14,018 research outputs found
Unitary ambiguity in the extraction of the E2/M1 ratio for the transition
The resonant electric quadrupole amplitude in the transition is of great interest for the understanding of
baryon structure. Various dynamical models have been developed to extract it
from the corresponding photoproduction multipole of pions on nucleons. It is
shown that once such a model is specified, a whole class of unitarily
equivalent models can be constructed, all of them providing exactly the same
fit to the experimental data. However, they may predict quite different
resonant amplitudes. Therefore, the extraction of the E2/M1() ratio (bare or dressed) which is based on a dynamical
model using a largely phenomenological interaction is not unique.Comment: 10 pages revtex including 4 postscript figure
In Search of the Vortex Loop Blowout Transition for a type-II Superconductor in a Finite Magnetic Field
The 3D uniformly frustrated XY model is simulated to search for a predicted
"vortex loop blowout" transition within the vortex line liquid phase of a
strongly type-II superconductor in an applied magnetic field. Results are shown
to strongly depend on the precise scheme used to trace out vortex line paths.
While we find evidence for a transverse vortex path percolation transition, no
signal of this transition is found in the specific heat.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure
Two phase transitions in the fully frustrated model
The fully frustrated model on a square lattice is studied by means of
Monte Carlo simulations. A Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is found at , followed by an ordinary Ising transition at a slightly
higher temperature, . The non-Ising exponents reported by
others, are explained as a failure of finite size scaling due to the screening
length associated with the nearby Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.Comment: REVTEX file, 8 pages, 5 figures in uuencoded postscrip
Discreteness-induced Transition in Catalytic Reaction Networks
Drastic change in dynamics and statistics in a chemical reaction system,
induced by smallness in the molecule number, is reported. Through stochastic
simulations for random catalytic reaction networks, transition to a novel state
is observed with the decrease in the total molecule number N, characterized by:
i) large fluctuations in chemical concentrations as a result of intermittent
switching over several states with extinction of some molecule species and ii)
strong deviation of time averaged distribution of chemical concentrations from
that expected in the continuum limit, i.e., . The origin of
transition is explained by the deficiency of molecule leading to termination of
some reactions. The critical number of molecules for the transition is obtained
as a function of the number of molecules species M and that of reaction paths
K, while total reaction rates, scaled properly, are shown to follow a universal
form as a function of NK/M
From scalar to string confinement
We outline a connection between scalar quark confinement, a
phenomenologically successful concept heretofore lacking fundamental
justification, and QCD. Although scalar confinement does not follow from QCD,
there is an interesting and close relationship between them. We develop a
simple model intermediate between scalar confinement and the QCD string for
illustrative purposes. Finally, we find the bound state masses of scalar,
time-component vector, and string confinement analytically through
semi-classical quantization.Comment: ReVTeX, 9 pages, 5 figure
Switching Dynamics in Reaction Networks Induced by Molecular Discreteness
To study the fluctuations and dynamics in chemical reaction processes,
stochastic differential equations based on the rate equation involving chemical
concentrations are often adopted. When the number of molecules is very small,
however, the discreteness in the number of molecules cannot be neglected since
the number of molecules must be an integer. This discreteness can be important
in biochemical reactions, where the total number of molecules is not
significantly larger than the number of chemical species. To elucidate the
effects of such discreteness, we study autocatalytic reaction systems
comprising several chemical species through stochastic particle simulations.
The generation of novel states is observed; it is caused by the extinction of
some molecular species due to the discreteness in their number. We demonstrate
that the reaction dynamics are switched by a single molecule, which leads to
the reconstruction of the acting network structure. We also show the strong
dependence of the chemical concentrations on the system size, which is caused
by transitions to discreteness-induced novel states.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
The Contribution of the Light Quark Condensate to the Pion-Nucleon Sigma Term
There has been a discrepancy between values of the pion-nucleon sigma term
extracted by two different methods for many years. Analysis of recent high
precision pion-nucleon data has widened the gap between the two determinations.
