Emittance Growth Due To Tune Fluctuations and the Beam-beam interaction

Analytical formulae and computer simulation results are presented for the emittance growth caused by small asymmetries of the beam-beam force, caused by small fluctuations of the phase, small offsets between the beams and fluctuations in the size of the opposite beam

Transverse Beam Dynamics with Noise

The linear transverse beam dynamics perturbed by magnet non-linearities and noise is analysed, using averaging techniques

Concordant cues in faces and voices: testing the backup signal hypothesis

Information from faces and voices combines to provide multimodal signals about a person. Faces and voices may offer redundant, overlapping (backup signals), or complementary information (multiple messages). This article reports two experiments which investigated the extent to which faces and voices deliver concordant information about dimensions of fitness and quality. In Experiment 1, participants rated faces and voices on scales for masculinity/femininity, age, health, height, and weight. The results showed that people make similar judgments from faces and voices, with particularly strong correlations for masculinity/femininity, health, and height. If, as these results suggest, faces and voices constitute backup signals for various dimensions, it is hypothetically possible that people would be able to accurately match novel faces and voices for identity. However, previous investigations into novel face–voice matching offer contradictory results. In Experiment 2, participants saw a face and heard a voice and were required to decide whether the face and voice belonged to the same person. Matching accuracy was significantly above chance level, suggesting that judgments made independently from faces and voices are sufficiently similar that people can match the two. Both sets of results were analyzed using multilevel modeling and are interpreted as being consistent with the backup signal hypothesis

Metallicities and dust content of proximate damped Lyman alpha systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Composite spectra of 85 proximate absorbers (log N(HI)>20 and velocity difference between the absorption and emission redshift, dv<10,000 km/s) in the SDSS are used to investigate the trends of metal line strengths with velocity separation from the QSO. We construct composites in 3 velocity bins: dv<3000 km/s, 30006000 km/s, with further sub-samples to investigate the metal line dependence on N(HI) and QSO luminosity. Low (e.g. SiII and FeII) and high ionization (e.g. SiIV and CIV) species alike have equivalent widths (EWs) that are larger by factors of 1.5 -- 3 in the dv<3000 km/s composite, compared to the dv>6000 km/s spectrum. The EWs show an even stronger dependence on dv if only the highest neutral hydrogen column density (log N(HI)>20.7) absorbers are considered. We conclude that PDLAs generally have higher metallicities than intervening absorbers, with the enhancement being a function of both dv and N(HI). It is also found that absorbers near QSOs with lower rest-frame UV luminosities have significantly stronger metal lines. We speculate that absorbers near to high luminosity QSOs may have had their star formation prematurely quenched. Finally, we search for the signature of dust reddening by the PDLAs, based on an analysis of the QSO continuum slopes relative to a control sample and determine a limit of E(B-V)<0.014 for an SMC extinction curve. This work provides an empirical motivation for distinguishing between proximate and intervening DLAs, and establishes a connection between the QSO environment and galaxy properties at high redshifts.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Ability Grouping in Catholic and Public Schools

Researchers have found that students who attend Catholic high schools tend to outperform public high school students on standardized tests of achievement. Although many aspects of this finding have been examined in subsequent research, little attention has been paid to the issue of how ability grouping affects achievement across school sectors. A nearly universal practice in middle and secondary schools, ability grouping works to channel learning opportunities to students. The authors trace the history of ability grouping and review the findings regarding ability group effects, the assignment process, and mobility across groups in each school sector. Their analyses suggest that the way ability grouping is implemented in Catholic schools contributes to the Catholic school advantage in achievement

Diffuse Interstellar Bands in z < 0.6 CaII Absorbers

The diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) probably arise from complex organic molecules whose strength in local galaxies correlates with neutral hydrogen column density, N(HI), and dust reddening, E(B-V). Since CaII absorbers in quasar (QSO) spectra are posited to have high N(HI) and significant E(B-V), they represent promising sites for the detection of DIBs at cosmological distances. Here we present the results from the first search for DIBs in 9 CaII-selected absorbers at 0.07 < z_abs < 0.55. We detect the 5780Ang DIB in one line of sight at z_abs = 0.1556; this is only the second QSO absorber in which a DIB has been detected. Unlike the majority of local DIB sight-lines, both QSO absorbers with detected DIBs show weak 6284Ang absorption compared with the 5780Ang band. This may be indicative of different physical conditions in intermediate redshift QSO absorbers compared with local galaxies. Assuming that local relations between the 5780Ang DIB strength and N(HI) and E(B-V) apply in QSO absorbers, DIB detections and limits can be used to derive N(HI) and E(B-V). For the one absorber in this study with a detected DIB, we derive E(B-V) = 0.23mag and log[N(HI)] >= 20.9, consistent with previous conclusions that CaII systems have high HI column densities and significant reddening. For the remaining 8 CaII-selected absorbers with 5780Ang DIB non-detections, we derive E(B-V) upper limits of 0.1-0.3mag.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted to MNRAS Letter

Galactic Cosmic Rays from Supernova Remnants: II Shock Acceleration of Gas and Dust

This is the second paper (the first was astro-ph/9704267) of a series analysing the Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) composition and origin. In this we present a quantitative model of GCR origin and acceleration based on the acceleration of a mixture of interstellar and/or circumstellar gas and dust by supernova remnant blast waves. We present results from a nonlinear shock model which includes (i) the direct acceleration of interstellar gas-phase ions, (ii) a simplified model for the direct acceleration of weakly charged dust grains to energies of order 100keV/amu simultaneously with the gas ions, (iii) frictional energy losses of the grains colliding with the gas, (iv) sputtering of ions of refractory elements from the accelerated grains and (v) the further shock acceleration of the sputtered ions to cosmic ray energies. The calculated GCR composition and spectra are in good agreement with observations.Comment: to appear in ApJ, 51 pages, LaTeX with AAS macros, 9 postscript figures, also available from ftp://wonka.physics.ncsu.edu/pub/elliso

Price competition with consumer confusion

Copyright © 2013, INFORMS. Article posted with permission.This paper proposes a model in which identical sellers of a homogeneous product compete in both prices and price frames (i.e., ways to present price information). Frame choices affect the comparability of price offers and may cause consumer confusion and lower price sensitivity. In equilibrium, firms randomize their frame choices to obfuscate price comparisons and sustain positive profits. The nature of the equilibrium depends on whether frame differentiation or frame complexity is more confusing. Moreover, an increase in the number of competitors induces firms to rely more on frame complexity, and this may boost industry profits and lower consumer surplus