106 research outputs found
Selective attention moderates the relationship between attentional capture by signals of nondrug reward and illicit drug use
Selective attention moderates the relationship between attentional capture by signals of nondrug reward and illicit drug use
BACKGROUND: The current study examined whether cognitive control moderates the association between (non-drug) reward-modulated attentional capture and use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD). METHODS: Participants were 66 university students who completed an assessment including questions about AOD use, a visual search task to measure value-modulated attentional capture, and a goal-directed selective attention task as a measure of cognitive control. RESULTS: The association between the effect of value-modulated attentional capture and illicit drug use was moderated by level of cognitive control. Among participants with lower levels of cognitive control, value-modulated attentional capture was associated with illicit drug use. This was not the case among participants with higher levels of cognitive control, who instead showed a significant association between illicit drug use and self-reported impulsivity, as well as alcohol use. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide support for models that view addictive behaviours as resulting from interaction and competition between automatic and more reflective processes. That is, the mechanisms that ultimately drive addictive behaviour may differ between people low or high in cognitive control. This has important implications for understanding the development and maintenance of substance use disorders and potentially their treatment and prevention
Estimation of vortex density after superconducting film quench
This paper addresses the problem of vortex formation during a rapid quench in
a superconducting film. It builds on previous work showing that in a local
gauge theory there are two distinct mechanisms of defect formation, based on
fluctuations of the scalar and gauge fields, respectively. We show how vortex
formation in a thin film differs from the fully two-dimensional case, on which
most theoretical studies have focused. We discuss ways of testing theoretical
predictions in superconductor experiments and analyse the results of recent
experiments in this light.Comment: 7 pages, no figure
The Ginzburg regime and its effects on topological defect formation
The Ginzburg temperature has historically been proposed as the energy scale
of formation of topological defects at a second order symmetry breaking phase
transition. More recently alternative proposals which compute the time of
formation of defects from the critical dynamics of the system, have been
gaining both theoretical and experimental support. We investigate, using a
canonical model for string formation, how these two pictures compare. In
particular we show that prolonged exposure of a critical field configuration to
the Ginzburg regime results in no substantial suppression of the final density
of defects formed. These results dismiss the recently proposed role of the
Ginzburg regime in explaining the absence of topological defects in 4He
pressure quench experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 5 ps figure
Non linear equation of state and effective phantom divide in brane models
Here, DGP model of brane-gravity is analyzed and compared with the standard
general relativity and Randall-Sundrum cases using non-linear equation of
state. Phantom fluid is known to violate the weak energy condition. In this
paper, it is found that this characteristic of phantom energy is affected
drastically by the negative brane-tension of the RS-II model. It is
found that in DGP model strong energy condition(SEC) is always violated and the
universe accelerates only where as in RS-II model even SEC is not violated for
and the universe decelerates
Chern-Simons production during preheating in hybrid inflation models
We study the onset of symmetry breaking after hybrid inflation in a model
having the field content of the SU(2) gauge-scalar sector of the standard
model, coupled to a singlet inflaton. This process is studied in
(3+1)-dimensions in a fully non-perturbative way with the help of lattice
techniques within the classical approximation. We focus on the role played by
gauge fields and, in particular, on the generation of Chern-Simons number. Our
results are shown to be insensitive to the various cut-offs introduced in our
numerical approach. The spectra preserves a large hierarchy between long and
short-wavelength modes during the whole period of symmetry breaking and
Chern-Simons generation, confirming that the dynamics is driven by the low
momentum sector of the theory. We establish that the Chern-Simons production
mechanism is associated with local sphaleron-like structures. The corresponding
sphaleron rates are of order 10^{-5} m^4, which, within certain scenarios of
electroweak baryogenesis and a (not unnaturally large) additional source of CP
violation, could explain the present baryon asymmetry of the universe.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, ReVTeX. With minor corrections, version to
appear in Phys. Rev.
