419 research outputs found
Topological Defects from First Order Gauge Theory Phase Transitions
We investigate the mechanism by which topological defects form in first order
phase transitions with a charged order parameter. We show how thick
superconductor vortices and heavy cosmic strings form by trapping of magnetic
flux. In an external magnetic field, intermediate objects such as strips and
membranes of magnetic flux and chains of single winding defects are produced.
At non-zero temperature, a variety of spontaneous defects of different winding
numbers arise. In cosmology, our results mean that the magnetic flux thermal
fluctuations get trapped in a primordial multi-tension string network. The
mechanism may also apply to the production of cosmic-like strings in brane
collisions. In a thin type-I superconductor film, flux strips are found to be
meta-stable while thick vortices are stable up to some critical value of the
winding number which increases with the thickness of the film. In addition, a
non-dissipative Josephson-like current is obtained across the strips of
quantized magnetic flux.Comment: Corrections made on sections 4,5. Higher quality figures in published
versio
Electromagnetic Vacuum of Complex Media: Dipole Emission vs. Light Propagation, Vacuum Energy, and Local Field Factors
We offer a unified approach to several phenomena related to the
electromagnetic vacuum of a complex medium made of point electric dipoles. To
this aim, we apply the linear response theory to the computation of the
polarization field propagator and study the spectrum of vacuum fluctuations.
The physical distinction among the local density of states which enter the
spectra of light propagation, total dipole emission, coherent emission, total
vacuum energy and Schwinger-bulk energy is made clear. Analytical expressions
for the spectrum of dipole emission and for the vacuum energy are derived.
Their respective relations with the spectrum of external light and with the
Schwinger-bulk energy are found. The light spectrum and the Schwinger-bulk
energy are determined by the Dyson propagator. The emission spectrum and the
total vacuum energy are determined by the polarization propagator. An exact
relationship of proportionality between both propagators is found in terms of
local field factors. A study of the nature of stimulated emission from a single
dipole is carried out. Regarding coherent emission, it contains two components.
A direct one which is transferred radiatively and directly from the emitter
into the medium and whose spectrum is that of external light. And an indirect
one which is radiated by induced dipoles. The induction is mediated by one (and
only one) local field factor. Regarding the vacuum energy, we find that in
addition to the Schwinger-bulk energy the vacuum energy of an effective medium
contains local field contributions proportional to the resonant frequency and
to the spectral line-width.Comment: Typos fixed, journal ref. adde
Electromagnetic vacuum of complex media II: the Lamb shift and the total vacuum energy
We study the physical content of the electromagnetic vacuum energy of a
random medium made of atomic electric dipoles. First, we evaluate the
contribution of statistical fluctuations to the average total vacuum energy,
which is made out of the integration of the variations of the Lamb shift with
respect to the coupling constant. While the Lamb shift is a function of the
electrical susceptibility only, the vacuum energy is generally not. Second, we
make clear why the effective medium bulk energy does not account for the total
vacuum energy of a molecular dielectric. Consequently, the Lamb shift does not
derive from the effective medium bulk energy except at leading order in the
molecular density. The local field factors provide natural cutoffs for the
spectrum of the total vacuum energy at a wavelength of the order of the
correlation length. Third, we investigate to what extent shifts in the spectrum
of the dielectric constant may be attributed to the binding energy of a
dielectric. In particular, in the continuum approximation we have found a
relation between the electrostatic binding energy and the Lorentz-Lorenz shift.
Nonetheless, we conclude that the knowledge of the spectrum of the refractive
index is insufficient either to quantify the energy of radiative modes or to
estimate the electrostatic binding energy of molecular clusters.Comment: Comments added, some sections rewritte
Defect formation in superconducting rings: external fields and finite-size effects
Consistent with the predictions of Kibble and Zurek, scaling behaviour has
been seen in the production of fluxoids during temperature quenches of
superconducting rings. However, deviations from the canonical behaviour arise
because of finite-size effects and stray external fields.
