The energy spectrum observed by the AGASA experiment and the spatial distribution of the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

Seven and a half years of continuous monitoring of giant air showers triggered by ultra high-energy cosmic rays have been recently summarized by the AGASA collaboration. The resulting energy spectrum indicates clearly that the cosmic ray spectrum extends well beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cut-off at $\sim 5 \times 10^{19}$ eV. Furthermore, despite the small number statistics involved, some structure in the spectrum may be emerging. Using numerical simulations, it is demonstrated in the present work that these features are consistent with a spatial distribution of sources that follows the distribution of luminous matter in the local Universe. Therefore, from this point of view, there is no need for a second high-energy component of cosmic rays dominating the spectrum beyond the GZK cut-off.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Astrophys. J. Letters (submitted

From sensorimotor dependencies to perceptual practices: making enactivism social

Proponents of enactivism should be interested in exploring what notion of action best captures the type of action-perception link that the view proposes, such that it covers all the aspects in which our doings constitute and are constituted by our perceiving. This article proposes and defends the thesis that the notion of sensorimotor dependencies is insufficient to account for the reality of human perception, and that the central enactive notion should be that of perceptual practices. Sensorimotor enactivism is insufficient because it has no traction on socially dependent perceptions, which are essential to the role and significance of perception in our lives. Since the social dimension is a central desideratum in a theory of human perception, enactivism needs a notion that accounts for such an aspect. This article sketches the main features of the Wittgenstein-inspired notion of perceptual practices as the central notion to understand perception. Perception, I claim, is properly understood as woven into a type of social practices that includes food, dance, dress, music, etc. More specifically, perceptual practices are the enactment of culturally structured, normatively rich techniques of commerce of meaningful multi- and inter-modal perceptible material. I argue that perceptual practices explain three central features of socially dependent perception: attentional focus, aspects’ saliency, and modal-specific harmony-like relations

An Energy-conscious Transport Protocol for Multi-hop Wireless Networks

We present a transport protocol whose goal is to reduce power consumption without compromising delivery requirements of applications. To meet its goal of energy efficiency, our transport protocol (1) contains mechanisms to balance end-to-end vs. local retransmissions; (2) minimizes acknowledgment traffic using receiver regulated rate-based flow control combined with selected acknowledgements and in-network caching of packets; and (3) aggressively seeks to avoid any congestion-based packet loss. Within a recently developed ultra low-power multi-hop wireless network system, extensive simulations and experimental results demonstrate that our transport protocol meets its goal of preserving the energy efficiency of the underlying network.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (NBCHC050053

Lorentzian Lie n-algebras

We classify Lie n-algebras possessing an invariant lorentzian inner product.Comment: 10 pages (V2: more details on Section 3 and a new lemma. V3: typos corrected

Unveiling shocks in planetary nebulae

The propagation of a shock wave into a medium is expected to heat the material beyond the shock, producing noticeable effects in intensity line ratios such as [O III]/Halpha. To investigate the occurrence of shocks in planetary nebulae (PNe), we have used all narrowband [O III] and Halpha images of PNe available in the HST archive to build their [O III]/Halpha ratio maps and to search for regions where this ratio is enhanced. Regions with enhanced [O III]/Halpha emission ratio can be ascribed to two different types of morphological structures: bow-shock structures produced by fast collimated outflows and thin skins enveloping expanding nebular shells. Both collimated outflows and expanding shells are therefore confirmed to generate shocks in PNe. We also find regions with depressed values of the [O III]/Halpha ratio which are found mostly around density bounded PNe, where the local contribution of [N II] emission into the F656N Halpha filter cannot be neglected.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables; To appear in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Capillary rise of a liquid between two vertical plates making a small angle.

The penetration of a wetting liquid in the narrow gap between two vertical plates making a small angle is analyzed in the framework of the lubrication approximation. At the beginning of the process, the liquid rises independently at different distances from the line of intersection of the plates except in a small region around this line where the effect of the gravity is negligible. The maximum height of the liquid initially increases as the cubic root of time and is attained at a point that reaches the line of intersection only after a certain time. At later times, the motion of the liquid is confined to a thin layer around the line of intersection whose height increases as the cubic root of time and whose thickness decreases as the inverse of the cubic root of time. The evolution of the liquid surface is computed numerically and compared with the results of a simple experiment