Electron-dependent thermoelectric properties in Si/Si_(1_x)Ge_(x) heterostructures and Si_(1-x)Ge_(x) alloys from first-principles

Unlike phononic thermal conductivity (which is shown in the literature to be reduced due to alloying and has a nearly constant value over a range of compositional variations), electron-dependent thermoelectric properties are shown here, from first-principles, to vary nonlinearly with composition. Of the Si/Si_(1_x)Ge_(x) systems considered, the maximum thermopower observed, which is 10% higher than that of crystalline Si, is obtained for a Si_(0.875)Ge_(0.125) alloy. Also, heterostructuring is shown to reduce thermopower, electrical conductivity, and electron thermal conductivity. Additionally, neither Lorenz number nor Seebeck coefficient shows oscillations for heterostructures, regardless of electron/hole energies, contradicting the conclusions obtained with miniband approximations

Teaching Leadership from a Communication Perspective

Interest in leadership has intensified during the past decade. This heightened interest in leadership appears to be encouraging communication departments to offer leadership coursework. This article provides a model for a communication-based course in leadership. A sample syllabus, information on preferred teaching methods, and instructional resources are presented

UBVRIJKL light curves of classical Cepheids

Photoelectric observations and light curves of UBVRIJKL system for classical Cepheid variable stars - tables and graph

Conformal Symmetry and Differential Regularization of the Three-Gluon Vertex

The conformal symmetry of the QCD Lagrangian for massless quarks is broken both by renormalization effects and the gauge fixing procedure. Renormalized primitive divergent amplitudes have the property that their form away from the overall coincident point singularity is fully determined by the bare Lagrangian, and scale dependence is restricted to $\delta$-functions at the singularity. If gauge fixing could be ignored, one would expect these amplitudes to be conformal invariant for non-coincident points. We find that the one-loop three-gluon vertex function $\Gamma_{\mu\nu\rho}(x,y,z)$ is conformal invariant in this sense, if calculated in the background field formalism using the Feynman gauge for internal gluons. It is not yet clear why the expected breaking due to gauge fixing is absent. The conformal property implies that the gluon, ghost and quark loop contributions to $\Gamma_{\mu\nu\rho}$ are each purely numerical combinations of two universal conformal tensors $D_{\mu\nu\rho}(x,y,z)$ and $C_{\mu\nu\rho}(x,y,z)$ whose explicit form is given in the text. Only $D_{\mu\nu\rho}$ has an ultraviolet divergence, although $C_{\mu\nu\rho}$ requires a careful definition to resolve the expected ambiguity of a formally linearly divergent quantity. Regularization is straightforward and leads to a renormalized vertex function which satisfies the required Ward identity, and from which the beta-function is easily obtained. Exact conformal invariance is broken in higher-loop orders, but we outline a speculative scenario in which the perturbative structure of the vertex function is determined from a conformal invariant primitive core by interplay of the renormalization group equation and Ward identities.Comment: 65 page

A probabilistic model checking approach to analysing reliability, availability, and maintainability of a single satellite system

Satellites now form a core component for space based systems such as GPS and GLONAS which provide location and timing information for a variety of uses. Such satellites are designed to operate in-orbit and have lifetimes of 10 years or more. Reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) analysis of these systems has been indispensable in the design phase of satellites in order to achieve minimum failures or to increase mean time between failures (MTBF) and thus to plan maintainability strategies, optimise reliability and maximise availability. In this paper, we present formal modelling of a single satellite and logical specification of its reliability, availability and maintainability properties. The probabilistic model checker PRISM has been used to perform automated quantitative analyses of these properties

Thermal expansion of liquid Ti–6Al–4V measured by electrostatic levitation

The liquid density of Ti–6Al–4V was measured over a temperature range from 1661 to 1997 K that included undercooling by as much as 280 K. The sample was levitated in an electrostatic levitator and video imaging technique was used to capture the volume changes as a function of temperature. Over the temperature range the liquid density can be expressed by rholiq(T)=4123–0.254 (T–Tm) kg/m^3, where the melting temperature Tm is 1943 K. The corresponding volume expansion coefficient is alphaliq=6.05×10^–5 K^–1 near Tm

The Hidden Spatial Geometry of Non-Abelian Gauge Theories

The Gauss law constraint in the Hamiltonian form of the $SU(2)$ gauge theory of gluons is satisfied by any functional of the gauge invariant tensor variable $\phi^{ij} = B^{ia} B^{ja}$. Arguments are given that the tensor $G_{ij} = (\phi^{-1})_{ij}\,\det B$ is a more appropriate variable. When the Hamiltonian is expressed in terms of $\phi$ or $G$, the quantity $\Gamma^i_{jk}$ appears. The gauge field Bianchi and Ricci identities yield a set of partial differential equations for $\Gamma$ in terms of $G$. One can show that $\Gamma$ is a metric-compatible connection for $G$ with torsion, and that the curvature tensor of $\Gamma$ is that of an Einstein space. A curious 3-dimensional spatial geometry thus underlies the gauge-invariant configuration space of the theory, although the Hamiltonian is not invariant under spatial coordinate transformations. Spatial derivative terms in the energy density are singular when $\det G=\det B=0$. These singularities are the analogue of the centrifugal barrier of quantum mechanics, and physical wave-functionals are forced to vanish in a certain manner near $\det B=0$. It is argued that such barriers are an inevitable result of the projection on the gauge-invariant subspace of the Hilbert space, and that the barriers are a conspicuous way in which non-abelian gauge theories differ from scalar field theories.Comment: 19 pages, TeX, CTP #223

Universality and correlations in individuals wandering through an online extremist space

The 'out of the blue' nature of recent terror attacks and the diversity of apparent motives, highlight the importance of understanding the online trajectories that individuals follow prior to developing high levels of extremist support. Here we show that the physics of stochastic walks, with and without temporal correlation, provides a unifying description of these online trajectories. Our unique dataset comprising all users of a global social media site, reveals universal characteristics in individuals' online lifetimes. Our accompanying theory generates analytical and numerical solutions that describe the characteristics shown by individuals that go on to develop high levels of extremist support, and those that do not. The existence of these temporal and also many-body correlations suggests that existing physics machinery can be used to quantify and perhaps mitigate the risk of future events

Vickrey Auctions for Irregular Distributions

The classic result of Bulow and Klemperer \cite{BK96} says that in a single-item auction recruiting one more bidder and running the Vickrey auction achieves a higher revenue than the optimal auction's revenue on the original set of bidders, when values are drawn i.i.d. from a regular distribution. We give a version of Bulow and Klemperer's result in settings where bidders' values are drawn from non-i.i.d. irregular distributions. We do this by modeling irregular distributions as some convex combination of regular distributions. The regular distributions that constitute the irregular distribution correspond to different population groups in the bidder population. Drawing a bidder from this collection of population groups is equivalent to drawing from some convex combination of these regular distributions. We show that recruiting one extra bidder from each underlying population group and running the Vickrey auction gives at least half of the optimal auction's revenue on the original set of bidders