper describes an EasyTest cell developed for simple, safe and inexpensive to run testing and optimisation of the active materials (catalysts, catalytic supports, polymer membrane electrolytes) and electrode structures utilized in PEM Fuel cells and Electrolysers. The main advantages of the new EasyTest technique are demonstrated by a comparative study on the performance of two types of membrane electrode assemblies for electrochemical energy conversion. Nafion and PBI-based polymer electrolyte membranes covered with catalytic layers containing 20 % Pt dispersed on carbon black (E-TEK, De Nora) are tested as hydrogen electrodes working in a fuel cell and an electrolyser mode at two characteristic temperatures, varying the total partial pressure in the cell. The PBI-based membrane electrode assembly (MEA) gives lower current densities compared to that containing Nafion, while its performance remains stable in a much broader potential range. At overpotentials of about = 300–350 mV the Nafion MEA reaches a limiting current density, while in the case of PBI-based MEA such an effect is not registered in the whole potential range tested

Light-bending in Schwarzschild-de-Sitter: projective geometry of the optical metric

We interpret the well known fact that the equations for light rays in the Kottler or Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric are independent of the cosmological constant in terms of the projective equivalence of the optical metric for any value of \Lambda. We explain why this does not imply that lensing phenomena are independent of \Lambda. Motivated by this example, we find a large collection of one-parameter families of projectively equivalent metrics including both the Kottler optical geometry and the constant curvature metrics as special cases. Using standard constructions for geodesically equivalent metrics we find classical and quantum conserved quantities and relate these to known quantities.Comment: 8 page

Synthesis and Characterization of Rutile TiO2Nanopowders Doped with Iron Ions

Titanium dioxide nanopowders doped with different amounts of Fe ions were prepared by coprecipitation method. Obtained materials were characterized by structural (XRD), morphological (TEM and SEM), optical (UV/vis reflection and photoluminescence, and Raman), and analytical techniques (XPS and ICP-OES). XRD analysis revealed rutile crystalline phase for doped and undoped titanium dioxide obtained in the same manner. Diameter of the particles was 5–7 nm. The presence of iron ions was confirmed by XPS and ICP-OES. Doping process moved absorption threshold of TiO2into visible spectrum range. Photocatalytic activity was also checked. Doped nanopowders showed normal and up-converted photoluminescence

Unemployment benefits : discursive convergence, distant realities

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004Unemployment protection systems have certain characteristics in common in Argentina, Uruguay, Spain and Italy: they are compulsory and contributory-proportional, although in Uruguay, it also has a capitalisation supplement. Despite the similarities, they work differently because the context of informal employment chiefly, and unemployment, low salaries and precariousness differ greatly. Consequently, the unemployment protection coverage rate varies. Theories of the Active Welfare State, the Investor State and the reforms of unemployment protection systems have led to a certain modernising language being adopted in these countries: activation, employability, conditionality, lifelong learning, flexibility, which are, among others, words shared with Europe. However, the meanings of these words differ according to the institutional context of each country. In Latin America the welfare state is low institutionalised even almost non-existent, while in Europe it is a diverse institution. Despite this, the four countries share an upward trend in benefit policies, in accordance with the increase in poverty risk

Proof of projective Lichnerowicz conjecture for pseudo-Riemannian metrics with degree of mobility greater than two

We prove an important partial case of the pseudo-Riemannian version of the projective Lichnerowicz conjecture stating that a complete manifold admitting an essential group of projective transformations is the round sphere (up to a finite cover).Comment: 32 pages, one .eps figure. The version v1 has a misprint in Theorem 1: I forgot to write the assumption that the degree of mobility is greater than two. The versions v3, v4 have only cosmetic changes wrt v

Chemisorbed Oxygen at Pt(111): a DFT Study of Structural and Electronic Surface Properties

Simulations based on density functional theory are used to study the electronic and electrostatic properties of a Pt(111) surface covered by a layer of chemisorbed atomic oxygen. The impact of the oxygen surface coverage and orientationally ordered interfacial water layers is explored. The oxygen adsorption energy decreases as a function of oxygen coverage due to the lateral adsorbate repulsion. The surficial dipole moment density induced by the layer of chemisorbed oxygen causes a positive shift of the work function. In simulations with interfacial water layers, ordering and orientation of water molecules strongly affect the work function. It is found that the surficial dipole moment density and charge density are roughly linearly dependent on the oxygen surface coverage. Moreover, we found that water layers exert only a small impact on the surface charging behavior of the surface