Composition-tuned smeared phase transitions

Phase transitions in random systems are smeared if individual spatial regions can order independently of the bulk system. In this paper, we study such smeared phase transitions (both classical and quantum) in substitutional alloys A$_{1-x}$B$_x$ that can be tuned from an ordered phase at composition $x=0$ to a disordered phase at $x=1$. We show that the ordered phase develops a pronounced tail that extends over all compositions $x<1$. Using optimal fluctuation theory, we derive the composition dependence of the order parameter and other quantities in the tail of the smeared phase transition. We also compare our results to computer simulations of a toy model, and we discuss experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 4 eps figures included, final version as publishe

Stream instabilities in relativistically hot plasma

The instabilities of relativistic ion beams in a relativistically hot electron background are derived for general propagation angles. It is shown that the Weibel instability in the direction perpendicular to the streaming direction is the fastest growing mode, and probably the first to appear, consistent with the aligned filaments that are seen in PIC simulations. Oblique, quasiperpendicular modes grow almost as fast, as the growth rate varies only moderately with angle, and they may distort or corrugate the filaments after the perpendicular mode saturates.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Estimating the amount of vorticity generated by cosmological perturbations in the early universe

We estimate the amount of vorticity generated at second order in cosmological perturbation theory from the coupling between first order energy density and non-adiabatic pressure, or entropy, perturbations. Assuming power law input spectra for the source terms, and working in a radiation background, we calculate the wave number dependence of the vorticity power spectrum and its amplitude. We show that the vorticity generated by this mechanism is non-negligible on small scales, and hence should be taken into consideration in current and future CMB experiments.Comment: 9 pages, revtex4, 1 figure; v2: typos and minor error corrected, result unchange

Effective Hamiltonian study of excitations in a boson- fermion mixture with attraction between components

An effective Hamiltonian for the Bose subsystem in the mixture of ultracold atomic clouds of bosons and fermions with mutual attractive interaction is used for investigating collective excitation spectrum. The ground state and mode frequencies of the $^{87}$Rb and $^{40}$K mixture are analyzed quantitatively at zero temperature. We find analytically solutions of the hydrodynamics equations in the Thomas- Fermi approximation. We discuss the relation between the onset of collapse and collective modes softening and the dependence of collective oscillations on scattering length and number of boson atoms.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Comments on gauge-invariance in cosmology

We revisit the gauge issue in cosmological perturbation theory, and highlight its relation to the notion of covariance in general relativity. We also discuss the similarities and differences of the covariant approach in perturbation theory to the Bardeen or metric approach in a non-technical fashion.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, revtex4; v3: minor changes, typos corrected, discussion extended; v4: typos corrected, corresponding to published versio

Inferring the time-dependent complex Ginzburg-Landau equation from modulus data

We present a formalism for inferring the equation of evolution of a complex wave field that is known to obey an otherwise unspecified (2+1)-dimensional time-dependent complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, given field moduli over three closely-spaced planes. The phase of the complex wave field is retrieved via a non-interferometric method, and all terms in the equation of evolution are determined using only the magnitude of the complex wave field. The formalism is tested using simulated data for a generalized nonlinear system with a single-component complex wave field. The method can be generalized to multi-component complex fields.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Interpreting the results of chemical stone analysis in the era of modern stone analysis techniques

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Stone analysis should be performed in all first-time stone formers. The preferred analytical procedures are Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) or X-ray diffraction (XRD). However, due to limited resources, chemical analysis (CA) is still in use throughout the world. The aim of the study was to compare FT-IR and CA in well matched stone specimens and characterize the pros and cons of CA. METHODS: In a prospective bi-center study, urinary stones were retrieved from 60 consecutive endoscopic procedures. In order to assure that identical stone samples were sent for analyses, the samples were analyzed initially by micro-computed tomography to assess uniformity of each specimen before submitted for FTIR and CA. RESULTS: Overall, the results of CA did not match with the FTIR results in 56 % of the cases. In 16 % of the cases CA missed the major stone component and in 40 % the minor stone component. 37 of the 60 specimens contained CaOx as major component by FTIR, and CA reported major CaOx in 47/60, resulting in high sensitivity, but very poor specificity. CA was relatively accurate for UA and cystine. CA missed struvite and calcium phosphate as a major component in all cases. In mixed stones the sensitivity of CA for the minor component was poor, generally less than 50 %. CONCLUSIONS: Urinary stone analysis using CA provides only limited data that should be interpreted carefully. Urinary stone analysis using CA is likely to result in clinically significant errors in its assessment of stone composition. Although the monetary costs of CA are relatively modest, this method does not provide the level of analytical specificity required for proper management of patients with metabolic stones

