The Role of Radical Bridges in Polynuclear Single-Molecule Magnets

Employing radical bridges between anisotropic metal ions has been a viable route to achieve high-performance single-molecule magnets (SMMs). While the bridges have been mainly considered for their ability to promote exchange interactions, the crystal-field effect arising from them has not been taken into account explicitly. This lack of consideration may distort the understanding and limit the development of the entire family. To shed light on this aspect, herein we report a theoretical investigation of a series of N -radical-bridged diterbium complexes. It is found that while promoting strong exchange coupling between the terbium ions, the N -radical induces a crystal field that interferes destructively with that of the outer ligands, and thus reduces the overall SMM behavior. Based on the theoretical results, we conclude that the SMM behavior in this series could be further maximized if the crystal field of the outer ligands is designed to be collinear with that of the radical bridge. This conclusion can be generalized to all exchange-coupled SMMs.     

Quadrilateral surface meshes without self-intersecting dual cycles for hexahedral mesh generation

Several promising approaches for hexahedral mesh generation work as follows: Given a prescribed quadrilateral surface mesh they first build the combinatorial dual of the hexahedral mesh. This dual mesh is converted into the primal hexahedral mesh, and finally embedded and smoothed into the given domain. Two such approaches, the modified whisker weaving algorithm by Folwell and Mitchell, as well as a method proposed by the author, rely on an iterative elimination of certain dual cycles in the surface mesh. An intuitive interpretation of the latter method is that cycle eliminations correspond to complete sheets of hexahedra in the volume mesh.

Although these methods can be shown to work in principle, the quality of the generated meshes heavily relies on the dual cycle structure of the given surface mesh. In particular, it seems that difficulties in the hexahedral meshing process and poor mesh qualities are often due to self-intersecting dual cycles. Unfortunately, all previous work on quadrilateral surface mesh generation has focused on quality issues of the surface mesh alone but has disregarded its suitability for a high-quality extension to a three-dimensional mesh.

In this paper, we develop a new method to generate quadrilateral surface meshes without self-intersecting dual cycles. This method reuses previous b-matching problem formulations of the quadrilateral mesh refinement problem. The key insight is that the b-matching solution can be decomposed into a collection of simple cycles and paths of multiplicity two, and that these cycles and paths can be consistently embedded into the dual surface mesh.

A second tool uses recursive splitting of components into simpler subcomponents by insertion of internal two-manifolds. We show that such a two-manifold can be meshed with quadrilaterals such that the induced dual cycle structure of each subcomponent is free of self-intersections if the original component satisfies this property. Experiments show that we can achieve hexahedral meshes with a good quality.     

Wechselnde Bindungen in einem Zweikörpersystem mit trockener Reibung

Übersicht Betrachtet wird ein zwangserregtes Zweikörpersystem mit wechselnden Bindungen infolge trockener Reibung. Stationäre Bewegungen werden als Grenzfall instationärer Einschwingvorgänge berechnet. Abhängig von den Systemparametern ergeben sich drei typische Bewegungsformen. Ihnen entsprechen dauernde Haftzustände, wechselnde Haft-Gleitzustände oder dauernde Gleitzustände an der Berührfläche beider Körper.

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Intermittant constraints in a two-body-system with dry friction

Summary An externally excited two-body-system with intermittant constraints due to dry friction is considered. Stationary motions are calculated as limit cases of instationary transients. Depending on the parameters of the system, three typical modes are of interest. These correspond to permanent sticking, slipstick behaviour, or to permanent slipping in the contact surface of the bodies, respectively.

     

Patterns—a fundamental idea of mathematical thinking and learning

Taking advantage of patterns is typical of our everyday experience as well as our mathematical thinking and learning. For example a working day or a morning at school displays a certain structure, which can be described in terms of patterns. On the one hand regular structures give us the feeling of permanence and enable us to make predictions. On the other hand they also provide a chance to be creative and to vary common procedures. School students usually encounter patterns in math classes either as number patterns or geometric patterns. There are also patterns that teachers can find in analyzing the errors students make during their calculations (error patterns) as well as patterns that are inherent to mathematical problems. One could even go so far as to say that identifying and describing patterns is elementary for mathematics (cf. Devlin 2003). Practising good interacting with patterns supports not only the active learning of mathematics but also a deeper understanding of the world in general. Patterns can be explored, identified, extended, reproduced, compared, varied, represented, described and created. This paper provides some examples of pattern utilization and detailed analyses thereof. These ideas serve as “hooks” to encourage the good use of patterns to facilitate active learning processes in mathematics.     

Notiz über Parachloraldehyd

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Selective Propargylation of Carbonyl Compounds and Imines with Barium Reagents

A Barbier‐type regioselective propargylation of aldehydes and ketones with (3‐bromobut‐1‐ynyl)trimethylsilane has been achieved using reactive barium as a low‐valent metal in THF. Especially in the case of ketones, the corresponding homopropargylic alcohols form almost exclusively. In the reaction of α,β‐unsaturated carbonyl compounds, only 1,2‐adducts have been observed. This method is also applicable to propargylation of imines, and the corresponding homopropargylic amines are obtained regiospecifically in good yields with diastereomeric ratios of up to 87:13.