Linearized gyro-kinetic equation

An ordering of the linearized Fokker-Planck equation is performed in which gyroradius corrections are retained to lowest order and the radial dependence appropriate for sheared magnetic fields is treated without resorting to a WKB technique. This description is shown to be necessary to obtain the proper radial dependence when the product of the poloidal wavenumber and the gyroradius is large (k rho much greater than 1). A like particle collision operator valid for arbitrary k rho also has been derived. In addition, neoclassical, drift, finite $beta$ (plasma pressure/magnetic pressure), and unperturbed toroidal electric field modifications are treated. (auth

Endohedral terthiophene in zigzag carbon nanotubes: Density functional calculations

The inclusion and encapsulation of terthiophene (T3) molecules inside zigzag single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is addressed by density functional calculations. We consider the T3 molecule inside five semiconducting CNTs with diameters ranging from 9.6 to 12.7 Ang. Our results show that the T3 inclusion process is exothermic for CNTs with diameters larger than 9.5 Ang. The highest energy gain is found to be of 2 eV, decreasing as the CNT diameter increases. This notable effect of stabilization is attributed to the positively charged CNT inner space, as induced by its curvature, which is able to accommodate the neutral T3 molecule. The band structure of the T3@CNT system shows that T3 preserves its electronic identity inside the CNTs, superimposing their molecular orbitals onto the empty CNT band structure without hybridization. Our results predict that the electronic states added by the T3 molecules would give rise to optical effects and nonradiative relaxation from excited states.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted in PR

Heavy Domain Wall Fermions: The RBC and UKQCD charm physics program

We review the domain wall charm physics program of the RBC and UKQCD collaborations based on simulations including ensembles with physical pion mass. We summarise our current set-up and present a status update on the decay constants $f_D$, $f_{D_s}$, the charm quark mass, heavy-light and heavy-strange bag parameters and the ratio $\xi$.Comment: 8 pagers, 4 figures, conference proceedings for Lattice2017 submitted to EPJ Web of Conference

Re-entrant Layer-by-Layer Etching of GaAs(001)

We report the first observation of re-entrant layer-by-layer etching based on {\it in situ\/} reflection high-energy electron-diffraction measurements. With AsBr$_3$ used to etch GaAs(001), sustained specular-beam intensity oscillations are seen at high substrate temperatures, a decaying intensity with no oscillations at intermediate temperatures, but oscillations reappearing at still lower temperatures. Simulations of an atomistic model for the etching kinetics reproduce the temperature ranges of these three regimes and support an interpretation of the origin of this phenomenon as the site-selectivity of the etching process combined with activation barriers to interlayer adatom migration.Comment: 11 pages, REVTeX 3.0. Physical Review Letters, in press

An exploratory study of heavy domain wall fermions on the lattice

We report on an exploratory study of domain wall fermions (DWF) as a lattice regularisation for heavy quarks. Within the framework of quenched QCD with the tree-level improved Symanzik gauge action we identify the DWF parameters which minimise discretisation effects. We find the corresponding effective 4$d$ overlap operator to be exponentially local, independent of the quark mass. We determine a maximum bare heavy quark mass of $am_h\approx 0.4$, below which the approximate chiral symmetry and O(a)-improvement of DWF are sustained. This threshold appears to be largely independent of the lattice spacing. Based on these findings, we carried out a detailed scaling study for the heavy-strange meson dispersion relation and decay constant on four ensembles with lattice spacings in the range $2.0-5.7\,\mathrm{GeV}$. We observe very mild $a^2$ scaling towards the continuum limit. Our findings establish a sound basis for heavy DWF in dynamical simulations of lattice QCD with relevance to Standard Model phenomenology.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Bayesian inference for form-factor fits regulated by unitarity and analyticity

We propose a model-independent framework for fitting hadronic form-factor data, which is often only available at discrete kinematical points, using parameterisations based on to unitarity and analyticity. In this novel approach the latter two properties of quantum-field theory regulate the ill-posed fitting problem and allow model-independent predictions over the entire physical range. Kinematical constraints, for example for the vector and scalar form factors in semileptonic meson decays, can be imposed exactly. The core formulae are straight-forward to implement with standard math libraries. We take account of a generalisation of the original Boyd~Grinstein~Lebed (BGL) unitarity constraint for form factors and demonstrate our method for the exclusive semileptonic decay $B_s\to K \ell \nu$, for which we make a number of phenomenologically relevant predictions, including the CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$.Comment: 45 pages, 8 figures, references added, typos fixe

Ku-band system design study and TDRSS interface analysis

The capabilities of the Shuttle/TDRSS link simulation program (LinCsim) were expanded to account for radio frequency interference (RFI) effects on the Shuttle S-band links, the channel models were updated to reflect the RFI related hardware changes, the ESTL hardware modeling of the TDRS communication payload was reviewed and evaluated, in LinCsim the Shuttle/TDRSS signal acquisition was modeled, LinCsim was upgraded, and possible Shuttle on-orbit navigation techniques was evaluated

The Discovery of an X-ray/UV Stellar Flare from the Late-K/Early-M Dwarf LMC 335

We report the discovery of an X-ray/UV stellar flare from the source LMC 335, captured by XMM-Newton in the field of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The flare event was recorded continuously in X-ray for its first 10 hours from the precursor to the late decay phases. The observed fluxes increased by more than two orders of magnitude at its peak in X-ray and at least one in the UV as compared to quiescence. The peak 0.1-7.0 keV X-ray flux is derived from the two-temperature APEC model to be ~(8.4 +/- 0.6) x 10^-12 erg cm-2 s-1. Combining astrometric information from multiple X-ray observations in the quiescent and flare states, we identify the NIR counterpart of LMC 335 as the 2MASS source J05414534-6921512. The NIR color relations and spectroscopic parallax characterize the source as a Galactic K7-M4 dwarf at a foreground distance of (100 - 264) pc, implying a total energy output of the entire event of ~(0.4 - 2.9) x 10^35 erg. This report comprises detailed analyses of this late-K / early-M dwarf flare event that has the longest time coverage yet reported in the literature. The flare decay can be modeled with two exponential components with timescales of ~28 min and ~4 hours, with a single component decay firmly ruled out. The X-ray spectra during flare can be described by two components, a dominant high temperature component of ~40-60MK and a low temperature component of ~10MK, with a flare loop length of about 1.1-1.3 stellar radius.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Investment Opportunities Forecasting: Extending the Grammar of a GP-based Tool

In this paper we present a new version of a GP financial forecasting tool, called EDDIE 8. The novelty of this version is that it allows the GP to search in the space of indicators, instead of using pre-specified ones. We compare EDDIE 8 with its predecessor, EDDIE 7, and find that new and improved solutions can be found. Analysis also shows that, on average, EDDIE 8's best tree performs better than the one of EDDIE 7. The above allows us to characterize EDDIE 8 as a valuable forecasting tool