1,415 research outputs found
Interacting Higher Spins and the High Energy Limit of the Bosonic String
In this note, we construct a BRST invariant cubic vertex for massless fields
of arbitrary mixed symmetry in flat space-time. The construction is based on
the vertex given in bosonic Open String Field Theory. The algebra of gauge
transformations is closed without any additional, higher than cubic, couplings
due to the presence of an infinite tower of massless fields. We briefly discuss
the generalization of this result to a curved space-time and other possible
implications.Comment: Published Version; typos corrected, references added; (v3) Some typos
corrected and a minor clarification about eq. (3.29
A Load Balancing Algorithm for Resource Allocation in IEEE 802.15.4e Networks
The recently created IETF 6TiSCH working group combines the high reliability
and low-energy consumption of IEEE 802.15.4e Time Slotted Channel Hopping with
IPv6 for industrial Internet of Things. We propose a distributed link
scheduling algorithm, called Local Voting, for 6TiSCH networks that adapts the
schedule to the network conditions. The algorithm tries to equalize the link
load (defined as the ratio of the queue length over the number of allocated
cells) through cell reallocation. Local Voting calculates the number of cells
to be added or released by the 6TiSCH Operation Sublayer (6top). Compared to a
representative algorithm from the literature, Local Voting provides
simultaneously high reliability and low end-to-end latency while consuming
significantly less energy. Its performance has been examined and compared to
On-the-fly algorithm in 6TiSCH simulator by modeling an industrial environment
with 50 sensors
Evaluation of HTTP/DASH Adaptation Algorithms on Vehicular Networks
Video streaming currently accounts for the majority of Internet traffic. One
factor that enables video streaming is HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS), that
allows the users to stream video using a bit rate that closely matches the
available bandwidth from the server to the client. MPEG Dynamic Adaptive
Streaming over HTTP (DASH) is a widely used standard, that allows the clients
to select the resolution to download based on their own estimations. The
algorithm for determining the next segment in a DASH stream is not partof the
standard, but it is an important factor in the resulting playback quality.
Nowadays vehicles are increasingly equipped with mobile communication devices,
and in-vehicle multimedia entertainment systems. In this paper, we evaluate the
performance of various DASH adaptation algorithms over a vehicular network. We
present detailed simulation results highlighting the advantages and
disadvantages of various adaptation algorithms in delivering video content to
vehicular users, and we show how the different adaptation algorithms perform in
terms of throughput, playback interruption time, and number of interruptions
Understanding the role of ions and water molecules in the NaCl dissolution process
The dissolution of NaCl in water is one of the most common everyday
processes, yet it remains poorly understood at the molecular level. Here we
report the results of an extensive density functional theory study in which the
initial stages of NaCl dissolution have been examined at low water coverages.
Our specific approach is to study how the energetic cost of moving an ion or a
pair of ions to a less coordinated site at the surface of various NaCl crystals
varies with the number of water molecules adsorbed on the surface. This
"microsolvation" approach allows us to study the dependence of the defect
energies on the number of water molecules in the cluster and thus to establish
when and where dissolution becomes favorable. Moreover, this approach allows us
to understand the roles of the individual ions and water molecules in the
dissolution process. Consistent with previous work we identify a clear
preference for dissolution of Cl ions over Na ions. However, the detailed
information obtained here leads to the conclusion that the process is governed
by the higher affinity of the water molecules to Na ions than to Cl ions. The
Cl ions are released first as this exposes more Na ions at the surface creating
favorable adsorption sites for water. We discuss how this mechanism is likely
to be effective for other alkali halides
The Many Faces of Heterogeneous Ice Nucleation: Interplay Between Surface Morphology and Hydrophobicity
What makes a material a good ice nucleating agent? Despite the importance of
heterogeneous ice nucleation to a variety of fields, from cloud science to
microbiology, major gaps in our understanding of this ubiquitous process still
prevent us from answering this question. In this work, we have examined the
ability of generic crystalline substrates to promote ice nucleation as a
function of the hydrophobicity and the morphology of the surface. Nucleation
rates have been obtained by brute-force molecular dynamics simulations of
coarse-grained water on top of different surfaces of a model fcc crystal,
varying the water-surface interaction and the surface lattice parameter. It
turns out that the lattice mismatch of the surface with respect to ice,
customarily regarded as the most important requirement for a good ice
nucleating agent, is at most desirable but not a requirement. On the other
hand, the balance between the morphology of the surface and its hydrophobicity
can significantly alter the ice nucleation rate and can also lead to the
formation of up to three different faces of ice on the same substrate. We have
pinpointed three circumstances where heterogeneous ice nucleation can be
promoted by the crystalline surface: (i) the formation of a water overlayer
that acts as an in-plane template; (ii) the emergence of a contact layer
buckled in an ice-like manner; and (iii) nucleation on compact surfaces with
very high interaction strength. We hope that this extensive systematic study
will foster future experimental work aimed at testing the physiochemical
understanding presented herein.Comment: Main + S
Benchmarking the performance of Density Functional Theory and Point Charge Force Fields in their Description of sI Methane Hydrate against Diffusion Monte Carlo
High quality reference data from diffusion Monte Carlo calculations are
presented for bulk sI methane hydrate, a complex crystal exhibiting both
hydrogen-bond and dispersion dominated interactions. The performance of some
commonly used exchange-correlation functionals and all-atom point charge force
fields is evaluated. Our results show that none of the exchange-correlation
functionals tested are sufficient to describe both the energetics and the
structure of methane hydrate accurately, whilst the point charge force fields
perform badly in their description of the cohesive energy but fair well for the
dissociation energetics. By comparing to ice Ih, we show that a good prediction
of the volume and cohesive energies for the hydrate relies primarily on an
accurate description of the hydrogen bonded water framework, but that to
correctly predict stability of the hydrate with respect to dissociation to ice
Ih and methane gas, accuracy in the water-methane interaction is also required.
Our results highlight the difficulty that density functional theory faces in
describing both the hydrogen bonded water framework and the dispersion bound
methane.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Minor typos corrected and clarification
added in Method
Design of Near Optimal Decision Rules in Multistage Adaptive Mixed-Integer Optimization
In recent years, decision rules have been established as the preferred solution method for addressing computationally demanding, multistage adaptive optimization problems. Despite their success, existing decision rules (a) are typically constrained by their a priori design and (b) do not incorporate in their modeling adaptive binary decisions. To address these problems, we first derive the structure for optimal decision rules involving continuous and binary variables as piecewise linear and piecewise constant functions, respectively. We then propose a methodology for the optimal design of such decision rules that have a finite number of pieces and solve the problem robustly using mixed-integer optimization. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods in the context of two multistage inventory control problems. We provide global lower bounds and show that our approach is (i) practically tractable and (ii) provides high quality solutions that outperform alternative methods
- …