558 research outputs found
First upper limit analysis and results from LIGO science data: stochastic background
I describe analysis of correlations in the outputs of the three LIGO
interferometers from LIGO's first science run, held over 17 days in August and
September of 2002, and the resulting upper limit set on a stochastic background
of gravitational waves. By searching for cross-correlations between the LIGO
detectors in Livingston, LA and Hanford, WA, we are able to set a 90%
confidence level upper limit of h_{100}^2 Omega_0 < 23 +/- 4.6.Comment: 7 pages; 1 eps figures; proceeding from 2003 Edoardo Amaldi Meeting
on Gravitational Wave
Solutions to the cosmological constant problems
We critically review several recent approaches to solving the two
cosmological constant problems. The "old" problem is the discrepancy between
the observed value of and the large values suggested by particle
physics models. The second problem is the "time coincidence" between the epoch
of galaxy formation and the epoch of -domination t_\L. It is
conceivable that the "old" problem can be resolved by fundamental physics
alone, but we argue that in order to explain the "time coincidence" we must
account for anthropic selection effects. Our main focus here is on the
discrete- models in which can change through nucleation of
branes. We consider the cosmology of this type of models in the context of
inflation and discuss the observational constraints on the model parameters.
The issue of multiple brane nucleation raised by Feng {\it et. al.} is
discussed in some detail. We also review continuous-\L models in which the
role of the cosmological constant is played by a slowly varying potential of a
scalar field. We find that both continuous and discrete models can in principle
solve both cosmological constant problems, although the required values of the
parameters do not appear very natural. M-theory-motivated brane models, in
which the brane tension is determined by the brane coupling to the four-form
field, do not seem to be viable, except perhaps in a very tight corner of the
parameter space. Finally, we point out that the time coincidence can also be
explained in models where is fixed, but the primordial density
contrast is treated as a random variable.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures, two notes adde
Narrow-band search of continuous gravitational-wave signals from Crab and Vela pulsars in Virgo VSR4 data
In this paper we present the results of a coherent narrow-band search for continuous gravitational-wave signals from the Crab and Vela pulsars conducted on Virgo VSR4 data. In order to take into account a possible small mismatch between the gravitational-wave frequency and two times the star rotation frequency, inferred from measurement of the electromagnetic pulse rate, a range of 0.02 Hz around two times the star rotational frequency has been searched for both the pulsars. No evidence for a signal has been found and 95% confidence level upper limits have been computed assuming both that polarization parameters are completely unknown and that they are known with some uncertainty, as derived from x-ray observations of the pulsar wind torii. For Vela the upper limits are comparable to the spin-down limit, computed assuming that all the observed spin-down is due to the emission of gravitational waves. For Crab the upper limits are about a factor of 2 below the spin-down limit, and represent a significant improvement with respect to past analysis. This is the first time the spin-down limit is significantly overcome in a narrow-band search.Fil: Quiroga, Gonzalo DamiĂĄn. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de MatemĂĄtica, Astronomia y FĂsica. SecciĂłn FĂsica. Grupo de Relatividad y Gravitacion; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂŠcnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de FĂsica Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de FĂsica Enrique Gaviola; ArgentinaFil: Maglione, Cesar German. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂŠcnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de FĂsica Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de FĂsica Enrique Gaviola; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de MatemĂĄtica, Astronomia y FĂsica. SecciĂłn FĂsica. Grupo de Relatividad y Gravitacion; ArgentinaFil: Reula, Oscar Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂŠcnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de FĂsica Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de FĂsica Enrique Gaviola; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de MatemĂĄtica, Astronomia y FĂsica. SecciĂłn FĂsica. Grupo de Relatividad y Gravitacion; ArgentinaFil: Aasi, J.. California Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Abbot, B. P.. California Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Abbot, R.. California Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Abbot, T.. State University of Louisiana; Estados UnidosFil: Abernathy, M. R.. California Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Acernese, F.. Universita di Salerno; Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare; ItaliaFil: Ackley, K.. University of Florida; Estados UnidosFil: Adams, C.. LIGO Livingston Observatory; Estados UnidosFil: Adams, T.. Universite de Savoie. Laboratoire dâAnnecy-le-Vieux de Physique des Particules; Francia. Cardiff University; Reino UnidoFil: Adams, T.. Universite de Savoie. Laboratoire dâAnnecy-le-Vieux de Physique des Particules; FranciaFil: Addesso, P.. University of Sannio at Benevento; ItaliaFil: Adhikar, R. X.. California Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Adya, V.. Max-Planck-Institut fĂźr Gravitationsphysik; AlemaniaFil: Affeldt, C.. Max-Planck-Institut fĂźr Gravitationsphysik; AlemaniaFil: Agathos, M.. Nikhef; Science Park; PaĂses BajosFil: Agatsuma, K.. Nikhef; Science Park; PaĂses BajosFil: Aggarwal, N.. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Aguiar, O. D.. Centro de Previsao de Tempo e Estudos ClimĂĄticos. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais; BrasilFil: Ain, A.. Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics; IndiaFil: Ajith, P.. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; IndiaFil: Alemic, A.. Syracuse University; Estados UnidosFil: Allen, B.. Max-Planck-Institut fĂźr Gravitationsphysik; Alemania. University of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Allocca, A.. UniversitĂ degli Studi di Siena; Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare; ItaliaFil: Amariutei, D.. University of Florida; Estados UnidosFil: Anderson, S. B.. California Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Anderson, W. G.. University of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Arai, K.. California Institute of Technology; Estados Unido
Instantons in the nonperturbative QCD vacuum
The influence of nonperturbative fields on instantons in quantum
chromodynamics is studied. Nonperturbative vacuum is described in terms of
nonlocal gauge invariant vacuum averages of gluon field strength.Effective
action for instanton is derived in bilocal approximation and it is demonstrated
that stochastic background gluon fields are responsible for infra-red (IR)
stabilization of instantons. Dependence of characteristic instanton size on
gluon condensate and correlation length in nonperturbative vacuum is found.
