12,201 research outputs found
Written evidence to the House of Commons Business and Skills Committee (ed) Local enterprise partnerships and the Regional Growth Fund
The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee announced an inquiry looking into the Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Regional Growth Fund. In particular, the Committee examined how the proposed new structures would work, alongside issues such as distribution of funding, value for money, accountability, timing, transitional arrangements and required legislation. A Report on the Local Enterprise Partnerships was published on 26 April 2013
Vacuum decay via Lorentzian wormholes
We speculate about the spacetime description due to the presence of
Lorentzian wormholes (handles in spacetime joining two distant regions or other
universes) in quantum gravity. The semiclassical rate of production of these
Lorentzian wormholes in Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetimes is calculated as a
result of the spontaneous decay of vacuum due to a real tunneling
configuration. In the magnetic case it only depends on the field theoretical
fine structure constant. We predict that the quantum probability corresponding
to the nucleation of such geodesically complete spacetimes should be actually
negligible in our physical Universe
Relative contribution of abundant and rare species to speciesâenergy relationships
A major goal of ecology is to understand spatial variation in species richness. The latter is markedly influenced by energy availability and appears to be influenced more by common species than rare ones; speciesâenergy relationships should thus be stronger for common species. Speciesâenergy relationships may arise because high-energy areas support more individuals, and these larger populations may buffer species from extinction. As extinction risk is a negative decelerating function of population size, this more-individuals hypothesis (MIH) predicts that rare species should respond more strongly to energy. We investigate these opposing predictions using British breeding bird data and find that, contrary to the MIH, common species contribute more to speciesâenergy relationships than rare ones
Thermal Analyzer for Planetary Soil (TAPS): an in Situ Instrument for Mineral and Volatile-element Measurements
Thermal Analyzer for Planetary Soil (TAPS) offers a specific implementation for the generic thermal analyzer/evolved-gas analyzer (TA/EGA) function included in the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) strawman payload; applications to asteroids and comets are also possible. The baseline TAPS is a single-sample differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), backed by a capacitive-polymer humidity sensor, with an integrated sampling mechanism. After placement on a planetary surface, TAPS acquires 10-50 mg of soil or sediment and heats the sample from ambient temperature to 1000-1300 K. During heating, DSC data are taken for the solid and evolved gases are swept past the water sensor. Through ground based data analysis, multicomponent DSC data are deconvolved and correlated with the water release profile to quantitatively determine the types and relative proportions of volatile-bearing minerals such as clays and other hydrates, carbonates, and nitrates. The rapid-response humidity sensors also achieve quantitative analysis of total water. After conclusion of soil-analysis operations, the humidity sensors become available for meteorology. The baseline design fits within a circular-cylindrical volume less than 1000 cm(sup 3), occupies 1.2 kg mass, and consumes about 2 Whr of power per analysis. Enhanced designs would acquire and analyze multiple samples and employ additional microchemical sensors for analysis of CO2, SO2, NO(x), and other gaseous species. Atmospheric pumps are also being considered as alternatives to pressurized purge gas
Bohm and Einstein-Sasaki Metrics, Black Holes and Cosmological Event Horizons
We study physical applications of the Bohm metrics, which are infinite
sequences of inhomogeneous Einstein metrics on spheres and products of spheres
of dimension 5 <= d <= 9. We prove that all the Bohm metrics on S^3 x S^2 and
S^3 x S^3 have negative eigenvalue modes of the Lichnerowicz operator and by
numerical methods we establish that Bohm metrics on S^5 have negative
eigenvalues too. We argue that all the Bohm metrics will have negative modes.
These results imply that higher-dimensional black-hole spacetimes where the
Bohm metric replaces the usual round sphere metric are classically unstable. We
also show that the stability criterion for Freund-Rubin solutions is the same
as for black-hole stability, and hence such solutions using Bohm metrics will
also be unstable. We consider possible endpoints of the instabilities, and show
that all Einstein-Sasaki manifolds give stable solutions. We show how Wick
rotation of Bohm metrics gives spacetimes that provide counterexamples to a
strict form of the Cosmic Baldness conjecture, but they are still consistent
with the intuition behind the cosmic No-Hair conjectures. We show how the
Lorentzian metrics may be created ``from nothing'' in a no-boundary setting. We
argue that Lorentzian Bohm metrics are unstable to decay to de Sitter
spacetime. We also argue that noncompact versions of the Bohm metrics have
infinitely many negative Lichernowicz modes, and we conjecture a general
relation between Lichnerowicz eigenvalues and non-uniqueness of the Dirichlet
problem for Einstein's equations.Comment: 53 pages, 11 figure
Nucleating Black Holes via Non-Orientable Instantons
We extend the analysis of black hole pair creation to include non- orientable
instantons. We classify these instantons in terms of their fundamental
symmetries and orientations. Many of these instantons admit the pin structure
which corresponds to the fermions actually observed in nature, and so the
natural objection that these manifolds do not admit spin structure may not be
relevant. Furthermore, we analyse the thermodynamical properties of
non-orientable black holes and find that in the non-extreme case, there are
interesting modifications of the usual formulae for temperature and entropy.Comment: 27 pages LaTeX, minor typos are correcte
Entropy for dilatonic black hole
The area formula for entropy is extended to the case of a dilatonic black
hole. The entropy of a scalar field in the background of such a black hole is
calculated semiclassically. The area and cutoff dependences are normal {\it
except in the extremal case}, where the area is zero but the entropy nonzero.Comment: 13 pages (Applicability of area formula justified and a reference
added
Mixing of Xi_c and Xi_c' Baryons
The mixing angle between the Xi_c and Xi_c' baryons is shown to be small,
with a negligible shift in the Xi_c masses.Comment: One missprint corrected. The numerator of Eq. (12) should read
{2[(Sigma_c^{*++}-Sigma_c^{++})-(Xi_c^{*+}-Xi_c^{'+})]} The correct equation
was used in the calculation so no other change is mad
Variable cavity volume tooling for high-performance resin infusion moulding
This article describes the research carried out by Warwick under the BAE Systems/EPSRC programme âFlapless Aerial Vehicles Integrated Interdisciplinary Research â FLAVIIRâ. Warwick's aim in FLAVIIR was to develop low-cost innovative tooling technologies to enable the affordable manufacture of complex composite aerospace structures and to help realize the aim of the Grand Challenge of maintenance-free, low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle manufacture. This article focuses on the evaluation of a novel tooling process (variable cavity tooling) to enable the complete infusion of resin throughout non-crimp fabric within a mould cavity under low (0.1 MPa) injection pressure. The contribution of the primary processing parameters to the mechanical properties of a carbon composite component (bulk-head lug section), and the interactions between parameters, was determined. The initial mould gap (di) was identified as having the most significant effect on all measured mechanical properties, but complex interactions between di, n (number of fabric layers), and vc (mould closure rate) were observed. The process capability was low due to the manual processing, but was improved through process optimization, and delivered properties comparable to high-pressure resin transfer moulding
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