8,555 research outputs found
Modeling Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: An Agenda for Future Research and Evaluation
Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are being championed as scalable ways of involving undergraduates in science research. Studies of CUREs have shown that participating students achieve many of the same outcomes as students who complete research internships. However, CUREs vary widely in their design and implementation, and aspects of CUREs that are necessary and sufficient to achieve desired student outcomes have not been elucidated. To guide future research aimed at understanding the causal mechanisms underlying CURE efficacy, we used a systems approach to generate pathway models representing hypotheses of how CURE outcomes are achieved. We started by reviewing studies of CUREs and research internships to generate a comprehensive set of outcomes of research experiences, determining the level of evidence supporting each outcome. We then used this body of research and drew from learning theory to hypothesize connections between what students do during CUREs and the outcomes that have the best empirical support. We offer these models as hypotheses for the CURE community to test, revise, elaborate, or refute. We also cite instruments that are ready to use in CURE assessment and note gaps for which instruments need to be developed.Howard Hughes Medical InstituteScience and Mathematics Educatio
On the "Universal" Quantum Area Spectrum
There has been much debate over the form of the quantum area spectrum for a
black hole horizon, with the evenly spaced conception of Bekenstein having
featured prominently in the discourse. In this letter, we refine a very
recently proposed method for calibrating the Bekenstein form of the spectrum.
Our refined treatment predicts, as did its predecessor, a uniform spacing
between adjacent spectral levels of in Planck units; notably, an outcome
that already has a pedigree as a proposed ``universal'' value for this
intrinsically quantum-gravitational measure. Although the two approaches are
somewhat similar in logic and quite agreeable in outcome, we argue that our
version is conceptually more elegant and formally simpler than its precursor.
Moreover, our rendition is able to circumvent a couple of previously unnoticed
technical issues and, as an added bonus, translates to generic theories of
gravity in a very direct manner.Comment: 7 Pages; (v2) now 9 full pages, significant changes to the text and
material added but the general theme and conclusions are unchange
Noncommutative vector bundles over fuzzy CP^N and their covariant derivatives
We generalise the construction of fuzzy CP^N in a manner that allows us to
access all noncommutative equivariant complex vector bundles over this space.
We give a simplified construction of polarization tensors on S^2 that
generalizes to complex projective space, identify Laplacians and natural
noncommutative covariant derivative operators that map between the modules that
describe noncommuative sections. In the process we find a natural
generalization of the Schwinger-Jordan construction to su(n) and identify
composite oscillators that obey a Heisenberg algebra on an appropriate Fock
space.Comment: 34 pages, v2 contains minor corrections to the published versio
A projective Dirac operator on CP^2 within fuzzy geometry
We propose an ansatz for the commutative canonical spin_c Dirac operator on
CP^2 in a global geometric approach using the right invariant (left action-)
induced vector fields from SU(3). This ansatz is suitable for noncommutative
generalisation within the framework of fuzzy geometry. Along the way we
identify the physical spinors and construct the canonical spin_c bundle in this
formulation. The chirality operator is also given in two equivalent forms.
Finally, using representation theory we obtain the eigenspinors and calculate
the full spectrum. We use an argument from the fuzzy complex projective space
CP^2_F based on the fuzzy analogue of the unprojected spin_c bundle to show
that our commutative projected spin_c bundle has the correct
SU(3)-representation content.Comment: reduced to 27 pages, minor corrections, minor improvements, typos
correcte
The Information Geometry of the One-Dimensional Potts Model
In various statistical-mechanical models the introduction of a metric onto
the space of parameters (e.g. the temperature variable, , and the
external field variable, , in the case of spin models) gives an alternative
perspective on the phase structure. For the one-dimensional Ising model the
scalar curvature, , of this metric can be calculated explicitly in
the thermodynamic limit and is found to be . This is positive definite and, for
physical fields and temperatures, diverges only at the zero-temperature,
zero-field ``critical point'' of the model.
