Stellar and nuclear-physics constraints on two r-process components in the early Galaxy

Proceedings of "Nuclei in the Cosmos 2000", Aarhus, DanmarkComment: 3 pages, 2 figures; to be publ. in Nucl. Phys.

Microelectromagnets for Trapping and Manipulating Ultracold Atomic Quantum Gases

We describe the production and characterization of microelectromagnets made for trapping and manipulating atomic ensembles. The devices consist of 7 fabricated parallel copper conductors 3 micrometer thick, 25mm long, with widths ranging from 3 to 30 micrometer, and are produced by electroplating a sapphire substrate. Maximum current densities in the wires up to 6.5 * 10^6 A / cm^2 are achieved in continuous mode operation. The device operates successfully at a base pressure of 10^-11 mbar. The microstructures permit the realization of a variety of magnetic field configurations, and hence provide enormous flexibility for controlling the motion and the shape of Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Inhibition causes ceaseless dynamics in networks of excitable nodes

The collective dynamics of a network of excitable nodes changes dramatically when inhibitory nodes are introduced. We consider inhibitory nodes which may be activated just like excitatory nodes but, upon activating, decrease the probability of activation of network neighbors. We show that, although the direct effect of inhibitory nodes is to decrease activity, the collective dynamics becomes self-sustaining. We explain this counterintuitive result by defining and analyzing a "branching function" which may be thought of as an activity-dependent branching ratio. The shape of the branching function implies that for a range of global coupling parameters dynamics are self-sustaining. Within the self-sustaining region of parameter space lies a critical line along which dynamics take the form of avalanches with universal scaling of size and duration, embedded in ceaseless timeseries of activity. Our analyses, confirmed by numerical simulation, suggest that inhibition may play a counterintuitive role in excitable networks.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Synthesis Imaging of Dense Molecular Gas in the N113 HII Region of the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present aperture synthesis imaging of dense molecular gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud, taken with the prototype millimeter receivers of the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). Our observations of the N113 HII region reveal a condensation with a size of ~6" (1.5 pc) FWHM, detected strongly in the 1-0 lines of HCO+, HCN and HNC, and weakly in C_2H. Comparison of the ATCA observations with single-dish maps from the Mopra Telescope and sensitive spectra from the Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope indicates that the condensation is a massive clump of ~10^4 solar masses within a larger ~10^5 solar mass molecular cloud. The clump is centered adjacent to a compact, obscured HII region which is part of a linear structure of radio continuum sources extending across the molecular cloud. We suggest that the clump represents a possible site for triggered star formation. Examining the integrated line intensities as a function of interferometer baseline length, we find evidence for decreasing HCO+/HCN and HCN/HNC ratios on longer baselines. These trends are consistent with a significant component of the HCO+ emission arising in an extended clump envelope and a lower HCN/HNC abundance ratio in dense cores.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Ap

On the equality of Hausdorff and box counting dimensions

By viewing the covers of a fractal as a statistical mechanical system, the exact capacity of a multifractal is computed. The procedure can be extended to any multifractal described by a scaling function to show why the capacity and Hausdorff dimension are expected to be equal.Comment: CYCLER Paper 93mar001 Latex file with 3 PostScript figures (needs psfig.sty

Coarse-grained strain dynamics and backwards/forwards dispersion

A Particle Tracking Velocimetry experiment has been performed in a turbulent flow at intermediate Reynolds number. We present experimentally obtained stretching rates for particle pairs in the inertial range. When compensated by a characteristic time scale for coarse-grained strain we observe constant stretching. This indicates that the process of material line stretching taking place in the viscous subrange has its counterpart in the inertial subrange. We investigate both forwards and backwards dispersion. We find a faster backwards stretching and relate it to the problem of relative dispersion and its time asymmetry.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figue

The stability of adaptive synchronization of chaotic systems

In past works, various schemes for adaptive synchronization of chaotic systems have been proposed. The stability of such schemes is central to their utilization. As an example addressing this issue, we consider a recently proposed adaptive scheme for maintaining the synchronized state of identical coupled chaotic systems in the presence of a priori unknown slow temporal drift in the couplings. For this illustrative example, we develop an extension of the master stability function technique to study synchronization stability with adaptive coupling. Using this formulation, we examine local stability of synchronization for typical chaotic orbits and for unstable periodic orbits within the synchronized chaotic attractor (bubbling). Numerical experiments illustrating the results are presented. We observe that the stable range of synchronism can be sensitively dependent on the adaption parameters, and we discuss the strong implication of bubbling for practically achievable adaptive synchronization.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

The runaway instability in general relativistic accretion disks

When an accretion disk falls prey to the runaway instability, a large portion of its mass is devoured by the black hole within a few dynamical times. Despite decades of effort, it is still unclear under what conditions such an instability can occur. The technically most advanced relativistic simulations to date were unable to find a clear sign for the onset of the instability. In this work, we present three-dimensional relativistic hydrodynamics simulations of accretion disks around black holes in dynamical space-time. We focus on the configurations that are expected to be particularly prone to the development of this instability. We demonstrate, for the first time, that the fully self-consistent general relativistic evolution does indeed produce a runaway instability.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, minor corrections to match published version in MNRAS, +link to animatio