1,104 research outputs found
Sensitive Observations of Radio Recombination Lines in Orion and W51: The Data and Detection of Systematic Recombination Line Blueshifts Proportional to Impact Broadening
Sensitive spectral observations made in two frequency bands near 6.0 and 17.6
GHz are described for Orion and W51. Using frequency switching we were able to
achieve a dynamic range in excess of 10,000 without fitting sinusoidal or
polynomial baselines. This enabled us to detect lines as weak as T\Delta n$ as
high as 25 have been detected in Orion. In the Orion data, where the lines are
stronger, we have also detected a systematic shift in the line center
frequencies proportional to linewidth that cannot be explained by normal
optical depth effects.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and
Space Scienc
Noise Can Reduce Disorder in Chaotic Dynamics
We evoke the idea of representation of the chaotic attractor by the set of
unstable periodic orbits and disclose a novel noise-induced ordering
phenomenon. For long unstable periodic orbits forming the strange attractor the
weights (or natural measure) is generally highly inhomogeneous over the set,
either diminishing or enhancing the contribution of these orbits into system
dynamics. We show analytically and numerically a weak noise to reduce this
inhomogeneity and, additionally to obvious perturbing impact, make a
regularizing influence on the chaotic dynamics. This universal effect is rooted
into the nature of deterministic chaos.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Social Distance Approximation on Public Transport Using Stereo Depth Camera and Passenger Pose Estimation
In order to effectively balance enforced guidance/regulation during a pandemic and limit infection transmission, with the necessity for public transportation services to remain safe and operational, it is imperative to understand and monitor environmental conditions and typical behavioural patterns within such spaces. Social distancing ability on public transport as well as the use of advanced computer vision techniques to accurately measure this are explored in this paper. A low-cost depth-sensing system is deployed on a public bus as a means to approximate social distancing measures and study passenger habits in relation to social distancing. The results indicate that social distancing on this form of public transport is unlikely for an individual beyond a 28% occupancy threshold, with an 89% chance of being within 1–2 m from at least one other passenger and a 57% chance of being within less than one metre from another passenger at any one point in time. Passenger preference for seating is also analysed, which clearly demonstrates that for typical passengers, ease of access and comfort, as well as seats having a view, are preferred over maximising social-distancing measures. With a highly detailed and comprehensive set of acquired data and accurate measurement capability, the employed equipment and processing methodology also prove to be a robust approach for the application
Designing Conducting Polymers Using Bioinspired Ant Algorithms
Ant algorithms are inspired in real ants and the main idea is to create
virtual ants that travel into the space of possible solution depositing virtual
pheromone proportional to how good a specific solution is. This creates a
autocatalytic (positive feedback) process that can be used to generate
automatic solutions to very difficult problems. In the present work we show
that these algorithms can be used coupled to tight-binding hamiltonians to
design conducting polymers with pre-specified properties. The methodology is
completely general and can be used for a large number of optimization problems
in materials science
The mixed problem in L^p for some two-dimensional Lipschitz domains
We consider the mixed problem for the Laplace operator in a class of
Lipschitz graph domains in two dimensions with Lipschitz constant at most 1.
