Mozart Effect: Exploring the Relationship Between Classical Music and Improvement in the Spatial-Temporal Cognitive Abilities of Elementary School Children

The purpose of this study was to learn if classical music stimuli can be used to enhance the thinking abilities of children as measured by a cognitive testing instrument. A comparison of classical music exposure and student achievement was conducted to specifically ascertain if music of varying types had an effect on measurable intelligences (especially spatial-temporal intelligence), as measured by the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT). An exploration of the theoretical and empirical literature regarding the improvement of cognitive abilities of elementary school aged children was examined to identify if exposure to arts education produced measurable gains which could facilitate academic success. In addition, this study identified contemporary research trends, gaps in the current literature, and areas for future scholarly inquiry

On the holomorphic factorization for superconformal fields

For a generic value of the central charge, we prove the holomorphic factorization of partition functions for free superconformal fields which are defined on a compact Riemann surface without boundary. The partition functions are viewed as functionals of the Beltrami coefficients and their fermionic partners which variables parametrize superconformal classes of metrics.Comment: 5 pages, LATEX, MPI-Ph/92-7

Induced Polyakov supergravity on Riemann surfaces of higher genus

An effective action is obtained for the $N=1$, $2D-$induced supergravity on a compact super Riemann surface (without boundary) $\hat\Sigma$ of genus $g>1$, as the general solution of the corresponding superconformal Ward identity. This is accomplished by defining a new super integration theory on $\hat\Sigma$ which includes a new formulation of the super Stokes theorem and residue calculus in the superfield formalism. Another crucial ingredient is the notion of polydromic fields. The resulting action is shown to be well-defined and free of singularities on \sig. As a by-product, we point out a morphism between the diffeomorphism symmetry and holomorphic properties.Comment: LPTB 93-10, Latex file 20 page

The Polyakov action on the supertorus

A consistent method for obtaining a well-defined Polyakov action on the supertorus is presented. This method uses the covariantization of derivative operators and enables us to construct a Polyakov action which is globally defined.Comment: 15 pages LaTe

On the existence of exotic and non-exotic multiquark meson states

To obtain an exact solution of a four-body system containing two quarks and two antiquarks interacting through two-body terms is a cumbersome task that has been tackled with more or less success during the last decades. We present an exact method for the study of four-quark systems based on the hyperspherical harmonics formalism that allows us to solve it without resorting to further approximations, like for instance the existence of diquark components. We apply it to systems containing two heavy and two light quarks using different quark-quark potentials. While $QQ\bar n \bar n$ states may be stable in nature, the stability of $Q\bar Qn \bar n$ states would imply the existence of quark correlations not taken into account by simple quark dynamical models.Comment: 3 pages. Contribution to the 20th European Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, Pisa, Italy. To be published in Few-Body system

Response of rate-and-state seismogenic faults to harmonic shear-stress perturbations

Field and laboratory observations show that seismicity has non-trivial period-dependent response to periodic stress perturbations. In Nepal, seismicity shows significant variations in response to annual monsoon-induced stress variations but not to semidiurnal tidal stresses of the same magnitude. Such period dependence cannot be explained by the Coulomb failure model and spring-slider rate-and-state model (SRM). Here, we study seismicity response to periodic stress perturbations in a 2-D continuum model of a rate-and-state fault (that is, a finite rate-and-state fault). We find that the resulting seismicity indeed exhibits nearly periodic variations. Their amplitude is maximum at a certain period, T_a, and decreases with smaller and larger periods to the SRM predictions, remaining much larger than the SRM predictions for a wide range of periods around T_a. We attribute the higher sensitivity of finite faults to their finite nucleation zones which vary in space and have a different slip-velocity evolution than that of the SRM. At periods T ≫ T_a and T ≪ T_a, the seismicity-rate variations are in phase with the stress-rate and stress variations, respectively, consistent with the SRM, although a gradual phase shift appears as T increases towards T_a. Based on the similarities with the SRM and our simulations, we propose a semi-analytical expression for T_a. Plausible sets of model parameters make T_a equal to 1 yr, potentially explaining Nepal observations and constraining the fault properties. Our finite-fault findings indicate that aσ, where a is a rate-and-state parameter and σ is the effective normal stress, can be severely underestimated based on the SRM

d=2, N=2 Superconformal Symmetries and Models

We discuss the following aspects of two-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric theories defined on compact super Riemann surfaces: parametrization of (2,0) and (2,2) superconformal structures in terms of Beltrami coefficients and formulation of superconformal models on such surfaces (invariant actions, anomalies and compensating actions, Ward identities).Comment: 43 pages, late

Four-quark stability

The physics of charm has become one of the best laboratories exposing the limitations of the naive constituent quark model and also giving hints into a more mature description of meson spectroscopy, beyond the simple quark--antiquark configurations. In this talk we review some recent studies of multiquark components in the charm sector and discuss in particular exotic and non-exotic four-quark systems, both with pairwise and many-body forces.Comment: 6 pages. Article based on the presentations by J. Vijande and J.-M. Richard at the Fifth Workshop on Critical Stability, Erice, Sicil

W-algebras from symplectomorphisms

It is shown how $W$-algebras emerge from very peculiar canonical transformations with respect to the canonical symplectic structure on a compact Riemann surface. The action of smooth diffeomorphisms of the cotangent bundle on suitable generating functions is written in the BRS framework while a $W$-symmetry is exhibited. Subsequently, the complex structure of the symmetry spaces is studied and the related BRS properties are discussed. The specific example of the so-called $W_3$-algebra is treated in relation to some other different approaches.Comment: LaTex, 25 pages, no figures, to appear in Journ. Math. Phy