2,401 research outputs found
Partonic Energy Loss and the Drell-Yan Process
We examine the current status of the extraction of the rate of partonic
energy loss in nuclei from A dependent data. The advantages and difficulties of
using the Drell-Yan process to measure the energy loss of a parton traversing a
cold nuclear medium are discussed. The prospects of using relatively low energy
proton beams for a definitive measurement of partonic energy loss are
presented.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Limit Synchronization in Markov Decision Processes
Markov decision processes (MDP) are finite-state systems with both strategic
and probabilistic choices. After fixing a strategy, an MDP produces a sequence
of probability distributions over states. The sequence is eventually
synchronizing if the probability mass accumulates in a single state, possibly
in the limit. Precisely, for 0 <= p <= 1 the sequence is p-synchronizing if a
probability distribution in the sequence assigns probability at least p to some
state, and we distinguish three synchronization modes: (i) sure winning if
there exists a strategy that produces a 1-synchronizing sequence; (ii)
almost-sure winning if there exists a strategy that produces a sequence that
is, for all epsilon > 0, a (1-epsilon)-synchronizing sequence; (iii) limit-sure
winning if for all epsilon > 0, there exists a strategy that produces a
(1-epsilon)-synchronizing sequence.
We consider the problem of deciding whether an MDP is sure, almost-sure,
limit-sure winning, and we establish the decidability and optimal complexity
for all modes, as well as the memory requirements for winning strategies. Our
main contributions are as follows: (a) for each winning modes we present
characterizations that give a PSPACE complexity for the decision problems, and
we establish matching PSPACE lower bounds; (b) we show that for sure winning
strategies, exponential memory is sufficient and may be necessary, and that in
general infinite memory is necessary for almost-sure winning, and unbounded
memory is necessary for limit-sure winning; (c) along with our results, we
establish new complexity results for alternating finite automata over a
one-letter alphabet
Quantitative multi-objective verification for probabilistic systems
We present a verification framework for analysing multiple quantitative objectives of systems that exhibit both nondeterministic and stochastic behaviour. These systems are modelled as probabilistic automata, enriched with cost or reward structures that capture, for example, energy usage or performance metrics. Quantitative properties of these models are expressed in a specification language that incorporates probabilistic safety and liveness properties, expected total cost or reward, and supports multiple objectives of these types. We propose and implement an efficient verification framework for such properties and then present two distinct applications of it: firstly, controller synthesis subject to multiple quantitative objectives; and, secondly, quantitative compositional verification. The practical applicability of both approaches is illustrated with experimental results from several large case studies
Maximizing the Conditional Expected Reward for Reaching the Goal
The paper addresses the problem of computing maximal conditional expected
accumulated rewards until reaching a target state (briefly called maximal
conditional expectations) in finite-state Markov decision processes where the
condition is given as a reachability constraint. Conditional expectations of
this type can, e.g., stand for the maximal expected termination time of
probabilistic programs with non-determinism, under the condition that the
program eventually terminates, or for the worst-case expected penalty to be
paid, assuming that at least three deadlines are missed. The main results of
the paper are (i) a polynomial-time algorithm to check the finiteness of
maximal conditional expectations, (ii) PSPACE-completeness for the threshold
problem in acyclic Markov decision processes where the task is to check whether
the maximal conditional expectation exceeds a given threshold, (iii) a
pseudo-polynomial-time algorithm for the threshold problem in the general
(cyclic) case, and (iv) an exponential-time algorithm for computing the maximal
conditional expectation and an optimal scheduler.Comment: 103 pages, extended version with appendices of a paper accepted at
TACAS 201
Zero-Reachability in Probabilistic Multi-Counter Automata
We study the qualitative and quantitative zero-reachability problem in
probabilistic multi-counter systems. We identify the undecidable variants of
the problems, and then we concentrate on the remaining two cases. In the first
case, when we are interested in the probability of all runs that visit zero in
some counter, we show that the qualitative zero-reachability is decidable in
time which is polynomial in the size of a given pMC and doubly exponential in
