11,347 research outputs found
An experimental measurement of galactic cosmic radiation dose in conventional aircraft between San Francisco and London compared to theoretical values for conventional and supersonic aircraft
These direct measurements are in fair agreement with computations made using a program which considers both basic cosmic ray atmospheric physics and the focusing effect of the earth's magnetic field. These measurements also agree with those made at supersonic jet aircraft altitudes in Rb-57 aircraft. It is concluded that experiments and theory show that the doses received at conventional jet aircraft altitudes are slightly higher than those encountered in supersonic flights at much higher altitudes
Optical properties of potential-inserted quantum wells in the near infrared and Terahertz ranges
We propose an engineering of the optical properties of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum
wells using AlAs and InAs monolayer insertions. A quantitative study of the
effects of the monolayer position and the well thickness on the interband and
intersubband transitions, based on the extended-basis sp3d5s* tight-binding
model, is presented. The effect of insertion on the interband transitions is
compared with existing experimental data. As for intersubband transitions, we
show that in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well including two AlAs and one InAs
insertions, a three level {e1 , e2 , e3 } system where the transition energy
e3-e2 is lower and the transition energy e2-e1 larger than the longitudinal
optical phonon energy (36 meV) can be engineered together with a e3-e2
transition energy widely tunable through the TeraHertz range
Derivation of the Blackbody Radiation Spectrum from a Natural Maximum-Entropy Principle Involving Casimir Energies and Zero-Point Radiation
By numerical calculation, the Planck spectrum with zero-point radiation is
shown to satisfy a natural maximum-entropy principle whereas alternative
choices of spectra do not. Specifically, if we consider a set of
conducting-walled boxes, each with a partition placed at a different location
in the box, so that across the collection of boxes the partitions are uniformly
spaced across the volume, then the Planck spectrum correspond to that spectrum
of random radiation (having constant energy kT per normal mode at low
frequencies and zero-point energy (1/2)hw per normal mode at high frequencies)
which gives maximum uniformity across the collection of boxes for the radiation
energy per box. The analysis involves Casimir energies and zero-point radiation
which do not usually appear in thermodynamic analyses. For simplicity, the
analysis is presented for waves in one space dimension.Comment: 11 page
Quantum Algorithms for Matrix Products over Semirings
In this paper we construct quantum algorithms for matrix products over
several algebraic structures called semirings, including the (max,min)-matrix
product, the distance matrix product and the Boolean matrix product. In
particular, we obtain the following results.
We construct a quantum algorithm computing the product of two n x n matrices
over the (max,min) semiring with time complexity O(n^{2.473}). In comparison,
the best known classical algorithm for the same problem, by Duan and Pettie,
has complexity O(n^{2.687}). As an application, we obtain a O(n^{2.473})-time
quantum algorithm for computing the all-pairs bottleneck paths of a graph with
n vertices, while classically the best upper bound for this task is
O(n^{2.687}), again by Duan and Pettie.
We construct a quantum algorithm computing the L most significant bits of
each entry of the distance product of two n x n matrices in time O(2^{0.64L}
n^{2.46}). In comparison, prior to the present work, the best known classical
algorithm for the same problem, by Vassilevska and Williams and Yuster, had
complexity O(2^{L}n^{2.69}). Our techniques lead to further improvements for
classical algorithms as well, reducing the classical complexity to
O(2^{0.96L}n^{2.69}), which gives a sublinear dependency on 2^L.
The above two algorithms are the first quantum algorithms that perform better
than the -time straightforward quantum algorithm based on
quantum search for matrix multiplication over these semirings. We also consider
the Boolean semiring, and construct a quantum algorithm computing the product
of two n x n Boolean matrices that outperforms the best known classical
algorithms for sparse matrices. For instance, if the input matrices have
O(n^{1.686...}) non-zero entries, then our algorithm has time complexity
O(n^{2.277}), while the best classical algorithm has complexity O(n^{2.373}).Comment: 19 page
Generating anisotropic fluids from vacuum Ernst equations
Starting with any stationary axisymmetric vacuum metric, we build anisotropic
fluids. With the help of the Ernst method, the basic equations are derived
together with the expression for the energy-momentum tensor and with the
equation of state compatible with the field equations. The method is presented
by using different coordinate systems: the cylindrical coordinates
and the oblate spheroidal ones. A class of interior solutions matching with
stationary axisymmetric asymptotically flat vacuum solutions is found in oblate
spheroidal coordinates. The solutions presented satisfy the three energy
conditions.Comment: Version published on IJMPD, title changed by the revie
The Large Magellanic Cloud as a laboratory for Hot Bottom Burning in massive Asymptotic Giant Branch stars
We use Spitzer observations of the rich population of Asymptotic Giant Branch
stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to test models describing the
internal structure and nucleosynthesis of the most massive of these stars, i.e.
those with initial mass above . To this aim, we compare
Spitzer observations of LMC stars with the theoretical tracks of Asymptotic
Giant Branch models, calculated with two of the most popular evolution codes,
that are known to differ in particular for the treatment of convection.
