242 research outputs found
Scaling of interfaces in brittle fracture and perfect plasticity
The roughness properties of two-dimensional fracture surfaces as created by
the slow failure of random fuse networks are considered and compared to yield
surfaces of perfect plasticity with similar disorder. By studying systems up to
a linear size L=350 it is found that in the cases studied the fracture surfaces
exhibit self-affine scaling with a roughness exponent close to 2/3, which is
asymptotically exactly true for plasticity though finite-size effects are
evident for both. The overlap of yield or minimum energy and fracture surfaces
with exactly the same disorder configuration is shown to be a decreasing
function of the system size and to be of a rather large magnitude for all cases
studied. The typical ``overlap cluster'' length between pairs of such
interfaces converges to a constant with increasing.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Minimum spanning trees on random networks
We show that the geometry of minimum spanning trees (MST) on random graphs is
universal. Due to this geometric universality, we are able to characterise the
energy of MST using a scaling distribution () found using uniform
disorder. We show that the MST energy for other disorder distributions is
simply related to . We discuss the relationship to invasion
percolation (IP), to the directed polymer in a random media (DPRM) and the
implications for the broader issue of universality in disordered systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Order to disorder transition in the XY-like quantum magnet Cs2CoCl4 induced by noncommuting applied fields
We explore the effects of noncommuting applied fields on the ground-state
ordering of the quasi-one-dimensional spin-1/2 XY-like antiferromagnet Cs2CoCl4
using single-crystal neutron diffraction. In zero field interchain couplings
cause long-range order below T_N=217(5) mK with chains ordered
antiferromagnetically along their length and moments confined to the (b,c)
plane. Magnetic fields applied at an angle to the XY planes are found to
initially stabilize the order by promoting a spin-flop phase with an increased
perpendicular antiferromagnetic moment. In higher fields the antiferromagnetic
order becomes unstable and a transition occurs to a phase with no long-range
order in the (b,c) plane, proposed to be a spin liquid phase that arises when
the quantum fluctuations induced by the noncommuting field become strong enough
to overcome ordering tendencies. Magnetization measurements confirm that
saturation occurs at much higher fields and that the proposed spin-liquid state
exists in the region 2.10 < H_SL < 2.52 T || a. The observed phase diagram is
discussed in terms of known results on XY-like chains in coexisting
longitudinal and transverse fields.Comment: revtex, 14 figures, 2 tables, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Stochastic Renormalization Group in Percolation: I. Fluctuations and Crossover
A generalization of the Renormalization Group, which describes
order-parameter fluctuations in finite systems, is developed in the specific
context of percolation. This ``Stochastic Renormalization Group'' (SRG)
expresses statistical self-similarity through a non-stationary branching
process. The SRG provides a theoretical basis for analytical or numerical
approximations, both at and away from criticality, whenever the correlation
length is much larger than the lattice spacing (regardless of the system size).