It is argued that the two extractions correspond to different quantities and
that the difference between them can be understood and calculated.Comment: Modern Physics Letters A (in press
Superconductivity in Sr2RuO4-Sr3Ru2O7 eutectic crystals
Superconducting behavior has been observed in the Sr2RuO4-Sr3Ru2O7 eutectic
system as grown by the flux-feeding floating zone technique. A supercurrent
flows across a single interface between Sr2RuO4 and Sr3Ru2O7 areas at distances
that are far beyond those expected in a conventional proximity scenario. The
current-voltage characteristics within the Sr3Ru2O7 macrodomain, as extracted
from the eutectic, exhibit signatures of superconductivity in the bilayered
ruthenate. Detailed microstructural, morphological and compositional analyses
address issues on the concentration and the size of Sr2RuO4 inclusions within
the Sr3Ru2O7 matrix. We speculate on the possibility of inhomogeneous
superconductivity in the eutectic Sr3Ru2O7 and exotic pairing induced by the
Sr2RuO4 inclusions.Comment: Pages 4, figures 3, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Three-dimensional reconstruction of porous polymer films from FIB-SEM nanotomography data using random forests
Combined focused ion beam and scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) tomography is a well-established technique for high resolution imaging and reconstruction of the microstructure of a wide range of materials. Segmentation of FIB-SEM data is complicated due to a number of factors; the most prominent is that for porous materials, the scanning electron microscope image slices contain information not only from the planar cross-section of the material but also from underlying, exposed subsurface pores. In this work, we develop a segmentation method for FIB-SEM data from ethyl cellulose porous films made from ethyl cellulose and hydroxypropyl cellulose (EC/HPC) polymer blends. These materials are used for coating pharmaceutical oral dosage forms (tablets or pellets) to control drug release. We study three samples of ethyl cellulose and hydroxypropyl cellulose with different volume fractions where the hydroxypropyl cellulose phase has been leached out, resulting in a porous material. The data are segmented using scale-space features and a random forest classifier. We demonstrate good agreement with manual segmentations. The method enables quantitative characterization and subsequent optimization of material structure for controlled release applications. Although the methodology is demonstrated on porous polymer films, it is applicable to other soft porous materials imaged by FIB-SEM. We make the data and software used publicly available to facilitate further development of FIB-SEM segmentation methods. Lay Description For imaging of very fine structures in materials, the resolution limits of, e.g. X-ray computed tomography quickly become a bottleneck. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) provides a way out, but it is essentially a two-dimensional imaging technique. One manner in which to extend it to three dimensions is to use a focused ion beam (FIB) combined with a scanning electron microscopy and acquire tomography data. In FIB-SEM tomography, ions are used to perform serial sectioning and the electron beam is used to image the cross section surface. This is a well-established method for a wide range of materials. However, image analysis of FIB-SEM data is complicated for a variety of reasons, in particular for porous media. In this work, we analyse FIB-SEM data from ethyl cellulose porous films made from ethyl cellulose and hydroxypropyl cellulose (EC/HPC) polymer blends. These films are used as coatings for controlled drug release. The aim is to perform image segmentation, i.e. to identify which parts of the image data constitute the pores and the solid, respectively. Manual segmentation, i.e. when a trained operator manually identifies areas constituting pores and solid, is too time-consuming to do in full for our very large data sets. However, by performing manual segmentation on a set of small, random regions of the data, we can train a machine learning algorithm to perform automatic segmentation on the entire data sets. The method yields good agreement with the manual segmentations and yields porosities of the entire data sets in very good agreement with expected values. The method facilitates understanding and quantitative characterization of the geometrical structure of the materials, and ultimately understanding of how to tailor the drug release
Phase-transitions induced by easy-plane anisotropy in the classical Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice: a Monte Carlo simulation
We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations for the antiferromagnetic
classical XXZ model with easy-plane exchange anisotropy on the triangular
lattice, which causes frustration of the spin alignment. The behaviour of this
system is similar to that of the antiferromagnetic XY model on the same
lattice, showing the signature of a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition,
associated to vortex-antivortex unbinding, and of an Ising-like one due to the
chirality, the latter occurring at a slightly higher temperature. Data for
internal energy, specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, correlation length,
and some properties associated with the chirality are reported in a broad
temperature range, for lattice sizes ranging from 24x24 to 120x120; four values
of the easy-plane anisotropy are considered. Moving from the strongest towards
the weakest anisotropy (1%) the thermodynamic quantities tend to the isotropic
model behaviour, and the two transition temperatures decrease by about 25% and
22%, respectively.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures (embedded by psfig), 3 table
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