Critical Exponents for Diluted Resistor Networks

An approach by Stephen is used to investigate the critical properties of randomly diluted resistor networks near the percolation threshold by means of renormalized field theory. We reformulate an existing field theory by Harris and Lubensky. By a decomposition of the principal Feynman diagrams we obtain a type of diagrams which again can be interpreted as resistor networks. This new interpretation provides for an alternative way of evaluating the Feynman diagrams for random resistor networks. We calculate the resistance crossover exponent $\phi$ up to second order in $\epsilon=6-d$, where $d$ is the spatial dimension. Our result $\phi=1+\epsilon /42 +4\epsilon^2 /3087$ verifies a previous calculation by Lubensky and Wang, which itself was based on the Potts--model formulation of the random resistor network.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

Lack of self-averaging of the specific heat in the three-dimensional random-field Ising model

We apply the recently developed critical minimum energy subspace scheme for the investigation of the random-field Ising model. We point out that this method is well suited for the study of this model. The density of states is obtained via the Wang-Landau and broad histogram methods in a unified implementation by employing the N-fold version of the Wang-Landau scheme. The random-fields are obtained from a bimodal distribution ($h_{i}=\pm2$), and the scaling of the specific heat maxima is studied on cubic lattices with sizes ranging from $L=4$ to $L=32$. Observing the finite-size scaling behavior of the maxima of the specific heats we examine the question of saturation of the specific heat. The lack of self-averaging of this quantity is fully illustrated and it is shown that this property may be related to the question mentioned above.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, extended version with two new figures, version as accepted for publication to Physical Review

Quantifying traces of tool use: a novel morphometric analysis of damage patterns on percussive tools

Percussive technology continues to play an increasingly important role in understanding the evolution of tool use. Comparing the archaeological record with extractive foraging behaviors in nonhuman primates has focused on percussive implements as a key to investigating the origins of lithic technology. Despite this, archaeological approaches towards percussive tools have been obscured by a lack of standardized methodologies. Central to this issue have been the use of qualitative, non-diagnostic techniques to identify percussive tools from archaeological contexts. Here we describe a new morphometric method for distinguishing anthropogenically-generated damage patterns on percussive tools from naturally damaged river cobbles. We employ a geomatic approach through the use of three-dimensional scanning and geographical information systems software to statistically quantify the identification process in percussive technology research. This will strengthen current technological analyses of percussive tools in archaeological frameworks and open new avenues for translating behavioral inferences of early hominins from percussive damage patterns.Palaeontological Scientific Trust; National Research Foundation; National Science Foundation [BCS-1128170, BCS-0924476]; Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program [DGE-0801634]; George Washington University's Selective Excellence Fund; George Washington University Columbian College Facilitating Fund; Clare Hall College [JRF]; Newnham College [Gibbs Travelling Fellowship] Cambridge; European Research Council [283959]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Critical Behavior of Random Bond Potts Models

The effect of quenched impurities on systems which undergo first-order phase transitions is studied within the framework of the q-state Potts model. For large q a mapping to the random field Ising model is introduced which provides a simple physical explanation of the absence of any latent heat in 2D, and suggests that in higher dimensions such systems should exhibit a tricritical point with a correlation length exponent related to the exponents of the random field model by \nu = \nu_RF / (2 - \alpha_RF - \beta_RF). In 2D we analyze the model using finite-size scaling and conformal invariance, and find a continuous transition with a magnetic exponent \beta / \nu which varies continuously with q, and a weakly varying correlation length exponent \nu \approx 1. We find strong evidence for the multiscaling of the correlation functions as expected for such random systems.Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX. 4 figures included. Submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Solar Carbon Monoxide, Thermal Profiling, and the Abundances of C, O, and their Isotopes

A solar photospheric "thermal profiling" analysis is presented, exploiting the infrared rovibrational bands of carbon monoxide (CO) as observed with the McMath-Pierce Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) at Kitt Peak, and from above the Earth's atmosphere by the Shuttle-borne ATMOS experiment. Visible continuum intensities and center-limb behavior constrained the temperature profile of the deep photosphere, while CO center-limb behavior defined the thermal structure at higher altitudes. The oxygen abundance was self consistently determined from weak CO absorptions. Our analysis was meant to complement recent studies based on 3-D convection models which, among other things, have revised the historical solar oxygen (and carbon) abundance downward by a factor of nearly two; although in fact our conclusions do not support such a revision. Based on various considerations, an oxygen abundance of 700+/-100 ppm (parts per million relative to hydrogen) is recommended; the large uncertainty reflects the model sensitivity of CO. New solar isotopic ratios also are reported for 13C, 17O, and 18O.Comment: 90 pages, 19 figures (some with parts "a", "b", etc.); to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement

Off-shell effects in dilepton production from hot interacting mesons

The production of dielectrons in reactions involving a_1 mesons and pions is studied. We compare results obtained with different phenomenological Lagrangians that have been used in connection with hadronic matter and finite nuclei. We insist on the necessity for those interactions to satisfy known empirical properties of the strong interaction. Large off-shell effects in dielectron production are found and some consequences for the interpretation of heavy ion data are outlined. We also compare with results obtained using experimentally-extracted spectral functions.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2e, 2 figure

The polaroid image as photo-object

This article is part of a larger project on the cultural history of Polaroid photography and draws on research done at the Polaroid Corporate archive at Harvard and at the Polaroid company itself. It identifies two cultural practices engendered by Polaroid photography, which, at the point of its extinction, has briefly flared into visibility again. It argues that these practices are mistaken as novel but are in fact rediscoveries of practices that stretch back as many as five decades. The first section identifies Polaroid image-making as a photographic equivalent of what Tom Gunning calls the ‘cinema of attractions’. That is, the emphasis in its use is on the display of photographic technologies rather than the resultant image. Equally, the common practice, in both fine art and vernacular circles, of making composite pictures with Polaroid prints, draws attention from image content and redirects it to the photo as object

Double Twist in Helical Polymer Soft Crystals

In natural and synthetic materials having non-racemic chiral centers, chirality and structural ordering each play a distinct role in the formation of ordered states. Configurational chirality can be extended to morphological chirality when the phase, structures possess low liquid crystalline order. In the crystalline states the crystallization process suppresses the chiral helical morphology due to strong ordering interactions, In this Letter, we report the first observation of helical single lamellar crystals of synthetic non-racemic chiral polymers. Experimental evidence shows that the molecular chains twist along both the long and short axes of the helical lamellar crystals, which is the first time a double-twist molecular orientation in a helical crystal has been observed