Radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of surface convection in low-mass stars: connections to stellar structure and asteroseismology

Radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of surface convection in low-mass stars can be exploited to derive estimates of i) the efficiency of the convective energy transport in the stellar surface layers; ii) the convection-related photometric micro-variability. We comment on the universality of the mixing-length parameter, and point out potential pitfalls in the process of its calibration which may be in part responsible for the contradictory findings about its variability across the Hertzsprung-Russell digramme. We further comment on the modelling of the photometric micro-variability in HD49933 - one of the first main COROT targets.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings paper of IAU Symposium 25

Secrecy and performance models for query processing on outsourced graph data

Database outsourcing is a challenge concerning data secrecy. Even if an adversary, including the service provider, accesses the data, she should not be able to learn any information from the accessed data. In this paper, we address this problem for graph-structured data. First, we define a secrecy notion for graph-structured data based on the concepts of indistinguishability and searchable encryption. To address this problem, we propose an approach based on bucketization. Next to bucketization, it makes use of obfuscated indexes and encryption. We show that finding an optimal bucketization tailored to graph-structured data is NP-hard; therefore, we come up with a heuristic. We prove that the proposed bucketization approach fulfills our secrecy notion. In addition, we present a performance model for scale-free networks which consists of (1) a number-of-buckets model that estimates the number of buckets obtained after applying our bucketization approach and (2) a query-cost model. Finally, we demonstrate with a set of experiments the accuracy of our number-of-buckets model and the efficiency of our approach with respect to query processing

The Enigmatic HH 255

To gain insight into the nature of the peculiar Herbig-Haro object HH 255 (also called Burnham's nebula), we use previously published observations to derive information about the emission line fluxes as a function of position within HH 255 and compare them with the well-studied, and relatively well-behaved bow shock HH 1. There are some qualitative similarities in the H$\alpha$ and [O III] 5007 lines in both objects. However, in contrast to the expectation of the standard bow shock model, the fluxes of the [O I] 6300, [S II] 6731, and [N II] 6583 lines are essentially constant along the axis of the flow, while the electron density decreases, over a large distance within HH 255. We also explore the possibility that HH 255 represents the emission behind a standing or quasi-stationary shock. The shock faces upwind, and we suggest, using theoretical arguments, that it may be associated with the collimation of the southern outflow from T Tauri. Using a simplified magnetohydrodynamic simulation to illustrate the basic concept, we demonstrate that the existence of such a shock at the north edge of HH 255 could indeed explain its unusual kinematic and ionization properties. Whether or not such a shock can explain the detailed emission line stratification remains an open question.Comment: Accepted by PASP, 12 pages including 8 figure

Weak radiative corrections to the Drell-Yan process for large invariant mass of a dilepton pair

The weak radiative corrections to the Drell-Yan process above the Z-peak have been studied. The compact asymptotic expression for the two heavy boson exchange - one of the significant contributions to the investigated process - has been obtained, the results expand in the powers of the Sudakov electroweak logarithms. At the quark level we compare the weak radiative corrections to the total cross section and forward-backward asymmetry with the existing results and achieve a rather good coincidence at \sqrt{s}>= 0.5 TeV. The numerical analysis has been performed in the high energy region corresponding to the future experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). To simulate the detector acceptance we used the standard CMS detector cuts. It was shown that double Sudakov logarithms of the WW boxes are the dominant contributions in hadronic cross section. The considered radiative corrections are significant at high dilepton mass M and change the dilepton mass distribution up to ~+3(-12)% at the LHC energies and M=1(5) TeV.Comment: Changed content; 13 pp, 4 fig, 1 tabl

Hopf Categories

We introduce Hopf categories enriched over braided monoidal categories. The notion is linked to several recently developed notions in Hopf algebra theory, such as Hopf group (co)algebras, weak Hopf algebras and duoidal categories. We generalize the fundamental theorem for Hopf modules and some of its applications to Hopf categories.Comment: 47 pages; final version to appear in Algebras and Representation Theor

Supersymmetric Corrections to the Threshold Production of Top Quark Pairs

In this paper we investigate supersymmetric effects to the threshold production cross section of top quark pairs in electron positron annihilation. In particular, we consider the complete one-loop corrections from the strong and weak sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

Long-term magnetic field stability of Vega

We present new spectropolarimetric observations of the normal A-type star Vega, obtained during the summer of 2010 with NARVAL at T\'elescope Bernard Lyot (Pic du Midi Observatory). This new time-series is constituted of 615 spectra collected over 6 different nights. We use the Least-Square-Deconvolution technique to compute, from each spectrum, a mean line profile with a signal-to-noise ratio close to 20,000. After averaging all 615 polarized observations, we detect a circularly polarized Zeeman signature consistent in shape and amplitude with the signatures previously reported from our observations of 2008 and 2009. The surface magnetic geometry of the star, reconstructed using the technique of Zeeman-Doppler Imaging, agrees with the maps obtained in 2008 and 2009, showing that most recognizable features of the photospheric field of Vega are only weakly distorted by large-scale surface flows (differential rotation or meridional circulation).Comment: Proceedings of the conference "Stellar polarimetry: from birth to death", 2011 Jun 27-30, Madiso

Morita base change in Hopf-cyclic (co)homology

In this paper, we establish the invariance of cyclic (co)homology of left Hopf algebroids under the change of Morita equivalent base algebras. The classical result on Morita invariance for cyclic homology of associative algebras appears as a special example of this theory. In our main application we consider the Morita equivalence between the algebra of complex-valued smooth functions on the classical 2-torus and the coordinate algebra of the noncommutative 2-torus with rational parameter. We then construct a Morita base change left Hopf algebroid over this noncommutative 2-torus and show that its cyclic (co)homology can be computed by means of the homology of the Lie algebroid of vector fields on the classical 2-torus.Comment: Final version to appear in Lett. Math. Phy

Weyl-van-der-Waerden formalism for helicity amplitudes of massive particles

The Weyl-van-der-Waerden spinor technique for calculating helicity amplitudes of massive and massless particles is presented in a form that is particularly well suited to a direct implementation in computer algebra. Moreover, we explain how to exploit discrete symmetries and how to avoid unphysical poles in amplitudes in practice. The efficiency of the formalism is demonstrated by giving explicit compact results for the helicity amplitudes of the processes gamma gamma -> f fbar, f fbar -> gamma gamma gamma, mu^- mu^+ -> f fbar gamma.Comment: 24 pages, late

The role of electromagnetic trapped modes in extraordinary transmission in nanostructured materials

We assert that the physics underlying the extraordinary light transmission (reflection) in nanostructured materials can be understood from rather general principles based on the formal scattering theory developed in quantum mechanics. The Maxwell equations in passive (dispersive and absorptive) linear media are written in the form of the Schr\"{o}dinger equation to which the quantum mechanical resonant scattering theory (the Lippmann-Schwinger formalism) is applied. It is demonstrated that the existence of long-lived quasistationary eigenstates of the effective Hamiltonian for the Maxwell theory naturally explains the extraordinary transmission properties observed in various nanostructured materials. Such states correspond to quasistationary electromagnetic modes trapped in the scattering structure. Our general approach is also illustrated with an example of the zero-order transmission of the TE-polarized light through a metal-dielectric grating structure. Here a direct on-the-grid solution of the time-dependent Maxwell equations demonstrates the significance of resonances (or trapped modes) for extraordinary light transmissioComment: 14 pages, 6 figures; Discussion in Section 4 expanded; typos corrected; a reference added; Figure 4 revise