The boundary of the domain is decomposed into two disjoint sets D and N. We
suppose the Dirichlet data, f_D has one derivative in L^p(D) of the boundary
and the Neumann data is in L^p(N). We find conditions on the domain and the
sets D and N so that there is a p_0>1 so that for p in the interval (1,p_0), we
may find a unique solution to the mixed problem and the gradient of the
solution lies in L^p
Quantization in classical mechanics and reality of Bohm's psi-field
Based on the Chetaev theorem on stable dynamical trajectories in the presence
of dissipative forces, we obtain the generalized condition for stability of
Hamilton systems in the form of the Schrodinger equation. It is shown that the
energy of dissipative forces, which generate the Chetaev generalized condition
of stability, coincides exactly with the Bohm "quantum" potential. Within the
framework of Bohmian quantum mechanics supplemented by the generalized Chetaev
theorem and on the basis of the principle of least action for dissipative
forces, we show that the squared amplitude of a wave function in the
Schrodinger equation is equivalent semantically and syntactically to the
probability density function for the number of particle trajectories, relative
to which the velocity and the position of the particle are not hidden
parameters. The conditions for the correctness of the Bohm-Chetaev
interpretation of quantum mechanics are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, significant improvement after 0806.4050 and 0804.1427. (v2)
revised and reconsidered conclusion
"Dark energy" in the Local Void
The unexpected discovery of the accelerated cosmic expansion in 1998 has
filled the Universe with the embarrassing presence of an unidentified "dark
energy", or cosmological constant, devoid of any physical meaning. While this
standard cosmology seems to work well at the global level, improved knowledge
of the kinematics and other properties of our extragalactic neighborhood
indicates the need for a better theory. We investigate whether the recently
suggested repulsive-gravity scenario can account for some of the features that
are unexplained by the standard model. Through simple dynamical considerations,
we find that the Local Void could host an amount of antimatter
() roughly equivalent to the mass of a typical
supercluster, thus restoring the matter-antimatter symmetry. The antigravity
field produced by this "dark repulsor" can explain the anomalous motion of the
Local Sheet away from the Local Void, as well as several other properties of
nearby galaxies that seem to require void evacuation and structure formation
much faster than expected from the standard model. At the global cosmological
level, gravitational repulsion from antimatter hidden in voids can provide more
than enough potential energy to drive both the cosmic expansion and its
acceleration, with no need for an initial "explosion" and dark energy.
Moreover, the discrete distribution of these dark repulsors, in contrast to the
uniformly permeating dark energy, can also explain dark flows and other
recently observed excessive inhomogeneities and anisotropies of the Universe.Comment: 6 pages, accepted as a Letter to the Editor by Astrophysics and Space
Scienc
Tracing enteric pathogen contamination in sub-Saharan African groundwater
Quantitative PCR (qPCR) can rapidly screen for an array of faecally-derived bacteria, which can be employed as tracers to understand groundwater vulnerability to faecal contamination. A microbial DNA qPCR array was used to examine 45 bacterial targets, potentially relating to enteric pathogens, in 22 groundwater supplies beneath the city of Kabwe, Zambia in both the dry and subsequent wet season. Thermotolerant (faecal) coliforms, sanitary risks, and tryptophan-like fluorescence, an emerging real-time reagentless faecal indicator, were also concurrently investigated. There was evidence for the presence of enteric bacterial contamination, through the detection of species and group specific 16S rRNA gene fragments, in 72% of supplies where sufficient DNA was available for qPCR analysis. DNA from the opportunistic pathogen Citrobacter freundii was most prevalent (69% analysed samples), with Vibrio cholerae also perennially persistent in groundwater (41% analysed samples). DNA from other species such as Bifidobacterium longum and Arcobacter butzleri was more seasonally transient. Bacterial DNA markers were most common in shallow hand-dug wells in laterite/saprolite implicating rapid subsurface pathways and vulnerability to pollution at the surface. Boreholes into the underlying dolomites were also contaminated beneath the city highlighting that a laterite/saprolite overburden, as occurs across much of sub-Saharan aquifer, does not adequately protect underlying bedrock groundwater resources. Nevertheless, peri-urban boreholes all tested negative establishing there is limited subsurface lateral transport of enteric bacteria outside the city limits. Thermotolerant coliforms were present in 97% of sites contaminated with enteric bacterial DNA markers. Furthermore, tryptophan-like fluorescence was also demonstrated as an effective indicator and was in excess of 1.4 μg/L in all contaminated sites
Efficient quantum key distribution scheme with nonmaximally entangled states
We propose an efficient quantum key distribution scheme based on
entanglement. The sender chooses pairs of photons in one of the two equivalent
nonmaximally entangled states randomly, and sends a sequence of photons from
each pair to the receiver. They choose from the various bases independently but
with substantially different probabilities, thus reducing the fraction of
discarded data, and a significant gain in efficiency is achieved. We then show
that such a refined data analysis guarantees the security of our scheme against
a biased eavesdropping strategy.Comment: 5 Pages, No Figur
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