8,041 research outputs found
Electromagnetic Zero Point Field as Active Energy Source in the Intergalactic Medium
For over twenty years the possibility that the electromagnetic zero point
field (ZPF) may actively accelerate electromagnetically interacting particles
in regions of extremely low particle density (as those extant in intergalactic
space (IGS) with n < 1 particle/m^3 has been studied and analyzed. This
energizing phenomenon has been one of the few contenders for acceleration of
cosmic rays (CR), particularly at ultrahigh energies. The recent finding by the
AGASA collaboration (Phys. Rev. Lett., 81, 1163, 1998) that the CR energy
spectrum does not display any signs of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cut-off
(that should be present if these CR particles were indeed generated in
localized ultrahigh energies CR sources, as e.g., quasars and other highly
active galactic nuclei), may indicate the need for an acceleration mechanism
that is distributed throughout IGS as is the case with the ZPF. Other
unexplained phenomena that receive an explanation from this mechanism are the
generation of X-ray and gamma-ray backgrounds and the existence of Cosmic
Voids. However recently, a statistical mechanics kind of challenge to the
classical (not the quantum) version of the zero-point acceleration mechanism
has been posed (de la Pena and Cetto, The Quantum Dice, 1996). Here we briefly
examine the consequences of this challenge and a prospective resolution.Comment: 7 pages, no figure
Spacetime Defects: von K\'arm\'an vortex street like configurations
A special arrangement of spinning strings with dislocations similar to a von
K\'arm\'an vortex street is studied. We numerically solve the geodesic
equations for the special case of a test particle moving along twoinfinite rows
of pure dislocations and also discuss the case of pure spinning defects.Comment: 9 pages, 2figures, CQG in pres
Dynamical Symmetry Breaking in Planar QED
We investigate (2+1)-dimensional QED coupled with Dirac fermions both at zero
and finite temperature. We discuss in details two-components (P-odd) and
four-components (P-even) fermion fields. We focus on P-odd and P-even Dirac
fermions in presence of an external constant magnetic field. In the spontaneous
generation of the magnetic condensate survives even at infinite temperature. We
also discuss the spontaneous generation of fermion mass in presence of an
external magnetic field.Comment: 34 pages, 8 postscript figures, final version to appear on J. Phys.
Coordinated neuronal ensembles in primary auditory cortical columns.
The synchronous activity of groups of neurons is increasingly thought to be important in cortical information processing and transmission. However, most studies of processing in the primary auditory cortex (AI) have viewed neurons as independent filters; little is known about how coordinated AI neuronal activity is expressed throughout cortical columns and how it might enhance the processing of auditory information. To address this, we recorded from populations of neurons in AI cortical columns of anesthetized rats and, using dimensionality reduction techniques, identified multiple coordinated neuronal ensembles (cNEs), which are groups of neurons with reliable synchronous activity. We show that cNEs reflect local network configurations with enhanced information encoding properties that cannot be accounted for by stimulus-driven synchronization alone. Furthermore, similar cNEs were identified in both spontaneous and evoked activity, indicating that columnar cNEs are stable functional constructs that may represent principal units of information processing in AI
Primordial Entropy Production and Lambda-driven Inflation from Quantum Einstein Gravity
We review recent work on renormalization group (RG) improved cosmologies
based upon a RG trajectory of Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) with realistic
parameter values. In particular we argue that QEG effects can account for the
entire entropy of the present Universe in the massless sector and give rise to
a phase of inflationary expansion. This phase is a pure quantum effect and
requires no classical inflaton field.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, IGCG-07 Pun
A new orthogonalization procedure with an extremal property
Various methods of constructing an orthonomal set out of a given set of
linearly independent vectors are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the
Gram-Schmidt and the Schweinler-Wigner orthogonalization procedures. A new
orthogonalization procedure which, like the Schweinler- Wigner procedure, is
democratic and is endowed with an extremal property is suggested.Comment: 7 pages, latex, no figures, To appear in J. Phys
The ambivalent shadow of the pre-Wilsonian rise of international law
The generation of American international lawyers who founded the American Society of International Law in 1906 and nurtured the soil for what has been retrospectively called a “moralistic legalistic approach to international relations” remains little studied. A survey of the rise of international legal literature in the U.S. from the mid-19th century to the eve of the Great War serves as a backdrop to the examination of the boosting effect on international law of the Spanish American War in 1898. An examination of the Insular Cases before the US Supreme Court is then accompanied by the analysis of a number of influential factors behind the pre-war rise of international law in the U.S. The work concludes with an examination of the rise of natural law doctrines in international law during the interwar period and the critiques addressed.by the realist founders of the field of “international relations” to the “moralistic legalistic approach to international relation
Network synchronization: Optimal and Pessimal Scale-Free Topologies
By employing a recently introduced optimization algorithm we explicitely
design optimally synchronizable (unweighted) networks for any given scale-free
degree distribution. We explore how the optimization process affects
degree-degree correlations and observe a generic tendency towards
disassortativity. Still, we show that there is not a one-to-one correspondence
between synchronizability and disassortativity. On the other hand, we study the
nature of optimally un-synchronizable networks, that is, networks whose
topology minimizes the range of stability of the synchronous state. The
resulting ``pessimal networks'' turn out to have a highly assortative
string-like structure. We also derive a rigorous lower bound for the Laplacian
eigenvalue ratio controlling synchronizability, which helps understanding the
impact of degree correlations on network synchronizability.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figs, submitted to J. Phys. A (proceedings of Complex
Networks 2007
The impact of contributor confidence, expertise and distance on the crowdsourced land cover data quality
There is much interest in the opportunities for formal scientific investigations afforded by crowdsourcing and citizen sensing activities. However, one of the critical research issues relates to the 'quality' of the data collected in this way. This paper uses volunteer data on land cover collected under the Geo-Wiki system, where contributors label the land cover class at a series of locations, with expert labels at the same locations. It examines the statistical relationships between the accuracy of volunteer labels, their self assessed confidence in labeling, their 'experiential distance' to the location under consideration and the level of their domain expertise. The results show that distance has a minor effect on the reliability of land cover labeling, and that generally expertise has a greater effect, but not for all landcover classes
Neutrino masses in the Lepton Number Violating MSSM
We consider the most general supersymmetric model with minimal particle
content and an additional discrete Z_3 symmetry (instead of R-parity), which
allows lepton number violating terms and results in non-zero Majorana neutrino
masses. We investigate whether the currently measured values for lepton masses
and mixing can be reproduced. We set up a framework in which Lagrangian
parameters can be initialised without recourse to assumptions concerning
trilinear or bilinear superpotential terms, CP-conservation or
intergenerational mixing and analyse in detail the one loop corrections to the
neutrino masses. We present scenarios in which the experimental data are
reproduced and show the effect varying lepton number violating couplings has on
the predicted atmospheric and solar mass^2 differences. We find that with
bilinear lepton number violating couplings in the superpotential of the order 1
MeV the atmospheric mass scale can be reproduced. Certain trilinear
superpotential couplings, usually, of the order of the electron Yukawa coupling
can give rise to either atmospheric or solar mass scales and bilinear
supersymmetry breaking terms of the order 0.1 GeV^2 can set the solar mass
scale. Further details of our calculation, Lagrangian, Feynman rules and
relevant generic loop diagrams, are presented in three Appendices.Comment: 48 pages, 7 figures, v2 references added, typos corrected, published
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