First-order cosmological phase transitions in the radiation dominated era
We consider first-order phase transitions of the Universe in the
radiation-dominated era. We argue that in general the velocity of interfaces is
non-relativistic due to the interaction with the plasma and the release of
latent heat. We study the general evolution of such slow phase transitions,
which comprise essentially a short reheating stage and a longer phase
equilibrium stage. We perform a completely analytical description of both
stages. Some rough approximations are needed for the first stage, due to the
non-trivial relations between the quantities that determine the variation of
temperature with time. The second stage, instead, is considerably simplified by
the fact that it develops at a constant temperature, close to the critical one.
Indeed, in this case the equations can be solved exactly, including
back-reaction on the expansion of the Universe. This treatment also applies to
phase transitions mediated by impurities. We also investigate the relations
between the different parameters that govern the characteristics of the phase
transition and its cosmological consequences, and discuss the dependence of
these parameters with the particle content of the theory.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figures; v2: Minor changes, references added; v3: several
typos correcte
Measuring Cosmic Defect Correlations in Liquid Crystals
From the theory of topological defect formation proposed for the early
universe, the so called Kibble mechanism, it follows that the density
correlation functions of defects and anti-defects in a given system should be
completely determined in terms of a single length scale , the relevant
domain size. Thus, when lengths are expressed in units of , these
distributions should show universal behavior, depending only on the symmetry of
the order parameter, and space dimensions. We have verified this prediction by
analyzing the distributions of defects/anti-defects formed in the
isotropic-nematic phase transition in a thin layer of nematic liquid crystals.
Our experimental results confirm this prediction and are in reasonable
agreement with the results of numerical simulations.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, minor changes, few new references adde
Topological Defects as Seeds for Eternal Inflation
We investigate the global structure of inflationary universe both by
analytical methods and by computer simulations of stochastic processes in the
early Universe. We show that the global structure of the universe depends
crucially on the mechanism of inflation. In the simplest models of chaotic
inflation the Universe looks like a sea of thermalized phase surrounding
permanently self-reproducing inflationary domains. In the theories where
inflation occurs near a local extremum of the effective potential corresponding
to a metastable state, the Universe looks like de Sitter space surrounding
islands of thermalized phase. A similar picture appears even if the state is unstable but the effective potential has a discrete symmetry . In this case the Universe becomes divided into domains containing
different phases. These domains will be separated from each other by domain
walls. However, unlike ordinary domain walls, these domain walls will inflate,
and their thickness will exponentially grow. In the theories with continuous
symmetries inflation generates exponentially expanding strings and monopoles
surrounded by thermalized phase. Inflating topological defects will be stable,
and they will unceasingly produce new inflating topological defects. This means
that topological defects may play a role of indestructible seeds for eternal
inflation.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures (not included), Stanford University preprint
SU--ITP--94--
Particle Physics Approach to Dark Matter
We review the main proposals of particle physics for the composition of the
cold dark matter in the universe. Strong axion contribution to cold dark matter
is not favored if the Peccei-Quinn field emerges with non-zero value at the end
of inflation and the inflationary scale is superheavy since, under these
circumstances, it leads to unacceptably large isocurvature perturbations. The
lightest neutralino is the most popular candidate constituent of cold dark
matter. Its relic abundance in the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard
model can be reduced to acceptable values by pole annihilation of neutralinos
or neutralino-stau coannihilation. Axinos can also contribute to cold dark
matter provided that the reheat temperature is adequately low. Gravitinos can
constitute the cold dark matter only in limited regions of the parameter space.
We present a supersymmetric grand unified model leading to violation of Yukawa
unification and, thus, allowing an acceptable b-quark mass within the
constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model with mu>0. The model
possesses a wide range of parameters consistent with the data on the cold dark
matter abundance as well as other phenomenological constraints. Also, it leads
to a new version of shifted hybrid inflation.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figures, uses svmult.cls, some clarifications
added, lectures given at the Third Aegean Summer School "The Invisible
Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy", 26 September-1 October 2005, Karfas,
Island of Chios, Greece (to appear in the proceedings
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