17,205 research outputs found
Phases of the excitonic condensate in two-layer graphene
Two graphene monolayers that are oppositely charged and placed close to each
other are considered. Taking into account valley and spin degeneracy of
electrons we analyze the symmetry of the excitonic insulator states in such a
system and build a phase diagram that takes into account the effect of the
symmetry breaking due to the external in-plane magnetic field and the carrier
density imbalance between the layers.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl
The Reaction-Diffusion Front for in One Dimension
We study theoretically and numerically the steady state diffusion controlled
reaction , where currents of and particles
are applied at opposite boundaries. For a reaction rate , and equal
diffusion constants , we find that when the
reaction front is well described by mean field theory. However, for , the front acquires a Gaussian profile - a result of
noise induced wandering of the reaction front center. We make a theoretical
prediction for this profile which is in good agreement with simulation.
Finally, we investigate the intrinsic (non-wandering) front width and find
results consistent with scaling and field theoretic predictions.Comment: 11 pages, revtex, 4 separate PostScript figure
Majority Dynamics and Aggregation of Information in Social Networks
Consider n individuals who, by popular vote, choose among q >= 2
alternatives, one of which is "better" than the others. Assume that each
individual votes independently at random, and that the probability of voting
for the better alternative is larger than the probability of voting for any
other. It follows from the law of large numbers that a plurality vote among the
n individuals would result in the correct outcome, with probability approaching
one exponentially quickly as n tends to infinity. Our interest in this paper is
in a variant of the process above where, after forming their initial opinions,
the voters update their decisions based on some interaction with their
neighbors in a social network. Our main example is "majority dynamics", in
which each voter adopts the most popular opinion among its friends. The
interaction repeats for some number of rounds and is then followed by a
population-wide plurality vote.
The question we tackle is that of "efficient aggregation of information": in
which cases is the better alternative chosen with probability approaching one
as n tends to infinity? Conversely, for which sequences of growing graphs does
aggregation fail, so that the wrong alternative gets chosen with probability
bounded away from zero? We construct a family of examples in which interaction
prevents efficient aggregation of information, and give a condition on the
social network which ensures that aggregation occurs. For the case of majority
dynamics we also investigate the question of unanimity in the limit. In
particular, if the voters' social network is an expander graph, we show that if
the initial population is sufficiently biased towards a particular alternative
then that alternative will eventually become the unanimous preference of the
entire population.Comment: 22 page
What determines auditory similarity? The effect of stimulus group and methodology.
Two experiments on the internal representation of auditory stimuli compared the pairwise and grouping methodologies as means of deriving similarity judgements. A total of 45 undergraduate students participated in each experiment, judging the similarity of short auditory stimuli, using one of the methodologies. The experiments support and extend Bonebright's (1996) findings, using a further 60 stimuli. Results from both methodologies highlight the importance of category information and acoustic features, such as root mean square (RMS) power and pitch, in similarity judgements. Results showed that the grouping task is a viable alternative to the pairwise task with N > 20 sounds whilst highlighting subtle differences, such as cluster tightness, between the different task results. The grouping task is more likely to yield category information as underlying similarity judgements
eLISA Telescope In-field Pointing and Scattered Light Study
The orbital motion of the three spacecraft that make up the eLISA Observatory constellation causes long-arm line of sight variations of approximately one degree over the course of a year. The baseline solution is to package the telescope, the optical bench, and the gravitational reference sensor (GRS) into an optical assembly at each end of the measurement arm, and then to articulate the assembly. An optical phase reference is exchanged between the moving optical benches with a single mode optical fiber (backlink fiber). An alternative solution, referred to as in-field pointing, embeds a steering mirror into the optical design, fixing the optical benches and eliminating the backlink fiber, but requiring the additional complication of a two-stage optical design for the telescope. We examine the impact of an in-field pointing design on the scattered light performance
Psychological advocacy towards healing (PATH): A randomized controlled trial of a psychological intervention in a domestic violence service setting
Background
Experience of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is associated with mental illness. Advocacy has little effect on mental health outcomes of female DVA survivors and there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of psychological interventions for this population.
Objective
To test effectiveness of a psychological intervention delivered by advocates to DVA survivors.
