Angular-planar CMB power spectrum

Gaussianity and statistical isotropy of the Universe are modern cosmology's minimal set of hypotheses. In this work we introduce a new statistical test to detect observational deviations from this minimal set. By defining the temperature correlation function over the whole celestial sphere, we are able to independently quantify both angular and planar dependence (modulations) of the CMB temperature power spectrum over different slices of this sphere. Given that planar dependence leads to further modulations of the usual angular power spectrum $C_l$, this test can potentially reveal richer structures in the morphology of the primordial temperature field. We have also constructed an unbiased estimator for this angular-planar power spectrum which naturally generalizes the estimator for the usual $C_l$'s. With the help of a chi-square analysis, we have used this estimator to search for observational deviations of statistical isotropy in WMAP's 5 year release data set (ILC5), where we found only slight anomalies on the angular scales $l=7$ and $l=8$. Since this angular-planar statistic is model-independent, it is ideal to employ in searches of statistical anisotropy (e.g., contaminations from the galactic plane) and to characterize non-Gaussianities.Comment: Replaced to match the published version. Journal-ref: Phys.Rev. D80 063525 (2009

Response of river-dominated delta channel networks to permanent changes in river discharge

Using numerical experiments, we investigate how river-dominated delta channel networks are likely to respond to changes in river discharge predicted to occur over the next century as a result of environmental change. Our results show for a change in discharge up to 60% of the initial value, a decrease results in distributary abandonment in the delta, whereas an increase does not significantly affect the network. However, an increase in discharge beyond a threshold of 60% results in channel creation and an increase in the density of the distributary network. This behavior is predicted by an analysis of an individual bifurcation subject to asymmetric water surface slopes in the bifurcate arms. Given that discharge in most river basins will change by less than 50% in the next century, our results suggest that deltas in areas of increased drought will be more likely to experience significant rearrangement of the delta channel network. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union

Crafting a critical technical practice

In recent years, the category of practice-based research has become an essential component of discourse around public funding and evaluation of the arts in British higher education. When included under the umbrella of public policy concerned with the creative industries", technology researchers often find themselves collaborating with artists who consider their own participation to be a form of practice-based research. We are conducting a study under the Creator Digital Economies project asking whether technologists, themselves, should be considered as engaging in practice-based research, whether this occurs in collaborative situations, or even as a component of their own personal research [1]

Nuclear Corrections to Hyperfine Structure in Light Hydrogenic Atoms

Hyperfine intervals in light hydrogenic atoms and ions are among the most accurately measured quantities in physics. The theory of QED corrections has recently advanced to the point that uncalculated terms for hydrogenic atoms and ions are probably smaller than 0.1 parts per million (ppm), and the experiments are even more accurate. The difference of the experiments and QED theory is interpreted as the effect on the hyperfine interaction of the (finite) nuclear charge and magnetization distributions, and this difference varies from tens to hundreds of ppm. We have calculated the dominant component of the 1s hyperfine interval for deuterium, tritium and singly ionized helium, using modern second-generation potentials to compute the nuclear component of the hyperfine splitting for the deuteron and the trinucleon systems. The calculated nuclear corrections are within 3% of the experimental values for deuterium and tritium, but are about 20% discrepant for singly ionized helium. The nuclear corrections for the trinucleon systems can be qualitatively understood by invoking SU(4) symmetry.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure, latex - submitted to Physical Review

Designing and evaluating virtual musical instruments: facilitating conversational user interaction

This paper is concerned with the design of interactive virtual musical instruments. An interaction design strategy which uses on-screen objects that respond to user actions in physically realistic ways is described. This approach allows musicians to 'play' the virtual instruments using the sound of their familiar acoustic instruments. An investigation of user experience identified three modes of interaction that characterise the musicians' approach to the virtual instruments: instrumental, ornamental and conversational. When using the virtual instruments in instrumental mode, musicians prioritise detailed control; in ornamental mode, they surrender detailed control to the software and allow it to transform their sound; in conversational mode, the musicians allow the virtual instrument to 'talk back', helping to shape the musical direction of performance much as a human playing partner might. Finding a balance between controllability and complexity emerged as a key issue in facilitating 'conversational' interaction. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Fluvio-deltaic avulsions during relative sea-level fall.