For example, the SRG predicts order-parameter distributions and finite-size
scaling functions for the complete crossover between phases. For percolation,
the simplest SRG describes structural quantities conditional on spanning, such
as the total cluster mass or the minimum chemical distance between two
boundaries. In these cases, the Central Limit Theorem (for independent random
variables) holds at the stable, off-critical fixed points, while a ``Fractal
Central Limit Theorem'' (describing long-range correlations) holds at the
unstable, critical fixed point. This first part of a series of articles
explains these basic concepts and a general theory of crossover. Subsequent
parts will focus on limit theorems and comparisons of small-cell SRG
approximations with simulation results.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Physica A; v2: some typos corrected
and Eqs. (26)-(27) cast in a simpler (but equivalent) for
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The Stardust – a successful encounter with the remarkable comet Wild 2
On January 2, 2004 the Stardust spacecraft completed a close flyby of comet Wild2 (P81). Flying at a relative speed of 6.1 km/s within 237km of the 5 km nucleus, the spacecraft took 72 close-in images, measured the flux of impacting particles and did TOF mass spectrometry
Phase diagram of an Ising model with long-range frustrating interactions: a theoretical analysis
We present a theoretical study of the phase diagram of a frustrated Ising
model with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions and long-range
(Coulombic) antiferromagnetic interactions. For nonzero frustration, long-range
ferromagnetic order is forbidden, and the ground-state of the system consists
of phases characterized by periodically modulated structures. At finite
temperatures, the phase diagram is calculated within the mean-field
approximation. Below the transition line that separates the disordered and the
ordered phases, the frustration-temperature phase diagram displays an infinite
number of ``flowers'', each flower being made by an infinite number of
modulated phases generated by structure combination branching processes. The
specificities introduced by the long-range nature of the frustrating
interaction and the limitation of the mean-field approach are finally
discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure
Fracture of disordered solids in compression as a critical phenomenon: I. Statistical mechanics formalism
This is the first of a series of three articles that treats fracture
localization as a critical phenomenon. This first article establishes a
statistical mechanics based on ensemble averages when fluctuations through time
play no role in defining the ensemble. Ensembles are obtained by dividing a
huge rock sample into many mesoscopic volumes. Because rocks are a disordered
collection of grains in cohesive contact, we expect that once shear strain is
applied and cracks begin to arrive in the system, the mesoscopic volumes will
have a wide distribution of different crack states. These mesoscopic volumes
are the members of our ensembles. We determine the probability of observing a
mesoscopic volume to be in a given crack state by maximizing Shannon's measure
of the emergent crack disorder subject to constraints coming from the
energy-balance of brittle fracture. The laws of thermodynamics, the partition
function, and the quantification of temperature are obtained for such cracking
systems.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Staff experiences and understandings of the REsTRAIN Yourself initiative to minimise the use of physical restraint on mental health wards
International efforts to minimize coercive practices include the US Six Core Strategies© (6CS). This innovative approach has limited evidence of its effectiveness, with few robustly designed studies, and has not been formally implemented or evaluated in the UK. An adapted version of the 6CS, which we called ‘REsTRAIN Yourself’ (RY), was devised to suit the UK context and evaluated using mixed methods. RY aimed to reduce the use of physical restraint in mental health inpatient ward settings through training and practice development with whole teams, directly in the ward settings where change is to be implemented and barriers to change overcome. In this paper we present qualitative findings that report on staff perspectives on the impact and value of RY following its implementation. Thirty-six staff participated in semi-structured interviews with data subject to thematic analysis.
Eight themes are reported that highlight perceived improvements in every domain of the 6CS after RY had been introduced. Staff reported more positively on their relationships with service users and felt their attitudes towards the use of coercive practices such as restraint were changed; the service as a whole shifted in terms of restraint awareness and reduction; and new policies, procedures and language were introduced despite certain barriers. These findings need to be appreciated in a context wherein substantial reductions in the use of physical restraint was proven possible, largely due to building upon empathic and relational alternatives. However, yet more could be achieved with greater resourcing of inpatient care
Resistance and Resistance Fluctuations in Random Resistor Networks Under Biased Percolation
We consider a two-dimensional random resistor network (RRN) in the presence
of two competing biased percolations consisting of the breaking and recovering
of elementary resistors. These two processes are driven by the joint effects of
an electrical bias and of the heat exchange with a thermal bath. The electrical
bias is set up by applying a constant voltage or, alternatively, a constant
current. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to analyze the network evolution
in the full range of bias values. Depending on the bias strength, electrical
failure or steady state are achieved. Here we investigate the steady-state of
the RRN focusing on the properties of the non-Ohmic regime. In constant voltage
conditions, a scaling relation is found between and , where
is the average network resistance, the linear regime resistance
and the threshold value for the onset of nonlinearity. A similar relation
is found in constant current conditions. The relative variance of resistance
fluctuations also exhibits a strong nonlinearity whose properties are
investigated. The power spectral density of resistance fluctuations presents a
Lorentzian spectrum and the amplitude of fluctuations shows a significant
non-Gaussian behavior in the pre-breakdown region. These results compare well
with electrical breakdown measurements in thin films of composites and of other
conducting materials.Comment: 15 figures, 23 page
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