7,449 research outputs found
Automatic Detection of Expanding HI Shells Using Artificial Neural Networks
The identification of expanding HI shells is difficult because of their
variable morphological characteristics. The detection of HI bubbles on a global
scale therefore never has been attempted. In this paper, an automatic detector
for expanding HI shells is presented. The detection is based on the more stable
dynamical characteristics of expanding shells and is performed in two stages.
The first one is the recognition of the dynamical signature of an expanding
bubble in the velocity spectra, based on the classification of an artificial
neural network. The pixels associated with these recognized spectra are
identified on each velocity channel. The second stage consists in looking for
concentrations of those pixels that were firstly pointed out, and to decide if
they are potential detections by morphological and 21-cm emission variation
considerations. Two test bubbles are correctly detected and a potentially new
case of shell that is visually very convincing is discovered. About 0.6% of the
surveyed pixels are identified as part of a bubble. These may be false
detections, but still constitute regions of space with high probability of
finding an expanding shell. The subsequent search field is thus significantly
reduced. We intend to conduct in the near future a large scale HI shells
detection over the Perseus Arm using our detector.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figures, accepted by PAS
Extremal Configurations of Hinge Structures
We study body-and-hinge and panel-and-hinge chains in R^d, with two marked
points: one on the first body, the other on the last. For a general chain, the
squared distance between the marked points gives a Morse-Bott function on a
torus configuration space. Maximal configurations, when the distance between
the two marked points reaches a global maximum, have particularly simple
geometrical characterizations. The three-dimensional case is relevant for
applications to robotics and molecular structures
Weighing wimps with kinks at colliders: invisible particle mass measurements from endpoints
We consider the application of endpoint techniques to the problem of mass
determination for new particles produced at a hadron collider, where these
particles decay to an invisible particle of unknown mass and one or more
visible particles of known mass. We also consider decays of these types for
pair-produced particles and in each case consider situations both with and
without initial state radiation. We prove that, in most (but not all) cases,
the endpoint of an appropriate transverse mass observable, considered as a
function of the unknown mass of the invisible particle, has a kink at the true
value of the invisible particle mass. The co-ordinates of the kink yield the
masses of the decaying particle and the invisible particle. We discuss the
prospects for implementing this method at the LHC
Dark Matter Direct Detection with Non-Maxwellian Velocity Structure
The velocity distribution function of dark matter particles is expected to
show significant departures from a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. This can
have profound effects on the predicted dark matter - nucleon scattering rates
in direct detection experiments, especially for dark matter models in which the
scattering is sensitive to the high velocity tail of the distribution, such as
inelastic dark matter (iDM) or light (few GeV) dark matter (LDM), and for
experiments that require high energy recoil events, such as many directionally
sensitive experiments. Here we determine the velocity distribution functions
from two of the highest resolution numerical simulations of Galactic dark
matter structure (Via Lactea II and GHALO), and study the effects for these
scenarios. For directional detection, we find that the observed departures from
Maxwell-Boltzmann increase the contrast of the signal and change the typical
direction of incoming DM particles. For iDM, the expected signals at direct
detection experiments are changed dramatically: the annual modulation can be
enhanced by more than a factor two, and the relative rates of DAMA compared to
CDMS can change by an order of magnitude, while those compared to CRESST can
change by a factor of two. The spectrum of the signal can also change
dramatically, with many features arising due to substructure. For LDM the
spectral effects are smaller, but changes do arise that improve the
compatibility with existing experiments. We find that the phase of the
modulation can depend upon energy, which would help discriminate against
background should it be found.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figures, submitted to JCAP. Tables of g(v_min), the
integral of f(v)/v from v_min to infinity, derived from our simulations, are
available for download at http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mqk/dmdd
Models with short and long-range interactions: phase diagram and reentrant phase
We study the phase diagram of two different Hamiltonians with competiting
local, nearest-neighbour, and mean-field couplings. The first example
corresponds to the HMF Hamiltonian with an additional short-range interaction.
The second example is a reduced Hamiltonian for dipolar layered spin
structures, with a new feature with respect to the first example, the presence
of anisotropies. The two examples are solved in both the canonical and the
microcanonical ensemble using a combination of the min-max method with the
transfer operator method. The phase diagrams present typical features of
systems with long-range interactions: ensemble inequivalence, negative specific
heat and temperature jumps. Moreover, in a given range of parameters, we report
the signature of phase reentrance. This can also be interpreted as the presence
of azeotropy with the creation of two first order phase transitions with
ensemble inequivalence, as one parameter is varied continuously
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