Variations of the Energy of Free Particles in the pp-Wave Spacetimes

We consider the action of exact plane gravitational waves, or pp-waves, on free particles. The analysis is carried out by investigating the variations of the geodesic trajectories of the particles, before and after the passage of the wave. The initial velocities of the particles are non-vanishing. We evaluate numerically the Kinetic energy per unit mass of the free particles, and obtain interesting, quasi-periodic behaviour of the variations of the Kinetic energy with respect to the width $\lambda$ of the gaussian that represents the wave. The variation of the energy of the free particle is expected to be exactly minus the variation of the energy of the gravitational field, and therefore provides an estimation of the local variation of the gravitational energy. The investigation is carried out in the context of short bursts of gravitational waves, and of waves described by normalised gaussians, that yield impulsive waves in a certain limit.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, further arguments supporting the localizability of the gravitational energy are presented, published in Univers

Quasi-Topological Field Theories in Two Dimensions as Soluble Models

We study a class of lattice field theories in two dimensions that includes gauge theories. Given a two dimensional orientable surface of genus $g$, the partition function $Z$ is defined for a triangulation consisting of $n$ triangles of area $\epsilon$. The reason these models are called quasi-topological is that $Z$ depends on $g$, $n$ and $\epsilon$ but not on the details of the triangulation. They are also soluble in the sense that the computation of their partition functions can be reduced to a soluble one dimensional problem. We show that the continuum limit is well defined if the model approaches a topological field theory in the zero area limit, i.e., $\epsilon \to 0$ with finite $n$. We also show that the universality classes of such quasi-topological lattice field theories can be easily classified. Yang-Mills and generalized Yang-Mills theories appear as particular examples of such continuum limits.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures, uses psbox.te

Bandlimited approximations to the truncated Gaussian and applications

In this paper we extend the theory of optimal approximations of functions $f: \R \to \R$ in the $L^1(\R)$-metric by entire functions of prescribed exponential type (bandlimited functions). We solve this problem for the truncated and the odd Gaussians using explicit integral representations and fine properties of truncated theta functions obtained via the maximum principle for the heat operator. As applications, we recover most of the previously known examples in the literature and further extend the class of truncated and odd functions for which this extremal problem can be solved, by integration on the free parameter and the use of tempered distribution arguments. This is the counterpart of the work \cite{CLV}, where the case of even functions is treated.Comment: to appear in Const. Appro

Heat transfer evaluation of industrial pneumatic cylinders

Automatic positioning devices are worldwide used in tasks like handling or assembly, making them key components of modern manufacturing systems. Pneumatic solutions are usually less expensive than their electrical counterparts, are more reliable and require less maintenance. However, the complex nonlinear nature and high model order of pneumatic systems lead to a very difficult control task. These problems make model order reductions and simplifications a common practice in servo pneumatics. The heat transfer between air inside the cylinder and its environment is usually neglected or only indirectly accounted, since it varies with pressure, temperature and speed of the actuator, which makes its experimental assessment difficult. In this work we present a simple yet accurate procedure, based on a thermal time constant, enabling its evaluation. The procedure is validated by simulation studies and furthermore the heat conductance of three industrial actuators is experimentally determined

Redução dos impactos ambientais da pecuária de corte no Acre.

A pecuária de corte é a atividade responsável por aproximadamente 75% dos 1.420.300 hectares de áreas desmatadas no Acre (9,3%). A partir da década de 70, a Embrapa Acre iniciou ações de pesquisa e desenvolvimento em propriedades do Estado, com o objetivo de desenvolver tecnologias que permitissem viabilizar sistemas de produção animal sustentáveis que contribuíssem para atender à demanda interna de carne, gerar excedentes exportáveis e, ao mesmo tempo, reduzir os impactos ambientais desta atividade.bitstream/item/135533/1/3673.pd

Sistemas sustentáveis de pecuária leiteira para a agricultura familiar no Acre.

A pecuária leiteira é uma atividade de crescente importância na agricultura familiar no Acre, tanto em áreas de colonização como em reservas extrativistas e áreas indígenas. Entretanto, esta atividade resulta em grandes impactos ambientais negativos., decorrentes dos desmatamentos, perda de biodiversidade e degradação dos solos. Além disso, a pecuária leiteira, desenvolvida por pequenos produtores, apresenta baixa rentabilidade decorrente dos baixos índices zootécnicos. Há duas décadas, a Embrapa Acre desenvolve tecnologias para responder ao desafio de viabilizar sistemas de produção sustentáveis para a pecuária leiteira, economicamente rentáveis e de reduzido impacto ambiental para a agricultura familiar no Acre.bitstream/item/135543/1/3674.pd

Non-singular inflation with vacuum decay

On the basis of a semi-classical analysis of vacuum energy in an expanding spacetime, we describe a non-singular cosmological model in which the vacuum density decays with time, with a concomitant production of matter. During an infinitely long period we have an empty, inflationary universe, with H \approx 1. This primordial era ends in a fast phase transition, during which H and \Lambda decrease to nearly zero in a few Planck times, with release of a huge amount of radiation. The late-time scenario is similar to the standard model, with the radiation phase followed by a long dust era, which tends asymptotically to a de Sitter universe, with vacuum dominating again. An analysis of the redshift-distance relation for supernovas Ia leads to cosmological parameters in agreement with other current estimations.Comment: Work presented at IRGAC 2006, Barcelona, July 11-15 2006. To appear in a special issue of Journal of Physics

Reduced-order thermodynamic models for servo-pneumatic actuator chambers

This paper discusses thermodynamic models of air inside pneumatic actuator chambers. In servopneumatics common practice, these models are simplified by neglecting the temperature dynamics. Classical models in literature assume temperature inside the pneumatic chamber to be either constant or to follow a polytropic law. Furthermore, the mixing process of air entering the chamber and heat transfer between air and cylinder walls is often neglected or only implicitly taken into account. This work evaluates the impact of these simplifications/order reductions in the prediction of pressure inside the actuator chamber. Classical models are compared with several others taking into account not only the mixing process but also explicitly including heat transfer between air and cylinder walls. Simulation studies show that the reduced order models proposed in this paper can lead to a mean square error in pressure prediction of only 10% of the one obtained using classical models

An interacting model for the cosmological dark sector

We discuss a new interacting model for the cosmological dark sector in which the attenuated dilution of cold dark matter scales as $a^{-3}f(a)$, where f(a) is an arbitrary function of the cosmic scale factor $a$. From thermodynamic arguments, we show that f(a) is proportional to entropy source of the particle creation process. In order to investigate the cosmological consequences of this kind of interacting models, we expand f(a) in a power series and viable cosmological solutions are obtained. Finally, we use current observational data to place constraints on the interacting function f(a).Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Phys. Rev. D (in press