Fluctuations and the QCD phase diagram

In this contribution the role of quantum fluctuations for the QCD phase diagram is discussed. This concerns in particular the importance of the matter back-reaction to the gluonic sector. The impact of these fluctuations on the location of the confinement/deconfinement and the chiral transition lines as well as their interrelation are investigated. Consequences of our findings for the size of a possible quarkyonic phase and location of a critical endpoint in the phase diagram are drawn.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Physics of Atomic Nucle

Cross-Section Fluctuations in Chaotic Scattering

For the theoretical prediction of cross-section fluctuations in chaotic scattering, the cross-section autocorrelation function is needed. That function is not known analytically. Using experimental data and numerical simulations, we show that an analytical approximation to the cross-section autocorrelation function can be obtained with the help of expressions first derived by Davis and Boose. Given the values of the average S-matrix elements and the mean level density of the scattering system, one can then reliably predict cross-section fluctuations

Spatial heterogeneity of air pollution statistics in Europe

Air pollution is one of the leading causes of death globally, and continues to have a detrimental effect on our health. In light of these impacts, an extensive range of statistical modelling approaches has been devised in order to better understand air pollution statistics. However, the time-varying statistics of different types of air pollutants are far from being fully understood. The observed probability density functions (PDFs) of concentrations depend very much on the spatial location and on the pollutant substance. In this paper, we analyse a large variety of data from 3544 different European monitoring sites and show that the PDFs of nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide ([Formula: see text] ) and particulate matter ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] ) concentrations generically exhibit heavy tails and are asymptotically well approximated by q-exponential distributions with a given width parameter [Formula: see text] . We observe that the power-law parameter q and the width parameter [Formula: see text] vary widely for the different spatial locations. For each substance, we find different patterns of parameter clouds in the [Formula: see text] plane. These depend on the type of pollutants and on the environmental characteristics (urban/suburban/rural/traffic/industrial/background). This means the effective statistical physics description of air pollution exhibits a strong degree of spatial heterogeneity

Nonperturbative Flow Equations with Heat-Kernel Methods at finite Temperature

We derive nonperturbative flow equations within an effective constituent quark model for two quark flavors. Heat-kernel methods are employed for a renormalization group improved effective potential. We study the evolution of the effective potential with respect to an infrared cutoff scale $k$ at vanishing temperature. At the first stage we omit corrections coming from the anomalous dimension. This investigation is extrapolated to finite temperature, where we find a second order phase transition in the chiral limit at $T_c \approx 130$ MeV. Due to a smooth decoupling of massive modes, we can directly link the low-temperature four-dimensional theory to the three-dimensional high-temperature theory and can determine universal critical exponents.Comment: 17 pages including 7 figures, LaTeX, uses epsf.sty. Talk given by the first author at Research Workshop on Deconfinement at Finite Temperature and Density, JINR Dubna, Russia, October 1-29, 199

Exceptional Points in a Microwave Billiard with Time-Reversal Invariance Violation

We report on the experimental study of an exceptional point (EP) in a dissipative microwave billiard with induced time-reversal invariance (T) violation. The associated two-state Hamiltonian is non-Hermitian and non-symmetric. It is determined experimentally on a narrow grid in a parameter plane around the EP. At the EP the size of T violation is given by the relative phase of the eigenvector components. The eigenvectors are adiabatically transported around the EP, whereupon they gather geometric phases and in addition geometric amplitudes different from unity

Design for Health 4.0: Exploration of a New Area

Driven by networked Electronic Health Record systems, Artificial Intelligence, real-time data from wearable devices with an overlay of invisible user interfaces and improved analytics, Health 4.0 is changing the healthcare industry. The focus on collaboration, coherence, and convergence that will make healthcare more predictive and personalised. Furthermore, Health 4.0 realises the value of data more consistently and effectively. It can pinpoint areas of improvement and enable more informed decisions. What it also does is help move the entire healthcare industry from a system that is reactive and focused on fee-for-service to a system that is value-based, which measures outcomes and ensures proactive prevention. In this paper, the authors will first explore the realm of the emerging area of Health 4.0 and identify its opportunities and challenges. This includes understanding the relevant base technologies as well as the design principles for the realization of smart healthcare product, systems and product-service-systems of the future. Following on from there, the authors focus on the role of design in the specific context of healthcare

Field-enhancement calculations for a field-distortion triggered spark gap

We present the results of numerical field calculation which supplement a recent article in which we described a new design concept for field-distortion triggered spark gaps. The calculations verify the shielding and field enhancement assumptions made in the article, and they provide insight into the interaction of the design tradeoffs associated with simultaneously maximizing the holdoff voltage and the triggering capability of the gap