The Pioneer Anomaly and a Machian Universe

We discuss astronomical and astrophysical evidence, which we relate to the principle of zero-total energy of the Universe, that imply several relations among the mass M, the radius R and the angular momentum L of a "large" sphere representing a Machian Universe. By calculating the angular speed, we find a peculiar centripetal acceleration for the Universe. This is an ubiquituous property that relates one observer to any observable. It turns out that this is exactly the anomalous acceleration observed on the Pioneers spaceships. We have thus, shown that this anomaly is to be considered a property of the Machian Universe. We discuss several possible arguments against our proposal.Comment: 6 pages including front page. Publishe

Conformal Scalar Propagation on the Schwarzschild Black-Hole Geometry

The vacuum activity generated by the curvature of the Schwarzschild black-hole geometry close to the event horizon is studied for the case of a massless, conformal scalar field. The associated approximation to the unknown, exact propagator in the Hartle-Hawking vacuum state for small values of the radial coordinate above $r = 2M$ results in an analytic expression which manifestly features its dependence on the background space-time geometry. This approximation to the Hartle-Hawking scalar propagator on the Schwarzschild black-hole geometry is, for that matter, distinct from all other. It is shown that the stated approximation is valid for physical distances which range from the event horizon to values which are orders of magnitude above the scale within which quantum and backreaction effects are comparatively pronounced. An expression is obtained for the renormalised $$ in the Hartle-Hawking vacuum state which reproduces the established results on the event horizon and in that segment of the exterior geometry within which the approximation is valid. In contrast to previous results the stated expression has the superior feature of being entirely analytic. The effect of the manifold's causal structure to scalar propagation is also studied.Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures. Published on line on October 16, 2009 and due to appear in print in Gen.Rel.Gra

Integrated monitoring of water allocation reform in South Africa

South Africa faces significant inequities in the allocation of water for productive purposes. Water allocation is one component of a wider government mandate to address the inequities of the past. Water allocation reform is being implemented by the South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), through the Water Allocation Reform (WAR) Programme. This paper presents an approach for determining indicators that can be used to monitor targets for WAR and for prioritising areas for specific WAR interventions. The approach integrates water use data with environmental, economic and equity data to provide a holistic picture of the progress and benefits of WAR. Limitations of the approach are discussed, specifically related to the data on which the indicators are based. The development of data for the equity indicator presents specific challenges which are discussed through examples from its application in four case study areas.Keywords: monitoring, water allocation reform, equity, indicators, South Afric

Fractal Structure of Random Matrices

A multifractal analysis is performed on the universality classes of random matrices and the transition ones.Our results indicate that the eigenvector probability distribution is a linear sum of two chi-squared distribution throughout the transition between the universality ensembles of random matrix theory and Poisson

Common Cortical Loci Are Activated during Visuospatial Interpolation and Orientation Discrimination Judgements

There is a wealth of literature on the role of short-range interactions between low-level orientation-tuned filters in the perception of discontinuous contours. However, little is known about how spatial information is integrated across more distant regions of the visual field in the absence of explicit local orientation cues, a process referred to here as visuospatial interpolation (VSI). To examine the neural correlates of VSI high field functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to study brain activity while observers either judged the alignment of three Gabor patches by a process of interpolation or discriminated the local orientation of the individual patches. Relative to a fixation baseline the two tasks activated a largely over-lapping network of regions within the occipito-temporal, occipito-parietal and frontal cortices. Activated clusters specific to the orientation task (orientation>interpolation) included the caudal intraparietal sulcus, an area whose role in orientation encoding per se has been hotly disputed. Surprisingly, there were few task-specific activations associated with visuospatial interpolation (VSI>orientation) suggesting that largely common cortical loci were activated by the two experimental tasks. These data are consistent with previous studies that suggest higher level grouping processes -putatively involved in VSI- are automatically engaged when the spatial properties of a stimulus (e.g. size, orientation or relative position) are used to make a judgement

Evidence for internal field in graphite: A conduction electron spin resonance study

We report conduction electron spin resonance measurements performed on highly oriented pyrolitic graphite samples between 10 K and 300 K using S (f = 4 GHz), X (f = 9.4 GHz), and Q (f = 34.4 GHz) microwave bands for the external dc-magnetic field applied parallel (H || c) and perpendicular (H perp c) to the sample hexagonal c-axis. The results obtained in the H || c geometry are interpreted in terms of the presence of an effective internal ferromagnetic-like field Heff-int(T,H) that increases as the temperature decreases and the applied dc-magnetic field increases. We associate the occurrence of the Heff-int(T,H) with the field-induced metal-insulator transition in graphite and discuss its origin in the light of relevant theoretical models.Comment: 10 pages (tex), 5 figures (ps

Critical slowing down in the geometrically frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnet Gd_2Ti_2O_7

Longitudinal-field muon spin relaxation experiments have been carried out in the paramagnetic state of single-crystal Gd_2Ti_2O_7 just above the phase transition at T_m = 1.0 K. At high applied fields the exponential relaxation time T_1 is proportional to field, whereas T_1 saturates below a crossover field B_c that is ~2.5 T at 1.5 K and decreases as T_m is approached. At low fields the relaxation rate increases markedly as the freezing temperature is approached, as expected for critical slowing down of the spin fluctuations, but the increase is suppressed by applied field. This behavior is consistent with the very long autocorrelation function cutoff time implied by the low value of B_c.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to 10th International Conference on Muon Spin Rotation, Relaxation, and Resonance, Oxford, UK, August 200

Effect of annealing on glassy dynamics and non-Fermi liquid behavior in UCu_4Pd

Longitudinal-field muon spin relaxation (LF-muSR) experiments have been performed in unannealed and annealed samples of the heavy-fermion compound UCu_4Pd to study the effect of disorder on non-Fermi liquid behavior in this material. The muon spin relaxation functions G(t,H) obey the time-field scaling relation G(t,H) = G(t/H^gamma) previously observed in this compound. The observed scaling exponent gamma = 0.3 pm 0.1, independent of annealing. Fits of the stretched-exponential relaxation function G(t) = exp[-(Lambda t)^K] to the data yielded stretching exponentials K < 1 for all samples. Annealed samples exhibited a reduction of the relaxation rate at low temperatures, indicating that annealing shifts fluctuation noise power to higher frequencies. There was no tendency of the inhomogeneous spread in rates to decrease with annealing, which modifies but does not eliminate the glassy spin dynamics reported previously in this compound. The correlation with residual resistivity previously observed for a number of NFL heavy-electron materials is also found in the present work.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to 10th International Conference on Muon Spin Rotation, Relaxation, and Resonance, Oxford, UK, August 200

Understanding High-Temperature Superconductors with Quantum Cluster Theories

Quantum cluster theories are a set of approaches for the theory of correlated and disordered lattice systems, which treat correlations within the cluster explicitly, and correlations at longer length scales either perturbatively or within a mean-field approximation. These methods become exact when the cluster size diverges, and most recover the corresponding (dynamical) mean-field approximation when the cluster size becomes one. Here we will review systematic dynamical cluster simulations of the two-dimensional Hubbard model, that display phenomena remarkably similar to those found in the cuprates, including antiferromagnetism, superconductivity and pseudogap behavior. We will then discuss results for the structure of the pairing mechanism in this model, obtained from a combination of dynamical cluster results and diagrammatic techniques.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures; submitted to proceedings of M2S-HTSC VIII, Dresden 200