380 research outputs found
Entropy and Uncertainty of Squeezed Quantum Open Systems
We define the entropy S and uncertainty function of a squeezed system interacting with a thermal bath, and study how they change in time by following the evolution of the reduced density matrix in the influence functional formalism. As examples, we calculate the entropy of two exactly solvable squeezed systems: an inverted harmonic oscillator and a scalar field mode evolving in an inflationary universe. For the inverted oscillator with weak coupling to the bath, at both high and low temperatures, , where r is the squeeze parameter. In the de Sitter case, at high temperatures, where , being the coupling to the bath and H the Hubble constant. These three cases confirm previous results based on more ad hoc prescriptions for calculating entropy. But at low temperatures, the de Sitter entropy is noticeably different. This result obtained from a more rigorous approach, shows that factors usually ignored by the conventional approaches, i.e., the nature of the environment and the coupling strength betwen the system and the environment, are important
Increased food provisioning by female Montagu's Harriers in years with food shortage weakens sex-specific roles in parental care
n many owl and raptor species, sexes have distinct parental roles. Females incubate the eggs and raise the chicks until independence, while males provide females and their chicks with food. This is believed to reduce sexual conflict over parental care as tasks do not overlap. The level of parental care is also shaped by parent-offspring conflict. The scarcity of empirical data on parental investment in species with sex-specific parental roles was our motivation to study parental care in the Montaguâs Harrier Circus pygargus in relation to natural annual variation in food availability (vole abundance). By tracking individual birds using GPS-trackers, several aspects of parental care (the number of food provisioning trips, home range size and nest attendance) could be quantified for different nesting phases. We found that in food-poor years, males spent less time near the nest, and had lower food provisioning rates during the incubation and nestling phases. In addition, males had larger home ranges in food-poor years, a possible indicator of increased foraging effort. In contrast, females increased their contribution to food provisioning in food-poor years, as shown by higher food provisioning rates and larger home ranges. This increased foraging effort came at the cost of lower nest attendance by females. Our data suggest that, when food abundance declines, Montaguâs Harriers shift from a system with almost strict sex-specific parental roles towards a system where both parents provide the same type of care with possibly increased sexual conflict
Increased food provisioning by female Montagu's Harriers in years with food shortage weakens sex-specific roles in parental care
n many owl and raptor species, sexes have distinct parental roles. Females incubate the eggs and raise the chicks until independence, while males provide females and their chicks with food. This is believed to reduce sexual conflict over parental care as tasks do not overlap. The level of parental care is also shaped by parent-offspring conflict. The scarcity of empirical data on parental investment in species with sex-specific parental roles was our motivation to study parental care in the Montaguâs Harrier Circus pygargus in relation to natural annual variation in food availability (vole abundance). By tracking individual birds using GPS-trackers, several aspects of parental care (the number of food provisioning trips, home range size and nest attendance) could be quantified for different nesting phases. We found that in food-poor years, males spent less time near the nest, and had lower food provisioning rates during the incubation and nestling phases. In addition, males had larger home ranges in food-poor years, a possible indicator of increased foraging effort. In contrast, females increased their contribution to food provisioning in food-poor years, as shown by higher food provisioning rates and larger home ranges. This increased foraging effort came at the cost of lower nest attendance by females. Our data suggest that, when food abundance declines, Montaguâs Harriers shift from a system with almost strict sex-specific parental roles towards a system where both parents provide the same type of care with possibly increased sexual conflict
Inflationary Reheating in Grand Unified Theories
Grand unified theories may display multiply interacting fields with strong
coupling dynamics. This poses two new problems: (1) What is the nature of
chaotic reheating after inflation, and (2) How is reheating sensitive to the
mass spectrum of these theories ? We answer these questions in two interesting
limiting cases and demonstrate an increased efficiency of reheating which
strongly enhances non-thermal topological defect formation, including monopoles
and domain walls. Nevertheless, the large fluctuations may resolve this
monopole problem via a modified Dvali-Liu-Vachaspati mechanism in which
non-thermal destabilsation of discrete symmetries occurs at reheating.Comment: 4 pages, 5 ps figures - 1 colour, Revtex. Further (colour & 3-D)
figures available from http://www.sissa.it/~bassett/reheating/ . Matched to
version to appear in Phys. Rev. let
Thermal Particle Creation in Cosmological Spacetimes: A Stochastic Approach
The stochastic method based on the influence functional formalism introduced
