31,921 research outputs found
Optical, gravitational, and kinesthetic determinants of judged eye level
Subjects judged eye level, defined in three distinct ways relative to three distinct reference planes: a gravitational horizontal, giving the gravitationally referenced eye level (GREL); a visible surface, giving the surface-referenced eye level (SREL); and a plane fixed with respect to the head, giving the head-referenced eye level (HREL). The information available for these judgements was varied by having the subjects view an illuminated target that could be placed in a box which: (1) was pitched at various angles, (2) was illuminated or kept in darkness, (3) was moved to different positions along the subject's head-to-foot body axis, and (4) was viewed with the subjects upright or reclining. The results showed: (1) judgements of GREL made in the dark were 2.5 deg lower than in the light, with a significantly greater variability; (2) judged GREL was shifted approximately half of the way toward SREL when these two eye levels did not coincide; (3) judged SREL was shifted about 12 percent of the way toward HREL when these two eye levels did not coincide, (4) judged HREL was shifted about half way toward SREL when these two eye level did not coincide and when the subject was upright (when the subject was reclining, HREL was shifted approx. 90 percent toward SREL); (5) the variability of the judged HREL in the dark was nearly twice as great with the subject reclining than with the subject upright. These results indicate that gravity is an important source of information for judgement of eye level. In the absence of information concerning the direction of gravity, the ability to judge HREL is extremely poor. A visible environment does not seem to afford precise information as to judgements of direction, but it probably does afford significant information as to the stability of these judgements
Influence of engineered interfaces on residual stresses and mechanical response in metal matrix composites
Because of the inherent coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between fiber and matrix within metal and intermetallic matrix composite systems, high residual stresses can develop under various thermal loading conditions. These conditions include cooling from processing temperature to room temperature as well as subsequent thermal cycling. As a result of these stresses, within certain composite systems, radial, circumferential, and/or longitudinal cracks have been observed to form at the fiber matrix interface region. A number of potential solutions for reducing this thermally induced residual stress field have been proposed recently. Examples of some potential solutions are high CTE fibers, fiber preheating, thermal anneal treatments, and an engineered interface. Here the focus is on designing an interface (by using a compensating/compliant layer concept) to reduce or eliminate the thermal residual stress field and, therefore, the initiation and propagation of cracks developed during thermal loading. Furthermore, the impact of the engineered interface on the composite's mechanical response when subjected to isothermal mechanical load histories is examined
Spatial interference from well-separated condensates
We use magnetic levitation and a variable-separation dual optical plug to
obtain clear spatial interference between two condensates axially separated by
up to 0.25 mm -- the largest separation observed with this kind of
interferometer. Clear planar fringes are observed using standard (i.e.
non-tomographic) resonant absorption imaging. The effect of a weak inverted
parabola potential on fringe separation is observed and agrees well with
theory.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures - modified to take into account referees'
improvement
QCD Splitting/Joining Functions at Finite Temperature in the Deep LPM Regime
There exist full leading-order-in-alpha_s numerical calculations of the rates
for massless quarks and gluons to split and join in the background of a
quark-gluon plasma through hard, nearly collinear bremsstrahlung and inverse
bremsstrahlung. In the limit of partons with very high energy E, where the
physics is dominated by the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect, there are
also analytic leading-log calculations of these rates, where the logarithm is
ln(E/T). We extend those analytic calculations to next-to-leading-log order. We
find agreement with the full result to within roughly 20% for E(less) >~ 10 T,
where E(less) is the energy of the least energetic parton in the
splitting/joining process. We also discuss how to account for the running of
the coupling constant in the case that E/T is very large. Our results are also
applicable to isotropic non-equilibrium plasmas if the plasma does not change
significantly over the formation time associated with particle splitting.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures. Changes from v3: Typos fixed in the subscripts
of various Casimir factor
Mean-field dynamics of a non-Hermitian Bose-Hubbard dimer
