2,113 research outputs found

    Soil Physicochemical and Biological Interfacial Interactions in the Rhizosphere: Impacts on Food Security and Ecosystem Integrity

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    The Non-Trivial Effective Potential of the `Trivial' lambda Phi^4 Theory: A Lattice Test

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    The strong evidence for the `triviality' of (lambda Phi^4)_4 theory is not incompatible with spontaneous symmetry breaking. Indeed, for a `trivial' theory the effective potential should be given exactly by the classical potential plus the free-field zero-point energy of the shifted field; i.e., by the one-loop effective potential. When this is renormalized in a simple, but nonperturbative way, one finds, self-consistently, that the shifted field does become non-interacting in the continuum limit. For a classically scale-invariant (CSI) lambda Phi^4 theory one finds m_h^2 = 8 pi^2 v^2, predicting a 2.2 TeV Higgs boson. Here we extend our earlier work in three ways: (i) we discuss the analogy with the hard-sphere Bose gas; (ii) we extend the analysis from the CSI case to the general case; and (iii) we propose a test of the predicted shape of the effective potential that could be tested in a lattice simulation.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, DE-FG05-92ER40717-

    A clock synchronization skeleton based on RTAI

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    This paper presents a clock synchronization skeleton based on RTAI (Real Time Application Interface). The skeleton is a thin layer that provides unified but extendible interfaces to the underlying operating system, the synchronization algorithms and the upper level applications in need of clock synchronization. The skeleton provides synchronization support to a system, whereby the achieved accuracy is the best obtainable given this software structure. By connecting an algorithm and a communication module with the skeleton, a system becomes capable to run with synchronization support. To demonstrate and validate the design, the skeleton has been tested successfully with two different synchronization algorithms based on the CAN bus. Other algorithms and communication technologies can also work with the skeleton, as long as they provide the necessary functionalities for clock synchronization

    Nonlinear alternating current responses of graded materials

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    When a composite of nonlinear particles suspended in a host medium is subjected to a sinusoidal electric field, the electrical response in the composite will generally consist of alternating current (AC) fields at frequencies of higher-order harmonics. The situation becomes more interesting when the suspended particles are graded, with a spatial variation in the dielectric properties. The local electric field inside the graded particles can be calculated by the differential effective dipole approximation, which agrees very well with a first-principles approach. In this work, a nonlinear differential effective dipole approximation and a perturbation expansion method have been employed to investigate the effect of gradation on the nonlinear AC responses of these composites. The results showed that the fundamental and third-harmonic AC responses are sensitive to the dielectric-constant and/or nonlinear-susceptibility gradation profiles within the particles. Thus, by measuring the AC responses of the graded composites, it is possible to perform a real-time monitoring of the fabrication process of the gradation profiles within the graded particles.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

    Quantifying the scales of spatial variation in gravel beds using terrestrial and airborne laser scanning data

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    Previous studies measured gravel bed surfaces by terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and close-range photogrammetry suggested the presence of at least two different scales of spatial variation in gravel bed surfaces. This study investigated the spatial variation of airborne laser scanning (ALS) point clouds acquired in gravel bed. Due to the large footprint of ALS systems, a smoother surface is expected, but there exists some uncertainty over the precise scale of ALS measurement (hereafter referred to as the spatial support). As a result, we applied the regularization method, which is a variogram upscaling approach, to investigate the true support of ALS data. The regularization results suggested that the gravel bed surface described by the ALS is much smoother than expected in terms of the ALS reported measurement scale. Moreover, we applied the factorial kriging (FK) method, which allows mapping of different scales of variation present in the data separately (different from ordinary kriging which produces a single map), to obtain the river bed topography at each scale of spatial variation. We found that the short-range and long-range FK maps of the TLS-derived DSMs were able to highlight the edges of gravels and clusters of gravels, respectively. The long-range FK maps of the ALS data shows a pattern of gravel-bed clusters and aggregations of gravels. However, the short-range FK maps of the ALS data produced noisy maps, due to the smoothing effect. This analysis, thus, shows clearly that ALS data may be insufficient for geomorphological and hydraulic engineering applications that require the resolution of individual gravels. © 2018 G.-H. Huang et al. published by De Gruyte

