15,424 research outputs found
The Semiclassical Coulomb Interaction
The semiclassical Coulomb excitation interaction is at times expressed in the
Lorentz gauge in terms of the electromagnetic fields and a contribution from
the scalar electric potential. We point out that the potential term can make
spurious contributions to excitation cross sections, especially when the the
decay of excited states is taken into account. We show that, through an
appropriate gauge transformation, the excitation interaction can be expressed
in terms of the electromagnetic fields alone.Comment: 12 pages. Phys. Rev. C, Rapid Communication, in pres
Auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo calculations of light and medium-mass nuclei with local chiral interactions
Quantum Monte Carlo methods have recently been employed to study properties
of nuclei and infinite matter using local chiral effective field theory
interactions. In this work, we present a detailed description of the auxiliary
field diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm for nuclei in combination with local
chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions up to next-to-next-to-leading order.
We show results for the binding energy, charge radius, charge form factor, and
Coulomb sum rule in nuclei with . Particular attention is devoted
to the effect of different operator structures in the three-body force for
different cutoffs. The outcomes suggest that local chiral interactions fit to
few-body observables give a very good description of the ground-state
properties of nuclei up to O, with the exception of one fit for the
softer cutoff which predicts overbinding in larger nuclei.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Properties of nuclei up to using local chiral interactions
We report accurate quantum Monte Carlo calculations of nuclei up to
based on local chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions up to
next-to-next-to-leading order. We examine the theoretical uncertainties
associated with the chiral expansion and the cutoff in the theory, as well as
the associated operator choices in the three-nucleon interactions. While in
light nuclei the cutoff variation and systematic uncertainties are rather
small, in O these can be significant for large coordinate-space cutoffs.
Overall, we show that chiral interactions constructed to reproduce properties
of very light systems and nucleon-nucleon scattering give an excellent
description of binding energies, charge radii, and form factors for all these
nuclei, including open-shell systems in and 12.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Predictability of Self-Organizing Systems
We study the predictability of large events in self-organizing systems. We
focus on a set of models which have been studied as analogs of earthquake
faults and fault systems, and apply methods based on techniques which are of
current interest in seismology. In all cases we find detectable correlations
between precursory smaller events and the large events we aim to forecast. We
compare predictions based on different patterns of precursory events and find
that for all of the models a new precursor based on the spatial distribution of
activity outperforms more traditional measures based on temporal variations in
the local activity.Comment: 15 pages, plain.tex with special macros included, 4 figure
Systems approaches and algorithms for discovery of combinatorial therapies
Effective therapy of complex diseases requires control of highly non-linear
complex networks that remain incompletely characterized. In particular, drug
intervention can be seen as control of signaling in cellular networks.
Identification of control parameters presents an extreme challenge due to the
combinatorial explosion of control possibilities in combination therapy and to
the incomplete knowledge of the systems biology of cells. In this review paper
we describe the main current and proposed approaches to the design of
combinatorial therapies, including the empirical methods used now by clinicians
and alternative approaches suggested recently by several authors. New
approaches for designing combinations arising from systems biology are
described. We discuss in special detail the design of algorithms that identify
optimal control parameters in cellular networks based on a quantitative
characterization of control landscapes, maximizing utilization of incomplete
knowledge of the state and structure of intracellular networks. The use of new
technology for high-throughput measurements is key to these new approaches to
combination therapy and essential for the characterization of control
landscapes and implementation of the algorithms. Combinatorial optimization in
medical therapy is also compared with the combinatorial optimization of
engineering and materials science and similarities and differences are
delineated.Comment: 25 page
Development of a Method for Evaluating the Yield Goal Approach
Yield goals have been used to determine N recommendations in South Dakota, North Dakota, and western Minnesota. However, some states, such as Wisconsin and Iowa have eliminated yield goals from N recommendations because of poor correlation between yield and economically optimum N rates. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of switching from a yield goal approach to a non-yield goal approach in South Dakota. Field experiments were conducted in Aurora, South Dakota between 2002 and 2003. Treatments were natural rainfall and natural rainfall + irrigation and four N rates (0, 60, 120, 180 kg N /ha). Plant samples were analyzed for 13C discrimination (Δ) and total N. Research results showed that; (i) adding N rates increased yield and Δ; (ii) applying supplemental irrigation increased yield and decreased Δ; (iii) yields were not influenced by an interaction between water and nitrogen; and (iv) δ15N values increased with irrigation and decreased with increasing N. These results suggest that nitrogen and water stress had independent impact on yield, and irrigation increased N mineralization. These findings partially support the hypothesis that fertilizer rates should be independent of yield goal. Research needs to be conducted to determine the long term impact of changing the recommendation approach on soil N levels
Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of six-quark states
The variational Monte Carlo method is used to find the ground state of six
quarks confined to a cavity of diameter R_c, interacting via an assumed
non-relativistic constituent quark model (CQM) Hamiltonian. We use a flux-tube
model augmented with one-gluon and one-pion exchange interactions, which has
been successful in describing single hadron spectra. The variational wave
function is written as a product of three-quark nucleon states with
correlations between quarks in different nucleons. We study the role of quark
exchange effects by allowing flux-tube configuration mixing. An accurate
six-body variational wave function is obtained. It has only ~13% rms
fluctuation in the total energy and yields a standard deviation of ~<.1%; small
enough to be useful in discerning nuclear interaction effects from the large
rest mass of the two nucleons. Results are presented for three values of the
cavity diameter, R_c=2, 4, and 6 fm. They indicate that the flux-tube model
Hamiltonian with gluon and pion exchange requires revisions in order to obtain
agreement with the energies estimated from realistic two-nucleon interactions.
We calculate the two-quark probability distribution functions and show how they
may be used to study and adjust the model Hamiltonian.Comment: 49 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Sonoluminescence as a QED vacuum effect: Probing Schwinger's proposal
Several years ago Schwinger proposed a physical mechanism for
sonoluminescence in terms of photon production due to changes in the properties
of the quantum-electrodynamic (QED) vacuum arising from a collapsing dielectric
bubble. This mechanism can be re-phrased in terms of the Casimir effect and has
recently been the subject of considerable controversy. The present paper probes
Schwinger's suggestion in detail: Using the sudden approximation we calculate
Bogolubov coefficients relating the QED vacuum in the presence of the expanded
bubble to that in the presence of the collapsed bubble. In this way we derive
an estimate for the spectrum and total energy emitted. We verify that in the
sudden approximation there is an efficient production of photons, and further
that the main contribution to this dynamic Casimir effect comes from a volume
term, as per Schwinger's original calculation. However, we also demonstrate
that the timescales required to implement Schwinger's original suggestion are
not physically relevant to sonoluminescence. Although Schwinger was correct in
his assertion that changes in the zero-point energy lead to photon production,
nevertheless his original model is not appropriate for sonoluminescence. In
other works (see quant-ph/9805023, quant-ph/9904013, quant-ph/9904018,
quant-ph/9905034) we have developed a variant of Schwinger's model that is
compatible with the physically required timescales.Comment: 18 pages, ReV_TeX 3.2, 9 figures. Major revisions: This document is
now limited to providing a probe of Schwinger's original suggestion for
sonoluminescence. For details on our own variant of Schwinger's ideas see
quant-ph/9805023, quant-ph/9904013, quant-ph/9904018, quant-ph/990503
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