12,901 research outputs found
Universality in short-range Ising spin glasses
The role of the distribution of coupling constants on the critical exponents
of the short-range Ising spin-glass model is investigated via real space
renormalization group. A saddle-point spin glass critical point characterized
by a fixed-point distribution is found in an appropriated parameter space. The
critical exponents and are directly estimated from the data of
the local Edwards-Anderson order parameters for the model defined on a diamond
hierarchical lattice of fractal dimension . Four distinct initial
distributions of coupling constants (Gaussian, bimodal, uniform and
exponential) are considered; the results clearly indicate a universal behavior.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, to published in Physica A 199
B-Mode contamination by synchrotron emission from 3-years WMAP data
We study the contamination of the B-mode of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Polarization (CMBP) by Galactic synchrotron in the lowest emission regions of
the sky. The 22.8-GHz polarization map of the 3-years WMAP data release is used
to identify and analyse such regions. Two areas are selected with
signal-to-noise ratio S/N<2 and S/N<3, covering ~16% and ~26% fraction of the
sky, respectively. The polarization power spectra of these two areas are
dominated by the sky signal on large angular scales (multipoles l < 15), while
the noise prevails on degree scales. Angular extrapolations show that the
synchrotron emission competes with the CMBP B-mode signal for tensor-to-scalar
perturbation power ratio -- at 70-GHz in the 16%
lowest emission sky (S/N<2 area). These values worsen by a factor ~5 in the
S/N<3 region. The novelty is that our estimates regard the whole lowest
emission regions and outline a contamination better than that of the whole high
Galactic latitude sky found by the WMAP team (T/S>0.3). Such regions allow to be measured directly which approximately corresponds to the
limit imposed by using a sky coverage of 15%. This opens interesting
perspectives to investigate the inflationary model space in lowest emission
regions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Algebraically special solutions in AdS/CFT
We investigate the AdS/CFT interpretation of the class of algebraically
special solutions of Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant.
Such solutions describe a CFT living in a 2+1 dimensional time-dependent
geometry that, generically, has no isometries. The algebraically special
condition implies that the expectation value of the CFT energy-momentum tensor
is a local function of the boundary metric. When such a spacetime is slowly
varying, the fluid/gravity approximation is valid and one can read off the
values of certain higher order transport coefficients. To do this, we introduce
a formalism for studying conformal, relativistic fluids in 2+1 dimensions that
reduces everything to the manipulation of scalar quantities.Comment: 30 pages + appendices, 2 figures; v2: typos corrected, ref. adde
The synchrotron foreground and CMB temperature-polarization cross correlation power spectrum from the first year WMAP data
We analyse the temperature-polarization cross-correlation in the Galactic
synchrotron template that we have recently developed, and between the template
and CMB temperature maps derived from WMAP data. Since the polarized
synchrotron template itself uses WMAP data, we can estimate residual
synchrotron contamination in the CMB angular spectrum. While
appears to be contamined by synchrotron, no evidence for
contamination is found in the multipole range which is most relevant for the
fit of the cosmological optical depth.Comment: Accepted for pubblication on MNRAS Lette
Tensor decomposition and homotopy continuation
A computationally challenging classical elimination theory problem is to
compute polynomials which vanish on the set of tensors of a given rank. By
moving away from computing polynomials via elimination theory to computing
pseudowitness sets via numerical elimination theory, we develop computational
methods for computing ranks and border ranks of tensors along with
decompositions. More generally, we present our approach using joins of any
collection of irreducible and nondegenerate projective varieties
defined over . After computing
ranks over , we also explore computing real ranks. Various examples
are included to demonstrate this numerical algebraic geometric approach.Comment: We have added two examples: A Coppersmith-Winograd tensor, Matrix
multiplication with zeros. (26 pages, 1 figure
Polarized Diffuse Emission at 2.3 GHz in a High Galactic Latitude Area
Polarized diffuse emission observations at 2.3 GHz in a high Galactic
latitude area are presented. The 2\degr X 2\degr field, centred in
(\alpha=5^h,\delta=-49\degr), is located in the region observed by the
BOOMERanG experiment. Our observations has been carried out with the Parkes
Radio telescope and represent the highest frequency detection done to date in
low emission areas. Because of a weaker Faraday rotation action, the high