in an earlier paper to treat particle creation in near-uniformly accelerated
detectors and collapsing masses is applied here to treat thermal and
near-thermal radiance in certain types of cosmological expansions. It is
indicated how the appearance of thermal radiance in different cosmological
spacetimes and in the two apparently distinct classes of black hole and
cosmological spacetimes can be understood under a unifying conceptual and
methodological framework.Comment: 17 pages, revtex (aps, eqsecnum), submitted to PRD, April 199
Sphagnum bleaching:Bicarbonate âtoxicityâ and tolerance for seven Sphagnum species
Growth and functioning of Sphagnum mosses are closely linked to water level and chemistry. Sphagnum mosses occur in wet, generally acidic conditions, and when buffered, alkaline water is known to negatively impact Sphagnum. The effects of time, dose and species-specific responses of buffered, alkaline water on Sphagnum are largely unknown. We investigated the effects of bicarbonate and calcium on the survival, growth and physiological functioning of seven Sphagnum species occurring in contrasting environments, from raised bogs to (rich) fens. Mosses were submerged in different concentrations of bicarbonate and calcium solutions for 10 weeks under climate-controlled circumstances. After 2 weeks, all species exposed to the high bicarbonate treatment (2.0 mM) showed severe potassium leakage and swift discoloration. In contrast, species showed differential responses to the intermediate bicarbonate treatment (0.8 mM), some with a later onset of potassium leakage. S. squarrosum, S. teres & S. contortum generally persisted the longest, with all species dying after 6 to 10 weeks. Calcium alone, in contrast, negatively affected S. squarrosum, S. teres & S. contortum, causing discoloration and potassium leakage. Our study shows enrichment with bicarbonate, but not calcium, is detrimental for most Sphagnum species tested. A mechanistic model was developed that is consistent with dose and duration dependence and the species specificity. Future conservation and restoration measures for Sphagnum-dominated habitats and Sphagnum farming (cultivation, production and harvest of Sphagnum moss biomass) should limit flooding with bicarbonate-rich waters while investigating new management options, like acidifying surface waters to lower bicarbonate levels
BEC Collapse and Dynamical Squeezing of Vacuum Fluctuations
We analyze the phenomena of Bose Novae, as described by Donley et al [Nature
412, 295 (2001)], by focusing on the behavior of excitations or fluctuations
above the condensate, as driven by the dynamics of the condensate (rather than
the dynamics of the condensate alone or the kinetics of the atoms). The
dynamics of the condensate squeezes and amplifies the quantum excitations,
mixing the positive and negative frequency components of their wave functions
thereby creating particles which appear as bursts and jets. By analyzing the
changing amplitude and particle content of these excitations, our simple
physical picture (based on a test field approximation) explains well the
overall features of the Bose Novae phenomena and provide excellent quantitative
fits with experimental data on several aspects, such as the scaling behavior of
the collapse time and the amount of particles in the jet. The predictions of
the bursts at this level of approximation is less than satisfactory but may be
improved on by including the backreaction of the excitations on the condensate.
The mechanism behind the dominant effect -- parametric amplification of vacuum
fluctuations and freezing of modes outside of horizon -- is similar to that of
cosmological particle creation and structure formation in a rapid quench (which
is fundamentally different from Hawking radiation in black holes). This shows
that BEC dynamics is a promising venue for doing `laboratory cosmology'.Comment: Latex 36 pages, 6 figure
Entropy and Uncertainty of Squeezed Quantum Open Systems
We define the entropy S and uncertainty function of a squeezed system
interacting with a thermal bath, and study how they change in time by following
the evolution of the reduced density matrix in the influence functional
formalism. As examples, we calculate the entropy of two exactly solvable
squeezed systems: an inverted harmonic oscillator and a scalar field mode
evolving in an inflationary universe. For the inverted oscillator with weak
coupling to the bath, at both high and low temperatures, , where r is
the squeeze parameter. In the de Sitter case, at high temperatures, where , being the coupling to the bath and H
the Hubble constant. These three cases confirm previous results based on more
ad hoc prescriptions for calculating entropy. But at low temperatures, the de
Sitter entropy is noticeably different. This result, obtained
from a more rigorous approach, shows that factors usually ignored by the
conventional approaches, i.e., the nature of the environment and the coupling
strength betwen the system and the environment, are important.Comment: 36 pages, epsfig, 2 in-text figures include
Influence Action and decoherence of hydrodynamic modes
We derive an influence action for the heat diffusion equation and from its
spectral dependence show that long wavelength hydrodynamic modes are most
readily decohered. The result is independent of the details of the microscopic
dynamics, and follows from general principles alone.Comment: 5 pages, no figure
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