14,947 research outputs found
Lithospheric failure on Venus
We develop a predictive model which has the ability to explain a postulated style of episodic plate tectonics on Venus, through the periodic occurrence of lithospheric subduction events. Present-day incipient subduction zones are associated with the existence of arcuate trenches on the Venusian lithosphere. These trenches resemble terrestrial subduction zones, and occur at the rim of coronae, uplift features thought to be due to deep-mantle convective plumes. The model we adopt represents the lithosphere as the thermal boundary layer which lies above a convective plume. We assume a temperature-dependent nonlinear viscoelastic rheology, and we assume a stress-based criterion for plastic yield. In developing this latter criterion, we are led to a re-interpretation of the strength envelope which is commonly used in analysing lithospheric stress, and we propose that the plastic yield strength has meaning (and is finite) below the lithosphere, using behaviour in the Earth as our 'laboratory' justification for this view. An inferred yield stress on the Earth is ca. 300 bar (30 MPa). Our model then shows that a thickening lithosphere becomes progressively more fluid as the stresses induced by the buoyant convective plume become large. Failure occurs when the effective lithosphere viscosity becomes equal to that of the underlying mantle. We show that reasonable expected values of yield stress in the range 100-200 bar (10-20 MPa) for Venusian mantle rocks are consistent within the framework of the model with radii of coronal trenches in the range 100-1200 km, and with the approximate time (200-800 Myr) which they may take to develop
Temperature surges in current-limiting circuit devices.
This paper studies the problem of heat transfer in a thermistor, which is used as a switching device in electronic circuits. The temperature field is coupled to the current flow by ohmic heating in the device, and the problem is rendered highly nonlinear by a very rapid variation of electrical conductivity with temperature. Approximate methods based on high activation energy asymptotics are developed to describe the transient heat flow, which occurs when the circuit is switched on. In particular, it is found that a transient 'surge' phenomenon (akin to thermal runaway, but self-saturating) occurs, and we conjecture that this phenomenon may be associated with cracking of thermistors, which sometimes occurs during operation
Quantum computing with nearest neighbor interactions and error rates over 1%
Large-scale quantum computation will only be achieved if experimentally
implementable quantum error correction procedures are devised that can tolerate
experimentally achievable error rates. We describe a quantum error correction
procedure that requires only a 2-D square lattice of qubits that can interact
with their nearest neighbors, yet can tolerate quantum gate error rates over
1%. The precise maximum tolerable error rate depends on the error model, and we
calculate values in the range 1.1--1.4% for various physically reasonable
models. Even the lowest value represents the highest threshold error rate
calculated to date in a geometrically constrained setting, and a 50%
improvement over the previous record.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figure
The Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg Model on Fullerene-Type Symmetry Clusters
The nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model is
considered for spins sitting on the vertices of clusters with the connectivity
of fullerene molecules and a number of sites ranging from 24 to 32. Using
the permutational and spin inversion symmetries of the Hamiltonian the low
energy spectrum is calculated for all the irreducible representations of the
symmetry group of each cluster. Frustration and connectivity result in
non-trivial low energy properties, with the lowest excited states being
singlets except for . Same hexagon and same pentagon correlations are the
most effective in the minimization of the energy, with the
symmetry cluster having an unusually strong singlet intra-pentagon correlation.
The magnetization in a field shows no discontinuities unlike the icosahedral
fullerene clusters, but only plateaux with the most pronounced for
. The spatial symmetry as well as the connectivity of the clusters appear
to be important for the determination of their magnetic properties.Comment: Extended to include low energy spectra, correlation functions and
magnetization data of clusters up to 32 site
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