399 research outputs found
Water and sanitation provision in a low carbon society: The need for a systems approach
In the face of climate change threatening to cause major alterations to hydrological cycles and taking into account the relationship between water, energy use, and food production, water management challenges today prove more complex than ever to address. This paper, recognising the progress made through science and engineering in the last century, reflects on the need to manage water resources more sustainably. It proposes that a change in mindsets is required in order to reconsider our approach in applying established solutions and utilising current technologies and tools to deliver them, with a renewed focus on re-assessing what the real problems are from a systems perspective. Focusing on the water-energy-food nexus, water reuse using desalination processes as a management option is revisited. Findings demonstrate that interdisciplinary, integrated and holistic solutions have the potential to deliver benefits across different sectors, disciplines, and systems, with a real potential for taking us a bit closer to sustainability
Discrete Space-Time Volume for 3-Dimensional BF Theory and Quantum Gravity
The Turaev-Viro state sum invariant is known to give the transition amplitude
for the three dimensional BF theory with cosmological term, and its deformation
parameter hbar is related with the cosmological constant via hbar=sqrt{Lambda}.
This suggests a way to find the expectation value of the spacetime volume by
differentiating the Turaev-Viro amplitude with respect to the cosmological
constant. Using this idea, we find an explicit expression for the spacetime
volume in BF theory. According to our results, each labelled triangulation
carries a volume that depends on the labelling spins. This volume is explicitly
discrete. We also show how the Turaev-Viro model can be used to obtain the
spacetime volume for (2+1) dimensional quantum gravity.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex, figure
Causal Set Dynamics: A Toy Model
We construct a quantum measure on the power set of non-cyclic oriented graphs
of N points, drawing inspiration from 1-dimensional directed percolation.
Quantum interference patterns lead to properties which do not appear to have
any analogue in classical percolation. Most notably, instead of the single
phase transition of classical percolation, the quantum model displays two
distinct crossover points. Between these two points, spacetime questions such
as "does the network percolate" have no definite or probabilistic answer.Comment: 28 pages incl. 5 figure
Complex actions in two-dimensional topology change
We investigate topology change in (1+1) dimensions by analyzing the
scalar-curvature action at the points of metric-degeneration
that (with minor exceptions) any nontrivial Lorentzian cobordism necessarily
possesses. In two dimensions any cobordism can be built up as a combination of
only two elementary types, the ``yarmulke'' and the ``trousers.'' For each of
these elementary cobordisms, we consider a family of Morse-theory inspired
Lorentzian metrics that vanish smoothly at a single point, resulting in a
conical-type singularity there. In the yarmulke case, the distinguished point
is analogous to a cosmological initial (or final) singularity, with the
spacetime as a whole being obtained from one causal region of Misner space by
adjoining a single point. In the trousers case, the distinguished point is a
``crotch singularity'' that signals a change in the spacetime topology (this
being also the fundamental vertex of string theory, if one makes that
interpretation). We regularize the metrics by adding a small imaginary part
whose sign is fixed to be positive by the condition that it lead to a
convergent scalar field path integral on the regularized spacetime. As the
regulator is removed, the scalar density approaches a
delta-function whose strength is complex: for the yarmulke family the strength
is , where is the rapidity parameter of the associated
Misner space; for the trousers family it is simply . This implies that
in the path integral over spacetime metrics for Einstein gravity in three or
more spacetime dimensions, topology change via a crotch singularity is
exponentially suppressed, whereas appearance or disappearance of a universe via
a yarmulke singularity is exponentially enhanced.Comment: 34 pages, REVTeX v3.0. (Presentational reorganization; core results
unchanged.
Cosmological Implications of a Scale Invariant Standard Model
We generalize the standard model of particle physics such it displays global
scale invariance. The gravitational action is also suitably modified such that
it respects this symmetry. This model is interesting since the cosmological
constant term is absent in the action. We find that the scale symmetry is
broken by the recently introduced cosmological symmetry breaking mechanism.
This simultaneously generates all the dimensionful parameters such as the
Newton's gravitational constant, the particle masses and the vacuum or dark
energy. We find that in its simplest version the model predicts the Higgs mass
to be very small, which is ruled out experimentally. We further generalize the
model such that it displays local scale invariance. In this case the Higgs
particle disappears from the particle spectrum and instead we find a very
massive vector boson. Hence the model gives a consistent description of
particle physics phenomenology as well as fits the cosmological dark energy.Comment: 12 pages, no figure
Giant Anharmonic Phonon Scattering in PbTe
Understanding the microscopic processes affecting the bulk thermal
conductivity is crucial to develop more efficient thermoelectric materials.
PbTe is currently one of the leading thermoelectric materials, largely thanks
to its low thermal conductivity. However, the origin of this low thermal
conductivity in a simple rocksalt structure has so far been elusive. Using a
combination of inelastic neutron scattering measurements and first-principles
computations of the phonons, we identify a strong anharmonic coupling between
the ferroelectric transverse optic (TO) mode and the longitudinal acoustic (LA)
modes in PbTe. This interaction extends over a large portion of reciprocal
space, and directly affects the heat-carrying LA phonons. The LA-TO anharmonic
coupling is likely to play a central role in explaining the low thermal
conductivity of PbTe. The present results provide a microscopic picture of why
many good thermoelectric materials are found near a lattice instability of the
ferroelectric type
- …