18,712 research outputs found
Optimization as a design strategy. Considerations based on building simulation-assisted experiments about problem decomposition
In this article the most fundamental decomposition-based optimization method
- block coordinate search, based on the sequential decomposition of problems in
subproblems - and building performance simulation programs are used to reason
about a building design process at micro-urban scale and strategies are defined
to make the search more efficient. Cyclic overlapping block coordinate search
is here considered in its double nature of optimization method and surrogate
model (and metaphore) of a sequential design process. Heuristic indicators apt
to support the design of search structures suited to that method are developed
from building-simulation-assisted computational experiments, aimed to choose
the form and position of a small building in a plot. Those indicators link the
sharing of structure between subspaces ("commonality") to recursive
recombination, measured as freshness of the search wake and novelty of the
search moves. The aim of these indicators is to measure the relative
effectiveness of decomposition-based design moves and create efficient block
searches. Implications of a possible use of these indicators in genetic
algorithms are also highlighted.Comment: 48 pages. 12 figures, 3 table
WIMP astronomy and particle physics with liquid-noble and cryogenic direct-detection experiments
Once weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are unambiguously detected
in direct-detection experiments, the challenge will be to determine what one
may infer from the data. Here, I examine the prospects for reconstructing the
local speed distribution of WIMPs in addition to WIMP particle-physics
properties (mass, cross sections) from next-generation cryogenic and
liquid-noble direct-detection experiments. I find that the common method of
fixing the form of the velocity distribution when estimating constraints on
WIMP mass and cross sections means losing out on the information on the speed
distribution contained in the data and may lead to biases in the inferred
values of the particle-physics parameters. I show that using a more general,
empirical form of the speed distribution can lead to good constraints on the
speed distribution. Moreover, one can use Bayesian model-selection criteria to
determine if a theoretically-inspired functional form for the speed
distribution (such as a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution) fits better than an
empirical model. The shape of the degeneracy between WIMP mass and cross
sections and their offset from the true values of those parameters depends on
the hypothesis for the speed distribution, which has significant implications
for consistency checks between direct-detection and collider data. In addition,
I find that the uncertainties on theoretical parameters depends sensitively on
the upper end of the energy range used for WIMP searches. Better constraints on
the WIMP particle-physics parameters and speed distribution are obtained if the
WIMP search is extended to higher energy (~ 1 MeV).Comment: 25 pages, 27 figures, matches published versio
Alternatives with stronger convergence than coordinate-descent iterative LMI algorithms
In this note we aim at putting more emphasis on the fact that trying to solve
non-convex optimization problems with coordinate-descent iterative linear
matrix inequality algorithms leads to suboptimal solutions, and put forward
other optimization methods better equipped to deal with such problems (having
theoretical convergence guarantees and/or being more efficient in practice).
This fact, already outlined at several places in the literature, still appears
to be disregarded by a sizable part of the systems and control community. Thus,
main elements on this issue and better optimization alternatives are presented
and illustrated by means of an example.Comment: 3 pages. Main experimental results reproducible from files available
on http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/33219 This work has
been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be
transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be
accessibl
Rapid Computation of Thermodynamic Properties Over Multidimensional Nonbonded Parameter Spaces using Adaptive Multistate Reweighting
We show how thermodynamic properties of molecular models can be computed over
a large, multidimensional parameter space by combining multistate reweighting
analysis with a linear basis function approach. This approach reduces the
computational cost to estimate thermodynamic properties from molecular
simulations for over 130,000 tested parameter combinations from over a thousand
CPU years to tens of CPU days. This speed increase is achieved primarily by
computing the potential energy as a linear combination of basis functions,
computed from either modified simulation code or as the difference of energy
between two reference states, which can be done without any simulation code
modification. The thermodynamic properties are then estimated with the
Multistate Bennett Acceptance Ratio (MBAR) as a function of multiple model
parameters without the need to define a priori how the states are connected by
a pathway. Instead, we adaptively sample a set of points in parameter space to
create mutual configuration space overlap. The existence of regions of poor
configuration space overlap are detected by analyzing the eigenvalues of the
sampled states' overlap matrix. The configuration space overlap to sampled
states is monitored alongside the mean and maximum uncertainty to determine
convergence, as neither the uncertainty or the configuration space overlap
alone is a sufficient metric of convergence.
This adaptive sampling scheme is demonstrated by estimating with high
precision the solvation free energies of charged particles of Lennard-Jones
plus Coulomb functional form. We also compute entropy, enthalpy, and radial
distribution functions of unsampled parameter combinations using only the data
from these sampled states and use the free energies estimates to examine the
deviation of simulations from the Born approximation to the solvation free
energy
Sensitivity plots for WIMP direct detection using the annual modulation signature
Annual modulation due to the Earth's motion around the Sun is a well known
signature of the expected WIMP signal induced in a solid state underground
detector. In the present letter we discuss the prospects of this technique on
statistical grounds, introducing annual-modulation sensitivity plots for the
WIMP-nucleon scalar cross section for different materials and experimental
conditions. The highest sensitivity to modulation is found in the WIMP mass
interval 10 GeV< m_W < 130 GeV, the actual upper limit depending from the
choice of the astrophysical parameters, while the lowest values of the
explorable WIMP-nucleon elastic cross-sections fall in most cases within one
order of magnitude of the sensitivities of present direct detection WIMP
searches.Comment: 24 pages, ReVTeX, 9 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic
The TDNNS method for Reissner-Mindlin plates
A new family of locking-free finite elements for shear deformable
Reissner-Mindlin plates is presented. The elements are based on the
"tangential-displacement normal-normal-stress" formulation of elasticity. In
this formulation, the bending moments are treated as separate unknowns. The
degrees of freedom for the plate element are the nodal values of the
deflection, tangential components of the rotations and normal-normal components
of the bending strain. Contrary to other plate bending elements, no special
treatment for the shear term such as reduced integration is necessary. The
elements attain an optimal order of convergence
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