Hi all,

Just thought that the following paper archived at the arXiv yesterday could be of general interest to any mechanician:

Xingyu Zhang, Matthew Tomes, Tal Carmon (2011) "Precession optomechanics," arXiv:1104.4839 [^]

The fig. 1 in it makes the matter conceptually so simple that the paper can be recommended to any mechanician for his general reading, and not only to a specialist in the field.

--Ajit

[E&OE]

Welcome to the February 2009 issue. In this issue, we will discuss the use of finite elements (FEs) in quantum mechanics, with specific focus on the quantum-mechanical problem that arises in crystalline solids. We will consider the electronic structure theory based on the Kohn-Sham equations of density functional theory (KS-DFT): in real-space, Schrödinger and Poisson equations are solved in a parallelepiped unit cell with Bloch-periodic and periodic boundary conditions, respectively. The planewave pseudopotential approach is the method of choice in such quantum-mechanical simulations, but there has been growing interest in recent years on the use of various real-space mesh approaches, of which finite elements are gaining increasing prominence.

Since the early 1990s, when quantum dots and quantum wires began to attract the attention of physicists, and when carbon nanotubes were discovered, mechanics related issues have begun to emerge as important in understanding properties of nanostructures.  These structures were first considered useful mostly for their electronic or optical applications, yet deformation has been seen to play an important role in their functional characteristics.  Advances in modeling also have begun to link electronic structure with mechanical properties of materials at larger length scales, particularly when microstructural or crystallographic effects influence bulk behavior.

Does the word "randomness" have antonym? If yes, what is it? Why? What view of randomness does that imply?

The notion of randomness is, of course, basic to both statistical mechanics (or kinetic theory) and quantum mechanics. But these are not the only fields where it is relevant. The notion also appears virtually in any field where probabilities are used. For example, we speak of random loads and vibrations (in structures and machine design), random noise (say, in acoustics), etc. But what does the term "randomness" really mean? Any idea? What would you say? Here, I am here looking for brain storming, so half-baked ideas, side comments, etc. etc. are welcome.