Out of Equilibrium Solutions in the XYXY-Hamiltonian Mean Field model

Out of equilibrium magnetised solutions of the $XY$-Hamiltonian Mean Field ($XY$-HMF) model are build using an ensemble of integrable uncoupled pendula. Using these solutions we display an out-of equilibrium phase transition using a specific reduced set of the magnetised solutions

Scientific, institutional and personal rivalries among Soviet geographers in the late Stalin era

Scientific, institutional and personal rivalries between three key centres of geographical research and scholarship (the Academy of Sciences Institute of Geography and the Faculties of Geography at Moscow and Leningrad State Universities) are surveyed for the period from 1945 to the early 1950s. It is argued that the debates and rivalries between members of the three institutions appear to have been motivated by a variety of scientific, ideological, institutional and personal factors, but that genuine scientific disagreements were at least as important as political and ideological factors in influencing the course of the debates and in determining their final outcome

Chemical abundances of damped Lyman alpha systems in the XQ-100 survey

The XQ-100 survey has provided high signal-noise spectra of 100 redshift 3-4.5 quasars with the X-Shooter spectrograph. The metal abundances for 13 elements in the 41 damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) identified in the XQ-100 sample are presented, and an investigation into abundances of a variety of DLA classes is conducted. The XQ-100 DLA sample contains five DLAs within 5000 km/s of their host quasar (proximate DLAs; PDLAs) as well as three sightlines which contain two DLAs within 10,000 km/s of each other along the same line-of-sight (multiple DLAs; MDLAs). Combined with previous observations in the literature, we demonstrate that PDLAs with logN(HI)<21.0 show lower [S/H] and [Fe/H] (relative to intervening systems with similar redshift and N(HI)), whilst higher [S/H] and [Si/H] are seen in PDLAs with logN(HI)>21.0. These abundance discrepancies are independent of their line-of-sight velocity separation from the host quasar, and the velocity width of the metal lines (v90). Contrary to previous studies, MDLAs show no difference in [alpha/Fe] relative to single DLAs matched in metallicity and redshift. In addition, we present follow-up UVES data of J0034+1639, a sightline containing three DLAs, including a metal-poor DLA with [Fe/H]=-2.82 (the third lowest [Fe/H] in DLAs identified to date) at z=4.25. Lastly we study the dust-corrected [Zn/Fe], emphasizing that near-IR coverage of X-Shooter provides unprecedented access to MgII, CaII and TiII lines (at redshifts 3-4) to provide additional evidence for subsolar [Zn/Fe] ratio in DLAs.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS. 19 pages plus Appendix material (102 pages total

Thermodynamics of two lattice ice models in three dimensions

In a recent paper we introduced two Potts-like models in three dimensions, which share the following properties: (A) One of the ice rules is always fulfilled (in particular also at infinite temperature). (B) Both ice rules hold for groundstate configurations. This allowed for an efficient calculation of the residual entropy of ice I (ordinary ice) by means of multicanonical simulations. Here we present the thermodynamics of these models. Despite their similarities with Potts models, no sign of a disorder-order phase transition is found.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Compact Waves in Microscopic Nonlinear Diffusion

We analyze the spread of a localized peak of energy into vacuum for nonlinear diffusive processes. In contrast with standard diffusion, the nonlinearity results in a compact wave with a sharp front separating the perturbed region from vacuum. In $d$ spatial dimensions, the front advances as $t^{1/(2+da)}$ according to hydrodynamics, with $a$ the nonlinearity exponent. We show that fluctuations in the front position grow as $\sim t^{\mu} \eta$, where $\mu<1/(2+da)$ is a new exponent that we measure and $\eta$ is a random variable whose distribution we characterize. Fluctuating corrections to hydrodynamic profiles give rise to an excess penetration into vacuum, revealing scaling behaviors and robust features. We also examine the discharge of a nonlinear rarefaction wave into vacuum. Our results suggest the existence of universal scaling behaviors at the fluctuating level in nonlinear diffusion.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Reaction-Diffusion Process Driven by a Localized Source: First Passage Properties

We study a reaction-diffusion process that involves two species of atoms, immobile and diffusing. We assume that initially only immobile atoms, uniformly distributed throughout the entire space, are present. Diffusing atoms are injected at the origin by a source which is turned on at time t=0. When a diffusing atom collides with an immobile atom, the two atoms form an immobile stable molecule. The region occupied by molecules is asymptotically spherical with radius growing as t^{1/d} in d>=2 dimensions. We investigate the survival probability that a diffusing atom has not become a part of a molecule during the time interval t after its injection and the probability density of such a particle. We show that asymptotically the survival probability (i) saturates in one dimension, (ii) vanishes algebraically with time in two dimensions (with exponent being a function of the dimensionless flux and determined as a zero of a confluent hypergeometric function), and (iii) exhibits a stretched exponential decay in three dimensions.Comment: 7 pages; version 2: section IV is re-written, references added, 8 pages (final version

Gravitational diffraction radiation

We show that if the visible universe is a membrane embedded in a higher-dimensional space, particles in uniform motion radiate gravitational waves because of spacetime lumpiness. This phenomenon is analogous to the electromagnetic diffraction radiation of a charge moving near to a metallic grating. In the gravitational case, the role of the metallic grating is played by the inhomogeneities of the extra-dimensional space, such as a hidden brane. We derive a general formula for gravitational diffraction radiation and apply it to a higher-dimensional scenario with flat compact extra dimensions. Gravitational diffraction radiation may carry away a significant portion of the particle's initial energy. This allows to set stringent limits on the scale of brane perturbations. Physical effects of gravitational diffraction radiation are briefly discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX4. v2: References added. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Computing Masses from Effective Transfer Matrices

We study the use of effective transfer matrices for the numerical computation of masses (or correlation lengths) in lattice spin models. The effective transfer matrix has a strongly reduced number of components. Its definition is motivated by a renormalization group transformation of the full model onto a 1-dimensional spin model. The matrix elements of the effective transfer matrix can be determined by Monte Carlo simulation. We show that the mass gap can be recovered exactly from the spectrum of the effective transfer matrix. As a first step towards application we performed a Monte Carlo study for the 2-dimensional Ising model. For the simulations in the broken phase we employed a multimagnetical demon algorithm. The results for the tunnelling correlation length are particularly encouraging.Comment: (revised version: a few references added) LaTeX file, 25 pages, 6 PostScript figures, (revised version: a few references added

The Backgrounds Data Center

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization has created data centers for midcourse, plumes, and backgrounds phenomenologies. The Backgrounds Data Center (BDC) has been designated as the prime archive for data collected by SDIO programs. The BDC maintains a Summary Catalog that contains 'metadata,' that is, information about data, such as when the data were obtained, what the spectral range of the data is, and what region of the Earth or sky was observed. Queries to this catalog result in a listing of all data sets (from all experiments in the Summary Catalog) that satisfy the specified criteria. Thus, the user can identify different experiments that made similar observations and order them from the BDC for analysis. On-site users can use the Science Analysis Facility (SAFE for this purpose. For some programs, the BDC maintains a Program Catalog, which can classify data in as many ways as desired (rather than just by position, time, and spectral range as in the Summary Catalog). For example, data sets could be tagged with such diverse parameters as solar illumination angle, signal level, or the value of a particular spectral ratio, as long as these quantities can be read from the digital record or calculated from it by the ingest program. All unclassified catalogs and unclassified data will be remotely accessible