2,327 research outputs found
Cosmological structure formation from soft topological defects
Some models have extremely low-mass pseudo-Goldstone bosons that can lead to vacuum phase transitions at late times, after the decoupling of the microwave background.. This can generate structure formation at redshifts z greater than or approx 10 on mass scales as large as M approx 10 to the 18th solar masses. Such low energy transitions can lead to large but phenomenologically acceptable density inhomogeneities in soft topological defects (e.g., domain walls) with minimal variations in the microwave anisotropy, as small as delta Y/T less than or approx 10 to the minus 6 power. This mechanism is independent of the existence of hot, cold, or baryonic dark matter. It is a novel alternative to both cosmic string and to inflationary quantum fluctuations as the origin of structure in the Universe
IDA: An implicit, parallelizable method for calculating drainage area
Models of landscape evolution or hydrological processes typically depend on the accurate determination of upslope drainage area from digital elevation data, but such calculations can be very computationally demanding when applied to high-resolution topographic data. To overcome this limitation, we propose calculating drainage area in an implicit, iterative manner using linear solvers. The basis of this method is a recasting of the flow routing problem as a sparse system of linear equations, which can be solved using established computational techniques. This approach is highly parallelizable, enabling data to be spread over multiple computer processors. Good scalability is exhibited, rendering it suitable for contemporary high-performance computing architectures with many processors, such as graphics processing units (GPUs). In addition, the iterative nature of the computational algorithms we use to solve the linear system creates the possibility of accelerating the solution by providing an initial guess, making the method well suited to iterative calculations such as numerical landscape evolution models. We compare this method with a previously proposed parallel drainage area algorithm and present several examples illustrating its advantages, including a continent-scale flow routing calculation at 3 arc sec resolution, improvements to models of fluvial sediment yield, and acceleration of drainage area calculations in a landscape evolution model. We additionally describe a modification that allows the method to be used for parallel basin delineation.National Science Foundation (U.S.). Geomorphology and Land-Use Dynamics Program (Award EAR-0951672
Cloud-based solutions for distributed climate modeling
ECCO in the cloud - overviewA new, cloud-based framework for climate modeling is introduced allowing to run climate models at the “click of a button”. The framework aims to simplify dissemination of climate models, increase transparency of modeling activities, expand their user base, and facilitate broader research collaboration.NASA Physical Oceanograph
Topological Interactions in Warped Extra Dimensions
Topological interactions will be generated in theories with compact extra
dimensions where fermionic chiral zero modes have different localizations. This
is the case in many warped extra dimension models where the right-handed top
quark is typically localized away from the left-handed one. Using
deconstruction techniques, we study the topological interactions in these
models. These interactions appear as trilinear and quadrilinear gauge boson
couplings in low energy effective theories with three or more sites, as well as
in the continuum limit. We derive the form of these interactions for various
cases, including examples of Abelian, non-Abelian and product gauge groups of
phenomenological interest. The topological interactions provide a window into
the more fundamental aspects of these theories and could result in unique
signatures at the Large Hadron Collider, some of which we explore.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables; modifications in the KK parity
discussion, final version at JHE
Fractal Theory Space: Spacetime of Noninteger Dimensionality
We construct matter field theories in ``theory space'' that are fractal, and
invariant under geometrical renormalization group (RG) transformations. We
treat in detail complex scalars, and discuss issues related to fermions,
chirality, and Yang-Mills gauge fields. In the continuum limit these models
describe physics in a noninteger spatial dimension which appears above a RG
invariant ``compactification scale,'' M. The energy distribution of KK modes
above M is controlled by an exponent in a scaling relation of the vacuum energy
(Coleman-Weinberg potential), and corresponds to the dimensionality. For
truncated-s-simplex lattices with coordination number s the spacetime
dimensionality is 1+(3+2ln(s)/ln(s+2)). The computations in theory space
involve subtleties, owing to the 1+3 kinetic terms, yet the resulting
dimensionalites are equivalent to thermal spin systems. Physical implications
are discussed.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures; Paper has been amplified with a more detailed
discussion of a number of technical issue
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