Technical developments, including laser heating and the use of long Josephson
tunnel junctions, have improved the quality of data that can be obtained. With
new experiments in mind we perform large-scale 3D simulations of quenches of
small, thin rings of various geometries with fully dynamical electromagnetic
fields, at nonzero externally applied magnetic flux. We find that the outcomes
are, in practice, indistinguishable from those of much simpler Gaussian
analytical approximations in which the rings are treated as one-dimensional
systems and the magnetic field fluctuation-free.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, presentation at QFS2012, to appear in JLT
The EMPIRE Survey: Systematic Variations in the Dense Gas Fraction and Star Formation Efficiency from Full-Disk Mapping of M51
We present the first results from the EMPIRE survey, an IRAM large program
that is mapping tracers of high density molecular gas across the disks of nine
nearby star-forming galaxies. Here, we present new maps of the 3-mm transitions
of HCN, HCO+, and HNC across the whole disk of our pilot target, M51. As
expected, dense gas correlates with tracers of recent star formation, filling
the "luminosity gap" between Galactic cores and whole galaxies. In detail, we
show that both the fraction of gas that is dense, f_dense traced by HCN/CO, and
the rate at which dense gas forms stars, SFE_dense traced by IR/HCN, depend on
environment in the galaxy. The sense of the dependence is that high surface
density, high molecular gas fraction regions of the galaxy show high dense gas
fractions and low dense gas star formation efficiencies. This agrees with
recent results for individual pointings by Usero et al. 2015 but using unbiased
whole-galaxy maps. It also agrees qualitatively with the behavior observed
contrasting our own Solar Neighborhood with the central regions of the Milky
Way. The sense of the trends can be explained if the dense gas fraction tracks
interstellar pressure but star formation occurs only in regions of high density
contrast.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, ApJL accepte
Millimeter-Wave Line Ratios and Sub-beam Volume Density Distributions
We explore the use of mm-wave emission line ratios to trace molecular gas
density when observations integrate over a wide range of volume densities
within a single telescope beam. For observations targeting external galaxies,
this case is unavoidable. Using a framework similar to that of Krumholz and
Thompson (2007), we model emission for a set of common extragalactic lines from
lognormal and power law density distributions. We consider the median density
of gas producing emission and the ability to predict density variations from
observed line ratios. We emphasize line ratio variations, because these do not
require knowing the absolute abundance of our tracers. Patterns of line ratio
variations have the prospect to illuminate the high-end shape of the density
distribution, and to capture changes in the dense gas fraction and median
volume density. Our results with and without a high density power law tail
differ appreciably; we highlight better knowledge of the PDF shape as an
important area. We also show the implications of sub-beam density distributions
for isotopologue studies targeting dense gas tracers. Differential excitation
often implies a significant correction to the naive case. We provide tabulated
versions of many of our results, which can be used to interpret changes in
mm-wave line ratios in terms of changes in the underlying density
distributions.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figure, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal, two online tables temporarily available at
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~leroy.42/densegas_table2.txt and
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~leroy.42/densegas_table3.tx
Full-disc CO(1-0) mapping across nearby galaxies of the EMPIRE survey and the CO-to-H conversion factor
Carbon monoxide (CO) provides crucial information about the molecular gas
properties of galaxies. While CO has been targeted extensively,
isotopologues such as CO have the advantage of being less optically
thick and observations have recently become accessible across full galaxy
discs. We present a comprehensive new dataset of CO(1-0) observations
with the IRAM 30-m telescope of the full discs of 9 nearby spiral galaxies from
the EMPIRE survey at a spatial resolution of 1.5kpc. CO(1-0) is
mapped out to and detected at high signal-to-noise throughout our
maps. We analyse the CO(1-0)-to-CO(1-0) ratio () as a
function of galactocentric radius and other parameters such as the
CO(2-1)-to-CO(1-0) intensity ratio, the 70-to-160m flux
density ratio, the star-formation rate surface density, the star-formation
efficiency, and the CO-to-H conversion factor. We find that varies by
a factor of 2 at most within and amongst galaxies, with a median value of 11
and larger variations in the galaxy centres than in the discs. We argue that