In this note we calculate for the one-dimensional -state Potts
model, finding an expression of the form , where is the Potts
analogue of . This is no longer positive
definite, but once again it diverges only at the critical point in the space of
real parameters. We remark, however, that a naive analytic continuation to
complex field reveals a further divergence in the Ising and Potts curvatures at
the Lee-Yang edge.Comment: 9 pages + 4 eps figure
Character Formulae and Partition Functions in Higher Dimensional Conformal Field Theory
A discussion of character formulae for positive energy unitary irreducible
representations of the the conformal group is given, employing Verma modules
and Weyl group reflections. Product formulae for various conformal group
representations are found. These include generalisations of those found by
Flato and Fronsdal for SO(3,2). In even dimensions the products for free
representations split into two types depending on whether the dimension is
divisible by four or not.Comment: 43 pages, uses harvmac,version 2 2 references added, minor typos
correcte
Attentional load and sensory competition in human vision: Modulation of fMRI responses by load fixation during task-irrelevant stimulation in the peripheral visual field.
Perceptual suppression of distractors may depend on both endogenous and exogenous factors, such as attentional load of the current task and sensory competition among simultaneous stimuli, respectively. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare these two types of attentional effects and examine how they may interact in the human brain. We varied the attentional load of a visual monitoring task performed on a rapid stream at central fixation without altering the central stimuli themselves, while measuring the impact on fMRI responses to task-irrelevant peripheral checkerboards presented either unilaterally or bilaterally. Activations in visual cortex for irrelevant peripheral stimulation decreased with increasing attentional load at fixation. This relative decrease was present even in V1, but became larger for successive visual areas through to V4. Decreases in activation for contralateral peripheral checkerboards due to higher central load were more pronounced within retinotopic cortex corresponding to 'inner' peripheral locations relatively near the central targets than for more eccentric 'outer' locations, demonstrating a predominant suppression of nearby surround rather than strict 'tunnel vision' during higher task load at central fixation. Contralateral activations for peripheral stimulation in one hemifield were reduced by competition with concurrent stimulation in the other hemifield only in inferior parietal cortex, not in retinotopic areas of occipital visual cortex. In addition, central attentional load interacted with competition due to bilateral versus unilateral peripheral stimuli specifically in posterior parietal and fusiform regions. These results reveal that task-dependent attentional load, and interhemifield stimulus-competition, can produce distinct influences on the neural responses to peripheral visual stimuli within the human visual system. These distinct mechanisms in selective visual processing may be integrated within posterior parietal areas, rather than earlier occipital cortex
Anomalous dimension and local charges
AdS space is the universal covering of a hyperboloid. We consider the action
of the deck transformations on a classical string worldsheet in . We argue that these transformations are generated by an infinite linear
combination of the local conserved charges. We conjecture that a similar
relation holds for the corresponding operators on the field theory side. This
would be a generalization of the recent field theory results showing that the
one loop anomalous dimension is proportional to the Casimir operator in the
representation of the Yangian algebra.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX; v2: added explanations, reference
On the Role of Chaos in the AdS/CFT Connection
The question of how infalling matter in a pure state forms a Schwarzschild
black hole that appears to be at non-zero temperature is discussed in the
context of the AdS/CFT connection. It is argued that the phenomenon of
self-thermalization in non-linear (chaotic) systems can be invoked to explain
how the boundary theory, initially at zero temperature self thermalizes and
acquires a finite temperature. Yang-Mills theory is known to be chaotic
(classically) and the imaginary part of the gluon self-energy (damping rate of
the gluon plasma) is expected to give the Lyapunov exponent. We explain how the
imaginary part would arise in the corresponding supergravity calculation due to
absorption at the horizon of the black hole.Comment: 18 pages. Latex file. Minor changes. Final version to appear in
Modern Physics Letters
The Information Geometry of the Ising Model on Planar Random Graphs
It has been suggested that an information geometric view of statistical
mechanics in which a metric is introduced onto the space of parameters provides
an interesting alternative characterisation of the phase structure,
particularly in the case where there are two such parameters -- such as the
Ising model with inverse temperature and external field .
In various two parameter calculable models the scalar curvature of
the information metric has been found to diverge at the phase transition point
and a plausible scaling relation postulated: . For spin models the necessity of calculating in
non-zero field has limited analytic consideration to 1D, mean-field and Bethe
lattice Ising models. In this letter we use the solution in field of the Ising
model on an ensemble of planar random graphs (where ) to evaluate the scaling behaviour of the scalar curvature, and find
. The apparent discrepancy is traced
back to the effect of a negative .Comment: Version accepted for publication in PRE, revtex
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