Discrete Scale Relativity And SX Phoenicis Variable Stars

Discrete Scale Relativity proposes a new symmetry principle called discrete cosmological self-similarity which relates each class of systems and phenomena on a given Scale of nature's discrete cosmological hierarchy to the equivalent class of analogue systems and phenomena on any other Scale. The new symmetry principle can be understood in terms of discrete scale invariance involving the spatial, temporal and dynamic parameters of all systems and phenomena. This new paradigm predicts a rigorous discrete self-similarity between Stellar Scale variable stars and Atomic Scale excited atoms undergoing energy-level transitions and sub-threshold oscillations. Previously, methods for demonstrating and testing the proposed symmetry principle have been applied to RR Lyrae, Delta Scuti and ZZ Ceti variable stars. In the present paper we apply the same analytical methods and diagnostic tests to a new class of variable stars: SX Phoenicis variables. Double-mode pulsators are shown to provide an especially useful means of testing the uniqueness and rigor of the conceptual principles and discrete self-similar scaling of Discrete Scale Relativity.Comment: 16 pages, 2 tables, comments welcom

Feedback-free optical cavity with self-resonating mechanism

We demonstrated the operation of a high finesse optical cavity without utilizing an active feedback system to stabilize the resonance. The effective finesse, which is a finesse including the overall system performance, of the cavity was measured to be $394,000 \pm 10,000$, and the laser power stored in the cavity was $2.52 \pm 0.13$ kW, which is approximately 187,000 times greater than the incident power to the cavity. The stored power was stabilized with a fluctuation of $1.7 \%$, and we confirmed continuous cavity operation for more than two hours. This result has the potential to trigger an innovative evolution for applications that use optical resonant cavities such as compact photon sources with laser-Compton scattering or cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Robot control with biological cells

At present there exists a large gap in size, performance, adaptability and robustness between natural and artificial information processors for performing coherent perception-action tasks under real-time constraints. Even the simplest organisms have an enviable capability of coping with an unknown dynamic environment. Robots, in contrast, are still clumsy if confronted with such complexity. This paper presents a bio-hybrid architecture developed for exploring an alternate approach to the control of autonomous robots. Circuits prepared from amoeboid plasmodia of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum are interfaced with an omnidirectional hexapod robot. Sensory signals from the macro-physical environment of the robot are transduced to cellular scale and processed using the unique micro-physical features of intracellular information processing. Conversely, the response form the cellular computation is amplified to yield a macroscopic output action in the environment mediated through the robot’s actuators

Heterogeneity Induced Order in Globally Coupled Chaotic Systems

Collective behavior is studied in globally coupled maps with distributed nonlinearity. It is shown that the heterogeneity enhances regularity in the collective dynamics. Low-dimensional quasiperiodic motion is often found for the mean-field, even if each element shows chaotic dynamics. The mechanism of this order is due to the formation of an internal bifurcation structure, and the self-consistent dynamics between the structures and the mean-field. Keywords: Globally Coupled Map with heterogeneity, Collective behaviorComment: 11 pages (Revtex) + 4 figures (PostScript,tar+gzip

Collective Neutrino Oscillations

We review the rich phenomena associated with neutrino flavor transformation in the presence of neutrino self-coupling. Our exposition centers on three collective neutrino oscillation scenarios: a simple bipolar neutrino system that initially consists of mono-energetic electron neutrinos and antineutrinos; a homogeneous and isotropic neutrino gas with multiple neutrino/antineutrino species and continuous energy spectra; and a generic neutrino gas in an anisotropic environment. We use each of these scenarios to illustrate key facets of collective neutrino oscillations. We discuss the implications of collective neutrino flavor oscillations for core collapse supernova physics and for the prospects of obtaining fundamental neutrino properties, e.g., the neutrino mass hierarchy and $\theta_{13}$ from a future observed supernova neutrino signal.Comment: Submitted to Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Scienc