26,934 research outputs found
Transverse Mercator with an accuracy of a few nanometers
Implementations of two algorithms for the transverse Mercator projection are
described; these achieve accuracies close to machine precision. One is based on
the exact equations of Thompson and Lee and the other uses an extension of
Krueger's series for the projection to higher order. The exact method provides
an accuracy of 9 nm over the entire ellipsoid, while the errors in the series
method are less than 5 nm within 3900 km of the central meridian. In each case,
the meridian convergence and scale are also computed with similar accuracy. The
speed of the series method is competitive with other less accurate algorithms
and the exact method is about 5 times slower.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, 3 figures. Includes some revisions. Supplementary
material is available at http://geographiclib.sourceforge.net/tm.htm
Intentionality versus Constructive Empiricism
By focussing on the intentional character of observation in science, we argue that Constructive Empiricism â B.C. van Fraassenâs much debated and explored view of science â is inconsistent. We then argue there are at least two ways out of our Inconsistency Argument, one of which is more easily to square with Constructive Empiricism than the other
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Monoaromatic compounds in ambient air of various cities: A focus on correlations between the xylenes and ethylbenzene
Speciation of o-xylene, m-xylene, p-xylene and ethylbenzene was performed by gas chromatography from ambient air and liquid fuel samples collected at various locations in 19 cities in Europe, Asia and South America. The xylene's mixing ratios were compared to each other from the various locations, which included urban air, traffic air and liquid fuel. For all samples, the xylenes exhibited robust correlations, and the slopes remained constant. The m-xylene/p-xylene ratio was found to be 2.33±0.30, and the m-xylene/o-xylene ratio was found to be 1.84±0.25. These ratios remain persistent even in biomass combustion experiments (in South America and South Africa). Comparing the xylenes to toluene and benzene indicate that combustion, but not fuel evaporation, is the major common source of the xylenes in areas dominated by automotive emissions. Although a wide range of combustion types and combustion efficiencies were encountered throughout all the locations investigated, xylenes and ethylbenzene ratios remained persistent. We discuss the implications of the constancies in the xylenes and ethylbenzene ratios on atmospheric chemistry
The impact of the ATLAS zero-lepton, jets and missing momentum search on a CMSSM fit
Recent ATLAS data significantly extend the exclusion limits for
supersymmetric particles. We examine the impact of such data on global fits of
the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM) to indirect and
cosmological data. We calculate the likelihood map of the ATLAS search, taking
into account systematic errors on the signal and on the background. We validate
our calculation against the ATLAS determinaton of 95% confidence level
exclusion contours. A previous CMSSM global fit is then re-weighted by the
likelihood map, which takes a bite at the high probability density region of
the global fit, pushing scalar and gaugino masses up.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. v2 has bigger figures and fixed typos. v3 has
clarified explanation of our handling of signal systematic
R-parity violating resonant stop production at the Large Hadron Collider
We have investigated the resonant production of a stop at the Large Hadron
Collider, driven by baryon number violating interactions in supersymmetry. We
work in the framework of minimal supergravity models with the lightest
neutralino being the lightest supersymmetric particle which decays within the
detector. We look at various dilepton and trilepton final states, with or
without b-tags. A detailed background simulation is performed, and all possible
decay modes of the lighter stop are taken into account. We find that higher
stop masses are sometimes easier to probe, through the decay of the stop into
the third or fourth neutralino and their subsequent cascades. We also comment
on the detectability of such signals during the 7 TeV run, where, as expected,
only relatively light stops can be probed. Our conclusion is that the resonant
process may be probed, at both 10 and 14 TeV, with the R-parity violating
coupling {\lambda}"_{312} as low as 0.05, for a stop mass of about 1 TeV. The
possibility of distinguishing between resonant stop production and
pair-production is also discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables; Version accepted by JHE
Oscillatory behavior of two nonlinear microbial models of soil carbon decomposition
A number of nonlinear models have recently been proposed for simulating soil carbon decomposition. Their predictions of soil carbon responses to fresh litter input and warming differ significantly from conventional linear models. Using both stability analysis and numerical simulations, we showed that two of those nonlinear models (a two-pool model and a three-pool model) exhibit damped oscillatory responses to small perturbations. Stability analysis showed the frequency of oscillation is proportional to â(Δâ»Âč-1) Ks/Vs in the two-pool model, and to â(Δâ»Âč-1) Kl/Vl in the three-pool model, where Δ is microbial growth efficiency, Ks and Kl are the half saturation constants of soil and litter carbon, respectively, and /Vs and /Vl are the maximal rates of carbon decomposition per unit of microbial biomass for soil and litter carbon, respectively. For both models, the oscillation has a period of between 5 and 15 years depending on other parameter values, and has smaller amplitude at soil temperatures between 0 and 15°C. In addition, the equilibrium pool sizes of litter or soil carbon are insensitive to carbon inputs in the nonlinear model, but are proportional to carbon input in the conventional linear model. Under warming, the microbial biomass and litter carbon pools simulated by the nonlinear models can increase or decrease, depending whether Δ varies with temperature. In contrast, the conventional linear models always simulate a decrease in both microbial and litter carbon pools with warming. Based on the evidence available, we concluded that the oscillatory behavior and insensitivity of soil carbon to carbon input are notable features in these nonlinear models that are somewhat unrealistic. We recommend that a better model for capturing the soil carbon dynamics over decadal to centennial timescales would combine the sensitivity of the conventional models to carbon influx with the flexible response to warming of the nonlinear model.15 page(s
Orbital Angular Momentum in Scalar Diquark Model and QED
We compare the orbital angular momentum of the 'quark' in the scalar diquark
model as well as that of the electron in QED (to order {\alpha}) obtained from
the Jaffe-Manohar de- composition to that obtained from the Ji relation. We
estimate the importance of the vector potential in the definition of orbital
angular momentum
Suppression of electron spin decoherence in a quantum dot
The dominant source of decoherence for an electron spin in a quantum dot is
the hyperfine interaction with the surrounding bath of nuclear spins. The
decoherence process may be slowed down by subjecting the electron spin to
suitable sequences of external control pulses. We investigate the performance
of a variety of dynamical decoupling protocols using exact numerical
simulation. Emphasis is given to realistic pulse delays and the long-time
limit, beyond the domain where available analytical approaches are guaranteed
to work. Our results show that both deterministic and randomized protocols are
capable to significantly prolong the electron coherence time, even when using
control pulse separations substantially larger than what expected from the {\em
upper cutoff} frequency of the coupling spectrum between the electron and the
nuclear spins. In a realistic parameter range, the {\em total width} of such a
coupling spectrum appears to be the physically relevant frequency scale
affecting the overall quality of the decoupling.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Invited talk at the XXXVII Winter Colloquium on
the Physics of Quantum Electronics, Snowbird, Jan 2007. Submitted to J. Mod.
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