Degrees of Free Word-Order and Freely Rewriting Restarting Automata

In natural languages with a high degree of word-order freedom syntactic phenomena like dependencies (subordinations) or valencies do not depend on the word-order (or on the individual positions of the individual words). This means that some permutations of sentences of these languages are in some (important) sense syntactically equivalent. Here we study this phenomenon in a formal way. Various types of j-monotonicity for restarting automata can serve as parameters for the degree of word-order freedom and for the complexity of word-order in sentences (languages). Here we combine two types of parameters on computations of restarting automata: 1. the degree of j-monotonicity, and 2. the number of rewrites per cycle. We study these notions formally in order to obtain an adequate tool for modelling and comparing formal descriptions of (natural) languages with different degrees of word-order freedom and word-order complexity.

Effect of dressing on high-order harmonic generation in vibrating H2 molecules

Wir entwickeln die Starkfeldnäherung für die Erzeugung hoher Harmonischer in Wasserstoffmolekülen, wobei die Vibrationsbewegung berücksichtigt wird, sowie die laserinduzierte Kopplung zwischen den beiden untersten Born-Oppenheimer-Zuständen im Molekülion, das durch die anfängliche Ionisation des Moleküls erzeugt wird. Wir zeigen, dass die Kopplung bei längeren Laserwellenlängen (≈ 2 μm) wichtig wird und zu einer Reduzierung der Erzeugung von Harmonischen führt, sowie zu einer Änderung des Verhältnisses von Harmonischen in verschiedenen Isotopen. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- We develop the strong-field approximation for high-order harmonic generation in hydrogen molecules, including the vibrational motion and the laser-induced coupling of the lowest two Born-Oppenheimer states in the molecular ion that is created by the initial ionization of the molecule. We show that the field dressing becomes important at long laser wavelengths (≈ 2 μm), leading to an overall reduction of harmonic generation and modifying the ratio of harmonic signals from different isotopes.

Constructing a ‘moment of crisis’ and its adequate solution

The rejection of the European Constitution marks an important crystallization point for debate about the European Union (EU) and the integration process. The European Constitution was envisaged as the founding document of a renewed and enlarged European Union and thus it was rather assumed to find wide public support. Its rejection was not anticipated. The negative referenda in France and the Netherlands therefore led to a controversial debate about the more fundamental meaning and the consequences of the rejection both for the immediate state of affairs as well as for the further integration process. The rejection of the Constitution and the controversy about its correct interpretation therefore present an intriguing puzzle for political analysis. Although the treaty rejection was taken up widely in the field of European Studies, the focus of existing analyses has predominantly been on explaining why the current situation occurred. Underlying these approaches is the premise that by establishing the reasons for the rejection it is possible to derive the ‘true’ meaning of the event for the EU integration process. In my paper I rely on an alternative, discourse theoretical approach which aims to overcome the positivist perspective dominating the existing analyses. I argue that the meaning of the event ‘treaty rejection’ is not fixed or inherent to it but discursively constructed. The critical assessment of this concrete meaning-production is of high relevance as the specific meaning attributed to the treaty rejection effectively constrains the scope for supposedly ‘reasonable’ options for action, both in the concrete situation and in the further European integration process more generally. I will argue that the overall framing suggests a fundamental technocratic approach to governance from part of the Commission. Political struggle and public deliberation is no longer foreseen as the concrete solutions to the citizens’ general concerns are designed by supposedly apolitical experts. Through the communicative diffusion and the active implementation of this particular model of governance the Commission shapes the future integration process in a more substantial way than is obvious from its seemingly limited immediate problem-solving orientation of overcoming the ‘constitutional crisis’. As the European Commission is a central actor in the discourse production my analysis focuses on the specific interpretation of the situation put forward by the Commission. In order to work out the Commission’s particular take on the event I conducted a frame analysis (according to Benford/Snow) on a body of key sources produced in the context of coping with the treaty rejection.

Theoretical study of magnetism, structure and chemical order in transition-metal alloy clusters

