6,528 research outputs found
Swimming in curved space or The Baron and the cat
We study the swimming of non-relativistic deformable bodies in (empty) static
curved spaces. We focus on the case where the ambient geometry allows for rigid
body motions. In this case the swimming equations turn out to be geometric. For
a small swimmer, the swimming distance in one stroke is determined by the
Riemann curvature times certain moments of the swimmer.Comment: 19 pages 6 figure
Sources of resistance to cassava anthracnose disease
A total of 436 African landraces and 497 improved cassava genotypes were planted in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 growing seasons.. These were evaluated for their reactions to cassava anthracnose disease (CAD) under natural infection conditions at Ibadan (a high infection zone). The severity of the disease was determined by counting the total number of canker/plants and measuring the diameter the cankers. Data were collected at 6, 9 and 12 months after planting. The four-year data were pooled and subjected to statistical analysis. Result showed that of the 436 improved germplasm evaluated, 10 were resistant, 64 moderately resistant, 328 were moderately susceptible, and 95 were highly susceptible. The results also showed that 45 of the landraces were resistant, 87 moderately resistant, 354 were moderately susceptible, whereas 60 were highly susceptible. Of the resistant landraces and the improved, TME 19, TME 53, TME113, TME 244, TME 475, and TME 523; I85/02015 and I8700028 were completely free of cankers. The resistant genotypes have been introgressed into broad-based breeding populations to diversify resistance to CAD in newly improved genotypes.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (6), pp. 570-572, 200
Product CFTs, gravitational cloning, massive gravitons and the space of gravitational duals
The question of graviton cloning in the context of the bulk/boundary
correspondence is considered. It is shown that multi-graviton theories can be
obtained from products of large-N CFTs. No more than one interacting massless
graviton is possible. There can be however, many interacting massive gravitons.
This is achieved by coupling CFTs via multi-trace marginal or relevant
perturbations. The geometrical structure of the gravitational duals of such
theories is that of product manifolds with their boundaries identified. The
calculational formalism is described and the interpretation of such theories is
discussed.Comment: Latex, 25 pages. (v2) Minor corrections and references adde
Evidence for Cosmic Acceleration is Robust to Observed Correlations Between Type Ia Supernova Luminosity and Stellar Age
Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) are powerful standardizable candles for
constraining cosmological models and provided the first evidence of the
accelerated expansion of the universe. Their precision derives from empirical
correlations, now measured from SNe Ia, between their luminosities,
light-curve shapes, colors and most recently with the stellar mass of their
host galaxy. As mass correlates with other galaxy properties, alternative
parameters have been investigated to improve SN Ia standardization though none
have been shown to significantly alter the determination of cosmological
parameters. We re-examine a recent claim, based on 34 SN Ia in nearby passive
host galaxies, of a 0.05 mag/Gyr dependence of standardized SN Ia luminosity on
host age which if extrapolated to higher redshifts, would be a bias up to 0.25
mag, challenging the inference of dark energy. We reanalyze this sample of
hosts using both the original method and a Bayesian hierarchical model and find
after a fuller accounting of the uncertainties the significance of a dependence
on age to be and after the removal of a single
poorly-sampled SN Ia. To test the claim that a trend seen in old stellar
populations can be applied to younger ages, we extend our analysis to a larger
sample which includes young hosts. We find the residual dependence of host age
(after all standardization typically employed for cosmological measurements) to
be consistent with zero for 254 SNe Ia from the Pantheon sample, ruling out the
large but low significance trend seen in passive hosts.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Gyroscope deviation from geodesic motion: quasiresonant oscillations on a circular orbit
General relativistic spin-orbit interaction leads to the quasiresonant
oscillation of the gyroscope mass center along the orbital normal. The beating
amplitude does not include the speed of light and equals the ratio of the
intrinsic momentum of the gyroscope to its orbital momentum. The modulation
frequency equals the angular velocity of the geodetic precession that prevents
the oscillation from resonance. The oscillation represents the precession of
the gyroscope orbital momentum. Within an acceptable time the oscillation
amplitude reaches the values that are amenable to being analyzed
experimentally. Taking into account the source oblateness decreases the beating
amplitude and increases the modulation frequency by the factor that is equal to
the ratio of the quadrupole precession velocity to the geodetic precession
velocity. The period of the quadrupole precession turns out to be a quite
sufficient time to form a measurable amplitude of the oscillation.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX2e, 1 eps figure, to appear in J. Exp. Theor. Phy
Standard and Null Weak Values
Weak value (WV) is a quantum mechanical measurement protocol, proposed by
Aharonov, Albert, and Vaidman. It consists of a weak measurement, which is
weighed in, conditional on the outcome of a later, strong measurement. Here we
define another two-step measurement protocol, null weak value (NVW), and point
out its advantages as compared to WV. We present two alternative derivations of
NWVs and compare them to the corresponding derivations of WVs.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Quantum Theory: A Two-Time Success
Story: Yakir Aharonov Festschrif
Absorption of dilaton s-wave in type 0B string theory
We find the absorption probability of dilaton field in type 0B string theory.
Since the background solutions are of the form on both
regions, we use the semiclassical formalism adopted in type IIB theory to find
the absorption cross section. The background tachyon field solution was used as
a reference to relate the solutions of the two regions. We also consider the
possible corrections to absorption probability and the form of the
correction is expected as in the calculation of the confinement solution.Comment: minor corrections, reference added, version to appear PR
Multipole moments in Kaluza-Klein theories
This paper contains discussion of the problem of motion of extended i.e. non
point test bodies in multidimensional space. Extended bodies are described in
terms of so called multipole moments. Using approximated form of equations of
motion for extended bodies deviation from geodesic motion is derived. Results
are applied to special form of space-time.Comment: 11 pages, AMS-TeX, few misprints corrected, to appear in Classical
and Quantum Gravit
Observing Brownian motion in vibration-fluidized granular matter
At the beginning of last century, Gerlach and Lehrer observed the rotational
Brownian motion of a very fine wire immersed in an equilibrium environment, a
gas. This simple experiment eventually permitted the full development of one of
the most important ideas of equilibrium statistical mechanics: the very
complicated many-particle problem of a large number of molecules colliding with
the wire, can be represented by two macroscopic parameters only, namely
viscosity and the temperature. Can this idea, mathematically developed in the
so-called Langevin model and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem be used to
describe systems that are far from equilibrium? Here we address the question
and reproduce the Gerlach and Lehrer experiment in an archetype non-equilibrium
system, by immersing a sensitive torsion oscillator in a granular system of
millimetre-size grains, fluidized by strong external vibrations. The
vibro-fluidized granular medium is a driven environment, with continuous
injection and dissipation of energy, and the immersed oscillator can be seen as
analogous to an elastically bound Brownian particle. We show, by measuring the
noise and the susceptibility, that the experiment can be treated, in first
approximation, with the same formalism as in the equilibrium case, giving
experimental access to a ''granular viscosity'' and an ''effective
temperature'', however anisotropic and inhomogeneous, and yielding the
surprising result that the vibro-fluidized granular matter behaves as a
''thermal'' bath satisfying a fluctuation-dissipation relation
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