32,673 research outputs found
Experimental study of ion heating and acceleration during magnetic reconnection
Ion heating and acceleration has been studied in the well-characterized reconnection layer of the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment [M. Yamada , Phys. Plasmas 4, 1936 (1997)]. Ion temperature in the layer rises substantially during null-helicity reconnection in which reconnecting field lines are anti-parallel. The plasma outflow is sub-Alfvenic due to a downstream back pressure. An ion energy balance calculation based on the data and including classical viscous heating indicates that ions are heated largely via nonclassical mechanisms. The T-i rise is much smaller during co-helicity reconnection in which field lines reconnect obliquely. This is consistent with a slower reconnection rate and a smaller resistivity enhancement over the Spitzer value. These observations show that nonclassical dissipation mechanisms can play an important role both in heating the ions and in facilitating the reconnection process
Capillary instability in nanowire geometries
The vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism has been applied extensively as a
framework for growing single-crystal semiconductor nanowires for applications
spanning optoelectronic, sensor and energy-related technologies. Recent
experiments have demonstrated that subtle changes in VLS growth conditions
produce a diversity of nanowire morphologies, and result in intricate kinked
structures that may yield novel properties. These observations have motivated
modeling studies that have linked kinking phenomena to processes at the triple
line between vapor, liquid and solid phases that cause spontaneous "tilting" of
the growth direction. Here we present atomistic simulations and theoretical
analyses that reveal a tilting instability that is intrinsic to nanowire
geometries, even in the absence of pronounced anisotropies in solid-liquid
interface properties. The analysis produces a very simple conclusion: the
transition between axisymmetric and tilted triple lines is shown to occur when
the triple line geometry satisfies Young's force-balance condition. The
intrinsic nature of the instability may have broad implications for the design
of experimental strategies for controlled growth of crystalline nanowires with
complex geometries.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Spinning BTZ Black Hole versus Kerr Black Hole : A Closer Look
By applying Newman's algorithm, the AdS_3 rotating black hole solution is
``derived'' from the nonrotating black hole solution of Banados, Teitelboim,
and Zanelli (BTZ). The rotating BTZ solution derived in this fashion is given
in ``Boyer-Lindquist-type'' coordinates whereas the form of the solution
originally given by BTZ is given in a kind of an ``unfamiliar'' coordinates
which are related to each other by a transformation of time coordinate alone.
The relative physical meaning between these two time coordinates is carefully
studied. Since the Kerr-type and Boyer-Lindquist-type coordinates for rotating
BTZ solution are newly found via Newman's algorithm, next, the transformation
to Kerr-Schild-type coordinates is looked for. Indeed, such transformation is
found to exist. And in this Kerr-Schild-type coordinates, truely maximal
extension of its global structure by analytically continuing to ``antigravity
universe'' region is carried out.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, Revtex, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
On higher dimensional black holes with abelian isometry group
We consider (n+1)--dimensional, stationary, asymptotically flat, or
Kaluza-Klein asymptotically flat black holes, with an abelian --dimensional
subgroup of the isometry group satisfying an orthogonal integrability
condition. Under suitable regularity conditions we prove that the area of the
group orbits is positive on the domain of outer communications, vanishing only
on its boundary and on the "symmetry axis". We further show that the orbits of
the connected component of the isometry group are timelike throughout the
domain of outer communications. Those results provide a starting point for the
classification of such black holes. Finally, we show non-existence of zeros of
static Killing vectors on degenerate Killing horizons, as needed for the
generalisation of the static no-hair theorem to higher dimensions
Are you going to the party: depends, who else is coming? [Learning hidden group dynamics via conditional latent tree models]
Scalable probabilistic modeling and prediction in high dimensional
multivariate time-series is a challenging problem, particularly for systems
with hidden sources of dependence and/or homogeneity. Examples of such problems
include dynamic social networks with co-evolving nodes and edges and dynamic
student learning in online courses. Here, we address these problems through the
discovery of hierarchical latent groups. We introduce a family of Conditional
Latent Tree Models (CLTM), in which tree-structured latent variables
incorporate the unknown groups. The latent tree itself is conditioned on
observed covariates such as seasonality, historical activity, and node
attributes. We propose a statistically efficient framework for learning both
the hierarchical tree structure and the parameters of the CLTM. We demonstrate
competitive performance in multiple real world datasets from different domains.