Research on transition-metal nanoalloy clusters composed of a few atoms is fascinating by their unusual properties due to the interplay among the structure, chemical order and magnetism. Such nanoalloy clusters, can be used to construct nanometer devices for technological applications by manipulating their remarkable magnetic, chemical and optical properties. Determining the nanoscopic features exhibited by the magnetic alloy clusters signifies the need for a systematic global and local exploration of their potential-energy surface in order to identify all the relevant energetically low-lying magnetic isomers. In this thesis the sampling of the potential-energy surface has been performed by employing the state-of-the-art spin-polarized density-functional theory in combination with graph theory and the basin-hopping global optimization techniques. This combination is vital for a quantitative analysis of the quantum mechanical energetics. The first approach, i.e., spin-polarized density-functional theory together with the graph theory method, is applied to study the Fe$_m$Rh$_n$ and Co$_m$Pd$_n$ clusters having $N = m+n \leq 8$ atoms. We carried out a thorough and systematic sampling of the potential-energy surface by taking into account all possible initial cluster topologies, all different distributions of the two kinds of atoms within the cluster, the entire concentration range between the pure limits, and different initial magnetic configurations such as ferro- and anti-ferromagnetic coupling. The remarkable magnetic properties shown by FeRh and CoPd nanoclusters are attributed to the extremely reduced coordination number together with the charge transfer from 3$d$ to 4$d$ elements. The second approach, i.e., spin-polarized density-functional theory together with the basin-hopping method is applied to study the small Fe$_6$, Fe$_3$Rh$_3$ and Rh$_6$ and the larger Fe$_{13}$, Fe$_6$Rh$_7$ and Rh$_{13}$ clusters as illustrative benchmark systems. This method is able to identify the true ground-state structures of Fe$_6$ and Fe$_3$Rh$_3$ which were not obtained by using the first approach. However, both approaches predict a similar cluster for the ground-state of Rh$_6$. Moreover, the computational time taken by this approach is found to be significantly lower than the first approach. The ground-state structure of Fe$_{13}$ cluster is found to be an icosahedral structure, whereas Rh$_{13}$ and Fe$_6$Rh$_7$ isomers relax into cage-like and layered-like structures, respectively. All the clusters display a remarkable variety of structural and magnetic behaviors. It is observed that the isomers having similar shape with small distortion with respect to each other can exhibit quite different magnetic moments. This has been interpreted as a probable artifact of spin-rotational symmetry breaking introduced by the spin-polarized GGA. The possibility of combining the spin-polarized density-functional theory with some other global optimization techniques such as minima-hopping method could be the next step in this direction. This combination is expected to be an ideal sampling approach having the advantage of avoiding efficiently the search over irrelevant regions of the potential energy surface.

A High Order Finite Volume Scheme for the 2D Shallow Water Equations Including Topography

Inhalt dieser Arbeit ist ein Verfahren zur numerischen Lösung der zweidimensionalen Flachwassergleichung, welche das Fließverhalten von Gewässern, deren Oberflächenausdehnung wesentlich größer als deren Tiefe ist, modelliert. Diese Gleichung beschreibt die gravitationsbedingte zeitliche Änderung eines gegebenen Anfangszustandes bei Gewässern mit freier Oberfläche. Diese Klasse beinhaltet Probleme wie das Verhalten von Wellen an flachen Stränden oder die Bewegung einer Flutwelle in einem Fluss. Diese Beispiele zeigen deutlich die Notwendigkeit, den Einfluss von Topographie sowie die Behandlung von Nass/Trockenübergängen im Verfahren zu berücksichtigen. In der vorliegenden Dissertation wird ein, in Gebieten mit hinreichender Wasserhöhe, hochgenaues Finite-Volumen-Verfahren zur numerischen Bestimmung des zeitlichen Verlaufs der Lösung der zweidimensionalen Flachwassergleichung aus gegebenen Anfangs- und Randbedingungen auf einem unstrukturierten Gitter vorgestellt, welches in der Lage ist, den Einfluss topographischer Quellterme auf die Strömung zu berücksichtigen, sowie in sogenannten \glqq lake at rest\grqq-stationären Zuständen diesen Einfluss mit den numerischen Flüssen exakt auszubalancieren. Basis des Verfahrens ist ein Finite-Volumen-Ansatz erster Ordnung, welcher durch eine WENO Rekonstruktion unter Verwendung der Methode der kleinsten Quadrate und eine sogenannte Space Time Expansion erweitert wird mit dem Ziel, ein Verfahren beliebig hoher Ordnung zu erhalten. Die im Verfahren auftretenden Riemannprobleme werden mit dem Riemannlöser von Chinnayya, LeRoux und Seguin von 1999 gelöst, welcher die Einflüsse der Topographie auf den Strömungsverlauf mit berücksichtigt. Es wird in der Arbeit bewiesen, dass die Koeffizienten der durch das WENO-Verfahren berechneten Rekonstruktionspolynome die räumlichen Ableitungen der zu rekonstruierenden Funktion mit einem zur Verfahrensordnung passenden Genauigkeitsgrad approximieren. Ebenso wird bewiesen, dass die Koeffizienten des aus der Space Time Expansion resultierenden Polynoms die räumlichen und zeitlichen Ableitungen der Lösung des Anfangswertproblems approximieren. Darüber hinaus wird die wohlbalanciertheit des Verfahrens für beliebig hohe numerische Ordnung bewiesen. Für die Behandlung von Nass/Trockenübergangen wird eine Methode zur Ordnungsreduktion abhängig von Wasserhöhe und Zellgröße vorgeschlagen. Dies ist notwendig, um in der Rechnung negative Werte für die Wasserhöhe, welche als Folge von Oszillationen des Raum-Zeit-Polynoms auftreten können, zu vermeiden. Numerische Ergebnisse die die theoretische Verfahrensordnung bestätigen werden ebenso präsentiert wie Beispiele, welche die hervorragenden Eigenschaften des Gesamtverfahrens in der Berechnung herausfordernder Probleme demonstrieren.

