Affine Solitons: A Relation Between Tau Functions, Dressing and B\"acklund Transformations

We reconsider the construction of solitons by dressing transformations in the sine-Gordon model. We show that the $N$-soliton solutions are in the orbit of the vacuum, and we identify the elements in the dressing group which allow us to built the $N$-soliton solutions from the vacuum solution. The dressed $\tau$-functions can be computed in two different ways~: either using adjoint actions in the affine Lie algebra $\hat {sl_2}$, and this gives the relation with the B\"acklund transformations, or using the level one representations of the affine Lie algebra $\widehat{sl_2}$, and this directly gives the formulae for the $\tau$-functions in terms of vertex operators.Comment: 33 pages. SPhT-92-055; LPTHE-92-1

Sahara or Sahel? The fuzzy geography of terrorism in West Africa

Since the mid-2000s, terrorism has pushed the peripheries of West Africa into the news and the public eye. While the political implications of this phenomenon have been extensively documented, most commentators have adopted a zonal approach to terrorism in which the Sahel and the Sahara are usually confused. This paper assumes that this confusion dramatically highlights the failure of academic and common geography to think beyond territories in West Africa, and to move away from a ?sedentary? vision of West African societies. The paper contributes to an understanding of the geographical locations of terrorism in West Africa by showing, firstly, what the main reasons behind the current confusion between the Sahel and Sahara are. Secondly, we show that this confusion arose from a territorial vision of space, which has important implications not only for local economic activities, but also for our own understanding of the spatiality of networks in West Africa.terrorism; space; networks; Social Network Analysis (SNA); Sahel; Sahara; West Africa

Clarification and complement to "Mean-field description and propagation of chaos in networks of Hodgkin-Huxley and FitzHugh-Nagumo neurons"

In this note, we clarify the well-posedness of the limit equations to the mean-field $N$-neuron models proposed in Baladron et al. and we prove the associated propagation of chaos property. We also complete the modeling issue in Baladron et al. by discussing the well-posedness of the stochastic differential equations which govern the behavior of the ion channels and the amount of available neurotransmitters

Enabling computation of correlation bounds for finite-dimensional quantum systems via symmetrisation

We present a technique for reducing the computational requirements by several orders of magnitude in the evaluation of semidefinite relaxations for bounding the set of quantum correlations arising from finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. The technique, which we make publicly available through a user-friendly software package, relies on the exploitation of symmetries present in the optimisation problem to reduce the number of variables and the block sizes in semidefinite relaxations. It is widely applicable in problems encountered in quantum information theory and enables computations that were previously too demanding. We demonstrate its advantages and general applicability in several physical problems. In particular, we use it to robustly certify the non-projectiveness of high-dimensional measurements in a black-box scenario based on self-tests of $d$-dimensional symmetric informationally complete POVMs.Comment: A. T. and D. R. contributed equally for this projec

Viscoroute 2.0: a tool for the simulation of moving load effects on asphalt pavement

As shown by strains measured on full scale experimental aircraft structures, traffic of slow-moving multiple loads leads to asymmetric transverse strains that can be higher than longitudinal strains at the bottom of asphalt pavement layers. To analyze this effect, a model and a software called ViscoRoute have been developed. In these tools, the structure is represented by a multilayered half-space, the thermo-viscoelastic behaviour of asphalt layers is accounted by the Huet-Sayegh rheological law and loads are assumed to move at constant speed. First, the paper presents a comparison of results obtained with ViscoRoute to results stemming from the specialized literature. For thick asphalt pavement and several configurations of moving loads, other ViscoRoute simulations confirm that it is necessary to incorporate viscoelastic effects in the modelling to well predict the pavement behaviour and to anticipate possible damages in the structure.Comment: 27 pages

Water temperature modeling in the Garonne River (France)

Stream water temperature is one of the most important parameters for water quality and ecosystem studies. Temperature can influence many chemical and biological processes and therefore impacts on the living conditions and distribution of aquatic ecosystems. Simplified models such as statistical models can be very useful for practitioners and water resource management. The present study assessed two statistical models – an equilibrium-based model and stochastic autoregressive model with exogenous inputs – in modeling daily mean water temperatures in the Garonne River from 1988 to 2005. The equilibrium temperature-based model is an approach where net heat flux at the water surface is expressed as a simpler form than in traditional deterministic models. The stochastic autoregressive model with exogenous inputs consists of decomposing the water temperature time series into a seasonal component and a short-term component (residual component). The seasonal component was modeled by Fourier series and residuals by a second-order autoregressive process (Markov chain) with use of short-term air temperatures as exogenous input. The models were calibrated using data of the first half of the period 1988–2005 and validated on the second half. Calibration of the models was done using temperatures above 20 ◦C only to ensure better prediction of high temperatures that are currently at stake for the aquatic conditions of the Garonne River, and particularly for freshwater migrating fishes such as Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.). The results obtained for both approaches indicated that both models performed well with an average root mean square error for observed temperatures above 20 ◦C that varied on an annual basis from 0.55 ◦C to 1.72 ◦C on validation, and good predictions of temporal occurrences and durations of three temperature threshold crossings linked to the conditions of migration and survival of Atlantic Salmon

Spectro-interferometric observations of interacting massive stars with VEGA/CHARA

We obtained spectro-interferometric observations in the visible of $\beta$ Lyrae and $\upsilon$ Sgr using the instrument VEGA of the CHARA interferometric array. For $\beta$ Lyrae, the dispersed fringe visibilities and differential phases were obtained in spectral regions containing the H$\alpha$ and HeI 6678 lines and the H$\beta$ and HeI 4921 lines. Whereas the source is unresolved in the continuum, the source of the emission lines is resolved and the photocenter of the bulk of the H$\alpha$ emission exhibits offsets correlated with the orbital phase. For $\upsilon$ Sgr, both the continuum and H$\alpha$ sources are resolved, but no clear binary signal is detected. The differential phase shift across the line reveals that the bulk of the H$\alpha$ emission is clearly offset from the primary

Phase-space methods in nuclear reactions around the Fermi energy

Some prescriptions for in-medium complex particle production in nuclear reactions are proposed. They have been implemented in two models to simulate nucleon-nucleus (nIPSE) and nucleus-nucleus (HIPSE) reactions around the Fermi energy \cite{Lac04,Lac05}. Our work emphasizes the effect of randomness in cluster formation, the importance of the nucleonic Fermi motion as well as the role of conservation laws. The key role of the phase-space exploration before and after secondary decay is underlined. This is illustrated in the case of two debated issues: the memory loss of the entrance channel in central collisions and the $(N,Z)$ partitions after the pre-equilibrium stage.Comment: Proceedings of the IWM2005 workshop, Catane (Italy), Nov. 2005. DOWNLOAD HIPSE program at: http://caeinfo.in2p3.fr/theorie/theory_lacroix.htm