“Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now, you fucking stupid bastard!” Hegemonic Masculinity in Slasher Films

This thesis aims to analyze and address the prevalence of hegemonic masculinity in the slasher subgenre of horror films. The research consisted of a content analysis of what the internet deemed the ‘best’ ten slasher films of all time. The content analysis was based upon R.W. Connell’s (2005) theory of hegemonic masculinity which stated the existence of hierarchical standards for masculinity that men are expected to achieve. Hegemonic masculinity was categorized into four themes. The themes were sexist ideology, sexual behavior, and physical and emotional violence. The research indicated that emotional violence occurred at the highest rate among the sample of slasher films, at 44.3% of all four themes at 729 total counted instances. The results demonstrate that hegemonic masculinity exists past a principle of pure physical subordination, but instead in a setting where subordination happens in a more subtle fashion through emotional violence

Critical behavior and entanglement of the random transverse-field Ising model between one and two dimensions

We consider disordered ladders of the transverse-field Ising model and study their critical properties and entanglement entropy for varying width, $w \le 20$, by numerical application of the strong disorder renormalization group method. We demonstrate that the critical properties of the ladders for any finite $w$ are controlled by the infinite disorder fixed point of the random chain and the correction to scaling exponents contain information about the two-dimensional model. We calculate sample dependent pseudo-critical points and study the shift of the mean values as well as scaling of the width of the distributions and show that both are characterized by the same exponent, $\nu(2d)$. We also study scaling of the critical magnetization, investigate critical dynamical scaling as well as the behavior of the critical entanglement entropy. Analyzing the $w$-dependence of the results we have obtained accurate estimates for the critical exponents of the two-dimensional model: $\nu(2d)=1.25(3)$, $x(2d)=0.996(10)$ and $\psi(2d)=0.51(2)$.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

A Real Space Description of Magnetic Field Induced Melting in the Charge Ordered Manganites: I. The Clean Limit

We study the melting of charge order in the half doped manganites using a model that incorporates double exchange, antiferromagnetic superexchange, and Jahn-Teller coupling between electrons and phonons. We primarily use a real space Monte Carlo technique to study the phase diagram in terms of applied field $(h)$ and temperature $(T)$, exploring the melting of charge order with increasing $h$ and its recovery on decreasing $h$. We observe hysteresis in this response, and discover that the `field melted' high conductance state can be spatially inhomogeneous even without extrinsic disorder. The hysteretic response plays out in the background of field driven equilibrium phase separation. Our results, exploring $h$, $T$, and the electronic parameter space, are backed up by analysis of simpler limiting cases and a Landau framework for the field response. This paper focuses on our results in the `clean' systems, a companion paper studies the effect of cation disorder on the melting phenomena.Comment: 16 pages, pdflatex, 11 png fig

Tuning the structure of non-equilibrium soft materials by varying the thermodynamic driving force for crystal ordering

The official published version of the Article can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 Royal Society of ChemistryThe present work explores the ubiquitous morphological changes in crystallizing systems with increasing thermodynamic driving force based on a novel dynamic density functional theory. A colloidal ‘soft’ material is chosen as a model system for our investigation since there are careful colloidal crystallization observations at a particle scale resolution for comparison, which allows for a direct verification of our simulation predictions. We particularly focus on a theoretically unanticipated, and generic, morphological transition leading to progressively irregular-shaped single crystals in both colloidal and polymeric materials with an increasing thermodynamic driving force. Our simulation method significantly extends previous ‘phase field’ simulations by incorporating a minimal description of the ‘atomic’ structure of the material, while allowing simultaneously for a description of large scale crystal growth. We discover a ‘fast’ mode of crystal growth at high driving force, suggested before in experimental colloidal crystallization studies, and find that the coupling of this crystal mode to the well-understood ‘diffusive’ or ‘slow’ crystal growth mode (giving rise to symmetric crystal growth mode and dendritic crystallization as in snowflakes by the Mullins–Sekerka instability) can greatly affect the crystal morphology at high thermodynamic driving force. In particular, an understanding of this interplay between these fast and slow crystal growth modes allows us to describe basic crystallization morphologies seen in both colloidal suspensions with increasing particle concentration and crystallizing polymer films with decreasing temperature: compact symmetric crystals, dendritic crystals, fractal-like structures, and then a return to compact symmetric single crystal growth again.This work has been supported by the EU FP7 Collaborative Project ENSEMBLE under Grant Agreement NMP4-SL-2008-213669 and by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences under contract OTKA-K-62588

General analysis of the complementary nature of coercivity enhancement and exchange bias in ferro-antiferromagnet (F-AF) exchange coupled systems

Complementary nature of coercivity enhancement and exchange bias is generalized from the layered systems to ferro-antiferromagnet (F-AF) exchange coupled systems with arbitrary configurations and is proved based on the coherent rotation of the F magnetization. In the proof, the effect of F-AF coupling is absorbed into the anisotropy of the F part, resulting in an arbitrary anisotropy for the F part. The proof starts from a general discussion on the initial susceptibility of a single domain particle. Then the fundamental correlation between the maximal initial susceptibility and the critical field along an arbitrary easy direction of a single domain particle, at which the magnetization becomes unstable, is discussed. Finally, the difference of the initial switching field and the actual switching field along the arbitrarily chosen easy direction is discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figure

Irreversible magnetization switching using surface acoustic waves

An analytical and numerical approach is developped to pinpoint the optimal experimental conditions to irreversibly switch magnetization using surface acoustic waves (SAWs). The layers are magnetized perpendicular to the plane and two switching mechanisms are considered. In precessional switching, a small in-plane field initially tilts the magnetization and the passage of the SAW modifies the magnetic anisotropy parameters through inverse magneto-striction, which triggers precession, and eventually reversal. Using the micromagnetic parameters of a fully characterized layer of the magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)(As,P), we then show that there is a large window of accessible experimental conditions (SAW amplitude/wave-vector, field amplitude/orientation) allowing irreversible switching. As this is a resonant process, the influence of the detuning of the SAW frequency to the magnetic system's eigenfrequency is also explored. Finally, another - non-resonant - switching mechanism is briefly contemplated, and found to be applicable to (Ga,Mn)(As,P): SAW-assisted domain nucleation. In this case, a small perpendicular field is applied opposite the initial magnetization and the passage of the SAW lowers the domain nucleation barrier.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Possible d+id scenario in La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_4 by point-contact measurements

We analyze the results of point-contact measurements in La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} (LSCO) previously reported as a clear evidence of the separation between gap and pseudogap in this copper oxide. Here we show that, in addition to this, the conductance curves of our point-contact junctions -- showing clear Andreev reflection features -- can be interpreted as supporting a nodeless d_{x^2-y^2}+id_{xy}-wave symmetry of the gap in LSCO. The results of our analysis, in particular the doping dependence of the subdominant d_{xy} gap component, are discussed and compared to the predictions of different theoretical models.Comment: 6 pages, 4 eps figures, presented at SATT11 Conference (Vietri sul Mare, March 2002). To appear in Int. J. Mod. Phy

Sounding the past: three silent films

The project was an experiment in linking music and poetry to archive films, not only to provide an enhancing accompaniment but, in some cases, with the aim of making something new which would quite profoundly change the way that these films were perceived by audiences