Photoelectric charging of partially sunlit dielectric surfaces in space

Sunlight-shadow effects may substantially alter the charging situation for a dielectric surface. The sunlight-shadow boundary tends to be the site of intense multipole electric fields. Charges on a sunlit dielectric surface have a finite effective mobility. The charge distribution tends to resemble that on a conducting surface. A boundary between a conducting and a dielectric surface may not represent a conductivity discontinuity when this boundary is sunlit; charges may migrate at a nontrivial rate across the boundary. A contracting or expanding sunlit area may experience a supercharging

Lagrangians with electric and magnetic charges of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories

General Lagrangians are constructed for N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in four space-time dimensions involving gauge groups with (non-abelian) electric and magnetic charges. The charges induce a scalar potential, which, when the charges are regarded as spurionic quantities, is invariant under electric/magnetic duality. The resulting theories are especially relevant for supergravity, but details of the extension to local supersymmetry will be discussed elsewhere. The results include the coupling to hypermultiplets. Without the latter, it is demonstrated how an off-shell representation can be constructed based on vector and tensor supermultiplets.Comment: 34 pages, LaTe

Nonextensivity in the solar magnetic activity during the increasing phase of solar Cycle 23

In this paper we analyze the behavior of the daily Sunspot Number from the Sunspot Index Data Center (SIDC), the mean Magnetic Field strength from the National Solar Observatory/Kitt Peak (NSO/KP) and Total Solar Irradiance means from Virgo/SoHO, in the context of the $q$--Triplet which emerges within nonextensive statistical mechanics. Distributions for the mean solar Magnetic Field show two different behaviors, with a $q$--Gaussian for scales of 1 to 16 days and a Gaussian for scales longer than 32 days. The latter corresponds to an equilibrium state. Distributions for Total Solar Irradiance also show two different behaviors (approximately Gaussian) for scales of 128 days and longer, consistent with statistical equilibrium and $q$--Gaussian for scales $<$ 128 days. Distributions for the Sunspot Number show a $q$--Gaussian independent of timescales, consistent with a nonequilibrium state. The values obtained ("$q$--Triplet"$\equiv$$\{$$q$$_{stat}$,$q$$_{sen}$,$q$$_{rel}$$\}$) demonstrate that the Gaussian or $q$--Gaussian behavior of the aforementioned data depends significantly on timescales. These results point to strong multifractal behavior of the dataset analyzed, with the multifractal level decreasing from Sunspot Number to Total Solar Irradiance. In addition, we found a numerically satisfied dual relation between $q_{stat}$ and $q_{sen}$.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Free energy surfaces from nonequilibrium processes without work measurement

Recent developments in statistical mechanics have allowed the estimation of equilibrium free energies from the statistics of work measurements during processes that drive the system out of equilibrium. Here a different class of processes is considered, wherein the system is prepared and released from a nonequilibrium state, and no external work is involved during its observation. For such ``clamp-and-release'' processes, a simple strategy for the estimation of equilibrium free energies is offered. The method is illustrated with numerical simulations, and analyzed in the context of tethered single-molecule experiments.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures (1 color); accepted to J. Chem. Phy