16,469 research outputs found
Boltzmann entropy of a Newtonian Universe
A dynamical estimate is given for the Boltzmann entropy of the Universe,
under the simplifying assumptions provided by Newtonian cosmology. We first
model the cosmological fluid as the probability fluid of a quantum-mechanical
system. Next, following current ideas about the emergence of spacetime, we
regard gravitational equipotentials as isoentropic surfaces. Therefore
gravitational entropy is proportional to the vacuum expectation value of the
gravitational potential in a certain quantum state describing the matter
contents of the Universe. The entropy of the matter sector can also be
computed. While providing values of the entropy that turn out to be somewhat
higher than existing estimates, our results are in perfect compliance with the
upper bound set by the holographic principle.Comment: 15 page
Limits to the presence of transiting circumbinary planets in CoRoT data
The CoRoT mission during its flight-phase 2007-2012 delivered the
light-curves for over 2000 eclipsing binaries. Data from the Kepler mission
have proven the existence of several transiting circumbinary planets. Albeit
light-curves from CoRoT have typically lower precision and shorter coverage,
CoRoT's number of targets is similar to Kepler, and some of the known
circumbinary planets could potentially be detected in CoRoT data as well. The
aim of this work has been a revision of the entire CoRoT data-set for the
presence of circumbinary planets, and the derivation of limits to the
abundances of such planets. We developed a code which removes the light curve
of the eclipsing binaries and searches for quasi-periodic transit-like features
in a light curve after removal of binary eclipses and instrumental features.
The code needs little information on the sample systems and can be used for
other space missions as well, like Kepler, K2, TESS and PLATO. The code is
broad in the requirements leading to detections, but was tuned to deliver an
amount of detections that is manageable in a subsequent, mainly visual,
revision about their nature. In the CoRoT sample we identified three planet
candidates whose transits would have arisen from a single pass across the
central binary. No candidates remained however with transit events from
multiple planetary orbits. We calculated the upper limits for the number of
Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune sized planets in co-planar orbits for different
orbital period ranges. We found that there are much less giant planets in
short-periodic orbits around close binary systems than around single stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 11 pages, 4 figures and 4 tables.
Updated to fix error in acknowledgemen
Rotating Superconductors and the London Moment: Thermodynamics versus Microscopics
Comparing various microscopic theories of rotating superconductors to the
conclusions of thermodynamic considerations, we traced their marked difference
to the question of how some thermodynamic quantities (the electrostatic and
chemical potentials) are related to more microscopic ones: The electron's the
work function, mean-field potential and Fermi energy -- certainly a question of
general import.
After the correct identification is established, the relativistic correction
for the London Moment is shown to vanish, with the obvious contribution from
the Fermi velocity being compensated by other contributions such as
electrostatics and interactions.Comment: 23 pages 4 fi
meson transparency in nuclei from resonant interactions
We investigate the meson nuclear transparency using some recent
theoretical developments on the in medium self-energy. The inclusion of
direct resonant -scattering and the kaon decay mechanisms leads to a
width much larger than in most previous theoretical approaches. The
model has been confronted with photoproduction data from CLAS and LEPS and the
recent proton induced production from COSY finding an overall good
agreement. The results support the need of a quite large direct -scattering contribution to the self-energy
Studying the Internet and Write-Back Caches Using DoneCamboge
Many researchers would agree that, had it not been for scal- able technology, the synthesis of link-level acknowledgements might never have occurred. In this paper, authors argue the study of Markov models. Such a claim might seem perverse but has ample historical precedence. We present new compact modalities, which we call DoneCamboge
Collapse of the ESR fine structure throughout the coherent temperature of the Gd-doped Kondo Semiconductor
Experiments on the Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) in the filled
skutterudite (), at temperatures
where the host resistivity manifests a smooth insulator-metal crossover,
provides evidence of the underlying Kondo physics associated with this system.
At low temperatures (below ), behaves
as a Kondo-insulator with a relatively large hybridization gap, and the
ESR spectra displays a fine structure with lorentzian line shape,
typical of insulating media. The electronic gap is attributed to the large
hybridization present in the coherent regime of a Kondo lattice, when Ce
4f-electrons cooperate with band properties at half-filling. Mean-field
calculations suggest that the electron-phonon interaction is fundamental at
explaining the strong 4f-electron hybridization in this filled skutterudite.
