362 research outputs found
Aligning self-assembled gelators by drying under shear
We show how drying under shear can be used to prepare aligned fibres and worm-like micelles from low molecular weight gelators. Shearing followed by drying leads to the dealignment before the water can be removed; continuous shear whilst drying is required to maintain the alignment. Combining a slow pH change with continuous shear allows alignment of the gelling fibres, which can then be dried
Deconstructing Noncommutativity with a Giant Fuzzy Moose
We argue that the worldvolume theories of D-branes probing orbifolds with
discrete torsion develop, in the large quiver limit, new non-commutative
directions. This provides an explicit `deconstruction' of a wide class of
noncommutative theories. This also provides insight into the physical meaning
of discrete torsion and its relation to the T-dual B field. We demonstrate that
the strict large quiver limit reproduces the matrix theory construction of
higher-dimensional D-branes, and argue that finite `fuzzy moose' theories
provide novel regularizations of non-commutative theories and explicit string
theory realizations of gauge theories on fuzzy tori. We also comment briefly on
the relation to NCOS, (2,0) and little string theories.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, typos caught and refs added; expanded
interpretation of discrete torsio
Non-compact Mirror Bundles and (0,2) Liouville Theories
We study (0,2) deformations of N=2 Liouville field theory and its mirror
duality. A gauged linear sigma model construction of the ultraviolet theory
connects (0,2) deformations of Liouville field theory and (0,2) deformations of
N=2 SL(2,R)/U(1) coset model as a mirror duality. Our duality proposal from the
gauged linear sigma model completely agrees with the exact CFT analysis. In the
context of heterotic string compactifications, the deformation corresponds to
the introduction of a non-trivial gauge bundle. This non-compact
Landau-Ginzburg construction yields a novel way to study the gauge bundle
moduli for non-compact Calabi-Yau manifolds.Comment: 34 page
Compaction of Rods: Relaxation and Ordering in Vibrated, Anisotropic Granular Material
We report on experiments to measure the temporal and spatial evolution of
packing arrangements of anisotropic, cylindrical granular material, using
high-resolution capacitive monitoring. In these experiments, the particle
configurations start from an initially disordered, low-packing-fraction state
and under vertical vibrations evolve to a dense, highly ordered, nematic state
in which the long particle axes align with the vertical tube walls. We find
that the orientational ordering process is reflected in a characteristic, steep
rise in the local packing fraction. At any given height inside the packing, the
ordering is initiated at the container walls and proceeds inward. We explore
the evolution of the local as well as the height-averaged packing fraction as a
function of vibration parameters and compare our results to relaxation
experiments conducted on spherically shaped granular materials.Comment: 9 pages incl. 7 figure
Constraining the nuclear gluon distribution in processes at RHIC
A systematic determination of the gluon distribution is of fundamental
interest in understanding the parton structure of nuclei and the QCD dynamics.
Currently, the behavior of this distribution at small (high energy) is
completely undefined. In this paper we analyze the possibility of constraining
the nuclear effects present in using the inclusive observables which
would be measured in the future electron-nucleus collider at RHIC. We
demonstrate that the study of nuclear longitudinal and charm structure
functions allows to estimate the magnitude of shadowing and antishadowing
effects in the nuclear gluon distribution.Comment: 6 pages, 3 eps figure
Loop-Corrected Compactifications of the Heterotic String with Line Bundles
We consider the E8 x E8 heterotic string theory compactified on Calabi-Yau
manifolds with bundles containing abelian factors in their structure group.
Generic low energy consequences such as the generalised Green-Schwarz mechanism
for the multiple anomalous abelian gauge groups are studied. We also compute
the holomorphic gauge couplings and induced Fayet-Iliopoulos terms up to
one-loop order, where the latter are interpreted as stringy one-loop
corrections to the Donaldson-Uhlenbeck-Yau condition. Such models generically
have frozen combinations of Kaehler and dilaton moduli. We study concrete
bundles with structure group SU(N) x U(1)^M yielding quasi-realistic gauge
groups with chiral matter given by certain bundle cohomology classes. We also
provide a number of explicit tadpole free examples of bundles defined by exact
sequences of sums of line bundles over complete intersection Calabi-Yau spaces.
This includes one example with precisely the Standard Model gauge symmetry.Comment: 47 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX, v2: stability discussion in sect. 2.1
slightly extended, refs. added, v3: normalization of Green-Schwarz term
correcte
Factors Influencing the Participation of Older People in Clinical Trials : Data Analysis from the MAVIS Trial
Peer reviewedPostprin
Interviewing objects: Including educational technologies as qualitative research participants
This article argues the importance of including significant technologies-in-use askey qualitative research participants when studying today’s digitally enhancedlearning environments. We gather a set of eight heuristics to assist qualitativeresearchers in ‘interviewing’ technologies-in-use (or other relevant objects),drawing on concrete examples from our own qualitative research projects. Ourdiscussion is informed by Actor-Network Theory and hermeneuticphenomenology, as well as by the literatures of techno-science, media ecology,and the philosophy of technology
Magnetized cosmological perturbations
A large-scale cosmic magnetic field affects not only the growth of density
perturbations, but also rotational instabilities and anisotropic deformation in
the density distribution. We give a fully relativistic treatment of all these
effects, incorporating the magneto-curvature coupling that arises in a
relativistic approach. We show that this coupling produces a small enhancement
of the growing mode on superhorizon scales. The magnetic field generates new
nonadiabatic constant and decaying modes, as well as nonadiabatic corrections
to the standard growing and decaying modes. Magnetized isocurvature
perturbations are purely decaying on superhorizon scales. On subhorizon scales
before recombination, magnetized density perturbations propagate as
magneto-sonic waves, leading to a small decrease in the spacing of acoustic
peaks. Fluctuations in the field direction induce scale-dependent vorticity,
and generate precession in the rotational vector. On small scales, magnetized
density vortices propagate as Alfv\'{e}n waves during the radiation era. After
recombination, they decay slower than non-magnetized vortices. Magnetic
fluctuations are also an active source of anisotropic distortion in the density
distribution. We derive the evolution equations for this distortion, and find a
particular growing solution.Comment: Revised version, typos corrected, to appear in Phys. Rev.
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