10,165 research outputs found
Heavy Quark Physics From Lattice QCD
We review the application of lattice QCD to the phenomenology of b- and
c-quarks. After a short discussion of the lattice techniques used to evaluate
hadronic matrix elements and the corresponding systematic uncertainties, we
summarise results for leptonic decay constants, B--Bbar mixing, semileptonic
and rare radiative decays. A discussion of the determination of heavy quark
effective theory parameters is followed by an explanation of the difficulty in
applying lattice methods to exclusive nonleptonic decays.Comment: 52 pages LaTeX with 10 eps files. Requires: hfsprocl.sty (included)
plus axodraw.sty, rotating.sty and array.sty. To appear in Heavy Flavours
(2nd edition) edited by A J Buras and M Lindner (World Scientific,
Singapore). Revised version corrects typo in axis labelling of Fig 1
A model for the anisotropic response of fibrous soft tissues using six discrete fibre bundles
The development of accurate constitutive models of fibrous soft-tissues is a challenging problem. Many consider the tissue to be a collection of fibres with a continuous distribution function representing their orientations. A novel discrete fibre model is presented consisting of six weighted fibre bundles. Each bundle is oriented such that they pass through opposing vertices of a regular icosahedron. A novel aspect of the model is the use of simple analytical distribution functions to simulate the undulated collagen fibres. This approach yields a closed form analytical expression for the strain energy function for the collagen fibre bundle that avoids the sometimes costly numerical integration of some statistical distribution functions. The elastin fibres are characterized by a neo-Hookean strain energy function. The model accurately simulates the biaxial stretching of rabbit-skin (error-of-fit 8.7%), the uniaxial stretching of pig-skin (error-of-fit 7.6%), equibiaxial loading of aortic valve cusp (error-of-fit 0.8%), and the simple shear of rat septal myocardium (error-of-fit 9.1%). The proposed model compares favourably with previously published soft-tissue models and alternative methods of representing undulated collagen fibres. The stiffness of collagen fibres predicted by the model ranges from 8.0 MPa to 0.93 GPa. The stiffness of elastin fibres ranges from 2.5 kPa to 154.4 kPa. The anisotropy of model resulting from the representation of the fibre field with a discrete number of fibres is also explored
On the problems of measuring transient temperature in cryogenic fluids
Cryogenic sensor errors in measuring transient temperature in cryogenic fluid
Are all fast radio bursts repeating sources?
We present Monte-Carlo simulations of a cosmological population of repeating
fast radio burst (FRB) sources whose comoving density follows the cosmic star
formation rate history. We assume a power-law model for the intrinsic energy
distribution for each repeating FRB source located at a randomly chosen
position in the sky and simulate their dispersion measures (DMs) and
propagation effects along the chosen lines-of-sight to various telescopes. In
one scenario, an exponential distribution for the intrinsic wait times between
pulses is chosen, and in a second scenario we model the observed pulse arrival
times to follow a Weibull distribution. For both models we determine whether
the FRB source would be deemed a repeater based on the telescope sensitivity
and time spent on follow-up observations. We are unable to rule out the
existence of a single FRB population based on comparisons of our simulations
with the longest FRB follow-up observations performed. We however rule out the
possibility of FRBs 171020 and 010724 repeating with the same rate statistics
as FRB 121102 and also constrain the slope of a power-law fit to the FRB energy
distribution to be . All-sky simulations of repeating FRB
sources imply that the detection of singular events correspond to the bright
tail-end of the adopted energy distribution due to the combination of the
increase in volume probed with distance, and the position of the burst in the
telescope beam.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Galactic Archaeology and Minimum Spanning Trees
Chemical tagging of stellar debris from disrupted open clusters and
associations underpins the science cases for next-generation multi-object
spectroscopic surveys. As part of the Galactic Archaeology project TraCD
(Tracking Cluster Debris), a preliminary attempt at reconstructing the birth
clouds of now phase-mixed thin disk debris is undertaken using a parametric
minimum spanning tree (MST) approach. Empirically-motivated chemical abundance
pattern uncertainties (for a 10-dimensional chemistry-space) are applied to
NBODY6-realised stellar associations dissolved into a background sea of field
stars, all evolving in a Milky Way potential. We demonstrate that significant
population reconstruction degeneracies appear when the abundance uncertainties
approach 0.1 dex and the parameterised MST approach is employed; more
sophisticated methodologies will be required to ameliorate these degeneracies.Comment: To appear in "Multi-Object Spectroscopy in the Next Decade: Big
Questions, Large Surveys and Wide Fields"; Held: Santa Cruz de La Palma,
Canary Islands, Spain, 2-6 Mar 2015; ed. I Skillen & S. Trager; ASP
Conference Series (Figures now optimised for B&W printing
decays and twisted boundary conditions
We propose a new method to evaluate the Lellouch-L\"uscher factor which
relates the matrix elements computed on a finite
lattice to the physical (infinite-volume) decay amplitudes. The method relies
on the use of partially twisted boundary conditions, which allow the s-wave
phase shift to be computed as an almost continuous function of the
centre-of-mass relative momentum and hence for its derivative to be evaluated.
We successfully demonstrate the feasibility of the technique in an exploratory
computation.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure
The construction of an instrument for the evaluation of student teachers.
Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit
Quark model study of the semileptonic B -> pi decay
The semileptonic decay B->pi is studied starting from a simple quark model
and taking into account the effect of the B* resonance. A novel, multiply
subtracted, Omn\`es dispersion relation has been implemented to extend the
predictions of the quark model to all physical q^2 values. We find
|V_{ub}|=0.0034 +/- 0.0003(exp.)+/- 0.0007(theory), in good agreement with
experiment.Comment: Three pages, two figures. To appear in the proceedings of Quark
Confinament and Hadron Spectrum VII. Azores, September 200
Simple and accurate modelling of the gravitational potential produced by thick and thin exponential discs
We present accurate models of the gravitational potential produced by a radially exponential disc mass distribution. The models are produced by combining three separate Miyamoto–Nagai discs. Such models have been used previously to model the disc of the Milky Way, but here we extend this framework to allow its application to discs of any mass, scalelength, and a wide range of thickness from infinitely thin to near spherical (ellipticities from 0 to 0.9). The models have the advantage of simplicity of implementation, and we expect faster run speeds over a double exponential disc treatment. The potentials are fully analytical, and differentiable at all points. The mass distribution of our models deviates from the radial mass distribution of a pure exponential disc by <0.4 per cent out to 4 disc scalelengths, and <1.9 per cent out to 10 disc scalelengths. We tabulate fitting parameters which facilitate construction of exponential discs for any scalelength, and a wide range of disc thickness (a user-friendly, web-based interface is also available). Our recipe is well suited for numerical modelling of the tidal effects of a giant disc galaxy on star clusters or dwarf galaxies. We consider three worked examples; the Milky Way thin and thick disc, and a discy dwarf galaxy
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