On the structure of subsets of the discrete cube with small edge boundary

On the structure of subsets of the discrete cube with small edge boundary, Discrete Analysis 2018:9, 29 pp. An isoperimetric inequality is a statement that tells us how small the boundary of a set can be given the size of the set, for suitable notions of "size" and "boundary". For example, one formulation of the classical isoperimetric inequality in $\mathbb R^n$ is as follows. Given a subset $X$ of $\mathbb R^n$, define the $\epsilon$-_expansion_ of $X$ to be the open set $X_\epsilon=\{y\in\mathbb R^n: d(y,X)<\epsilon\}$. If in addition $X$ is measurable, define the size of its boundary to be $\lim\inf_{\epsilon\to 0} \epsilon^{-1}\mu(X_\epsilon\setminus X)$. (If $X$ is a set with a suitably smooth topological boundary $\partial X$, then this turns out to equal the surface measure of $\partial X$.) Then amongst all sets $X$ of a given measure, the one with the smallest boundary is an $n$-dimensional ball. Isoperimetric inequalities have been the focus of a great deal of research, partly for their intrinisic interest, but also because they have numerous applications. One particularly useful one is the _edge-isoperimetric inequality in the discrete cube_. This concerns subsets $X$ of the $n$-dimensional cube $\{0,1\}^n$, which we turn into a graph by joining two points $x$ and $y$ if they differ in exactly one coordinate. The size of a set $X$ is simply its cardinality, the _edge-boundary_ of $X$ is defined to be the set of edges between $X$ and its complement, and the size of the edge-boundary is the number of such edges. If $|X|=2^d$, then it is known that the edge-boundary is minimized when $X$ is a $d$-dimensional subspace of $\mathbb F_2^n$ generated by $d$ standard basis vectors. More generally, if $|X|=m$, then the edge-boundary is minimized when $X$ is an initial segment in the lexicographical ordering, which is the ordering where we set $x<y$ if $x_i<y_i$ for the first coordinate $i$ where $x_i$ and $y_i$ differ. (This coincides with the ordering we obtain if we think of the sequences as binary representations of integers.) For the two isoperimetric inequalities just mentioned, as well as many others, it is known that the extremal examples provided are essentially the only ones: a subset of $\mathbb R^n$ with a boundary that is as small as possible has to be an $n$-dimensional ball, and a subset of the discrete cube with edge-boundary that is as small as possible has to be an initial segment of the lexicographical ordering, up to the symmetries of the graph. Furthermore, there are _stablity_ results: a set with a boundary that is _almost_ as small as possible must be close to an extremal example. Such a result tells us that the isoperimetric inequalities are "robust", in the sense that if you slightly perturb the condition on the set, then you only slightly perturb what the set has to look like. This paper is about an extremely precise stability result for the edge isoperimetric inequality in the discrete cube. There have been a number of papers on such results (see the introduction to the paper for details), but they have been mainly for sets of size $2^d$ for some $d$, where the goal is to prove that they must be close to $d$-dimensional subcubes -- that is, subspaces (or their translates) generated by $d$ standard basis vectors. This paper considers sets of arbitrary size and proves the following result. Suppose that $X$ is a subset of $\{0,1\}^n$ of size $m$. Suppose that the size of the edge-boundary of $X$ is at most $g_n(m)+l$, where $g_n(m)$ is the size of the edge-boundary of the initial segment $I_m$ of size $m$ in the lexicographical order. Then there is an automorphism $\phi$ of $\{0,1\}^n$ (meaning a bijection that takes neighbouring points to neighbouring points) such that $|X\Delta\phi(I_m)|\leq Cl$, where $C$ is an absolute constant. They give an example to show that $C$ must be at least 2, and thus that their result is best possible up to the value of the constant $C$. Previous proofs of stability versions of the edge-isoperimetric inequality in the cube have used Fourier analysis. The proof in this paper uses purely combinatorial methods, such as induction on the dimension, and compressions. To get these methods to work, several interesting ideas are needed, including some new results about the influence of variables