Spatiospectral concentration on a sphere

We pose and solve the analogue of Slepian's time-frequency concentration problem on the surface of the unit sphere to determine an orthogonal family of strictly bandlimited functions that are optimally concentrated within a closed region of the sphere, or, alternatively, of strictly spacelimited functions that are optimally concentrated within the spherical harmonic domain. Such a basis of simultaneously spatially and spectrally concentrated functions should be a useful data analysis and representation tool in a variety of geophysical and planetary applications, as well as in medical imaging, computer science, cosmology and numerical analysis. The spherical Slepian functions can be found either by solving an algebraic eigenvalue problem in the spectral domain or by solving a Fredholm integral equation in the spatial domain. The associated eigenvalues are a measure of the spatiospectral concentration. When the concentration region is an axisymmetric polar cap the spatiospectral projection operator commutes with a Sturm-Liouville operator; this enables the eigenfunctions to be computed extremely accurately and efficiently, even when their area-bandwidth product, or Shannon number, is large. In the asymptotic limit of a small concentration region and a large spherical harmonic bandwidth the spherical concentration problem approaches its planar equivalent, which exhibits self-similarity when the Shannon number is kept invariant.Comment: 48 pages, 17 figures. Submitted to SIAM Review, August 24th, 200

Fixed parameter tractability of crossing minimization of almost-trees

We investigate exact crossing minimization for graphs that differ from trees by a small number of additional edges, for several variants of the crossing minimization problem. In particular, we provide fixed parameter tractable algorithms for the 1-page book crossing number, the 2-page book crossing number, and the minimum number of crossed edges in 1-page and 2-page book drawings.Comment: Graph Drawing 201

A repulsive atomic gas in a harmonic trap on the border of itinerant ferromagnetism

Alongside superfluidity, itinerant (Stoner) ferromagnetism remains one of the most well-characterized phases of correlated Fermi systems. A recent experiment has reported the first evidence for novel phase behavior on the repulsive side of the Feshbach resonance in a two-component ultracold Fermi gas. By adapting recent theoretical studies to the atomic trap geometry, we show that an adiabatic ferromagnetic transition would take place at a weaker interaction strength than is observed in experiment. This discrepancy motivates a simple non-equilibrium theory that takes account of the dynamics of magnetic defects and three-body losses. The formalism developed displays good quantitative agreement with experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Do Housing Rehabs Pay Their Way? A National Case Study

This research focuses on if housing rehabilitation by community development corporations pays its own way. The recent experience of ten local housing organizations in the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation network is examined. These organizations assist homeowners in rehabbing existing units and acquire, rehab and transfer units to new occupants. The findings indicate that rehabbed housing units provide substantial benefits to the local economy. The rehabbed units return $0.55, on average, for every local government dollar invested. In addition, economic benefits such as increased property values and tax base, and construction jobs and permanent jobs were created and sustained.

Quantum Phase Transitions in Bosonic Heteronuclear Pairing Hamiltonians

We explore the phase diagram of two-component bosons with Feshbach resonant pairing interactions in an optical lattice. It has been shown in previous work to exhibit a rich variety of phases and phase transitions, including a paradigmatic Ising quantum phase transition within the second Mott lobe. We discuss the evolution of the phase diagram with system parameters and relate this to the predictions of Landau theory. We extend our exact diagonalization studies of the one-dimensional bosonic Hamiltonian and confirm additional Ising critical exponents for the longitudinal and transverse magnetic susceptibilities within the second Mott lobe. The numerical results for the ground state energy and transverse magnetization are in good agreement with exact solutions of the Ising model in the thermodynamic limit. We also provide details of the low-energy spectrum, as well as density fluctuations and superfluid fractions in the grand canonical ensemble.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Feshbach Resonance in Optical Lattices and the Quantum Ising Model

Motivated by experiments on heteronuclear Feshbach resonances in Bose mixtures, we investigate s-wave pairing of two species of bosons in an optical lattice. The zero temperature phase diagram supports a rich array of superfluid and Mott phases and a network of quantum critical points. This topology reveals an underlying structure that is succinctly captured by a two-component Landau theory. Within the second Mott lobe we establish a quantum phase transition described by the paradigmatic longitudinal and transverse field Ising model. This is confirmed by exact diagonalization of the 1D bosonic Hamiltonian. We also find this transition in the homonuclear case.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Theory of quantum paraelectrics and the metaelectric transition

We present a microscopic model of the quantum paraelectric-ferroelectric phase transition with a focus on the influence of coupled fluctuating phonon modes. These may drive the continuous phase transition first order through a metaelectric transition and furthermore stimulate the emergence of a textured phase that preempts the transition. We discuss two further consequences of fluctuations, firstly for the heat capacity, and secondly we show that the inverse paraelectric susceptibility displays T^2 quantum critical behavior, and can also adopt a characteristic minimum with temperature. Finally, we discuss the observable consequences of our results.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

The Stellar Content Near the Galactic Center

High angular resolution J, H, K, and L' images are used to investigate the stellar content within 6 arcsec of SgrA*. The data, which are complete to K ~ 16, are the deepest multicolor observations of the region published to date.Comment: 34 pages, including 12 figure

Itinerant ferromagnetism in an atomic Fermi gas: Influence of population imbalance

We investigate ferromagnetic ordering in an itinerant ultracold atomic Fermi gas with repulsive interactions and population imbalance. In a spatially uniform system, we show that at zero temperature the transition to the itinerant magnetic phase transforms from first to second order with increasing population imbalance. Drawing on these results, we elucidate the phases present in a trapped geometry, finding three characteristic types of behavior with changing population imbalance. Finally, we outline the potential experimental implications of the findings.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, typos added, references adde