frequency allows an estimate of the Galactic synchrotron contamination of the
Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization (CMBP) that is more reliable than that
done at 1.4 GHz. We find that the angular power spectra of the E- and B-modes
have slopes of \beta_E = -1.46 +/- 0.14 and \beta_B = -1.87 +/- 0.22,
indicating a flattening with respect to 1.4 GHz. Extrapolated up to 32 GHz, the
E-mode spectrum is about 3 orders of magnitude lower than that of the CMBP,
allowing a clean detection even at this frequency. The best improvement
concerns the B-mode, for which our single-dish observations provide the first
estimate of the contamination on angular scales close to the CMBP peak (about 2
degrees). We find that the CMBP B-mode should be stronger than synchrotron
contamination at 90 GHz for models with T/S > 0.01. This low level could move
down to 60-70 GHz the optimal window for CMBP measures.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Assessing composition gradients in multifilamentary superconductors by means of magnetometry methods
We present two magnetometry-based methods suitable for assessing gradients in
the critical temperature and hence the composition of multifilamentary
superconductors: AC magnetometry and Scanning Hall Probe Microscopy. The
novelty of the former technique lies in the iterative evaluation procedure we
developed, whereas the strength of the latter is the direct visualization of
the temperature dependent penetration of a magnetic field into the
superconductor. Using the example of a PIT Nb3Sn wire, we demonstrate the
application of these techniques, and compare the respective results to each
other and to EDX measurements of the Sn distribution within the sub-elements of
the wire.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures; broken hyperlinks are due to a problem with arXi
Mancozeb impairs the ultrastructure of mouse granulosa cells in a dose-dependent manner
Mancozeb, an ethylene bis-dithiocarbamate, is widely used as a fungicide and exerts reproductive toxicity in vivo and in vitro in mouse oocytes by altering spindle morphology and impairing the ability to fertilize. Mancozeb also induces a premalignant status in mouse granulosa cells (GCs) cultured in vitro, as indicated by decreased p53 expression and tenuous oxidative stress. However, the presence and extent of ultrastructural alterations induced by mancozeb on GCs in vitro have not yet been reported. Using an in vitro model of reproductive toxicity, comprising parietal GCs from mouse antral follicles cultured with increasing concentrations of mancozeb (0.001-1 µg/ml), we sought to ascertain the in vitro ultrastructural cell toxicity by means of transmission (TEM) and scanning (SEM) electron microscopy. The results showed a dose-dependent toxicity of mancozeb on mouse GCs. Ultrastructural data showed intercellular contact alterations, nuclear membrane irregularities, and chromatin marginalization at lower concentrations, and showed chromatin condensation, membrane blebbing, and cytoplasmic vacuolization at higher concentrations. Morphometric analysis evidenced a reduction of mitochondrial length in GCs exposed to mancozeb 0.01-1 µg/ml and a dose-dependent increase of vacuole dimension. In conclusion, mancozeb induced dose-dependent toxicity against GCs in vitro, including ultrastructural signs of cell degeneration compatible with apoptosis, likely due to the toxic breakdown product ethylenethiourea. These alterations may represent a major cause of reduced/delayed/missed oocyte maturation in cases of infertility associated with exposure to pesticides
1.4 GHz polarimetric observations of the two fields imaged by the DASI experiment
We present results of polarization observations at 1.4 GHz of the two fields
imaged by the DASI experiment (, and , ,
respectively). Data were taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array with
3.4 arcmin resolution and mJy beam sensitivity. The emission
is dominated by point sources and we do not find evidence for diffuse
synchrotron radiation even after source subtraction. This allows to estimate an
upper limit of the diffuse polarized emission. The extrapolation to 30 GHz
suggests that the synchrotron radiation is lower than the polarized signal
measured by the DASI experiment by at least 2 orders of magnitude. This further
supports the conclusions drawn by the DASI team itself about the negligible
Galactic foreground contamination in their data set, improving by a factor
the upper limit estimated by Leitch et al. (2005).
The dominant point source emission allows us to estimate the contamination of
the CMB by extragalactic foregrounds. We computed the power spectrum of their
contribution and its extrapolation to 30 GHz provides a framework where the CMB
signal should dominate. However, our results do not match the conclusions of
the DASI team about the negligibility of point source contamination, suggesting
to take into account a source subtraction from the DASI data.Comment: 7 pages, six figures, submitted to MNRA
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