optical depth effects, most likely due to changes in the mixture of
diffuse/dense gas, are favored explanations for the observed variations,
while abundance changes may also be at play. We calculate a spatially-resolved
CO(1-0)-to-H conversion factor and find an average value of
cm (K.km/s) over our sample with a standard
deviation of a factor of 2. We find that CO(1-0) does not appear to be a
good predictor of the bulk molecular gas mass in normal galaxy discs due to the
presence of a large diffuse phase, but it may be a better tracer of the mass
than CO(1-0) in the galaxy centres where the fraction of dense gas is
larger.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA
Associations between Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Cognitive Function in Australian Urban Settings: The Moderating Role of Diabetes Status
Traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) is associated with lower cognitive function and diabetes in older adults, but little is known about whether diabetes status moderates the impact of TRAP on older adult cognitive function. We analysed cross-sectional data from 4141 adults who participated in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study in 2011â2012. TRAP exposure was estimated using major and minor road density within multiple residential buffers. Cognitive function was assessed with validated psychometric scales, including: California Verbal Learning Test (memory) and SymbolâDigit Modalities Test (processing speed). Diabetes status was measured using oral glucose tolerance tests. We observed positive associations of some total road density measures with memory but not processing speed. Minor road density was not associated with cognitive function, while major road density showed positive associations with memory and processing speed among larger buffers. Within a 300 m buffer, the relationship between TRAP and memory tended to be positive in controls (ÎČ = 0.005; p = 0.062), but negative in people with diabetes (ÎČ = â0.013; p = 0.026) and negatively associated with processing speed in people with diabetes only (ÎČ = â0.047; p = 0.059). Increased TRAP exposure may be positively associated with cognitive function among urban-dwelling people, but this benefit may not extend to those with diabetes
The neighbourhood environment and profiles of the metabolic syndrome
Background
There is a dearth of studies on how neighbourhood environmental attributes relate to the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and profiles of MetS components. We examined the associations of interrelated aspects of the neighbourhood environment, including air pollution, with MetS status and profiles of MetS components.
Methods
We used socio-demographic and MetS-related data from 3681 urban adults who participated in the 3rd wave of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. Neighbourhood environmental attributes included area socio-economic status (SES), population density, street intersection density, non-commercial land use mix, percentages of commercial land, parkland and blue space. Annual average concentrations of NO2 and PM2.5 were estimated using satellite-based land-use regression models. Latent class analysis (LCA) identified homogenous groups (latent classes) of participants based on MetS components data. Participants were then classified into five metabolic profiles according to their MetS-components latent class and MetS status. Generalised additive mixed models were used to estimate relationships of environmental attributes with MetS status and metabolic profiles.
Results
LCA yielded three latent classes, one including only participants without MetS (âLower probability of MetS componentsâ profile). The other two classes/profiles, consisting of participants with and without MetS, were âMedium-to-high probability of high fasting blood glucose, waist circumference and blood pressureâ and âHigher probability of MetS componentsâ. Area SES was the only significant predictor of MetS status: participants from high SES areas were less likely to have MetS. Area SES, percentage of commercial land and NO2 were associated with the odds of membership to healthier metabolic profiles without MetS, while annual average concentration of PM2.5 was associated with unhealthier metabolic profiles with MetS.
Conclusions
This study supports the utility of operationalising MetS as a combination of latent classes of MetS components and MetS status in studies of environmental correlates. Higher socio-economic advantage, good access to commercial services and low air pollution levels appear to independently contribute to different facets of metabolic health. Future research needs to consider conducting longitudinal studies using fine-grained environmental measures that more accurately characterise the neighbourhood environment in relation to behaviours or other mechanisms related to MetS and its components
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