Perturbative renormalisation of quark bilinear operators for overlap fermions with and without stout links and improved gauge action

We calculate lattice renormalisation constants of local and one-link quark operators for overlap fermions and improved gauge actions in one-loop perturbation theory. For the local operators we stout smear the SU(3) links in the fermionic action. Using the popular tadpole improved L\"uscher-Weisz actions at $\beta=8.45$ and $\beta=8.0$ we present numerical values for the Z factors in the $\bar{MS}$ scheme (partly as function of the stout smearing strength). We compare various levels of mean field (tadpole) improvement which have been applied to our results.Comment: 7 page

New insights into autogenous self-healing with NMR tests

Concrete is a brittle composite cementitious material that easily fractures under tensile loading. Microcracks can appear throughout the concrete prior to application of any load because of temperature-induced strain and autogenous and drying shrinkage. There is no doubt that these cracks provide preferential access for aggressive agents to penetrate into the concrete, probably causing corrosion of reinforcement steel and degradation of concrete. As a result, the service life of reinforced concrete structures is shortened. Fortunately, concrete has the ability to heal the crack itself without manual efforts when water is present in cracks. This ability is defined as autogenous self-healing. However, the effect of migration of water from cracks into the bulk paste on autogenous self-healing is not clear yet. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of water migration from cracks into the bulk paste on autogenous self-healing. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique was utilized to monitor water migration from cracks into the bulk paste during the process of autogenous self-healing. NMR results show that in the beginning of autogenous self-healing the water in the crack migrates into the bulk paste and the water content of the bulk paste increases significantly. However, after 5-hour autogenous self-healing period the amount of non-chemically bound water in the bulk paste (adjacent to the crack surfaces) determined by NMR decreases instead. It indicates that some of the water coming from the crack was used by additional hydration of unhydrated cement particles in the bulk paste during the process of autogenous self-healing. NMR results reflect that most of the reaction products of additional hydration are formed in the bulk paste adjacent to the crack surfaces, rather than in the crack. Because of the additional hydration caused by the water from the crack, the capillary porosity of the bulk paste adjacent to the crack surfaces decreases significantly. Before this work the filling of cracks is the main concern in term of autogenous self-healing. The densification of the cement paste adjacent to the crack surfaces, which was observed for the first time in this study, will also decrease the ingress of aggressive agents into the bulk concrete matrix and prolong the service life of concrete structures. This observation provides a new insight into autogenous self-healing in cement paste

How ions distribute in a drying porous medium: A simple model

Salt crystallization at surfaces is an important problem for buildings and monuments. We do not consider the formation of salt crystals as such, but focus on transport properties of ions in a drying porous medium. We deal with the first phase of the drying process, where the water is still uniformly distributed throughout the medium. An approximate model is presented, which accounts for both convection and diffusion. It is shown that the key parameter is the Peclet number at the evaporating surface, PehL/D, where h, L, , and D are the drying rate, sample size, porosity, and diffusion constant, respectively. When Pe1 (diffusion dominates over convection) the ions remain uniformly distributed throughout the system. Strong accumulation at the evaporating surface occurs for Pe1 (convection dominates over diffusion). Crossover behavior is found for Pe1. Therefore, it is likely that the first crystals will be formed both in the bulk and at the interfaces of the material when Pe1. For high values of Pe the density peak at the evaporating surface will reach the saturation concentration long before it is reached in the bulk of the material. As a consequence, the salt starts to crystallize at the interfaces

Reply to "Comment on `Lattice determination of Sigma - Lambda mixing' "

In this Reply, we respond to the above Comment. Our computation [Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 074512] only took into account pure QCD effects, arising from quark mass differences, so it is not surprising that there are discrepancies in isospin splittings and in the Sigma - Lambda mixing angle. We expect that these discrepancies will be smaller in a full calculation incorporating QED effects.Comment: 5 page

Robuustheid in een samengesteld mobiliteitssysteem; over tijdelijke optima en gelaagde bestuurskundige uitdagingen

