582 research outputs found
Condition monitoring and prognostic indicators for network reliability
Large-scale investment in transmission and distribution networks are planned over the next 10-15 years to meet future demand and changes in power generation. However, it is important that existing assets continue to operate reliably and their health maintained. A research project is considering the increased use of simulation models that could provide accurate prognostics, targeting maintenance and reduce in service failures. Such models could be further refined with parameters obtained from on-line measurements at the asset. It is also important to consider the future development of the research agenda for condition monitoring of power networks and with colleagues from National Grid, PPA Energy and the Universities of Manchester and Strathclyde, the research team are preparing a Position Paper on this subject
O(N) Sigma Model as a Three Dimensional Conformal Field Theory
We study a three dimensional conformal field theory in terms of its partition
function on arbitrary curved spaces. The large limit of the nonlinear sigma
model at the non-trivial fixed point is shown to be an example of a conformal
field theory, using zeta--function regularization. We compute the critical
properties of this model in various spaces of constant curvature (, , , , and ) and we argue that what distinguishes the
different cases is not the Riemann curvature but the conformal class of the
metric. In the case (constant negative curvature), the
symmetry is spontaneously broken at the critical point. In the case (constant positive curvature) we find that the free energy vanishes,
consistent with conformal equivalence of this manifold to , although the
correlation length is finite. In the zero curvature cases, the correlation
length is finite due to finite size effects. These results describe two
dimensional quantum phase transitions or three dimensional classical ones.Comment: 35 pages, TeX, (Revised version, to appear in Nucl. Phys. B--paper
shortened, a discussion added and other minor corrections
Primary accumulation in the Soviet transition
The Soviet background to the idea of primary socialist accumulation is presented. The mobilisation of labour power and of products into public sector investment from outside are shown to have been the two original forms of the concept. In Soviet primary accumulation the mobilisation of labour power was apparently more decisive than the mobilisation of products. The primary accumulation process had both intended and unintended results. Intended results included bringing most of the economy into the public sector, and industrialisation of the economy as a whole. Unintended results included substantial economic losses, and the proliferation of coercive institutions damaging to attainment of the ultimate goal - the building of a communist society
Scale setting for alpha_s beyond leading order
We present a general procedure for incorporating higher-order information
into the scale-setting prescription of Brodsky, Lepage and Mackenzie. In
particular, we show how to apply this prescription when the leading coefficient
or coefficients in a series in the strong coupling alpha_s are anomalously
small and the original prescription can give an unphysical scale. We give a
general method for computing an optimum scale numerically, within dimensional
regularization, and in cases when the coefficients of a series are known. We
apply it to the heavy quark mass and energy renormalization in lattice NRQCD,
and to a variety of known series. Among the latter, we find significant
corrections to the scales for the ratio of e+e- to hadrons over muons, the
ratio of the quark pole to MSbar mass, the semi-leptonic B-meson decay width,
and the top decay width. Scales for the latter two decay widths, expressed in
terms of MSbar masses, increase by factors of five and thirteen, respectively,
substantially reducing the size of radiative corrections.Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, LaTeX2
Effect of semiconducting screen on the space charge dynamic in XLPE and polyolefin insulation under dc and 50 Hz ac electric stresses conditions
High Pressure Thermoelasticity of Body-centered Cubic Tantalum
We have investigated the thermoelasticity of body-centered cubic (bcc)
tantalum from first principles by using the linearized augmented plane wave
(LAPW) and mixed--basis pseudopotential methods for pressures up to 400 GPa and
temperatures up to 10000 K. Electronic excitation contributions to the free
energy were included from the band structures, and phonon contributions were
included using the particle-in-a-cell (PIC) model. The computed elastic
constants agree well with available ultrasonic and diamond anvil cell data at
low pressures, and shock data at high pressures. The shear modulus and
the anisotropy change behavior with increasing pressure around 150 GPa because
of an electronic topological transition. We find that the main contribution of
temperature to the elastic constants is from the thermal expansivity. The PIC
model in conjunction with fast self-consistent techniques is shown to be a
tractable approach to studying thermoelasticity.Comment: To be appear in Physical Review
Limits on Cosmological Variation of Strong Interaction and Quark Masses from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, Cosmic, Laboratory and Oklo Data
Recent data on cosmological variation of the electromagnetic fine structure
constant from distant quasar (QSO) absorption spectra have inspired a more
general discussion of possible variation of other constants. We discuss
variation of strong scale and quark masses. We derive the limits on their
relative change from (i) primordial Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN); (ii)
Oklo natural nuclear reactor, (iii) quasar absorption spectra, and (iv)
laboratory measurements of hyperfine intervals.Comment: 10 pages 2 figurs: second version have several references added and
some new comment
Electron interference and entanglement in coupled 1D systems with noise
We estimate the role of noise in the formation of entanglement and in the
appearance of single- and two-electron interference in systems of coupled
one-dimensional channels semiconductors. Two cases are considered: a
single-particle interferometer and a two-particle interferometer exploiting
Coulomb interaction. In both of them, environmental noise yields a
randomization of the carrier phases. Our results assess how that the
complementarity relation linking single-particle behavior to nonlocal
quantities, such as entanglement and environment-induced decoherence, acts in
electron interferometry. We show that, in a experimental implementation of the
setups examined, one- and two-electron detection probability at the output
drains can be used to evaluate the decoherence phenomena and the degree of
entanglement.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. v2: added some references and corrected tex
Galaxy and mass assembly: Luminosity and stellar mass functions in GAMA groups
How do galaxy properties (such as stellar mass, luminosity, star formation rate, and morphology) and their evolution depend on the mass of their host dark matter halo? Using the Galaxy and Mass Assembly group catalogue, we address this question by exploring the dependence on host halo mass of the luminosity function (LF) and stellar mass function (SMF) for grouped galaxies subdivided by colour, morphology, and central/satellite. We find that spheroidal galaxies in particular dominate the bright and massive ends of the LF and SMF, respectively. More massive haloes host more massive and more luminous central galaxies. The satellites LF and SMF, respectively, show a systematic brightening of characteristic magnitude, and increase in characteristic mass, with increasing halo mass. In contrast to some previous results, the faint-end and low-mass slopes show little systematic dependence on halo mass. Semi-analytic models and simulations show similar or enhanced dependence of central mass and luminosity on halo mass. Faint and low-mass simulated satellite galaxies are remarkably independent of halo mass, but the most massive satellites are more common in more massive groups. In the first investigation of low-redshift LF and SMF evolution in group environments, we find that the red/blue ratio of galaxies in groups has increased since redshift z ~ 0.3 relative to the field population. This observation strongly suggests that quenching of star formation in galaxies as they are accreted into galaxy groups is a significant and ongoing process
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