the number of counters. Further, we show that the probability of all
zero-reaching runs can be effectively approximated up to an arbitrarily small
given error epsilon > 0 in time which is polynomial in log(epsilon),
exponential in the size of a given pMC, and doubly exponential in the number of
counters. In the second case, we are interested in the probability of all runs
that visit zero in some counter different from the last counter. Here we show
that the qualitative zero-reachability is decidable and SquareRootSum-hard, and
the probability of all zero-reaching runs can be effectively approximated up to
an arbitrarily small given error epsilon > 0 (these result applies to pMC
satisfying a suitable technical condition that can be verified in polynomial
time). The proof techniques invented in the second case allow to construct
counterexamples for some classical results about ergodicity in stochastic Petri
nets.Comment: 20 page
Nuclear Broadening Effects on Hard Prompt Photons at Relativistic Energies
We calculate prompt photon production in high-energy nuclear collisions. We
focus on the broadening of the intrinsic transverse momenta of the partons in
the initial state from nuclear effects, and their influence on the prompt
photon p_t distribution. Comparing to WA98 data from Pb+Pb collisions at SPS
energy we find evidence for the presence of nuclear broadening at high p_t in
this hard process. Below p_t=2.7 GeV the photon distribution is due to small
momentum transfer processes. At RHIC energy, the effect of intrinsic transverse
momentum on the spectrum of prompt photons is less prominent. The region
p_t=3-4 GeV would be the most promising for studying the nuclear broadening
effects at that energy. Below p_t=2-3 GeV the contribution from large momentum
transfers flattens out, and we expect that region to be dominated by soft
contributions.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, minor changes, a few references adde
Prompt photons at RHIC
We calculate the inclusive cross section for prompt photon production in
heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energies ( GeV and
GeV) in the central rapidity region including next-to-leading order,
, radiative corrections, initial state nuclear
shadowing and parton energy loss effects. We show that there is a significant
suppression of the nuclear cross section, up to at
GeV, due to shadowing and medium induced parton energy loss effects. We find
that the next-to-leading order contributions are large and have a strong
dependence.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, expanded discussion of the K facto
Probabilistic Verification at Runtime for Self-Adaptive Systems
An effective design of effective and efficient self-adaptive systems may rely on several existing approaches. Software models and model checking techniques at run time represent one of them since they support automatic reasoning about such changes, detect harmful configurations, and potentially enable appropriate (self-)reactions. However, traditional model checking techniques and tools may not be applied as they are at run time, since they hardly meet the constraints imposed by on-the-fly analysis, in terms of execution time and memory occupation. For this reason, efficient run-time model checking represents a crucial research challenge. This paper precisely addresses this issue and focuses on probabilistic run-time model checking in which reliability models are given in terms of Discrete Time Markov Chains which are verified at run-time against a set of requirements expressed as logical formulae. In particular, the paper discusses the use of probabilistic model checking at run-time for self-adaptive systems by surveying and comparing the existing approaches divided in two categories: state-elimination algorithms and algebra-based algorithms. The discussion is supported by a realistic example and by empirical experiments
Effects of Parton Intrinsic Transverse Momentum on Photon Production in Hard-Scattering Processes
We calculate the photon production cross section arising from the hard
scattering of partons in nucleon-nucleon collisions by taking into account the
intrinsic parton transverse momentum distribution and the next-to-leading-order
contributions. As first pointed out by Owens, the inclusion of the intrinsic
transverse momentum distribution of partons leads to an enhancement of photon
production cross section in the region of photon transverse momenta of a few
GeV/c for nucleon-nucleon collisions at a center-of-mass energy of a few tens
of GeV. The enhancement increases as decreases. Such an enhancement
is an important consideration in the region of photon momenta under
investigation in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, in LaTex, revised to include ananlytic
evaluation of the hard-scattering integra
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