3,277 research outputs found
Pair annihilation radiation from relativistic jets in gamma-ray blazars
The contribution of the pair annihilation process in relativistic
electron-positron jets to the gamma-ray emission of blazars is calculated.
Under the same assumptions as for the calculation of the yield of inverse
Compton scattered accretion disk radiation (Dermer and Schlickeiser 1993) we
calculate the emerging pair annihilation radiation taking into account all
spectral broadening effects due to the energy spectra of the annihilating
particles and the bulk motion of the jet. It is shown that the time-integrated
pair annihilation spectrum appears almost like the well-known gamma-ray
spectrum from decaying -mesons at rest, yielding a broad bumpy feature
located between 50 and 100 MeV. We also demonstrate that for pair densities cm in the jet the annihilation radiation will dominate the inverse
Compton radiation, and indeed may explain reported spectral bumps at MeV
energies. The refined treatment of the inverse Compton radiation leads to
spectral breaks of the inverse Compton emission in the MeV energy range with a
change in spectral index larger than 0.5 as detected in PKS
0528+134 and 3C273
Numerical Results for Ground States of Mean-Field Spin Glasses at low Connectivities
An extensive list of results for the ground state properties of spin glasses
on random graphs is presented. These results provide a timely benchmark for
currently developing theoretical techniques based on replica symmetry breaking
that are being tested on mean-field models at low connectivity. Comparison with
existing replica results for such models verifies the strength of those
techniques. Yet, we find that spin glasses on fixed-connectivity graphs (Bethe
lattices) exhibit a richer phenomenology than has been anticipated by theory.
Our data prove to be sufficiently accurate to speculate about some exact
results.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex4, 5 ps-figures included, related papers available at
http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher
Jamming Model for the Extremal Optimization Heuristic
Extremal Optimization, a recently introduced meta-heuristic for hard
optimization problems, is analyzed on a simple model of jamming. The model is
motivated first by the problem of finding lowest energy configurations for a
disordered spin system on a fixed-valence graph. The numerical results for the
spin system exhibit the same phenomena found in all earlier studies of extremal
optimization, and our analytical results for the model reproduce many of these
features.Comment: 9 pages, RevTex4, 7 ps-figures included, as to appear in J. Phys. A,
related papers available at http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher
Extremal Optimization for Graph Partitioning
Extremal optimization is a new general-purpose method for approximating
solutions to hard optimization problems. We study the method in detail by way
of the NP-hard graph partitioning problem. We discuss the scaling behavior of
extremal optimization, focusing on the convergence of the average run as a
function of runtime and system size. The method has a single free parameter,
which we determine numerically and justify using a simple argument. Our
numerical results demonstrate that on random graphs, extremal optimization
maintains consistent accuracy for increasing system sizes, with an
approximation error decreasing over runtime roughly as a power law t^(-0.4). On
geometrically structured graphs, the scaling of results from the average run
suggests that these are far from optimal, with large fluctuations between
individual trials. But when only the best runs are considered, results
consistent with theoretical arguments are recovered.Comment: 34 pages, RevTex4, 1 table and 20 ps-figures included, related papers
available at http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher
Extremal Optimization at the Phase Transition of the 3-Coloring Problem
We investigate the phase transition of the 3-coloring problem on random
graphs, using the extremal optimization heuristic. 3-coloring is among the
hardest combinatorial optimization problems and is closely related to a 3-state
anti-ferromagnetic Potts model. Like many other such optimization problems, it
has been shown to exhibit a phase transition in its ground state behavior under
variation of a system parameter: the graph's mean vertex degree. This phase
transition is often associated with the instances of highest complexity. We use
extremal optimization to measure the ground state cost and the ``backbone'', an
order parameter related to ground state overlap, averaged over a large number
of instances near the transition for random graphs of size up to 512. For
graphs up to this size, benchmarks show that extremal optimization reaches
ground states and explores a sufficient number of them to give the correct
backbone value after about update steps. Finite size scaling gives
a critical mean degree value . Furthermore, the
exploration of the degenerate ground states indicates that the backbone order
parameter, measuring the constrainedness of the problem, exhibits a first-order
phase transition.Comment: RevTex4, 8 pages, 4 postscript figures, related information available
at http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher
Photoelectrochemical water splitting: silicon photocathodes for hydrogen evolution
The development of low cost, scalable, renewable energy technologies is one of today's most pressing scientific challenges. We report on progress towards the development of a photoelectrochemical water-splitting system that will use sunlight and water as the inputs to produce renewable hydrogen with oxygen as a by-product. This system is based on the design principle of incorporating two separate, photosensitive inorganic semiconductor/liquid junctions to collectively generate the 1.7-1.9 V at open circuit needed to support both the oxidation of H_2O (or OH^-) and the reduction of H^+ (or H_2O). Si microwire arrays are a promising photocathode material because the high aspect-ratio electrode architecture allows for the use of low cost, earth-abundant materials without sacrificing energy-conversion efficiency, due to the orthogonalization of light absorption and charge-carrier collection. Additionally, the high surfacearea design of the rod-based semiconductor array inherently lowers the flux of charge carriers over the rod array surface relative to the projected geometric surface of the photoelectrode, thus lowering the photocurrent density at the solid/liquid junction and thereby relaxing the demands on the activity (and cost) of any electrocatalysts. Arrays of Si microwires grown using the Vapor Liquid Solid (VLS) mechanism have been shown to have desirable electronic light absorption properties. We have demonstrated that these arrays can be coated with earth-abundant metallic catalysts and used for photoelectrochemical production of hydrogen. This development is a step towards the demonstration of a complete artificial photosynthetic system, composed of only inexpensive, earth-abundant materials, that is simultaneously efficient, durable, and scalable
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