562 research outputs found
Nodes of the Gap Function and Anomalies in Thermodynamic Properties of Superfluid He
Departures of thermodynamic properties of three-dimensional superfluid He
from the predictions of BCS theory are analyzed. Attention is focused on
deviations of the ratios and
from their BCS values, where is the pairing gap at zero
temperature, is the critical temperature, and and are the
superfluid and normal specific heats. We attribute these deviations to the
momentum dependence of the gap function , which becomes well
pronounced when this function has a pair of nodes lying on either side of the
Fermi surface. We demonstrate that such a situation arises if the P-wave
pairing interaction , evaluated at the Fermi surface, has a sign
opposite to that anticipated in BCS theory. Taking account of the momentum
structure of the gap function, we derive a closed relation between the two
ratios that contains no adjustable parameters and agrees with the experimental
data. Some important features of the effective pairing interaction are inferred
from the analysis.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
NGO Legitimacy: Four Models
The aim of this paper is to examine NGOs’ legitimacy in the context of global politics. In order to yield a better understanding of NGOs’ legitimacy at the international level it is important to examine how their legitimacy claims are evaluated. This paper proposes dividing the literature into four models based on the theoretical and analytical approaches to their legitimacy claims: the market model, social change model, new institutionalism model and the critical model. The legitimacy criteria generated by the models are significantly different in their analytical scope of how one is to assess the role of NGOs operating as political actors contributing to democracy. The paper argues that the models present incomplete, and sometimes conflicting, views of NGOs’ legitimacy and that this poses a legitimacy dilemma for those assessing the political agency of NGOs in world politics. The paper concludes that only by approaching their legitimacy holistically can the democratic role of NGOs be explored and analysed in the context of world politics
Defects and glassy dynamics in solid He-4: Perspectives and current status
We review the anomalous behavior of solid He-4 at low temperatures with
particular attention to the role of structural defects present in solid. The
discussion centers around the possible role of two level systems and structural
glassy components for inducing the observed anomalies. We propose that the
origin of glassy behavior is due to the dynamics of defects like dislocations
formed in He-4. Within the developed framework of glassy components in a solid,
we give a summary of the results and predictions for the effects that cover the
mechanical, thermodynamic, viscoelastic, and electro-elastic contributions of
the glassy response of solid He-4. Our proposed glass model for solid He-4 has
several implications: (1) The anomalous properties of He-4 can be accounted for
by allowing defects to freeze out at lowest temperatures. The dynamics of solid
He-4 is governed by glasslike (glassy) relaxation processes and the
distribution of relaxation times varies significantly between different
torsional oscillator, shear modulus, and dielectric function experiments. (2)
Any defect freeze-out will be accompanied by thermodynamic signatures
consistent with entropy contributions from defects. It follows that such
entropy contribution is much smaller than the required superfluid fraction, yet
it is sufficient to account for excess entropy at lowest temperatures. (3) We
predict a Cole-Cole type relation between the real and imaginary part of the
response functions for rotational and planar shear that is occurring due to the
dynamics of defects. Similar results apply for other response functions. (4)
Using the framework of glassy dynamics, we predict low-frequency yet to be
measured electro-elastic features in defect rich He-4 crystals. These
predictions allow one to directly test the ideas and very presence of glassy
contributions in He-4.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figure
The challenge of enterprise/innovation: a case study of a modern university
In the prevailing economic and political climate for Higher Education a greater emphasis has been placed on diversifying the funding base. The present study was undertaken between 2012 and 2014 and addressed the implementation of an approach to the transformation of one academic school in a medium-sized modern university in Wales to a more engaged enterprise culture. A multimethod investigation included a bi-lingual (English and Welsh) online survey of academic staff and yielded a 71% response rate (n = 45). The findings informed a series of in-depth interviews (n = 24) with a representative sample of those involved in enterprise work (support staff, managers, senior managers), and those who were not. The results provided the platform for the ‘S4E model’ for effective engagement with enterprise: (1) Strategic significance for Enterprise, (2) Support for Enterprise, (3) Synergy for Enterprise, and (4) Success for Enterprise. The outcomes of the research and the recommendations from it have potential to inform practice in other academic schools within the university and, in a wider context, within other Schools of Education regionally, nationally and internationally. Its original empirical exploration of enterprise within education studies is a significant contribution to that body of knowledge
Stationary solutions of the one-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger equation: I. Case of repulsive nonlinearity
All stationary solutions to the one-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger
equation under box and periodic boundary conditions are presented in analytic
form. We consider the case of repulsive nonlinearity; in a companion paper we
treat the attractive case. Our solutions take the form of stationary trains of
dark or grey density-notch solitons. Real stationary states are in one-to-one
correspondence with those of the linear Schr\"odinger equation. Complex
stationary states are uniquely nonlinear, nodeless, and symmetry-breaking. Our
solutions apply to many physical contexts, including the Bose-Einstein
condensate and optical pulses in fibers.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures -- revised versio
Clinical delineation and natural history of the PIK3CA-related overgrowth spectrum.
