15,172 research outputs found
Segregation in a fluidized binary granular mixture: Competition between buoyancy and geometric forces
Starting from the hydrodynamic equations of binary granular mixtures, we
derive an evolution equation for the relative velocity of the intruders, which
is shown to be coupled to the inertia of the smaller particles. The onset of
Brazil-nut segregation is explained as a competition between the buoyancy and
geometric forces: the Archimedean buoyancy force, a buoyancy force due to the
difference between the energies of two granular species, and two geometric
forces, one compressive and the other-one tensile in nature, due to the
size-difference. We show that inelastic dissipation strongly affects the phase
diagram of the Brazil nut phenomenon and our model is able to explain the
experimental results of Breu et al. (PRL, 2003, vol. 90, p. 01402).Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Critical neural networks with short and long term plasticity
In recent years self organised critical neuronal models have provided
insights regarding the origin of the experimentally observed avalanching
behaviour of neuronal systems. It has been shown that dynamical synapses, as a
form of short-term plasticity, can cause critical neuronal dynamics. Whereas
long-term plasticity, such as hebbian or activity dependent plasticity, have a
crucial role in shaping the network structure and endowing neural systems with
learning abilities. In this work we provide a model which combines both
plasticity mechanisms, acting on two different time-scales. The measured
avalanche statistics are compatible with experimental results for both the
avalanche size and duration distribution with biologically observed percentages
of inhibitory neurons. The time-series of neuronal activity exhibits temporal
bursts leading to 1/f decay in the power spectrum. The presence of long-term
plasticity gives the system the ability to learn binary rules such as XOR,
providing the foundation of future research on more complicated tasks such as
pattern recognition.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
New Young Stars and Brown Dwarfs in the Upper Scorpius Association
To improve the census of the Upper Sco association (~11 Myr, ~145 pc), we
have identified candidate members using parallaxes, proper motions, and
color-magnitude diagrams from several wide-field imaging surveys and have
obtained optical and infrared spectra of several hundred candidates to measure
their spectral types and assess their membership. We also have performed
spectroscopy on a smaller sample of previously known or suspected members to
refine their spectral types and evidence of membership. We have classified 530
targets as members of Upper Sco, 377 of which lack previous spectroscopy. Our
new compilation of all known members of the association contains 1631 objects.
Although the census of Upper Sco has expanded significantly over the last
decade, there remain hundreds of candidates that lack spectroscopy. The precise
parallaxes and proper motions from the second data release of Gaia should
extend down to substellar masses in Upper Sco, which will greatly facilitate
the identification of the undiscovered members.Comment: Astronomical Journal, in press; machine readable tables and fits
spectra available at http://personal.psu.edu/kll207/usco.ta
Action minimizing fronts in general FPU-type chains
We study atomic chains with nonlinear nearest neighbour interactions and
prove the existence of fronts (heteroclinic travelling waves with constant
asymptotic states). Generalizing recent results of Herrmann and Rademacher we
allow for non-convex interaction potentials and find fronts with non-monotone
profile. These fronts minimize an action integral and can only exists if the
asymptotic states fulfil the macroscopic constraints and if the interaction
potential satisfies a geometric graph condition. Finally, we illustrate our
findings by numerical simulations.Comment: 19 pages, several figure
Parabolic dunes in north-eastern Brazil
In this work we present measurements of vegetation cover over parabolic dunes
with different degree of activation along the north-eastern Brazilian coast. We
are able to extend the local values of the vegetation cover density to the
whole dune by correlating measurements with the gray-scale levels of a high
resolution satellite image of the dune field. The empirical vegetation
distribution is finally used to validate the results of a recent continuous
model of dune motion coupling sand erosion and vegetation growth.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, aubmitted to Geomorpholog
Short-Time Critical Dynamics of Damage Spreading in the Two-Dimensional Ising Model
The short-time critical dynamics of propagation of damage in the Ising
ferromagnet in two dimensions is studied by means of Monte Carlo simulations.
Starting with equilibrium configurations at and magnetization
, an initial damage is created by flipping a small amount of spins in one
of the two replicas studied. In this way, the initial damage is proportional to
the initial magnetization in one of the configurations upon quenching the
system at , the Onsager critical temperature of the
ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition. It is found that, at short times, the
damage increases with an exponent , which is much larger
than the exponent characteristic of the initial increase of the
magnetization . Also, an epidemic study was performed. It is found that
the average distance from the origin of the epidemic ()
grows with an exponent , which is the same,
within error bars, as the exponent . However, the survival
probability of the epidemics reaches a plateau so that . On the other
hand, by quenching the system to lower temperatures one observes the critical
spreading of the damage at , where all the measured
observables exhibit power laws with exponents , , and .Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures (included). Phys. Rev. E (2010), in press
Eg versus x relation from photoluminescence and electron microprobe investigations in p-type Hg1−xCdxTe (0.35 =< x =< 0.7)
Combined photoluminescence (at 10 T 300 K) and electron microprobe investigations have been carried out with HgCdTe samples grown from the melt or from solution. By exciting the samples through metallic masks with 200 μm diameter holes fixed with respect to the sample care was taken to pick-up both characteristic X-ray radiation as well as the photoluminescence from the same sample area. The Eg versus x relation determined in this way at T = 30 K has been compared with data from the interband absorption edge by other authors
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