The resulting electronic structure is strongly temperature dependent, and at
about the system undergoes an insulator-to-metal
transition induced by the withdrawal of 4f-electrons from the Fermi volume, the
system becoming metallic and non-magnetic. The ESR fine structure
coalesces into a single dysonian resonance, as in metals. Still, our
simulations suggest that exchange-narrowing via the usual Korringa mechanism,
alone, is not capable of describing the thermal behavior of the ESR spectra in
the entire temperature region ( - K). We propose that temperature
activated fluctuating-valence of the Ce ions is the missing ingredient that,
added to the usual exchange-narrowing mechanism, fully describes this unique
temperature dependence of the ESR fine structure observed in
.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure
Trion dynamics in coupled double quantum wells. Electron density effects
We have studied the coherent dynamics of injected electrons when they are
either free or bounded both in excitons and in trions (charged excitons). We
have considered a remotely doped asymmetric double quantum well where an excess
of free electrons and the direct created excitons generate trions. We have used
the matrix density formalism to analyze the electron dynamics for different
concentration of the three species. Calculations show a significant
modification of the free electron inter-sublevel oscillations cWe have studied
the coherent dynamics of injected electrons when they are aused by electrons
bound in excitons and trions. Based on the present calculations we propose a
method to detect trions through the emitted electromagnetic radiation or the
current density.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figure
The effect of pre-annealing on the evolution of the 2 microstructure and mechanical behavior of 3 aluminum processed by a novel SPD method
A novel continuous process of severe plastic deformation (SPD) named continuous close die forging (CCDF) is presented. The CCDF process combines all favorite advances of multidirectional forging and other SPD methods, and it can be easily scaled up for industrial use. Keeping constant both the cross section and the length of the sample, the new method promotes a refinement of the microstructure. The grain refinement and mechanical properties of commercially pure aluminum (AA1050) were studied as a function of the number of CCDF repetitive passes and the previous conditioning heat treatment. In particular, two different pre-annealing treatments were applied. The first one consisted of a reheating to 623 K (350 °C) for 1 h aimed at eliminating the effect of the deformation applied during the bar extrusion. The second pre-annealing consisted on a reheating to 903 K (630 °C) for 48 h plus cooling down to 573 K (300 °C) at 66 K/h. At this latter temperature, the material remained for 3 h prior to a final cooling to room temperature within the furnace, i.e., slow cooling rate. This treatment aimed at increasing the elongation and formability of the material. No visible cracking was detected in the workpiece of AA1050 processed up to 16 passes at room temperature after the first conditioning heat treatment, and 24 passes were able to be applied when the material was subjected to the second heat treatment. After processing through 16 passes for the low temperature pre-annealed samples, the microstructure was refined down to a mean grain size of 0.82 µm and the grain size was further reduced to 0.72 µm after 24 passes, applied after the high temperature heat treatment. Tensile tests showed the best mechanical properties after the high temperature pre-annealing and 24 passes of the novel CCDF method. A yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of 180 and 226 MPa, respectively, were obtained. Elongation to fracture was 18%. The microstructure and grain boundary nature are discussed in relation to the mechanical properties attained by the current ultrafine-grained (UFG) AA1050 processed by this new method.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Casimir effect in the nonequilibrium steady-state of a quantum spin chain
We present a fully microscopics-based calculation of the Casimir effect in a
nonequilibrium system, namely an energy flux driven quantum XX chain. The force
between the walls (transverse-field impurities) is calculated in a
nonequilibrium steady state which is prepared by letting the system evolve from
an initial state with the two halves of the chain prepared at equilibrium at
different temperatures. The steady state emerging in the large-time limit is
homogeneous but carries an energy flux. The Casimir force in this
nonequilibrium state is calculated analytically in the limit when the
transverse fields are small. We find that the the Casimir force range is
reduced compared to the equilibrium case, and suggest that the reason for this
is the reduction of fluctuations in the flux carrying steady state.Comment: 11 page
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