Novel Sensor Design Using Photonic Crystal Fibres for Monitoring the Onset of Corrosion in Reinforced Concrete Structures

In this paper, a novel sensing technique has been designed and investigated for the direct, in-situ detection of steel corrosion distributed in reinforced concrete structures. At present, structural health monitoring (SHM) in reinforced concrete structures is generally focused on monitoring the corrosion risk of the reinforcing steel. It is of significant importance, however, to inform industry of both the onset of corrosion and the corrosion rate as these are key contributors to structural degradation and thus evaluating the service life of the structures. This paper aims to address the above challenges by describing a novel corrosion sensor design using birefringent photonic crystal fibres (PCFs). The technique exploits fully both the birefringence of the fibres for force/pressure measurement and their very low temperature sensitivity to detect the onset of corrosion. This new type of sensor not only determines the onset of corrosion but also allows for better monitoring along the length of a reinforcement bar

Fermionic Determinant of the Massive Schwinger Model

A representation for the fermionic determinant of the massive Schwinger model, or $QED_2$, is obtained that makes a clean separation between the Schwinger model and its massive counterpart. From this it is shown that the index theorem for $QED_2$ follows from gauge invariance, that the Schwinger model's contribution to the determinant is canceled in the weak field limit, and that the determinant vanishes when the field strength is sufficiently strong to form a zero-energy bound state

A unified BFKL and GLAP description of F2F_2 data

We argue that the use of the universal unintegrated gluon distribution and the $k_T$ (or high energy) factorization theorem provides the natural framework for describing observables at small x. We introduce a coupled pair of evolution equations for the unintegrated gluon distribution and the sea quark distribution which incorporate both the resummed leading $ln (1/x)$ BFKL contributions and the resummed leading $ln (Q^2)$ GLAP contributions. We solve these unified equations in the perturbative QCD domain using simple parametic forms of the nonperturbative part of the integrated distributions. With only two (physically motivated) input parameters we find that this $k_T$ factorization approach gives an excellent description of the measurements of $F_2 (x,Q^2)$ at HERA. In this way the unified evolution equations allow us to determine the gluon and sea quark distributions and, moreover, to see the x domain where the resummed $ln (1/x)$ effects become significant. We use $k_T$ factorization to predict the longitudinal structure function $F_L (x,Q^2)$ and the charm component of $F_2 (x,Q^2)$.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX, 9 figure

Chiral non-linear sigma-models as models for topological superconductivity

We study the mechanism of topological superconductivity in a hierarchical chain of chiral non-linear sigma-models (models of current algebra) in one, two, and three spatial dimensions. The models have roots in the 1D Peierls-Frohlich model and illustrate how the 1D Frohlich's ideal conductivity extends to a genuine superconductivity in dimensions higher than one. The mechanism is based on the fact that a point-like topological soliton carries an electric charge. We discuss a flux quantization mechanism and show that it is essentially a generalization of the persistent current phenomenon, known in quantum wires. We also discuss why the superconducting state is stable in the presence of a weak disorder.Comment: 5 pages, revtex, no figure

Inhomogeneous Condensates in Planar QED

We study the formation of vacuum condensates in $2+1$ dimensional QED in the presence of inhomogeneous background magnetic fields. For a large class of magnetic fields, the condensate is shown to be proportional to the inhomogeneous magnetic field, in the large flux limit. This may be viewed as a {\it local} form of the {\it integrated} degeneracy-flux relation of Aharonov and Casher.Comment: 13 pp, LaTeX, no figures; to appear in Phys. Rev.

Author Correction: Multifunctional light beam control device by stimuli-responsive liquid crystal micro-grating structures

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70783-8, published online 14 August 2020 This Article contains a typographical error in the Acknowledgements section. “the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (TEC2013-47342-C2-2-R)” should read: "the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (TEC2016-77242-C3-1-R)"This work was supported by the Comunidad de Madrid and FEDER Program (S2018/NMT-4326), the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (TEC2013-47342-C2-2-R and TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R), the FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and Agencia Estatal de Investigación (RTC2017-6321-1, PID2019-109072RB-C31 and PID2019-107270RB-C21). The authors also acknowledge the support by the Ministry of National Defense of Poland (GBMON/13-995/2018/WAT), Military University of Technology (Grant no. 23-895)

Low-energy interaction of composite spin-half systems with scalar and vector fields

We consider a composite spin-half particle moving in spatially-varying scalar and vector fields. The vector field is assumed to couple to a conserved charge, but no assumption is made about either the structure of the composite or its coupling to the scalar field. A general form for the piece of the spin-orbit interaction of the composite with the scalar and vector fields which is first-order in momentum transfer ${\bf Q}$ and second-order in the fields is derived.Comment: 10 pages, RevTe

Theoretical issues of small xx physics

The perturbative QCD predictions concerning deep inelastic scattering at low $x$ are summarized. The theoretical framework based on the leading log $1/x$ resummation and $k_t$ factorization theorem is described and some recent developments concerning the BFKL equation and its generalization are discussed. The QCD expectations concerning the small $x$ behaviour of the spin dependent structure function $g_1(x,Q^2)$ are briefly summarized and the importance of the double logarithmic terms which sum contributions containing the leading powers of $\alpha_s ln^2(1/x)$ is emphasised. The role of studying final states in deep inelastic scattering for revealing the details of the underlying dynamics at low $x$ is pointed out and some dedicated measurements, like deep inelastic scattering accompanied by an energetic jet, the measurement of the transverse energy flow etc., are briefly discussed.Comment: 17 pages, LATEX, 7 uuencoded eps figures include

The Regge Limit for Green Functions in Conformal Field Theory

We define a Regge limit for off-shell Green functions in quantum field theory, and study it in the particular case of conformal field theories (CFT). Our limit differs from that defined in arXiv:0801.3002, the latter being only a particular corner of the Regge regime. By studying the limit for free CFTs, we are able to reproduce the Low-Nussinov, BFKL approach to the pomeron at weak coupling. The dominance of Feynman graphs where only two high momentum lines are exchanged in the t-channel, follows simply from the free field analysis. We can then define the BFKL kernel in terms of the two point function of a simple light-like bilocal operator. We also include a brief discussion of the gravity dual predictions for the Regge limit at strong coupling.Comment: 23 pages 2 figures, v2: Clarification of relation of the Regge limit defined here and previous work in CFT. Clarification of causal orderings in the limit. References adde