1,970 research outputs found
Argument as an Act of Friendship
Those who are said to argue are typically seen as annoying, domineering types who treat conversation as a duel in which the goal is in the words of Gerry Spence\u27s recent bestseller, to win every time. The most immediate manifestation of this resistance to argument as both inescapable and healthful comes from our students; even when they learn to appreciate and evaluate tropes at an advanced level, they still often wonder aloud, Should I engage openly in argument? This paper aspires to paste a happy face on the practice of argument as a partial antidote to this resistance
The randomly driven Ising ferromagnet, Part I: General formalism and mean field theory
We consider the behavior of an Ising ferromagnet obeying the Glauber dynamics
under the influence of a fast switching, random external field. After
introducing a general formalism for describing such systems, we consider here
the mean-field theory. A novel type of first order phase transition related to
spontaneous symmetry breaking and dynamic freezing is found. The
non-equilibrium stationary state has a complex structure, which changes as a
function of parameters from a singular-continuous distribution with Euclidean
or fractal support to an absolutely continuous one.Comment: 12 pages REVTeX/LaTeX format, 12 eps/ps figures. Submitted to Journal
of Physics
Temporally disordered Ising models
We present a study of the influence of different types of disorder on systems
in the Ising universality class by employing both a dynamical field theory
approach and extensive Monte Carlo simulations. We reproduce some well known
results for the case of quenched disorder (random temperature and random
field), and analyze the effect of four different types of time-dependent
disorder scarcely studied so far in the literature. Some of them are of obvious
experimental and theoretical relevance (as for example, globally fluctuating
temperatures or random fields). All the predictions coming from our field
theoretical analysis are fully confirmed by extensive simulations in two and
three dimensions, and novel qualitatively different, non-Ising transitions are
reported. Possible experimental setups designed to explore the described
phenomenologies are also briefly discussed.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. E. Rapid Comm. 4 page
Stationary Properties of a Randomly Driven Ising Ferromagnet
We consider the behavior of an Ising ferromagnet obeying the Glauber dynamics
under the influence of a fast switching, random external field. Analytic
results for the stationary state are presented in mean-field approximation,
exhibiting a novel type of first order phase transition related to dynamic
freezing. Monte Carlo simulations performed on a quadratic lattice indicate
that many features of the mean field theory may survive the presence of
fluctuations.Comment: 5 pages in RevTex format, 7 eps/ps figures, send comments to
"mailto:[email protected]", submitted to PR
Liquid 4He near the superfluid transition in the presence of a heat current and gravity
The effects of a heat current and gravity in liquid 4He near the superfluid
transition are investigated for temperatures above and below T_lambda. We
present a renormalization-group calculation based on model F for the Green's
function in a self-consistent approximation which in quantum many-particle
theory is known as the Hartree approximation. The approach can handle a zero
average order parameter above and below T_lambda and includes effects of
vortices. We calculate the thermal conductivity and the specific heat for all
temperatures T and heat currents Q in the critical regime. Furthermore, we
calculate the temperature profile. Below T_lambda we find a second correlation
length which describes the dephasing of the order parameter field due to
vortices. We find dissipation and mutual friction of the superfluid-normal
fluid counterflow and calculate the Gorter-Mellink coefficient A. We compare
our theoretical results with recent experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figure
Spatial patterns and scale freedom in a Prisoner's Dilemma cellular automata with Pavlovian strategies
A cellular automaton in which cells represent agents playing the Prisoner's
Dilemma (PD) game following the simple "win-stay, loose-shift" strategy is
studied. Individuals with binary behavior, such as they can either cooperate
(C) or defect (D), play repeatedly with their neighbors (Von Neumann's and
Moore's neighborhoods). Their utilities in each round of the game are given by
a rescaled payoff matrix described by a single parameter Tau, which measures
the ratio of 'temptation to defect' to 'reward for cooperation'. Depending on
the region of the parameter space Tau, the system self-organizes - after a
transient - into dynamical equilibrium states characterized by different
definite fractions of C agents (2 states for the Von Neumann neighborhood and 4
for Moore neighborhood). For some ranges of Tau the cluster size distributions,
the power spectrums P(f) and the perimeter-area curves follow power-law
scalings. Percolation below threshold is also found for D agent clusters. We
also analyze the asynchronous dynamics version of this model and compare
results.Comment: Accepted for publication in JSTA
Orbifold projection in supersymmetric QCD at N_f\leq N_c
Supersymmetric orbifold projection of N=1 SQCD with relatively small number
of flavors (not larger than the number of colors) is considered. The purpose is
to check whether orbifolding commutes with the infrared limit. On the one hand,
one considers the orbifold projection of SQCD and obtains the low-energy
description of the resulting theory. On the other hand, one starts with the
low-energy effective theory of the original SQCD, and only then perfoms
orbifolding. It is shown that at finite N_c the two low-energy theories
obtained in these ways are different. However, in the case of stabilized
run-away vacuum these two theories are shown to coincide in the large N_c
limit. In the case of quantum modified moduli space, topological solitons
carrying baryonic charges are present in the orbifolded low-energy theory.
