Conductivity of disordered quantum lattice models at infinite temperature: Many-body localization

We reinvestigate the behavior of the conductivity of several disordered quantum lattice models at infinite temperature using exact diagonalization. Contrary to the conclusion drawn in a recent investigation of similar quantities in identical systems, we find evidence of a localized regime for strong random fields. We estimate the location of the critical field for the many-body localization transition for the random-field XXZ spin chain, and compare our findings with recent investigations in related systems.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Gravitational Wave Emission from the Single-Degenerate Channel of Type Ia Supernovae

The thermonuclear explosion of a C/O white dwarf as a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) generates a kinetic energy comparable to that released by a massive star during a SN II event. Current observations and theoretical models have established that SNe Ia are asymmetric, and therefore--like SNe II--potential sources of gravitational wave (GW) radiation. We perform the first detailed calculations of the GW emission for a SN Ia of any type within the single-degenerate channel. The gravitationally-confined detonation (GCD) mechanism predicts a strongly-polarized GW burst in the frequency band around 1 Hz. Third-generation spaceborne GW observatories currently in planning may be able to detect this predicted signal from SNe Ia at distances up to 1 Mpc. If observable, GWs may offer a direct probe into the first few seconds of the SNe Ia detonation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Accepted by Physical Review Letter

Particle contact laws and their properties for simulation of fluid-sediment interaction with coupled SPH-DEM model

The transport of sediment due to the interaction of fluid and solids is a prevalent geophysical process. The detailed modelling of the interaction between the fluid and the sediment particles is still a challenging task. In the present study we model the fluid phase by smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) using the classical approach where the fluid is assumed to be weakly compressible. The sediment, in terms of solid spheres made of granite, is modelled by the discrete element method (DEM). Both of them are meshfree particle methods but SPH is a continuum approach and DEM describes the motion and interaction of discrete solid objects. The interaction between SPH and DEM particles is modelled as particle-to-particle contact in combination with a boundary condition at the solid interface. Therefore, a contact law is used to capture the collision process and to ensure balancing of collision forces. In doing so, two contact types have to be modelled, i.e. sediment-sediment and fluid-sediment. The approach and properties these contact types are presented in detail. Advantages and drawbacks of the approaches are discussed based on examples

Renormalons in Effective Field Theories

We investigate the high-order behavior of perturbative matching conditions in effective field theories. These series are typically badly divergent, and are not Borel summable due to infrared and ultraviolet renormalons which introduce ambiguities in defining the sum of the series. We argue that, when treated consistently, there is no physical significance to these ambiguities. Although nonperturbative matrix elements and matching conditions are in general ambiguous, the ambiguity in any physical observable is always higher order in $1/M$ than the theory has been defined. We discuss the implications for the recently noticed infrared renormalon in the pole mass of a heavy quark. We show that a ratio of form factors in exclusive $\Lambda_b$ decays (which is related to the pole mass) is free from renormalon ambiguities regardless of the mass used as the expansion parameter of HQET. The renormalon ambiguities also cancel in inclusive heavy hadron decays. Finally, we demonstrate the cancellation of renormalons in a four-Fermi effective theory obtained by integrating out a heavy colored scalar.Comment: Minor changes mad

Magnetohydrodynamic activity inside a sphere

We present a computational method to solve the magnetohydrodynamic equations in spherical geometry. The technique is fully nonlinear and wholly spectral, and uses an expansion basis that is adapted to the geometry: Chandrasekhar-Kendall vector eigenfunctions of the curl. The resulting lower spatial resolution is somewhat offset by being able to build all the boundary conditions into each of the orthogonal expansion functions and by the disappearance of any difficulties caused by singularities at the center of the sphere. The results reported here are for mechanically and magnetically isolated spheres, although different boundary conditions could be studied by adapting the same method. The intent is to be able to study the nonlinear dynamical evolution of those aspects that are peculiar to the spherical geometry at only moderate Reynolds numbers. The code is parallelized, and will preserve to high accuracy the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) invariants of the system (global energy, magnetic helicity, cross helicity). Examples of results for selective decay and mechanically-driven dynamo simulations are discussed. In the dynamo cases, spontaneous flips of the dipole orientation are observed.Comment: 15 pages, 19 figures. Improved figures, in press in Physics of Fluid

Brewster-angle measurements of sea-surface reflectance using a high resolution spectroradiometer

This paper describes the design, construction and testing of a ship-borne spectroradiometer based on an imaging spectrograph and cooled CCD array with a wavelength range of 350-800 nm and 4 nm spectral sampling. The instrument had a minimum spectral acquisition time of 0.1 s, but in practice data were collected over periods of 10 s to allow averaging of wave effects. It was mounted on a ship's superstructure so that it viewed the sea surface from a height of several metres at the Brewster angle (53 degrees) through a linear polarizing filter. Comparison of sea-leaving spectra acquired with the polarizer oriented horizontally and vertically enabled estimation of the spectral composition of sky light reflected directly from the sea surface. A semi-empirical correction procedure was devised for retrieving water-leaving radiance spectra from these measurements while minimizing the influence of reflected sky light. Sea trials indicated that reflectance spectra obtained by this method were consistent with the results of radiance transfer modelling of case 2 waters with similar concentrations of chlorophyll and coloured dissolved organic matter. Surface reflectance signatures measured at three locations containing blooms of different phytoplankton species were easily discriminated and the instrument was sufficiently sensitive to detect solar-stimulated fluorescence from surface chlorophyll concentrations down to 1 mg m−3

Taking Blockchain Seriously

In the present techno-political moment it is clear that ignoring or dismissing the hype surrounding blockchain is unwise, and certainly for regulatory authorities and governments who must keep a grip on the technology and those promoting it, in order to ensure democratic accountability and regulatory legitimacy within the blockchain ecosystem and beyond. Blockchain is telling (and showing) us something very important about the evolution of capital and neoliberal economic reason, and the likely impact in the near future on forms and patterns of work, social organization, and, crucially, on communities and individuals who lack influence over the technologies and data that increasingly shape and control their lives. In this short essay I introduce some of the problems in the regulation of blockchain and offer counter-narratives aimed at cutting through the hype fuelling the ascendency of this most contemporary of technologies

Heavy Quark Effective Theory beyond Perturbation Theory: Renormalons, the Pole Mass and the Residual Mass Term

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the perturbative series in the heavy quark effective theory (HQET) using the $1/N_f$ expansion. We find that this theory suffers from an {\it ultraviolet} renormalon problem, corresponding to a non-Borel-summable behaviour of perturbation series in large orders, and leading to a principal nonperturbative ambiguity in its definition. This ambiguity is related to an {\it infrared} renormalon in the pole mass and can be understood as the necessity to include the residual mass term $\delta m$ in the definition of HQET, which must be considered as ambiguous (and possibly complex), and is required to cancel the ultraviolet renormalon singularity generated by the perturbative expansion. The formal status of $\delta m$ is thus identical to that of condensates in the conventional short-distance expansion of correlation functions in QCD. The status of the pole mass of a heavy quark, the operator product expansion for inclusive decays, and QCD sum rules in the HQET are discussed in this context.Comment: LATEX, 43 pages, 6 figures appended as uu-encoded file, MPI-PhT/94-9, (Text as to appear in NPB, typing errors corrected [Eq.(3.24),(3.26)], some statements in Sect.5 more precise

Titanium Nitride/Carbon Coatings on Graphite Fibers

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66321/1/j.1151-2916.1997.tb02888.x.pd