A possible cosmological application of some thermodynamic properties of the black body radiation in n−n-dimensional Euclidean spaces

In this work we present the generalization of some thermodynamic properties of the black body radiation (BBR) towards an $n-$dimensional Euclidean space. For this case the Planck function and the Stefan-Boltzmann law have already been given by Landsberg and de Vos and some adjustments by Menon and Agrawal. However, since then no much more has been done on this subject and we believe there are some relevant aspects yet to explore. In addition to the results previously found we calculate the thermodynamic potentials, the efficiency of the Carnot engine, the law for adiabatic processes and the heat capacity at constant volume. There is a region at which an interesting behavior of the thermodynamic potentials arise, maxima and minima appear for the $n-d$ BBR system at very high temperatures and low dimensionality, suggesting a possible application to cosmology. Finally we propose that an optimality criterion in a thermodynamic framework could have to do with the $3-d$ nature of the universe.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Octahedral tilting, monoclinic phase and the phase diagram of PZT

Anelastic and dielectric spectroscopy measurements on PZT close to the morphotropic (MPB) and antiferroelectric boundaries provide new insight in some controversial aspects of its phase diagram. No evidence is found of a border separating monoclinic (M) from rhombohedral (R) phases, in agreement with recent structural studies supporting a coexistence of the two phases over a broad composition range x < 0.5, with the fraction of M increasing toward the MPB. It is also discussed why the observed maximum of elastic compliance appears to be due to a rotational instability of the polarisation and therefore cannot be explained by extrinsic softening from finely twinned R phase alone, but indicates the presence also of M phase, not necessarily homogeneous. A new diffuse transition is found within the ferroelectric phase near x ~ 0.1, at a temperature T_IT higher than the well established boundary T_T to the phase with tilted octahedra. It is proposed that around T_IT the octahedra start rotating in a disordered manner and finally become ordered below T_T. In this interpretation, the onset temperature for octahedral tilting monotonically increases up to the antiferroelectric transition of PbZrO3, and the depression of T_T(x) below x = 0.18 would be a consequence of the partial relieve of the mismatch between the cation radii with the initial stage of tilting below T_IT.Comment: submitted to J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

Composite polymer membranes for laserinduced fluorescence thermometry

We demonstrate a modified version of laser-induced fluorescence thermometry (LIFT) for mapping temperature gradients in the vicinity of small photothermal devices. Our approach is based on temperature sensitive fluorescent membranes fabricated with rhodamine B and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Relevant membrane features for LIFT, such as temperature sensitivity, thermal quenching and photobleaching are presented for a range of 25 °C to 90 °C, and their performance is evaluated upon obtaining the temperature gradients produced in the proximity of optical fiber micro-heaters. Our results show that temperature measurements in regions as small as 750 μm x 650 μm, with a temperature resolution of 1 °C, can be readily obtained

Associated Production of a W Boson and One b Jet

We calculate the production of a W boson and a single b jet to next-to-leading order in QCD at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Both exclusive and inclusive cross sections are presented. We separately consider the cross section for jets containing a single b quark and jets containing a b-anti b pair. There are a wide variety of processes that contribute, and it is necessary to include them all in order to have a complete description at both colliders.Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages, 22 postscript figures; version published in Phys. Rev.

High multiplicity W+jets predictions at NLO

In these proceedings we present results from a recent calculation for the production of a W boson in conjunction with five jets at next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. We also use results at lower multiplicities to extrapolate the cross section to the same process with six jets.Comment: 5 pages, Proceedings for the DIS2013 conferenc

The BlackHat Library for One-Loop Amplitudes

We present recent next-to-leading order (NLO) results in perturbative QCD obtained using the BlackHat software library. We discuss the use of n-tuples to separate the lengthy matrix-element computations from the analysis process. The use of n-tuples allows many analyses to be carried out on the same phase-space samples, and also allows experimenters to conduct their own analyses using the original NLO computation.Comment: Talk given at ACAT 2013, Beijing, China, May 16--21, 2013; 6 pages, 2 figures; added reference

Universality in W+Multijet Production

We study $W$-boson production accompanied by multiple jets at 7 TeV at the LHC. We study the jet-production ratio, of total cross sections for $W$+$n$- to $W$+($n-1$)-jet production, and the ratio of distributions in the total transverse hadronic jet energy $H_{\rm T}^{\rm jets}$. We use the ratios to extrapolate the total cross section, and the differential distribution in $H_{\rm T}^{\rm jets}$, to $W$+6-jet production. We use the BlackHat software library in conjunction with SHERPA to perform the computations.Comment: Merge of Moriond 2014 and Loops & Legs 2014 proceedings, 6 pages, 2 figure

Multi-jet cross sections at NLO with BlackHat and Sherpa

In this talk, we report on a recent next-to-leading order QCD calculation of the production of a W boson in association with three jets at hadron colliders. The computation is performed by combining two programs, BlackHat for the computation of the virtual one-loop matrix elements and Sherpa for the real emission part.Comment: 4 pages, contribution to the proceedings of the XLIIIth Rencontres de Moriond (QCD