The Brazilian Zero Hunger social program implications in achieving sustainable development

This article aims to analyse the progress taken by Brazil towards the accomplishment of a sustainable development, mainly highlighting the success of the Zero Hunger social programme in achieving the elimination of starvation. As one of the essential pillars to the sustainable development, the State’s social performance demands actions directed to the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger, establishing a basis for equitable growth. It is necessary to clarify the juridical and constitutional framework of Brazil, aiming to emphasise the Zero Hunger importance in achieving the Brazilian Republic’s goals and reaching an international pattern on sustainable development. Also, it will be stressed that the international order influences Brazilian domestic law and is one of the main aspects for the Zero Hunger program development.

First-principles electronic theory of non-collinear magnetic order in transition-metal nanowires

The structural, electronic and magnetic properties of one-dimensional 3d transition-metal (TM) monoatomic chains having linear, zigzag and ladder geometries are investigated in the frame-work of first-principles density-functional theory. The stability of long-range magnetic order along the nanowires is determined by computing the corresponding frozen-magnon dispersion relations as a function of the 'spin-wave' vector q. First, we show that the ground-state magnetic orders of V, Mn and Fe linear chains at the equilibrium interatomic distances are non-collinear (NC) spin-density waves (SDWs) with characteristic equilibrium wave vectors q that depend on the composition and interatomic distance. The electronic and magnetic properties of these novel spin-spiral structures are discussed from a local perspective by analyzing the spin-polarized electronic densities of states, the local magnetic moments and the spin-density distributions for representative values q. Second, we investigate the stability of NC spin arrangements in Fe zigzag chains and ladders. We find that the non-collinear SDWs are remarkably stable in the biatomic chains (square ladder), whereas ferromagnetic order (q =0) dominates in zigzag chains (triangular ladders). The different magnetic structures are interpreted in terms of the corresponding effective exchange interactions J(ij) between the local magnetic moments μ(i) and μ(j) at atoms i and j. The effective couplings are derived by fitting a classical Heisenberg model to the ab initio magnon dispersion relations. In addition they are analyzed in the framework of general magnetic phase diagrams having arbitrary first, second, and third nearest-neighbor (NN) interactions J(ij). The effect of external electric fields (EFs) on the stability of NC magnetic order has been quantified for representative monoatomic free-standing and deposited chains. We find that an external EF, which is applied perpendicular to the chains, favors non-collinear order in V chains, whereas it stabilizes the ferromagnetic (FM) order in Fe chains. Moreover, our calculations reveal a change in the magnetic order of V chains deposited on the Cu(110) surface in the presence of external EFs. In this case the NC spiral order, which was unstable in the absence of EF, becomes the most favorable one when perpendicular fields of the order of 0.1 V/Å are applied. As a final application of the theory we study the magnetic interactions within monoatomic TM chains deposited on graphene sheets. One observes that even weak chain substrate hybridizations can modify the magnetic order. Mn and Fe chains show incommensurable NC spin configurations. Remarkably, V chains show a transition from a spiral magnetic order in the freestanding geometry to FM order when they are deposited on a graphene sheet. Some TM-terminated zigzag graphene-nanoribbons, for example V and Fe terminated nanoribbons, also show NC spin configurations. Finally, the magnetic anisotropy energies (MAEs) of TM chains on graphene are investigated. It is shown that Co and Fe chains exhibit significant MAEs and orbital magnetic moments with in-plane easy magnetization axis. The remarkable changes in the magnetic properties of chains on graphene are correlated to charge transfers from the TMs to NN carbon atoms. Goals and limitations of this study and the resulting perspectives of future investigations are discussed.

Meshing highly regular structures: The case of super carbon nanotubes of arbitrary order

Mesh generation is an important step inmany numerical methods.We present the “HierarchicalGraphMeshing” (HGM)method as a novel approach to mesh generation, based on algebraic graph theory.The HGM method can be used to systematically construct configurations exhibiting multiple hierarchies and complex symmetry characteristics. The hierarchical description of structures provided by the HGM method can be exploited to increase the efficiency of multiscale and multigrid methods. In this paper, the HGMmethod is employed for the systematic construction of super carbon nanotubes of arbitrary order, which present a pertinent example of structurally and geometrically complex, yet highly regular, structures. The HGMalgorithm is computationally efficient and exhibits good scaling characteristics. In particular, it scales linearly for super carbon nanotube structures and is working much faster than geometry-based methods employing neighborhood search algorithms. Its modular character makes it conducive to automatization. For the generation of a mesh, the information about the geometry of the structure in a given configuration is added in a way that relates geometric symmetries to structural symmetries. The intrinsically hierarchic description of the resulting mesh greatly reduces the effort of determining mesh hierarchies for multigrid and multiscale applications and helps to exploit symmetry-related methods in the mechanical analysis of complex structures.