Somatic mutations in the phosphatidylinositol/AKT/mTOR pathway cause segmental overgrowth disorders. Diagnostic descriptors associated with PIK3CA mutations include fibroadipose overgrowth (FAO), Hemihyperplasia multiple Lipomatosis (HHML), Congenital Lipomatous Overgrowth, Vascular malformations, Epidermal nevi, Scoliosis/skeletal and spinal (CLOVES) syndrome, macrodactyly, and the megalencephaly syndrome, Megalencephaly-Capillary malformation (MCAP) syndrome. We set out to refine the understanding of the clinical spectrum and natural history of these phenotypes, and now describe 35 patients with segmental overgrowth and somatic PIK3CA mutations. The phenotypic data show that these previously described disease entities have considerable overlap, and represent a spectrum. While this spectrum overlaps with Proteus syndrome (sporadic, mosaic, and progressive) it can be distinguished by the absence of cerebriform connective tissue nevi and a distinct natural history. Vascular malformations were found in 15/35 (43%) and epidermal nevi in 4/35 (11%) patients, lower than in Proteus syndrome. Unlike Proteus syndrome, 31/35 (89%) patients with PIK3CA mutations had congenital overgrowth, and in 35/35 patients this was asymmetric and disproportionate. Overgrowth was mild with little postnatal progression in most, while in others it was severe and progressive requiring multiple surgeries. Novel findings include: adipose dysregulation present in all patients, unilateral overgrowth that is predominantly left-sided, overgrowth that affects the lower extremities more than the upper extremities and progresses in a distal to proximal pattern, and in the most severely affected patients is associated with marked paucity of adipose tissue in unaffected areas. While the current data are consistent with some genotype-phenotype correlation, this cannot yet be confirmed
Interstellar MHD Turbulence and Star Formation
This chapter reviews the nature of turbulence in the Galactic interstellar
medium (ISM) and its connections to the star formation (SF) process. The ISM is
turbulent, magnetized, self-gravitating, and is subject to heating and cooling
processes that control its thermodynamic behavior. The turbulence in the warm
and hot ionized components of the ISM appears to be trans- or subsonic, and
thus to behave nearly incompressibly. However, the neutral warm and cold
components are highly compressible, as a consequence of both thermal
instability in the atomic gas and of moderately-to-strongly supersonic motions
in the roughly isothermal cold atomic and molecular components. Within this
context, we discuss: i) the production and statistical distribution of
turbulent density fluctuations in both isothermal and polytropic media; ii) the
nature of the clumps produced by thermal instability, noting that, contrary to
classical ideas, they in general accrete mass from their environment; iii) the
density-magnetic field correlation (or lack thereof) in turbulent density
fluctuations, as a consequence of the superposition of the different wave modes
in the turbulent flow; iv) the evolution of the mass-to-magnetic flux ratio
(MFR) in density fluctuations as they are built up by dynamic compressions; v)
the formation of cold, dense clouds aided by thermal instability; vi) the
expectation that star-forming molecular clouds are likely to be undergoing
global gravitational contraction, rather than being near equilibrium, and vii)
the regulation of the star formation rate (SFR) in such gravitationally
contracting clouds by stellar feedback which, rather than keeping the clouds
from collapsing, evaporates and diperses them while they collapse.Comment: 43 pages. Invited chapter for the book "Magnetic Fields in Diffuse
Media", edited by Elisabete de Gouveia dal Pino and Alex Lazarian. Revised as
per referee's recommendation
Histogram of oriented gradients: A technique for the study of molecular cloud formation
We introduce the histogram of oriented gradients (HOG), a tool developed for machine vision that we propose as a new metric for the systematic characterization of spectral line observations of atomic and molecular gas and the study of molecular cloud formation models. In essence, the HOG technique takes as input extended spectral-line observations from two tracers and provides an estimate of their spatial correlation across velocity channels. We characterized HOG using synthetic observations of HI and 13CO (J = 1 → 0) emission from numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence leading to the formation of molecular gas after the collision of two atomic clouds. We found a significant spatial correlation between the two tracers in velocity channels where vHI ≈ v13CO, almost independent of the orientation of the collision with respect to the line of sight. Subsequently, we used HOG to investigate the