We investigate an -particle Bose-Hubbard dimer with an additional
effective decay term in one of the sites. A mean-field approximation for this
non-Hermitian many-particle system is derived, based on a coherent state
approximation. The resulting nonlinear, non-Hermitian two-level dynamics, in
particular the fixed point structures showing characteristic modifications of
the self-trapping transition, are analyzed. The mean-field dynamics is found to
be in reasonable agreement with the full many-particle evolution.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published versio
Non-uniqueness of the Dirac theory in a curved spacetime
We summarize a recent work on the subject title. The Dirac equation in a
curved spacetime depends on a field of coefficients (essentially the Dirac
matrices), for which a continuum of different choices are possible. We study
the conditions under which a change of the coefficient fields leads to an
equivalent Hamiltonian operator H, or to an equivalent energy operator E. In
this paper, we focus on the standard version of the gravitational Dirac
equation, but the non-uniqueness applies also to our alternative versions. We
find that the changes which lead to an equivalent operator H, or respectively
to an equivalent operator E, are determined by initial data, or respectively
have to make some point-dependent antihermitian matrix vanish. Thus, the vast
majority of the possible coefficient changes lead neither to an equivalent
operator H, nor to an equivalent operator E, whence a lack of uniqueness. We
show that even the Dirac energy spectrum is not unique.Comment: 13 pages (standard 12pt article format). Text of a talk given at the
1st Mediterranean Conference on Classical and Quantum Gravity, Kolymbari
(Greece), Sept. 14-18, 200
Weld-brazing - a new joining process
A joining process designated weld brazing which combines resistance spot welding and brazing has been developed. Resistance spot welding is used to position and align the parts as well as to establish a suitable faying surface gap for brazing. Fabrication is then completed by capillary flow of the braze alloy into the joint. The process has been used successfully to fabricate Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy joints using 3003 aluminum braze alloy. Test results obtained on single overlap and hat-stiffened structural specimens show that weld brazed joints are superior in tensile shear, stress rupture, fatigue, and buckling than joint fabricated by spotwelding or brazing. Another attractive feature of the process is that the brazed joints is hermetically sealed by the braze material
Investigation of double beta decay with the NEMO-3 detector
The double beta decay experiment NEMO~3 has been taking data since February
2003. The aim of this experiment is to search for neutrinoless
() decay and investigate two neutrino double beta decay in
seven different isotopically enriched samples (Mo, Se,
Ca, Zr, Cd, Te and Nd). After analysis of
the data corresponding to 3.75 y, no evidence for decay in the
Mo and Se samples was found. The half-life limits at the 90%
C.L. are y and y, respectively.
Additionally for decay the following limits at the 90% C.L.
were obtained, y for Ca, y
for Zr and y for Nd. The
decay half-life values were precisely measured for all investigated isotopes.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables; talk at conference on "Fundamental
Interactions Physics" (ITEP, Moscow, November 23-27, 2009
Effective Kinetic Theory for High Temperature Gauge Theories
Quasiparticle dynamics in relativistic plasmas associated with hot,
weakly-coupled gauge theories (such as QCD at asymptotically high temperature
) can be described by an effective kinetic theory, valid on sufficiently
large time and distance scales. The appropriate Boltzmann equations depend on
effective scattering rates for various types of collisions that can occur in
the plasma. The resulting effective kinetic theory may be used to evaluate
observables which are dominantly sensitive to the dynamics of typical
ultrarelativistic excitations. This includes transport coefficients
(viscosities and diffusion constants) and energy loss rates. We show how to
formulate effective Boltzmann equations which will be adequate to compute such
observables to leading order in the running coupling of high-temperature
gauge theories [and all orders in ]. As previously proposed
in the literature, a leading-order treatment requires including both
particle scattering processes as well as effective ``'' collinear
splitting processes in the Boltzmann equations. The latter account for nearly
collinear bremsstrahlung and pair production/annihilation processes which take
place in the presence of fluctuations in the background gauge field. Our
effective kinetic theory is applicable not only to near-equilibrium systems
(relevant for the calculation of transport coefficients), but also to highly
non-equilibrium situations, provided some simple conditions on distribution
functions are satisfied.Comment: 40 pages, new subsection on soft gauge field instabilities adde
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