Transition from Poissonian to GOE level statistics in a modified Artin's billiard

One wall of Artin's billiard on the Poincar\'e half plane is replaced by a one-parameter ($c_p$) family of nongeodetic walls. A brief description of the classical phase space of this system is given. In the quantum domain, the continuousand gradual transition from the Poisson like to GOE level statistics due to the small perturbations breaking the symmetry responsible for the 'arithmetic chaos' at $c_p=1$ is studied. Another GOE \rightrrow Poisson transition due to the mixed phase space for large perturbations is also investigated. A satisfactory description of the intermediate level statistics by the Brody distribution was found in boh cases. The study supports the existence of a scaling region around $c_p=1$. A finite size scaling relation for the Brody-parameter as a function of $1-c_p$ and the number of levels considered can be established

Triangulation of 3D Surfaces Recovered from STL Grids

In the present paper, an algorithm for the discretization of parametric 3D surfaces has been extended to the family of discrete surfaces represented by stereolithography (STL) grids. The STL file format, developed for the rapid prototyping industry, is an attractive alternative to surface representation in solid modeling. Initially, a boundary representation is constructed from the STL file using feature recognition. Then a smooth surface is recovered over the original STL grid using an interpolating subdivision procedure. Finally, the reconstructed surface is subjected to the triangulation accomplished using the advancing front technique operating directly on the surface. The capability of the proposed methodology is illustrated on an example.

Dynamical compactification from de Sitter space

We show that D-dimensional de Sitter space is unstable to the nucleation of non-singular geometries containing spacetime regions with different numbers of macroscopic dimensions, leading to a dynamical mechanism of compactification. These and other solutions to Einstein gravity with flux and a cosmological constant are constructed by performing a dimensional reduction under the assumption of q-dimensional spherical symmetry in the full D-dimensional geometry. In addition to the familiar black holes, black branes, and compactification solutions we identify a number of new geometries, some of which are completely non-singular. The dynamical compactification mechanism populates lower-dimensional vacua very differently from false vacuum eternal inflation, which occurs entirely within the context of four-dimensions. We outline the phenomenology of the nucleation rates, finding that the dimensionality of the vacuum plays a key role and that among vacua of the same dimensionality, the rate is highest for smaller values of the cosmological constant. We consider the cosmological constant problem and propose a novel model of slow-roll inflation that is triggered by the compactification process.Comment: Revtex. 41 pages with 24 embedded figures. Minor corrections and added reference

Numerical modelling of deflections of reinforced concrete flat slabs under service loads.

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The 10 February 1977 lunar occultation of Uranus. Radius, limb darkening, and polar brightening at 6900 A

Contact timings, corrected for lunar limb effects, indicate an equatorial radius of 25700 + or - 500 km for the visible disk for Uranus. A modified Minnaert function is used to model limb darkening and polar brightening. Least squares fits to the observed light curve indicate that Uranus is slightly limb darkened in the passband of the observations (450 A FWHM centered near 6900 A) and that polar brightening is present

Rayleigh-B\'enard convection with a melting boundary

We study the evolution of a melting front between the solid and liquid phases of a pure incompressible material where fluid motions are driven by unstable temperature gradients. In a plane layer geometry, this can be seen as classical Rayleigh-B\'enard convection where the upper solid boundary is allowed to melt due to the heat flux brought by the fluid underneath. This free-boundary problem is studied numerically in two dimensions using a phase-field approach, classically used to study the melting and solidification of alloys, which we dynamically couple with the Navier-Stokes equations in the Boussinesq approximation. The advantage of this approach is that it requires only moderate modifications of classical numerical methods. We focus on the case where the solid is initially nearly isothermal, so that the evolution of the topography is related to the inhomogeneous heat flux from thermal convection, and does not depend on the conduction problem in the solid. From a very thin stable layer of fluid, convection cells appears as the depth -- and therefore the effective Rayleigh number of the layer increases. The continuous melting of the solid leads to dynamical transitions between different convection cell sizes and topography amplitudes. The Nusselt number can be larger than its value for a planar upper boundary, due to the feedback of the topography on the flow, which can stabilize large-scale laminar convection cells.Comment: 36 pages, 16 figure

Quantitative analysis of the reconstruction performance of interpolants

The analysis presented provides a quantitative measure of the reconstruction or interpolation performance of linear, shift-invariant interpolants. The performance criterion is the mean square error of the difference between the sampled and reconstructed functions. The analysis is applicable to reconstruction algorithms used in image processing and to many types of splines used in numerical analysis and computer graphics. When formulated in the frequency domain, the mean square error clearly separates the contribution of the interpolation method from the contribution of the sampled data. The equations provide a rational basis for selecting an optimal interpolant; that is, one which minimizes the mean square error. The analysis has been applied to a selection of frequently used data splines and reconstruction algorithms: parametric cubic and quintic Hermite splines, exponential and nu splines (including the special case of the cubic spline), parametric cubic convolution, Keys' fourth-order cubic, and a cubic with a discontinuous first derivative. The emphasis in this paper is on the image-dependent case in which no a priori knowledge of the frequency spectrum of the sampled function is assumed

A Universal Parametrization in B-Spline Curve and Surface Interpolation and Its Performance Evaluation.

The choice of a proper parametrization method is critical in curve and surface fitting using parametric B-splines. Conventional parametrization methods do not work well partly because they are based only on the geometric properties of given data points such as the distances between consecutive data points and the angles between consecutive line segments. The resulting interpolation curves don\u27t look natural and they are often not affine invariant. The conventional parametrization methods don\u27t work well for odd orders k. If a data point is altered, the effect is not limited locally at all with these methods. The localness property with respect to data points is critical in interactive modeling. We present a new parametrization based on the nature of the basis functions called B-splines. It assigns to each data point the parameter value at which the corresponding B-spline N\sb{ik}(t) is maximum. The new method overcomes all four problems mentioned above; (1) It works well for all orders k, (2) it generates affine invariant curves, (3) the resulting curves look more natural, in general, and (4) it has the semi-localness property with respect to data points. The new method is also computationally more efficient and the resulting curve has more regular behavior of the curvature. Fairness evaluation and knot removal are performed on curves obtained from various parametrizations. The results also show that the new parametrization is superior. Fairness is evaluated in terms of total curvature, total length, and curvature plot. The curvature plots are looking natural for the curves obtained from the new parametrization. For the curves obtained from the new method, knot removal is able to provide with the curves which are very close to the original curves. A more efficient and effective method is also presented for knot removal in B-spline curve. A global norm is utilized for approximation unlike other methods which are using some local norms. A geometrical view makes the computation more efficient

Learning a Manifold of Fonts

The design and manipulation of typefaces and fonts is an area requiring substantial expertise; it can take many years of study to become a proficient typographer. At the same time, the use of typefaces is ubiquitous; there are many users who, while not experts, would like to be more involved in tweaking or changing existing fonts without suffering the learning curve of professional typography packages. Given the wealth of fonts that are available today, we would like to exploit the expertise used to produce these fonts, and to enable everyday users to create, explore, and edit fonts. To this end, we build a generative manifold of standard fonts. Every location on the manifold corresponds to a unique and novel typeface, and is obtained by learning a non-linear mapping that intelligently interpolates and extrapolates existing fonts. Using the manifold, we can smoothly interpolate and move between existing fonts. We can also use the manifold as a constraint that makes a variety of new applications possible. For instance, when editing a single character, we can update all the other glyphs in a font simultaneously to keep them compatible with our changes