Zowel in mobiliteitsonderzoek als in de beleidspraktijk valt er recentelijk een onmiskenbaar streven naar 'robuustheid' waar te nemen. Dit streven is vaak een reactie op een als zeer dynamisch ervaren omgeving. Het is daarbij echter opvallend dat er zeer uiteenlopende invullingen aan dit concept worden gegeven. Dit roept de vraag op of het concept ‘robuustheid’ wel van toegevoegde waarde is voor het bestuur in het mobiliteitsdomein. Maar vooral roept het de vraag op hoe het dat kan zijn. In deze bijdrage wordt geredeneerd vanuit de complexiteit van een samengesteld mobiliteitssysteem: De gehanteerde premisse is dat pogingen om mobiliteit te sturen of te beïnvloeden plaatsvinden in dynamische en slechts deels controleerbare omgevingen. Het streven naar robuustheid is zo beschouwd dus begrijpelijk, maar ook inherent moeizaam. De centrale vraag die moet worden beantwoord is: “Hoe kan het concept ‘robuustheid’ helpen richting te geven aan het handelen in een samengesteld, gelaagd en padafhankelijk mobiliteitssysteem?” De vraag wordt beantwoord vanuit een theoretische reflectie op de verschillende verschijningsvormen en interpretaties van ‘robuustheid’. Vanuit onze empirie (in zowel weg, water als rail) komt dan naar voren dat robuustheid soms meer en soms minder dynamisch wordt ingevuld, dat soms fysieke, soms juist sociale dimensies worden benadrukt, en dat het onder uiteenlopende randvoorwaarden wordt vormgegeven. Daarbij valt ook op dat robuustheid in deelsystemen niet altijd tot algehele robuustheid leidt, en vaak deeloplossingen biedt. Sterker nog, in de meer omvattende analyses van het mobiliteitssysteem is de systemische robuustheid eerder deel van het probleem dan de oplossing. Op ‘robuustheid’ gericht mobiliteitsbeleid betreft gewoonlijk het managen van deelsystemen. Deze doorgaans lokale en tijdelijke robuustheid zal bijsturing, onderhoud en aanpassing vergen. Maar daarbij zal ook beseft moeten worden dat deze robuustheid gelijktijdig weer deel uitmaakt van een gelaagd, vervlochten en in sommige opzichten ook wel hardnekkig mobiliteitssysteem

Accelerating Hasenbusch's acceleration of Hybrid Monte Carlo

Hasenbusch has proposed splitting the pseudo-fermionic action into two parts, in order to speed-up Hybrid Monte Carlo simulations of QCD. We have tested a different splitting, also using clover-improved Wilson fermions. An additional speed-up between 5 and 20% over the original proposal was achieved in production runs.Comment: Poster presented by H. Stueben at Lattice2003, meta-data correcte

Determination of the strange nucleon form factors

The strange contribution to the electric and magnetic form factors of the nucleon is determined at a range of discrete values of $Q^2$ up to $1.4$ GeV$^2$. This is done by combining recent lattice QCD results for the electromagnetic form factors of the octet baryons with experimental determinations of those quantities. The most precise result is a small negative value for the strange magnetic moment: $G_M^s(Q^2=0) = -0.07\pm0.03\,\mu_N$. At larger values of $Q^2$ both the electric and magnetic form factors are consistent with zero to within $2$-sigma

Charge Symmetry Violation in the Electromagnetic Form Factors of the Proton

Experimental tests of QCD through its predictions for the strange-quark content of the proton have been drastically restricted by our lack of knowledge of the violation of charge symmetry (CSV). We find unexpectedly tiny CSV in the proton's electromagnetic form factors by performing the first extraction of these quantities based on an analysis of lattice QCD data. The resulting values are an order of magnitude smaller than current bounds on proton strangeness from parity violating electron-proton scattering experiments. This result paves the way for a new generation of experimental measurements of the proton's strange form factors to challenge the predictions of QCD

The nucleon mass in N_f=2 lattice QCD: finite size effects from chiral perturbation theory

In the framework of relativistic SU(2)_f baryon chiral perturbation theory we calculate the volume dependence of the nucleon mass up to and including O(p^4). Since the parameters in the resulting finite size formulae are fixed from the pion mass dependence of the large volume nucleon masses and from phenomenology, we obtain a parameter-free prediction of the finite size effects. We present mass data from the recent N_f=2 simulations of the UKQCD and QCDSF collaborations and compare these data as well as published mass values from the dynamical simulations of the CP-PACS and JLQCD collaborations with the theoretical expectations. Remarkable agreement between the lattice data and the predictions of chiral perturbation theory in a finite volume is found.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures; references added + minor corrections; one more reference added, typo in eq.(25) corrected, additional clarifying remark

Axial and tensor charge of the nucleon with dynamical fermions

We present preliminary results for the axial and tensor charge of the nucleon obtained from simulations with N_f=2 clover fermions. A comparison with chiral perturbation theory is attempted.Comment: Talk presented at Lattice2004(weak), Fermilab, June 21-26, 2004, 3 pages, 3 figures, v2: one reference added, v3: acknowledgement extende