spatial correlation of the HI, from The HI/OH/recombination line survey of the inner Milky Way (THOR), and the 13CO (J = 1 → 0) emission from the Galactic Ring Survey (GRS), toward the portion of the Galactic plane 33°.75 ≤l ≤ 35°.25 and |b| ≤ 1°.25. We found a significant spatial correlation between the two tracers in extended portions of the studied region. Although some of the regions with high spatial correlation are associated with HI self-absorption (HISA) features, suggesting that it is produced by the cold atomic gas, the correlation is not exclusive to this kind of region. The HOG results derived for the observational data indicate significant differences between individual regions: some show spatial correlation in channels around vHI ≈ v13CO while others present spatial correlations in velocity channels separated by a few kilometers per second. We associate these velocity offsets to the effect of feedback and to the presence of physical conditions that are not included in the atomic-cloud-collision simulations, such as more general magnetic field configurations, shear, and global gas infall.s. J.D.S., H.B., M.R., Y.W., and J.C.M. acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Framework
Program via the ERC Consolidator Grant CSF-648505. S.C.O.G. and R.K.
acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft via SFB 881,
“The Milky Way System” (subprojects B1, B2 and B8), and from the European
Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) via the ERC Advanced Grant STARLIGHT (project
number 339177). F.B. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon
2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 726384.
J.K. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme under grant agreement No. 639459 (PROMISE). S.E.R.
acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No.
706390. N.R. acknowledges support from the Infosys Foundation through the
Infosys Young Investigator grant. R.J.S. acknowledges support from an STFC
ERF. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National
Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The Galactic Ring Survey is a joint project of Boston University
and Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, funded by the National Science Foundation. This research was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Part
of the crucial discussions that lead to this work took part under the program Milky-Way-Gaia of the PSI2 project funded by the IDEX Paris-Saclay,
ANR-11-IDEX-0003-02. We thank the anonymous referee for the thorough
review. We highly appreciate the comments, which significantly contributed to
improving the quality of this paper. J.D.S. thanks the following people who
helped with their encouragement and conversation: Peter G. Martin, MarcAntoine Miville-Deschênes, Norm Murray, Edith Falgarone, Hans-Walter Rix,
Jonathan Henshaw, Shu-ichiro Inutsuka, and Eric Pellegrini
Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System
Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of
the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical
scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of
gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or
proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital
motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the
Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of
the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dynamical origin
to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly
measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in
Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text
now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde
A microscopic approach to the response of He -He mixtures
Correlated Basis Function perturbation theory is used to evaluate the zero
temperature response of He-He mixtures for inelastic
neutron scattering, at momentum transfers ranging from to . We adopt a Jastrow correlated ground state and a basis of correlated
particle-hole and phonon states. We insert correlated one particle-one hole and
one-phonon states to compute the second order response. The decay of the
one-phonon states into two-phonon states is accounted for in boson-boson
approximation. The full response is splitted into three partial components
, each of them showing a particle-hole bump and a
one phonon, delta shaped peak, which stays separated from the multiphonon
background. The cross term results to be of comparable
importance to in the particle-hole sector and to
in the phonon one. Once the one-phonon peak has been
convoluted with the experimental broadening, the computed scattering function
is in semiquantitative agreement with recent experimental measurements.Comment: 26 pages, RevTex 3.0, 8 figures available upon reques
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