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We show that there are solutions of the SU(2) Yang-Mills classical equations of motion in R 4 , which are self-dual and vortex-like(fluxons). The action density is concentrated along a thick two-dimensional wall (the world sheet of a straight infinite vortex line). The configurations are constructed from self-dual R 2 × T 2 configurations.

We present a general framework to deal with forward and backward components of the electromagnetic field in axially invariant nonlinear optical systems, which include those having any type of linear or nonlinear transverse inhomogeneities. With a minimum amount of approximations, we obtain a system of two first-order equations for forward and backward components, explicitly showing the nonlinear couplings among them. The modal approach used allows for an effective reduction of the dimensionality of the original problem from 3 + 1 (three spatial dimensions plus one time dimension) to 1 + 1 (one spatial dimension plus one frequency dimension). The new equations can be written in a spinor Dirac-like form, out of which conserved quantities can be calculated in an elegant manner. Finally, these equations inherently incorporate spatiotemporal couplings, so that they can be easily particularized to deal with purely temporal or purely spatial effects. Nonlinear forward pulse propagation and nonparaxial evolution of spatial structures are analyzed as examples.

This paper presents a method of subtracting the effect of atmospheric conditions from thermal response test (TRT) estimates by using data on the ambient air temperature. The method assesses effective ground thermal conductivity within 10% of the mean value from the test, depending on the time interval chosen for the analysis, whereas the estimated value can vary by a third if energy losses outside the borehole are neglected. Evaluating the same test data using the finite line-source (FLS) model gives lower values for the ground thermal conductivity than for the infinite line-source (ILS) model, whether or not heat dissipation to ambient air is assumed.