These solitons may restore the correspondence between the two theories provided
that the soliton mass tends to zero in the large N_c limit.Comment: 10 pages; misprint corrected, reference adde
A robust, scanning quantum system for nanoscale sensing and imaging
Controllable atomic-scale quantum systems hold great potential as sensitive
tools for nanoscale imaging and metrology. Possible applications range from
nanoscale electric and magnetic field sensing to single photon microscopy,
quantum information processing, and bioimaging. At the heart of such schemes is
the ability to scan and accurately position a robust sensor within a few
nanometers of a sample of interest, while preserving the sensor's quantum
coherence and readout fidelity. These combined requirements remain a challenge
for all existing approaches that rely on direct grafting of individual solid
state quantum systems or single molecules onto scanning-probe tips. Here, we
demonstrate the fabrication and room temperature operation of a robust and
isolated atomic-scale quantum sensor for scanning probe microscopy.
Specifically, we employ a high-purity, single-crystalline diamond nanopillar
probe containing a single Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) color center. We illustrate the
versatility and performance of our scanning NV sensor by conducting
quantitative nanoscale magnetic field imaging and near-field single-photon
fluorescence quenching microscopy. In both cases, we obtain imaging resolution
in the range of 20 nm and sensitivity unprecedented in scanning quantum probe
microscopy
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The ocean's role in polar climate change: asymmetric Arctic and Antarctic responses to greenhouse gas and ozone forcing
In recent decades, the Arctic has been warming and sea ice disappearing. By contrast, the Southern Ocean around Antarctica has been (mainly) cooling and sea-ice extent growing. We argue here that interhemispheric asymmetries in the mean ocean circulation, with sinking in the northern North Atlantic and upwelling around Antarctica, strongly influence the sea-surface temperature (SST) response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing, accelerating warming in the Arctic while delaying it in the Antarctic. Furthermore, while the amplitude of GHG forcing has been similar at the poles, significant ozone depletion only occurs over Antarctica. We suggest that the initial response of SST around Antarctica to ozone depletion is one of cooling and only later adds to the GHG-induced warming trend as upwelling of sub-surface warm water associated with stronger surface westerlies impacts surface properties. We organize our discussion around ‘climate response functions’ (CRFs), i.e. the response of the climate to ‘step’ changes in anthropogenic forcing in which GHG and/or ozone-hole forcing is abruptly turned on and the transient response of the climate revealed and studied. Convolutions of known or postulated GHG and ozone-hole forcing functions with their respective CRFs then yield the transient forced SST response (implied by linear response theory), providing a context for discussion of the differing warming/cooling trends in the Arctic and Antarctic. We speculate that the period through which we are now passing may be one in which the delayed warming of SST associated with GHG forcing around Antarctica is largely cancelled by the cooling effects associated with the ozone hole. By mid-century, however, ozone-hole effects may instead be adding to GHG warming around Antarctica but with diminished amplitude as the ozone hole heals. The Arctic, meanwhile, responding to GHG forcing but in a manner amplified by ocean heat transport, may continue to warm at an accelerating rate
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