These include a dataset on students' attempts at answering questions in a
psychology MOOC, Twitter users participating in an emergency management
discussion and interacting with one another, and windsurfers interacting on a
beach in Southern California. In addition, our modeling framework provides
valuable and interpretable information about the hidden group structures and
their effect on the evolution of the time series
Determination of the Optimal Elliptical Trajectories Around the Earth and Moon
Current space exploration programs call for the establishment of a permanent
Human presence on the Moon. This paper considers periodic orbits of a shuttle
between the Earth and the Moon. Such a shuttle will be needed to bring supplies
to the Moon outpost and carry back those resources that are in short supply on
Earth. To keep this shuttle in permanent periodic orbit it must have a thruster
that forces it into an elliptical orbit from perigee near Earth to an apogee
just beyond the Moon and back to perigee. The impacts of the Earth, Moon and
Sun gravity on this orbit are considered. For this model we determine the
eccentricity that minimizes the thrust requirements and the lunar
requirements. We show that optimal placements of the eccentricity of the
shuttle orbit can produce significant improvement in thrust (and fuel)
requirements.Comment: 21 pages 9 fig
Energy dynamics in a simulation of LAPD turbulence
Energy dynamics calculations in a 3D fluid simulation of drift wave
turbulence in the linear Large Plasma Device (LAPD) [W. Gekelman et al., Rev.
Sci. Inst. 62, 2875 (1991)] illuminate processes that drive and dissipate the
turbulence. These calculations reveal that a nonlinear instability dominates
the injection of energy into the turbulence by overtaking the linear drift wave
instability that dominates when fluctuations about the equilibrium are small.
The nonlinear instability drives flute-like () density
fluctuations using free energy from the background density gradient. Through
nonlinear axial wavenumber transfer to fluctuations, the
nonlinear instability accesses the adiabatic response, which provides the
requisite energy transfer channel from density to potential fluctuations as
well as the phase shift that causes instability. The turbulence characteristics
in the simulations agree remarkably well with experiment. When the nonlinear
instability is artificially removed from the system through suppressing
modes, the turbulence develops a coherent frequency spectrum
which is inconsistent with experimental data
Lorentz Violating Inflation
We explore the impact of Lorentz violation on the inflationary scenario. More
precisely, we study the inflationary scenario in the scalar-vector-tensor
theory where the vector is constrained to be unit and time like. It turns out
that the Lorentz violating vector affects the dynamics of the chaotic
inflationary model and divides the inflationary stage into two parts; the
Lorentz violating stage and the standard slow roll stage. We show that the
universe is expanding as an exact de Sitter spacetime in the Lorentz violating
stage although the inflaton field is rolling down the potential. Much more
interestingly, we find exact Lorentz violating inflationary solutions in the
absence of the inflaton potential. In this case, the inflation is completely
associated with the Lorentz violation. We also mention some consequences of
Lorentz violating inflation which can be tested by observations.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
Cosmic Vortons and Particle Physics Constraints
We investigate the cosmological consequences of particle physics theories
that admit stable loops of superconducting cosmic string - {\it vortons}.
General symmetry breaking schemes are considered, in which strings are formed
at one energy scale and subsequently become superconducting in a secondary
phase transition at what may be a considerably lower energy scale. We estimate
the abundances of the ensuing vortons, and thereby derive constraints on the
relevant particle physics models from cosmological observations. These
constraints significantly restrict the category of admissible Grand Unified
theories, but are quite compatible with recently proposed effects whereby
superconducting strings may have been formed close to the electroweak phase
transition.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figures, RevTe
Transforming disfigured and disoriented areas into routable switchboxes
Journal ArticleRouting an entire circuit requires partitioning the circuit (routing area) into smaller, localized routing areas. Using non-rectangular, rotated switchbox shapes (and therefore non-manhattan routing layout) has the potential to simplify the partitioning of the circuit into routable areas and to use "dead space" on a chip for routing. The method described in this paper for generating non-rectangular, rotated switchboxes borrows ideas from computer graphics
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