Shear band formation in granular media as a variational problem

Strain in sheared dense granular material is often localized in a narrow region called shear band. Recent experiments in a modified Couette cell provided localized shear flow in the bulk away from the confining walls. The non-trivial shape of the shear band was measured as the function of the cell geometry. First we present a geometric argument for narrow shear bands which connects the function of their surface position with the shape in the bulk. Assuming a simple dissipation mechanism we show that the principle of minimum dissipation of energy provides a good description of the shape function. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility and behavior of shear bands which are detached from the free surface and are entirely covered in the bulk.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; minor changes, typos and journal-ref adde

Nonparametric detection using extreme-value theory

Nonparametric extreme value statistics for constant signal detection in additive nois

Time-dependent Schr\"odinger equations having isomorphic symmetry algebras. I. Classes of interrelated equations

In this paper, we focus on a general class of Schr\"odinger equations that are time-dependent and quadratic in X and P. We transform Schr\"odinger equations in this class, via a class of time-dependent mass equations, to a class of solvable time-dependent oscillator equations. This transformation consists of a unitary transformation and a change in the ``time'' variable. We derive mathematical constraints forthe transformation and introduce two examples.Comment: LaTeX, 18 pages, new format, edite

Object Classification in Astronomical Multi-Color Surveys

We present a photometric method for identifying stars, galaxies and quasars in multi-color surveys, which uses a library of >65000 color templates. The method aims for extracting the information content of object colors in a statistically correct way and performs a classification as well as a redshift estimation for galaxies and quasars in a unified approach. For the redshift estimation, we use an advanced version of the MEV estimator which determines the redshift error from the redshift dependent probability density function. The method was originally developed for the CADIS survey, where we checked its performance by spectroscopy. The method provides high reliability (6 errors among 151 objects with R<24), especially for quasar selection, and redshifts accurate within sigma ~ 0.03 for galaxies and sigma ~ 0.1 for quasars. We compare a few model surveys using the same telescope time but different sets of broad-band and medium-band filters. Their performance is investigated by Monte-Carlo simulations as well as by analytic evaluation in terms of classification and redshift estimation. In practice, medium-band surveys show superior performance. Finally, we discuss the relevance of color calibration and derive important conclusions for the issues of library design and choice of filters. The calibration accuracy poses strong constraints on an accurate classification, and is most critical for surveys with few, broad and deeply exposed filters, but less severe for many, narrow and less deep filters.Comment: 21 pages including 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Supercurrent through grain boundaries in the presence of strong correlations

Strong correlations are known to severely reduce the mobility of charge carriers near half-filling and thus have an important influence on the current carrying properties of grain boundaries in the high-$T_c$ cuprates. In this work we present an extension of the Gutzwiller projection approach to treat electronic correlations below as well as above half-filling consistently. We apply this method to investigate the critical current through grain boundaries with a wide range of misalignment angles for electron- and hole-doped systems. For the latter excellent agreement with experimental data is found. We further provide a detailed comparison to an analogous weak-coupling evaluation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

3-D Models of Embedded High-Mass Stars: Effects of a Clumpy Circumstellar Medium

We use 3-D radiative transfer models to show the effects of clumpy circumstellar material on the observed infrared colors of high mass stars embedded in molecular clouds. We highlight differences between 3-D clumpy and 1-D smooth models which can affect the interpretation of data. We discuss several important properties of the emergent spectral energy distribution (SED): More near-infrared light (scattered and direct from the central source) can escape than in smooth 1-D models. The near- and mid-infrared SED of the same object can vary significantly with viewing angle, depending on the clump geometry along the sightline. Even the wavelength-integrated flux can vary with angle by more than a factor of two. Objects with the same average circumstellar dust distribution can have very different near-and mid-IR SEDs depending on the clump geometry and the proximity of the most massive clump to the central source. Although clumpiness can cause similar objects to have very different SEDs, there are some observable trends. Near- and mid-infrared colors are sensitive to the weighted average distance of clumps from the central source and to the magnitude of clumpy density variations (smooth-to-clumpy ratio). Far-infrared emission remains a robust measure of the total dust mass. We present simulated SEDs, colors, and images for 2MASS and Spitzer filters. We compare to observations of some UCHII regions and find that 3-D clumpy models fit better than smooth models. In particular, clumpy models with fractal dimensions in the range 2.3-2.8, smooth to clumpy ratios of <50%, and density distributions with shallow average radial density profiles fit the SEDs best.Comment: accepted to ApJ; version with full-res figures: http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~ri3e/clumpy3d.pd

Gravitational lens magnification by Abell 1689: Distortion of the background galaxy luminosity function

Gravitational lensing magnifies the luminosity of galaxies behind the lens. We use this effect to constrain the total mass in the cluster Abell 1689 by comparing the lensed luminosities of background galaxies with the luminosity function of an undistorted field. Since galaxies are assumed to be a random sampling of luminosity space, this method is not limited by clustering noise. We use photometric redshift information to estimate galaxy distance and intrinsic luminosity. Knowing the redshift distribution of the background population allows us to lift the mass/background degeneracy common to lensing analysis. In this paper we use 9 filters observed over 12 hours with the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope to determine the redshifts of 1000 galaxies in the field of Abell 1689. Using a complete sample of 151 background galaxies we measure the cluster mass profile. We find that the total projected mass interior to 0.25h^(-1)Mpc is (0.48 +/- 0.16) * 10^(15)h^(-1) solar masses, where our error budget includes uncertainties from the photometric redshift determination, the uncertainty in the off-set calibration and finite sampling. This result is in good agreement with that found by number count and shear-based methods and provides a new and independent method to determine cluster masses.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to MNRAS (10/99); Replacement with 1 page extra text inc. new section, accepted by MNRA