Time scales for fission at finite temperature

The concept of the "transient effect" is examined in respect of a "mean first passage time". It is demonstrated that the time the fissioning system stays inside the barrier is much larger than suggested by the transient time, and that no enhancement of emission of neutrons over that given by Kramers' rate formula ought to be considered.Comment: 6 pages, LaTex, 3 postscript figures; Keywords: Decay rate, transient effect, mean first passage time; "Symposium on Nuclear Clusters", Rauischholzhausen, Germany, 5-9 August 200

Simulation of interaction Hamiltonians by quantum feedback: a comment on the dynamics of information exchange between coupled systems

Since quantum feedback is based on classically accessible measurement results, it can provide fundamental insights into the dynamics of quantum systems by making available classical information on the evolution of system properties and on the conditional forces acting on the system. In this paper, the feedback-induced interaction dynamics between a pair of quantum systems is analyzed. It is pointed out that any interaction Hamiltonian can be simulated by local feedback if the levels of decoherence are sufficiently high. The boundary between genuine entanglement generating quantum interactions and non-entangling classical interactions is identified and the nature of the information exchange between two quantum systems during an interaction is discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; invited paper for the special issue of J. Opt. B on quantum contro

Mean first passage time for fission potentials having structure

A schematic model of over-damped motion is presented which permits one to calculate the mean first passage time for nuclear fission. Its asymptotic value may exceed considerably the lifetime suggested by Kramers rate formula, which applies only to very special, favorable potentials and temperatures. The additional time obtained in the more general case is seen to allow for a considerable increment in the emission of light particles.Comment: 7 pages, LaTex, 7 postscript figures; Keywords: Decay rate, mean first passage tim

Very-High Energy Gamma-Ray Flux Limits for Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei

Combining the results of targeted observations, H.E.S.S. has accumulated a large amount of extra-galactic exposure at TeV energies. Due to its large field of view a considerable part of the sky (0.6 sr) has been observed with high sensitivity outside the targeted observation positions. Since this exposure region contains little inherent bias, it is well suited for studies of extra-galactic source populations. Given the correlation between ultra-high energy cosmic rays and nearby extra-galactic objects recently claimed by the Auger collaboration, this unbiased sky sample by H.E.S.S. is of interest since it includes (besides the targeted sources) 63 AGN within 100 Mpc, for which very-high energy gamma-ray flux limits are derived.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Proceedings of "4th International Symposium on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy 2008

Pro-Lie Groups: A survey with Open Problems

A topological group is called a pro-Lie group if it is isomorphic to a closed subgroup of a product of finite-dimensional real Lie groups. This class of groups is closed under the formation of arbitrary products and closed subgroups and forms a complete category. It includes each finite-dimensional Lie group, each locally compact group which has a compact quotient group modulo its identity component and thus, in particular, each compact and each connected locally compact group; it also includes all locally compact abelian groups. This paper provides an overview of the structure theory and Lie theory of pro-Lie groups including results more recent than those in the authors' reference book on pro-Lie groups. Significantly, it also includes a review of the recent insight that weakly complete unital algebras provide a natural habitat for both pro-Lie algebras and pro-Lie groups, indeed for the exponential function which links the two. (A topological vector space is weakly complete if it is isomorphic to a power $\R^X$ of an arbitrary set of copies of $\R$. This class of real vector spaces is at the basis of the Lie theory of pro-Lie groups.) The article also lists 12 open questions connected with pro-Lie groups.Comment: 19 page

Seeing is Believing: Dynamic Evolution of Gene Families

Department of Integrative Biology, Center for Computational Biology, Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712Supported by National Science Foundation Grants IOS- 0843712 and IOS-1354942 (to H.A.H.) and DBI-0939454 for the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action.Integrative Biolog