Multi-aspect, robust, and memory exclusive guest os fingerprinting

Precise fingerprinting of an operating system (OS) is critical to many security and forensics applications in the cloud, such as virtual machine (VM) introspection, penetration testing, guest OS administration, kernel dump analysis, and memory forensics. The existing OS fingerprinting techniques primarily inspect network packets or CPU states, and they all fall short in precision and usability. As the physical memory of a VM always exists in all these applications, in this article, we present OS-Sommelier+, a multi-aspect, memory exclusive approach for precise and robust guest OS fingerprinting in the cloud. It works as follows: given a physical memory dump of a guest OS, OS-Sommelier+ first uses a code hash based approach from kernel code aspect to determine the guest OS version. If code hash approach fails, OS-Sommelier+ then uses a kernel data signature based approach from kernel data aspect to determine the version. We have implemented a prototype system, and tested it with a number of Linux kernels. Our evaluation results show that the code hash approach is faster but can only fingerprint the known kernels, and data signature approach complements the code signature approach and can fingerprint even unknown kernels

A Cosmological Model with Dark Spinor Source

In this paper, we discuss the system of Friedman-Robertson-Walker metric coupling with massive nonlinear dark spinors in detail, where the thermodynamic movement of spinors is also taken into account. The results show that, the nonlinear potential of the spinor field can provide a tiny negative pressure, which resists the Universe to become singular. The solution is oscillating in time and closed in space, which approximately takes the following form g_{\mu\nu}=\bar R^2(1-\delta\cos t)^2\diag(1,-1,-\sin^2r ,-\sin^2r \sin^2\theta), with $\bar R= (1\sim 2)\times 10^{12}$ light year, and $\delta=0.96\sim 0.99$. The present time is about $t\sim 18^\circ$.Comment: 13 pages, no figure, to appear in IJMP

Glassy Dynamics in a Frustrated Spin System: Role of Defects

In an effort to understand the glass transition, the kinetics of a spin model with frustration but no quenched randomness has been analyzed. The phenomenology of the spin model is remarkably similiar to that of structural glasses. Analysis of the model suggests that defects play a major role in dictating the dynamics as the glass transition is approached.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted in J. Phys.: Condensed Matter, proceedings of the Trieste workshop on "Unifying Concepts in Glass Physics

Electronic correlations and unusual superconducting response in the optical properties of the iron-chalcogenide FeTe0.55Se0.45

The in-plane complex optical properties of the iron-chalcogenide superconductor FeTe0.55Se0.45 have been determined above and below the critical temperature Tc = 14 K. At room temperature the conductivity is described by a weakly-interacting Fermi liquid; however, below 100 K the scattering rate develops a frequency dependence in the terahertz region, signaling the increasingly correlated nature of this material. We estimate the dc conductivity just above Tc to be sigma_dc ~ 3500 Ohm-1cm-1 and the superfluid density rho_s0 ~ 9 x 10^6 cm-2, which places this material close to the scaling line rho_s0/8 ~ 8.1 sigma_dc Tc for a BCS dirty-limit superconductor. Below Tc the optical conductivity reveals two gap features at Delta_1,2 ~ 2.5 and ~ 5.1 meV.Comment: Minor revisions, 5 pages, 4 figure

Hysteretic ac losses in a superconductor strip between flat magnetic shields

Hysteretic ac losses in a thin, current-carrying superconductor strip located between two flat magnetic shields of infinite permeability are calculated using Bean's model of the critical state. For the shields oriented parallel to the plane of the strip, penetration of the self-induced magnetic field is enhanced, and the current dependence of the ac loss resembles that in an isolated superconductor slab, whereas for the shields oriented perpendicular to the plane of the strip, penetration of the self-induced magnetic field is impaired, and the current dependence of the ac loss is similar to that in a superconductor strip flanked by two parallel superconducting shields. Thus, hysteretic ac losses can strongly augment or, respectively, wane when the shields approach the strip.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Suppressed antinodal coherence with a single d-wave superconducting gap leads to two energy scales in underdoped cuprates

Conventional superconductors are characterized by a single energy scale, the superconducting gap, which is proportional to the critical temperature Tc . In hole-doped high-Tc copper oxide superconductors, previous experiments have established the existence of two distinct energy scales for doping levels below the optimal one. The origin and significance of these two scales are largely unexplained, although they have often been viewed as evidence for two gaps, possibly of distinct physical origins. By measuring the temperature dependence of the electronic Raman response of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d (Bi-2212) and HgBa2CuO4+d (Hg-1201) crystals with different doping levels, we establish that these two scales are associated with coherent excitations of the superconducting state which disappears at Tc. Using a simple model, we show that these two scales do not require the existence of two gaps. Rather, a single d-wave superconducting gap with a loss of Bogoliubov quasiparticle spectral weight in the antinodal region is shown to reconcile spectroscopic and transport measurements.Comment: 3 figure

Universal quasiparticle decoherence in hole- and electron-doped high-Tc cuprates

We use angle-resolved photoemission to unravel the quasiparticle decoherence process in the high-$T_c$ cuprates. The coherent band is highly renormalized, and the incoherent part manifests itself as a nearly vertical ``dive'' in the $E$-$k$ intensity plot that approaches the bare band bottom. We find that the coherence-incoherence crossover energies in the hole- and electron-doped cuprates are quite different, but scale to their corresponding bare bandwidth. This rules out antiferromagnetic fluctuations as the main source for decoherence. We also observe the coherent band bottom at the zone center, whose intensity is strongly suppressed by the decoherence process. Consequently, the coherent band dispersion for both hole- and electron-doped cuprates is obtained, and is qualitatively consistent with the framework of Gutzwiller projection.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure