35,810 research outputs found
Promoting independent learning skills using video on digital language laboratories
This is the author's PDF version of an article published in Computer assisted language learning ©2006. The definitive version is available at http://www.informaworld.com/The article discusses the potential for developing independent learning skills using the digital language laboratory with particular reference to exploiting the increasingly available resource of digital video. It investigates the potential for recording and editing video clips from online sources and digitalising clips from analogue recordings and reflects on the current status quo regarding the complex copyright regulations in this area. It describes two pilot self-access programmes based on video clips which were undertaken with University College Chester undergraduates and reflects on the value of the experience for students in developing a wide range of language skills as well as independent learning skills using their feedback on the experience
Near-extremal and extremal quantum-corrected two-dimensional charged black holes
We consider charged black holes within dilaton gravity with
exponential-linear dependence of action coefficients on dilaton and minimal
coupling to quantum scalar fields. This includes, in particular, CGHS and RST
black holes in the uncharged limit. For non-extremal configuration quantum
correction to the total mass, Hawking temperature, electric potential and
metric are found explicitly and shown to obey the first generalized law. We
also demonstrate that quantum-corrected extremal black holes in these theories
do exist and correspond to the classically forbidden region of parameters in
the sense that the total mass ( is a charge). We show that in
the limit (where is the Hawking temperature) the mass and
geometry of non-extremal configuration go smoothly to those of the extremal
one, except from the narrow near-horizon region. In the vicinity of the horizon
the quantum-corrected geometry (however small quantum the coupling parameter
would be) of a non-extremal configuration tends to not the
quantum-corrected extremal one but to the special branch of solutions with the
constant dilaton (2D analog of the Bertotti-Robinson metric) instead.
Meanwhile, if exactly, the near-extremal configuration tends to the
extremal one. We also consider the dilaton theory which corresponds classically
to the spherically-symmetrical reduction from 4D case and show that for the
quantum-corrected extremal black hole .Comment: 25 pages. Typos corrected. To appear in Class. Quant. Gra
Balloon borne in-situ detection of OH in the stratosphere from 37 to 23 km
The OH number density in the stratosphere has been measured over the altitude interval of 37 to 23 km at midday via a balloon-borne gondola launched from Palestine, Texas on July 6, 1988. OH radicals are detected with a laser induced fluorescence instrument employing a 17 kHz repetition rate copper vapor laser pumped dye laser optically coupled to an enclosed flow, in-situ sampling chamber. OH abundances ranged from 88±31 pptv (1.1 ± 0.4 × 10^7 molec cm^(−3)) in the 36 to 35 km interval to 0.9 ± 0.8 pptv (8.7 ± 7.7 × 10^5 molec cm^(−3)) in the 24 to 23 km interval. The stated uncertainty (±1σ) includes that from both measurement precision and accuracy. Simultaneous detection of ozone and water vapor densities was carried out with separate on-board instruments
Heterotic Line Bundle Standard Models
In a previous publication, arXiv:1106.4804, we have found 200 models from
heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications with line bundles, which lead to
standard models after taking appropriate quotients by a discrete symmetry and
introducing Wilson lines. In this paper, we construct the resulting standard
models explicitly, compute their spectrum including Higgs multiplets, and
analyze some of their basic properties. After removing redundancies we find
about 400 downstairs models, each with the precise matter spectrum of the
supersymmetric standard model, with one, two or three pairs of Higgs doublets
and no exotics of any kind. In addition to the standard model gauge group, up
to four Green-Schwarz anomalous U(1) symmetries are present in these models,
which constrain the allowed operators in the four-dimensional effective
supergravity. The vector bosons associated to these anomalous U(1) symmetries
are massive. We explicitly compute the spectrum of allowed operators for each
model and present the results, together with the defining data of the models,
in a database of standard models accessible at
http://www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/projects/CalabiYau/linebundlemodels/index.html.
Based on these results we analyze elementary phenomenological properties. For
example, for about 200 models all dimension four and five proton decay
violating operators are forbidden by the additional U(1) symmetries.Comment: 55 pages, Latex, 3 pdf figure
Simultaneous, in situ measurements of OH and HO_2 in the stratosphere
Stratospheric OH and HO_2 radical densities have been measured between 36 and 23 km using a balloon-borne, in situ instrument launched from Palestine, TX on August 25, 1989. OH is detected using the laser-induced fluorescence technique (LIF) employing a Cu-vapor-laser pumped dye laser coupled with an enclosed-flow detection chamber. HO_2 is detected nearly simultaneously by adding No to the sample flow to convert ambient HO_2 to OH. Observed OH and HO_2 densities ranged from 8.0 ± 2.8 × 10^6 and 1.4 ± 0.5 × 10^7 molec cm^(−3), respectively, at 36 km, to 1.4± 0.5 × 10^6 and 3.0± 1.0 × 10^6 at 23 km, where the uncertainty is ±1σ. The HO_2 density exhibits a maximum in the 34–30 km of 1.7±0.6 × 10^7. The data were obtained over a solar zenith angle variation of 51° at 36 km to 61° at 23 km. O_3 and H_2O densities also were measured simultaneously with separate instruments
Anomalous cooling of the parallel velocity in seeded beams
We have measured the parallel velocity distribution of a lithium supersonic
beam produced by seeding lithium in argon. The parallel temperature for lithium
is considerably lower than the calculated parallel temperature of the argon
carrier gas. We have extended the theory of supersonic cooling to calculate the
parallel temperature of the seeded gas, in the limit of high dilution. The
theoretical result thus obtained is in good agreement with ourobservations.Comment: 01 june 200
Entropy of Quantum Fields for Nonextreme Black Holes in the Extreme Limit
Nonextreme black hole in a cavity within the framework of the canonical or
grand canonical ensemble can approach the extreme limit with a finite
temperature measured on a boundary located at a finite proper distance from the
horizon. In spite of this finite temperature, it is shown that the one-loop
contribution of quantum fields to the thermodynamic entropy due
to equilibrium Hawking radiation vanishes in the limit under consideration. The
same is true for the finite temperature version of the Bertotti-Robinson
spacetime into which a classical Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole turns in the
extreme limit. The result is attributed to the nature of a horizon
for the Bertotti-Robinson spacetime.Comment: 11 pages, ReVTeX, no figures. New references added, discussion
expanded, presentation and English improved. Accepted for publication in
Phys. Rev.
Quantum Cosmological Relational Model of Shape and Scale in 1-d
Relational particle models are useful toy models for quantum cosmology and
the problem of time in quantum general relativity. This paper shows how to
extend existing work on concrete examples of relational particle models in 1-d
to include a notion of scale. This is useful as regards forming a tight analogy
with quantum cosmology and the emergent semiclassical time and hidden time
approaches to the problem of time. This paper shows furthermore that the
correspondence between relational particle models and classical and quantum
cosmology can be strengthened using judicious choices of the mechanical
potential. This gives relational particle mechanics models with analogues of
spatial curvature, cosmological constant, dust and radiation terms. A number of
these models are then tractable at the quantum level. These models can be used
to study important issues 1) in canonical quantum gravity: the problem of time,
the semiclassical approach to it and timeless approaches to it (such as the
naive Schrodinger interpretation and records theory). 2) In quantum cosmology,
such as in the investigation of uniform states, robustness, and the qualitative
understanding of the origin of structure formation.Comment: References and some more motivation adde
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