    Giant Magnons under NS-NS and Melvin Fields

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    The giant magnon is a rotating spiky string configuration which has the same dispersion relation between the energy and angular momentum as that of a spin magnon. In this paper we investigate the effects of the NS-NS and Melvin fields on the giant magnon. We first analyze the energy and angular momenta of the two-spin spiky D-string moving on the AdS3×S1AdS_3\times S^1 with the NS-NS field. Due to the infinite boundary of the AdS spacetime the D-string solution will extend to infinity and it appears the divergences. After adding the counter terms we obtain the dispersion relation of the corresponding giant magnon. The result shows that there will appear a prefactor before the angular momentum, in addition to some corrections in the sine function. We also see that the spiky profile of a rotating D-string plays an important role in mapping it to a spin magnon. We next investigate the energy and angular momentum of the one-spin spiky fundamental string moving on the R×S2R \times S^2 with the electric or magnetic Melvin field. The dispersion relation of the corresponding deformed giant magnon is also obtained. We discuss some properties of the correction terms and their relations to the spin chain with deformations.Comment: Latex 20 pages, mention D-string and add reference

    Tunneling and propagation of vacuum bubbles on dynamical backgrounds

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    In the context of bubble universes produced by a first-order phase transition with large nucleation rates compared to the inverse dynamical time scale of the parent bubble, we extend the usual analysis to non-vacuum backgrounds. In particular, we provide semi-analytic and numerical results for the modified nucleation rate in FLRW backgrounds, as well as a parameter study of bubble walls propagating into inhomogeneous (LTB) or FLRW spacetimes, both in the thin-wall approximation. We show that in our model, matter in the background often prevents bubbles from successful expansion and forces them to collapse. For cases where they do expand, we give arguments why the effects on the interior spacetime are small for a wide range of reasonable parameters and discuss the limitations of the employed approximations.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, matches published versio

    Bulk Viscous LRS Biachi-I Universe with variable GG and decaying Λ\Lambda

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    The present study deals with spatially homogeneous and totally anisotropic locally rotationally symmetric (LRS) Bianchi type I cosmological model with variable GG and Λ\Lambda in presence of imperfect fluid. To get the deterministic model of Universe, we assume that the expansion (θ)(\theta) in the model is proportional to shear (σ)(\sigma). This condition leads to A=ℓBnA=\ell B^{n}, where AA,\;BB are metric potential. The cosmological constant Λ\Lambda is found to be decreasing function of time and it approaches a small positive value at late time which is supported by recent Supernovae Ia (SN Ia) observations. Also it is evident that the distance modulus curve of derived model matches with observations perfectly.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures and 1 table, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

    Thermopower and thermal conductivity of superconducting perovskite MgCNi3MgCNi_3

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    The thermopower and thermal conductivity of superconducting perovskite MgCNi3MgCNi_3 (Tc≈T_c \approx 8 K) have been studied. The thermopower is negative from room temperature to 10 K. Combining with the negative Hall coefficient reported previously, the negative thermopower definetly indicates that the carrier in MgCNi3MgCNi_3 is electron-type. The nonlinear temperature dependence of thermopower below 150 K is explained by the electron-phonon interaction renormalization effects. The thermal conductivity is of the order for intermetallics, larger than that of borocarbides and smaller than MgB2MgB_2. In the normal state, the electronic contribution to the total thermal conductivity is slightly larger than the lattice contribution. The transverse magnetoresistance of MgCNi3MgCNi_3 is also measured. It is found that the classical Kohler's rule is valid above 50 K. An electronic crossover occures at T∗∼50KT^* \sim 50 K, resulting in the abnormal behavior of resistivity, thermopower, and magnetoresistance below 50 K.Comment: Revised on 12 September 2001, Phys. Rev. B in pres
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