Comparison of obtained instanton size distribution with lattice data is made.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, RevTeX4, some corrections made and
references adde
Global structure of exact cosmological solutions in the brane world
We find the explicit coordinate transformation which links two exact
cosmological solutions of the brane world which have been recently discovered.
This means that both solutions are exactly the same with each other. One of two
solutions is described by the motion of a domain wall in the well-known
5-dimensional Schwarzshild-AdS spacetime. Hence, we can easily understand the
region covered by the coordinate used by another solution.Comment: Latex, 9 pages including 5 figures; references add, accepted for
publication in Physical Review
Shallow Water â06 : a joint acoustic propagation/nonlinear internal wave physics experiment
Author Posting. Š Oceanography Society, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 20, 4 (2007): 156-167.Since the end of the Cold War,
the US Navy has had an increasing interest
in continental shelves and slopes as
operational areas. To work in such areas
requires a good understanding of ocean
acoustics, coastal physical oceanography,
and, in the modern era, autonomous
underwater vehicle (AUV) operations
Altruism can proliferate through group/kin selection despite high random gene flow
The ways in which natural selection can allow the proliferation of
cooperative behavior have long been seen as a central problem in evolutionary
biology. Most of the literature has focused on interactions between pairs of
individuals and on linear public goods games. This emphasis led to the
conclusion that even modest levels of migration would pose a serious problem to
the spread of altruism in group structured populations. Here we challenge this
conclusion, by analyzing evolution in a framework which allows for complex
group interactions and random migration among groups. We conclude that
contingent forms of strong altruism can spread when rare under realistic group
sizes and levels of migration. Our analysis combines group-centric and
gene-centric perspectives, allows for arbitrary strength of selection, and
leads to extensions of Hamilton's rule for the spread of altruistic alleles,
applicable under broad conditions.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Supplementary material with 50 pages and 26
figure
Breakdown of the adiabatic limit in low dimensional gapless systems
It is generally believed that a generic system can be reversibly transformed
from one state into another by sufficiently slow change of parameters. A
standard argument favoring this assertion is based on a possibility to expand
the energy or the entropy of the system into the Taylor series in the ramp
speed. Here we show that this argumentation is only valid in high enough
dimensions and can break down in low-dimensional gapless systems. We identify
three generic regimes of a system response to a slow ramp: (A) mean-field, (B)
non-analytic, and (C) non-adiabatic. In the last regime the limits of the ramp
speed going to zero and the system size going to infinity do not commute and
the adiabatic process does not exist in the thermodynamic limit. We support our
results by numerical simulations. Our findings can be relevant to
condensed-matter, atomic physics, quantum computing, quantum optics, cosmology
and others.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Nature Physics (originally
submitted version
The effectiveness of interventions to change six health behaviours: a review of reviews
Background: Several World Health Organisation reports over recent years have highlighted the high incidence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer. Contributory factors include unhealthy diets, alcohol and tobacco use and sedentary lifestyles. This paper reports the findings of a review of reviews of behavioural change interventions to reduce unhealthy behaviours or promote healthy behaviours. We included six different health-related behaviours in the review: healthy eating, physical exercise, smoking, alcohol misuse, sexual risk taking (in young people) and illicit drug use. We excluded reviews which focussed on pharmacological treatments or those which required intensive treatments (e. g. for drug or alcohol dependency).
Methods: The Cochrane Library, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE) and several Ovid databases were searched for systematic reviews of interventions for the six behaviours (updated search 2008). Two reviewers applied the inclusion criteria, extracted data and assessed the quality of the reviews. The results were discussed in a narrative synthesis.
Results: We included 103 reviews published between 1995 and 2008. The focus of interventions varied, but those targeting specific individuals were generally designed to change an existing behaviour (e. g. cigarette smoking, alcohol misuse), whilst those aimed at the general population or groups such as school children were designed to promote positive behaviours (e. g. healthy eating). Almost 50% (n = 48) of the reviews focussed on smoking (either prevention or cessation). Interventions that were most effective across a range of health behaviours included physician advice or individual counselling, and workplace- and school-based activities. Mass media campaigns and legislative interventions also showed small to moderate effects in changing health behaviours. Generally, the evidence related to short-term effects rather than sustained/longer-term impact and there was a relative lack of evidence on how best to address inequalities.
Conclusions: Despite limitations of the review of reviews approach, it is encouraging that there are interventions that are effective in achieving behavioural change. Further emphasis in both primary studies and secondary analysis (e.g. systematic reviews) should be placed on assessing the differential effectiveness of interventions across different population subgroups to ensure that health inequalities are addressed.</p
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