18,680 research outputs found
Non-universal coarsening and universal distributions in far-from equilibrium systems
Anomalous coarsening in far-from equilibrium one-dimensional systems is
investigated by simulation and analytic techniques. The minimal hard core
particle (exclusion) models contain mechanisms of aggregated particle
diffusion, with rates epsilon<<1, particle deposition into cluster gaps, but
suppressed for the smallest gaps, and breakup of clusters which are adjacent to
large gaps. Cluster breakup rates vary with the cluster length x as kx^alpha.
The domain growth law x ~ (epsilon t)^z, with z=1/(2+alpha) for alpha>0, is
explained by a scaling picture, as well as the scaling of the density of double
vacancies (at which deposition and cluster breakup are allowed) as 1/[t(epsilon
t)^z]. Numerical simulations for several values of alpha and epsilon confirm
these results. An approximate factorization of the cluster configuration
probability is performed within the master equation resulting from the mapping
to a column picture. The equation for a one-variable scaling function explains
the above results. The probability distributions of cluster lengths scale as
P(x)= 1/(epsilon t)^z g(y), with y=x/(epsilon t)^z. However, those
distributions show a universal tail with the form g(y) ~ exp(-y^{3/2}), which
disagrees with the prediction of the independent cluster approximation. This
result is explained by the connection of the vacancy dynamics with the problem
of particle trapping in an infinite sea of traps and is confirmed by
simulation.Comment: 30 pages (10 figures included), to appear in Phys. Rev.
Cluster growth in far-from-equilibrium particle models with diffusion, detachment, reattachment and deposition
Monolayer cluster growth in far-from-equilibrium systems is investigated by
applying simulation and analytic techniques to minimal hard core particle
(exclusion) models. The first model (I), for post-deposition coarsening
dynamics, contains mechanisms of diffusion, attachment, and slow activated
detachment (at rate epsilon<<1) of particles on a line. Simulation shows three
successive regimes of cluster growth: fast attachment of isolated particles;
detachment allowing further (epsilon t)^(1/3) coarsening of average cluster
size; and t^(-1/2) approach to a saturation size going like epsilon^(-1/2).
Model II generalizes the first one in having an additional mechanism of
particle deposition into cluster gaps, suppressed for the smallest gaps. This
model exhibits early rapid filling, leading to slowing deposition due to the
increasing scarcity of deposition sites, and then continued power law (epsilon
t)^(1/2) cluster size coarsening through the redistribution allowed by slow
detachment. The basic (epsilon t)^(1/3) domain growth laws and epsilon^(-1/2)
saturation in model I are explained by a simple scaling picture. A second,
fuller approach is presented which employs a mapping of cluster configurations
to a column picture and an approximate factorization of the cluster
configuration probability within the resulting master equation. This allows
quantitative results for the saturation of model I in excellent agreement with
the simulation results. For model II, it provides a one-variable scaling
function solution for the coarsening probability distribution, and in
particular quantitative agreement with the cluster length scaling and its
amplitude.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. E; 9 pages with figure
Observational Constraints on Silent Quartessence
We derive new constraints set by SNIa experiments (`gold' data sample of
Riess et al.), X-ray galaxy cluster data (Allen et al. Chandra measurements of
the X-ray gas mass fraction in 26 clusters), large scale structure (Sloan
Digital Sky Survey spectrum) and cosmic microwave background (WMAP) on the
quartessence Chaplygin model. We consider both adiabatic perturbations and
intrinsic non-adiabatic perturbations such that the effective sound speed
vanishes (Silent Chaplygin). We show that for the adiabatic case, only models
with equation of state parameter are allowed: this
means that the allowed models are very close to \LambdaCDM. In the Silent case,
however, the results are consistent with observations in a much broader range,
-0.3<\alpha<0.7.Comment: 7 pages, 12 figures, to be submitted to JCA
Modeling one-dimensional island growth with mass-dependent detachment rates
We study one-dimensional models of particle diffusion and
attachment/detachment from islands where the detachment rates gamma(m) of
particles at the cluster edges increase with cluster mass m. They are expected
to mimic the effects of lattice mismatch with the substrate and/or long-range
repulsive interactions that work against the formation of long islands.