Design, masking, setting, participants
Pragmatic parallel group individually randomized controlled trial of normal DVA advocacy vs. advocacy + psychological intervention. Statistician and researchers blinded to group assignment. Setting: specialist DVA agencies; two UK cities. Participants: Women aged 16 years and older accessing DVA services.
Intervention
Eight specialist psychological advocacy (SPA) sessions with two follow up sessions.
Measurements
Primary outcomes at 12 months: depression symptoms (PHQ-9) and psychological distress (CORE-OM). Primary analysis: intention to treat linear (logistic) regression model for continuous (binary) outcomes.
Results
263 women recruited (78 in shelter/refuge, 185 in community), 2 withdrew (1 community, control group; 1 intervention, refuge group), 1 was excluded from the study for protocol violation (community, control group), 130 in intervention and 130 in control groups. Recruitment ended June 2013. 12-month follow up: 64%. At 12-month follow up greater improvement in mental health of women in the intervention group. Difference in average CORE-OM score between intervention and control groups: -3.3 points (95% CI -5.5 to -1.2). Difference in average PHQ-9 score between intervention and control group: -2.2 (95% CI -4.1 to -0.3). At 12 months, 35% of the intervention group and 55% of the control group were above the CORE-OM -2clinical threshold (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.64); 29% of the intervention group and 46% of the control group were above the PHQ-9 clinical threshold (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.81).
Limitations
64% retention at 12 months
Conclusions
An eight-session psychological intervention delivered by DVA advocates produced clinically relevant improvement in mental health outcomes compared with normal advocacy care.
Trial registration
ISRCTN registry ISRCTN58561170
Original Research
3675/375
A relativistic model of the -dimensional singular oscillator
Exactly solvable -dimensional model of the quantum isotropic singular
oscillator in the relativistic configurational -space is proposed. It
is shown that through the simple substitutions the finite-difference equation
for the -dimensional singular oscillator can be reduced to the similar
finite-difference equation for the relativistic isotropic three-dimensional
singular oscillator. We have found the radial wavefunctions and energy spectrum
of the problem and constructed a dynamical symmetry algebra.Comment: 8 pages, accepted for publication in J. Phys.
Molecular motion in cell membranes: analytic study of fence-hindered random walks
A theoretical calculation is presented to describe the confined motion of
transmembrane molecules in cell membranes. The study is analytic, based on
Master equations for the probability of the molecules moving as random walkers,
and leads to explicit usable solutions including expressions for the molecular
mean square displacement and effective diffusion constants. One outcome is a
detailed understanding of the dependence of the time variation of the mean
square displacement on the initial placement of the molecule within the
confined region. How to use the calculations is illustrated by extracting
(confinement) compartment sizes from experimentally reported published
observations from single particle tracking experiments on the diffusion of
gold-tagged G-protein coupled mu-opioid receptors in the normal rat kidney cell
membrane, and by further comparing the analytical results to observations on
the diffusion of phospholipids, also in normal rat kidney cells.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Reducing multiphoton ionization in a linearly polarized microwave field by local control
We present a control procedure to reduce the stochastic ionization of
hydrogen atom in a strong microwave field by adding to the original Hamiltonian
a comparatively small control term which might consist of an additional set of
microwave fields. This modification restores select invariant tori in the
dynamics and prevents ionization. We demonstrate the procedure on the
one-dimensional model of microwave ionization.Comment: 8 page
Kinetics of a Diffusive Capture Process: Lamb Besieged by a Pride of Lions
The survival probability, S_N(t), of a diffusing prey (``lamb'') in the
proximity of N diffusing predators (a ``pride of lions'') in one dimension is
investigated. When the lions are all to one side of the lamb, the survival
probability decays as a non-universal power law, S_N(t) is proportional to
t^{-beta_N}, with the decay exponent beta_N proportional to ln N. The crossover
behavior as a function of the relative diffusivities of the lions and the lamb
is also discussed. When N--->oo, the lamb survival probability exhibits a
log-normal decay, exp(-ln^2 t).Comment: 12 pages, no figures, macro files prepended, to be submitted to J.
Phys.
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