Although the physical evolution of the two models are significantly different,
the properties of dust formed in their winds are surprisingly similar, as is
their position in the colour-colour (CCD) and colour-magnitude (CMD) diagrams
obtained with the Spitzer bands. This model independent result allows us to
select a well defined region in the () plane,
populated by AGB stars experiencing Hot Bottom Burning, the progeny of stars
with mass . This result opens up an important test of the
strength hot bottom burning using detailed near-IR (H and K bands)
spectroscopic analysis of the oxygen-rich, high luminosity candidates found in
the well defined region of the colour-colour plane. This test is possible
because the two stellar evolution codes we use predict very different results
for the surface chemistry, and the C/O ratio in particular, owing to their
treatment of convection in the envelope and of convective boundaries during
third dredge-up. The differences in surface chemistry are most apparent when
the model stars reach the phase with the largest infrared emission.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Hydrodynamic reductions of the heavenly equation
We demonstrate that Pleba\'nski's first heavenly equation decouples in
infinitely many ways into a triple of commuting (1+1)-dimensional systems of
hydrodynamic type which satisfy the Egorov property. Solving these systems by
the generalized hodograph method, one can construct exact solutions of the
heavenly equation parametrized by arbitrary functions of a single variable. We
discuss explicit examples of hydrodynamic reductions associated with the
equations of one-dimensional nonlinear elasticity, linearly degenerate systems
and the equations of associativity.Comment: 14 page
Numerical study of domain coarsening in anisotropic stripe patterns
We study the coarsening of two-dimensional smectic polycrystals characterized
by grains of oblique stripes with only two possible orientations. For this
purpose, an anisotropic Swift-Hohenberg equation is solved. For quenches close
enough to the onset of stripe formation, the average domain size increases with
time as . Further from onset, anisotropic pinning forces similar to
Peierls stresses in solid crystals slow down defects, and growth becomes
anisotropic. In a wide range of quench depths, dislocation arrays remain mobile
and dislocation density roughly decays as , while chevron boundaries
are totally pinned. We discuss some agreements and disagreements found with
recent experimental results on the coarsening of anisotropic electroconvection
patterns.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures. Phys. Rev E, to appea
Gamma-ray diagnostics of Type Ia supernovae: Predictions of observables from three-dimensional modeling
Besides the fact that the gamma-ray emission due to radioactive decays is
responsible for powering the light curves of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), gamma
rays themselves are of particular interest as a diagnostic tool because they
provide a direct way to obtain deeper insights into the nucleosynthesis and the
kinematics of these explosion events. Focusing on two of the most broadly
discussed SN Ia progenitor scenarios - a delayed detonation in a
Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf (WD) and a violent merger of two WDs - we use
three-dimensional explosion models and perform radiative transfer simulations
to obtain synthetic gamma-ray spectra. Both chosen models produce the same mass
of 56Ni and have similar optical properties that are in reasonable agreement
with the recently observed supernova SN 2011fe. In contrast to the optical
regime, the gamma-ray emission of our two chosen models proves to be rather
different. The almost direct connection of the emission of gamma rays to
fundamental physical processes occuring in SNe Ia permits additional
constraints concerning several explosion model properties that are not easily
accessible within other wavelength ranges. Proposed future MeV missions such as
GRIPS will resolve all spectral details only for nearby SNe Ia, but hardness
ratio and light curve measurements still allow for a distinction of the two
different models at 10 and 16 Mpc for an exposure time of 10^6 s, respectively.
The possibility to detect the strongest line features up to the Virgo distance
will offer the opportunity to build up a first sample of SN Ia detections in
the gamma-ray energy range and underlines the importance of future space
observatories for MeV gamma rays.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication by A&
Randomizing world trade. II. A weighted network analysis
Based on the misleading expectation that weighted network properties always
offer a more complete description than purely topological ones, current
economic models of the International Trade Network (ITN) generally aim at
explaining local weighted properties, not local binary ones. Here we complement
our analysis of the binary projections of the ITN by considering its weighted
representations. We show that, unlike the binary case, all possible weighted
representations of the ITN (directed/undirected, aggregated/disaggregated)
cannot be traced back to local country-specific properties, which are therefore
of limited informativeness. Our two papers show that traditional macroeconomic
approaches systematically fail to capture the key properties of the ITN. In the
binary case, they do not focus on the degree sequence and hence cannot
characterize or replicate higher-order properties. In the weighted case, they
generally focus on the strength sequence, but the knowledge of the latter is
not enough in order to understand or reproduce indirect effects.Comment: See also the companion paper (Part I): arXiv:1103.1243
[physics.soc-ph], published as Phys. Rev. E 84, 046117 (2011
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