Short-range attraction is represented by an overall factor epsilon<<1 in the
detachment rates relatively to isolated particle hopping rates [epsilon ~
exp(-E/T), with binding energy E and temperature T]. We consider various
gamma(m), from rapidly increasing forms such as gamma(m) ~ m to slowly
increasing ones, such as gamma(m) ~ [m/(m+1)]^b. A mapping onto a column
problem shows that these systems are zero-range processes, whose steady states
properties are exactly calculated under the assumption of independent column
heights in the Master equation. Simulation provides island size distributions
which confirm analytic reductions and are useful whenever the analytical tools
cannot provide results in closed form. The shape of island size distributions
can be changed from monomodal to monotonically decreasing by tuning the
temperature or changing the particle density rho. Small values of the scaling
variable X=epsilon^{-1}rho/(1-rho) favour the monotonically decreasing ones.
However, for large X, rapidly increasing gamma(m) lead to distributions with
peaks very close to and rapidly decreasing tails, while slowly increasing
gamma(m) provide peaks close to /2$ and fat right tails.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure
Endometriosis: A Rare Cause of Large Bowel Obstruction.
Large bowel obstruction can result in significant morbidity and mortality, especially in cases of acute complete obstruction. There are many possible causes, the most common in adults being colorectal cancer. Endometriosis is a benign disease, and the most affected extragenital location is the bowel, especially the rectosigmoid junction. However, transmural involvement and acute occlusion are very rare events. We report an exceptional case of acute large bowel obstruction as the initial presentation of endometriosis. The differential diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma may be challenging, and this case emphasizes the need to consider intestinal endometriosis in females at a fertile age presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms and an intestinal mass causing complete large bowel obstruction.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Finite-size effects in roughness distribution scaling
We study numerically finite-size corrections in scaling relations for
roughness distributions of various interface growth models. The most common
relation, which considers the average roughness . This illustrates how
finite-size corrections can be obtained from roughness distributions scaling.
However, we discard the usual interpretation that the intrinsic width is a
consequence of high surface steps by analyzing data of restricted
solid-on-solid models with various maximal height differences between
neighboring columns. We also observe that large finite-size corrections in the
roughness distributions are usually accompanied by huge corrections in height
distributions and average local slopes, as well as in estimates of scaling
exponents. The molecular-beam epitaxy model of Das Sarma and Tamborenea in 1+1
dimensions is a case example in which none of the proposed scaling relations
works properly, while the other measured quantities do not converge to the
expected asymptotic values. Thus, although roughness distributions are clearly
better than other quantities to determine the universality class of a growing
system, it is not the final solution for this task.Comment: 25 pages, including 9 figures and 1 tabl
Broad Iron Emission from Gravitationally Lensed Quasars Observed by Chandra
Recent work has demonstrated the potential of gravitationally lensed quasars
to extend measurements of black hole spin out to high-redshift with the current
generation of X-ray observatories. Here we present an analysis of a large
sample of 27 lensed quasars in the redshift range 1.0<z<4.5 observed with
Chandra, utilizing over 1.6 Ms of total observing time, focusing on the
rest-frame iron K emission from these sources. Although the X-ray
signal-to-noise (S/N) currently available does not permit the detection of iron
emission from the inner accretion disk in individual cases in our sample, we
find significant structure in the stacked residuals. In addition to the narrow
core, seen almost ubiquitously in local AGN, we find evidence for an additional
underlying broad component from the inner accretion disk, with a clear red wing
to the emission profile. Based on simulations, we find the detection of this
broader component to be significant at greater than the 3-sigma level. This
implies that iron emission from the inner disk is relatively common in the
population of lensed quasars, and in turn further demonstrates that, with
additional observations, this population represents an opportunity to
significantly extend the sample of AGN spin measurements out to high-redshift.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
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