In free energy calculations based on thermodynamic integration, it is necessary to compute the derivatives of the free energy as a function of one (scalar case) or several (vector case) order parameters. We derive in a compact way a general formulation for evaluating these derivatives as the average of a mean force acting on the order parameters, which involves first derivatives with respect to...

Azobenzenes have the unique ability to undergo reversible isomerization between two geometrical isomers (the straight trans form and the bent cis) when exposed to certain wavelengths of light, which provide energy for the change. Thus, when embedded in liquid crystal matrices, azobenzene derivatives can function as optically triggered switches regulating, for example, membrane permeability to g...

..................................................................................................................................................II CONTENT...................................................................................................................................................III FIGURES......................................................................................

The study of photoproduction reactions has gained a unique opportunity with the HERA data. The high center of mass energy allows to carry out quantitative tests of QCD, to explore the substructure of both the photon and the proton and to shed new light on soft and diffractive processes. In this report we review the HERA results, comparing them with the reach of fixed target photoproduction expe...

Kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery instruments covering nuclear and particle physics, cosmology and astronomy. Examples of their multidisciplinary missions include the search for the particle nature of dark matter and for additional small dimensions of space. In the end, their conceptual design is very much anchored to the observational fact that Nature accelerates...

High energy synchrotron diffraction is introduced as a new method for residual stress analysis in the bulk of materials. It is shown that energy dispersive measurements are sufficiently precise so that strains as small 10-4 can be determined reliably. Due to the high intensity and the high parallelism of the high energy synchrotron radiation the sample gauge volume can be reduced to approximate...

We briefly review the high energy astrophysical processes that are related to the production of high energy γ-ray and neutrino signals and are likely to be important for the energy loss of high and ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. We also give examples for neutrino fluxes generated by different astrophysical objects and describe the cosmological link provided by cosmogenic neutrinos.