Understanding river response to changes in relative sea level (RSL) is essential for predicting fluvial stratigraphy and source-to-sink dynamics. Recent theoretical work has suggested that rivers can remain aggradational during RSL fall, but field data are needed to verify this response and investigate sediment deposition processes. We show with field work and modeling that fluvio-deltaic systems can remain aggradational or at grade during RSL fall, leading to superelevation and continuation of delta lobe avulsions. The field site is the Goose River, Newfoundland-Labrador, Canada, which has experienced steady RSL fall of around 3–4 mm yr⁻¹ in the past 5 k.y. from post-glacial isostatic rebound. Elevation analysis and optically stimulated luminescence dating suggest that the Goose River avulsed and deposited three delta lobes during RSL fall. Simulation results from Delft3D software show that if the characteristic fluvial response time is longer than the duration of RSL fall, then fluvial systems remain aggradational or at grade, and continue to avulse during RSL fall due to superelevation. Intriguingly, we find that avulsions become more frequent at faster rates of RSL fall, provided the system response time remains longer than the duration of RSL fall. This work suggests that RSL fall rate may influence the architecture of falling-stage or forced regression deposits by controlling the number of deposited delta lobes

Rotational States of Magnetic Molecules

We study a magnetic molecule that exhibits spin tunneling and is free to rotate about its anisotropy axis. Exact low-energy eigenstates of the molecule that are superpositions of spin and rotational states are obtained. We show that parameter $\alpha = 2(\hbar S)^2/(I\Delta)$ determines the ground state of the molecule. Here $\hbar S$ is the spin, $I$ is the moment of inertia, and $\Delta$ is the tunnel splitting. The magnetic moment of the molecule is zero at $\alpha \alpha_c$. At $\alpha \to \infty$ the spin of the molecule localizes in one of the directions along the anisotropy axis.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Hierarchical mean-field approach to the J1J_1-J2J_2 Heisenberg model on a square lattice

We study the quantum phase diagram and excitation spectrum of the frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$ spin-1/2 Heisenberg Hamiltonian. A hierarchical mean-field approach, at the heart of which lies the idea of identifying {\it relevant} degrees of freedom, is developed. Thus, by performing educated, manifestly symmetry preserving mean-field approximations, we unveil fundamental properties of the system. We then compare various coverings of the square lattice with plaquettes, dimers and other degrees of freedom, and show that only the {\it symmetric plaquette} covering, which reproduces the original Bravais lattice, leads to the known phase diagram. The intermediate quantum paramagnetic phase is shown to be a (singlet) {\it plaquette crystal}, connected with the neighboring N\'eel phase by a continuous phase transition. We also introduce fluctuations around the hierarchical mean-field solutions, and demonstrate that in the paramagnetic phase the ground and first excited states are separated by a finite gap, which closes in the N\'eel and columnar phases. Our results suggest that the quantum phase transition between N\'eel and paramagnetic phases can be properly described within the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson paradigm.Comment: LaTeX 2e, 14 pages, 17 figure

Exact Ground States of Large Two-Dimensional Planar Ising Spin Glasses

Studying spin-glass physics through analyzing their ground-state properties has a long history. Although there exist polynomial-time algorithms for the two-dimensional planar case, where the problem of finding ground states is transformed to a minimum-weight perfect matching problem, the reachable system sizes have been limited both by the needed CPU time and by memory requirements. In this work, we present an algorithm for the calculation of exact ground states for two-dimensional Ising spin glasses with free boundary conditions in at least one direction. The algorithmic foundations of the method date back to the work of Kasteleyn from the 1960s for computing the complete partition function of the Ising model. Using Kasteleyn cities, we calculate exact ground states for huge two-dimensional planar Ising spin-glass lattices (up to 3000x3000 spins) within reasonable time. According to our knowledge, these are the largest sizes currently available. Kasteleyn cities were recently also used by Thomas and Middleton in the context of extended ground states on the torus. Moreover, they show that the method can also be used for computing ground states of planar graphs. Furthermore, we point out that the correctness of heuristically computed ground states can easily be verified. Finally, we evaluate the solution quality of heuristic variants of the Bieche et al. approach.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; shortened introduction, extended results; to appear in Physical Review E 7

Semiclassical Analysis of the Wigner 12j12j Symbol with One Small Angular Momentum

We derive an asymptotic formula for the Wigner $12j$ symbol, in the limit of one small and 11 large angular momenta. There are two kinds of asymptotic formulas for the $12j$ symbol with one small angular momentum. We present the first kind of formula in this paper. Our derivation relies on the techniques developed in the semiclassical analysis of the Wigner $9j$ symbol [L. Yu and R. G. Littlejohn, Phys. Rev. A 83, 052114 (2011)], where we used a gauge-invariant form of the multicomponent WKB wave-functions to derive asymptotic formulas for the $9j$ symbol with small and large angular momenta. When applying the same technique to the $12j$ symbol in this paper, we find that the spinor is diagonalized in the direction of an intermediate angular momentum. In addition, we find that the geometry of the derived asymptotic formula for the $12j$ symbol is expressed in terms of the vector diagram for a $9j$ symbol. This illustrates a general geometric connection between asymptotic limits of the various $3nj$ symbols. This work contributes the first known asymptotic formula for the $12j$ symbol to the quantum theory of angular momentum, and serves as a basis for finding asymptotic formulas for the Wigner $15j$ symbol with two small angular momenta.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure