Strategies for Optimize Off-Lattice Aggregate Simulations

We review some computer algorithms for the simulation of off-lattice clusters grown from a seed, with emphasis on the diffusion-limited aggregation, ballistic aggregation and Eden models. Only those methods which can be immediately extended to distinct off-lattice aggregation processes are discussed. The computer efficiencies of the distinct algorithms are compared.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures and 3 tables; published at Brazilian Journal of Physics 38, march, 2008 (http://www.sbfisica.org.br/bjp/files/v38_81.pdf

The Solar Twin Planet Search II. A Jupiter twin around a solar twin

Through our HARPS radial velocity survey for planets around solar twin stars, we have identified a promising Jupiter twin candidate around the star HIP11915. We characterize this Keplerian signal and investigate its potential origins in stellar activity. Our analysis indicates that HIP11915 hosts a Jupiter-mass planet with a 3800-day orbital period and low eccentricity. Although we cannot definitively rule out an activity cycle interpretation, we find that a planet interpretation is more likely based on a joint analysis of RV and activity index data. The challenges of long-period radial velocity signals addressed in this paper are critical for the ongoing discovery of Jupiter-like exoplanets. If planetary in nature, the signal investigated here represents a very close analog to the solar system in terms of both Sun-like host star and Jupiter-like planet.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; A&A accepted; typos corrected in this versio

Constraining Elko Dark Matter at the LHC with Monophoton Events

A mass dimension one fermion, also known as Elko, constitutes a dark matter candidate which might interact with photons at the tree level in a specific fashion. In this work, we investigate the constraints imposed by unitarity and LHC data on this type of interactions using the search for new physics in monophoton events. We found that Elkos which can explain the dark matter relic abundance mainly through electromagnetic interactions are excluded at the 95\%CL by the 8 TeV LHC data for masses up to 1 TeV.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Direct estimation of functionals of density operators by local operations and classical communication

We present a method of direct estimation of important properties of a shared bipartite quantum state, within the "distant laboratories" paradigm, using only local operations and classical communication. We apply this procedure to spectrum estimation of shared states, and locally implementable structural physical approximations to incompletely positive maps. This procedure can also be applied to the estimation of channel capacity and measures of entanglement