168 research outputs found
The electroclinic effect and modulated phases in smectic liquid crystals
We explore the possibility that the large electroclinic effect observed in
ferroelectric liquid crystals arises from the presence of an ordered array of
disclination lines and walls. If the spacing of these defects is in the
subvisible range, this modulated phase would be similar macroscopically to a
smectic A phase. The application of an electric field distorts the array,
producing a large polarization, and hence a large electroclinic effect. We show
that with suitable elastic parameters and sufficiently large chirality, the
modulated phase is favored over the smectic A and helically twisted smectic C*
phases. We propose various experimental tests of this scenario.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; new version includes dipolar interactions and
bend-twist couplin
Statistical Mechanics of Nonuniform Magnetization Reversal
The magnetization reversal rate via thermal creation of soliton pairs in
quasi-1D ferromagnetic systems is calculated. Such a model describes e.g. the
time dependent coercivity of elongated particles as used in magnetic recording
media. The energy barrier that has to be overcome by thermal fluctuations
corresponds to a soliton-antisoliton pair whose size depends on the external
field. In contrast to other models of first order phase transitions such as the
phi^4 model, an analytical expression for this energy barrier is found for all
values of the external field. The magnetization reversal rate is calculated
using a functional Fokker-Planck description of the stochastic magnetization
dynamics. Analytical results are obtained in the limits of small fields and
fields close to the anisotropy field. In the former case the hard-axis
anisotropy becomes effectively strong and the magnetization reversal rate is
shown to reduce to the nucleation rate of soliton-antisoliton pairs in the
overdamped double sine-Gordon model. The present theory therefore includes the
nucleation rate of soliton-antisoliton pairs in the double sine-Gordon chain as
a special case. These results demonstrate that for elongated particles, the
experimentally observed coercivity is significantly lower than the value
predicted by the standard theories of N\'eel and Brown.Comment: 21 pages RevTex 3.0 (twocolumn), 6 figures available on request, to
appear in Phys Rev B, Dec (1994
Computation of the winding number diffusion rate due to the cosmological sphaleron
A detailed quantitative analysis of the transition process mediated by a
sphaleron type non-Abelian gauge field configuration in a static Einstein
universe is carried out. By examining spectra of the fluctuation operators and
applying the zeta function regularization scheme, a closed analytical
expression for the transition rate at the one-loop level is derived. This is a
unique example of an exact solution for a sphaleron model in spacetime
dimensions.Comment: Some style corrections suggested by the referee are introduced
(mainly in Sec.II), one reference added. To appear in Phys.Rev.D 29 pages,
LaTeX, 3 Postscript figures, uses epsf.st
Electron transport through interacting quantum dots
We present a detailed theoretical investigation of the effect of Coulomb
interactions on electron transport through quantum dots and double barrier
structures connected to a voltage source via an arbitrary linear impedance.
Combining real time path integral techniques with the scattering matrix
approach we derive the effective action and evaluate the current-voltage
characteristics of quantum dots at sufficiently large conductances. Our
analysis reveals a reach variety of different regimes which we specify in
details for the case of chaotic quantum dots. At sufficiently low energies the
interaction correction to the current depends logarithmically on temperature
and voltage. We identify two different logarithmic regimes with the crossover
between them occurring at energies of order of the inverse dwell time of
electrons in the dot. We also analyze the frequency-dependent shot noise in
chaotic quantum dots and elucidate its direct relation to interaction effects
in mesoscopic electron transport.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. References added, discussion slightly extende
Examining the Context of Strategy Instruction
The goal of literacy instruction is to teach reading and writing as tools to facilitate thinking and reasoning in a broad array of literacy events. An important difference in the disposition of children to participate in literacy experiences is the extent to which they engage in intentional self-regulated learning. The contexts attending six traditional models of strategy instruction are examined. An exploratory study, conducted with heterogeneous third graders, is reported, examining the implementation and outcomes of three models of strategy instruction—Direct Instruction, Reciprocal Teaching, and Collaborative Problem Solving—which manipulated teacher and student control of activity, as well as the instructional context.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69008/2/10.1177_074193259101200306.pd
Parallel computation of 3-D soil-structure interaction in time domain with a coupled FEM/SBFEM approach
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10915-011-9551-xThis paper introduces a parallel algorithm for the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM). The application code is designed to run on clusters of computers, and it enables the analysis of large-scale soil-structure-interaction problems, where an unbounded domain has to fulfill the radiation condition for wave propagation to infinity. The main focus of the paper is on the mathematical description and numerical implementation of the SBFEM. In particular, we describe in detail the algorithm to compute the acceleration unit impulse response matrices used in the SBFEM as well as the solvers for the Riccati and Lyapunov equations. Finally, two test cases validate the new code, illustrating the numerical accuracy of the results and the parallel performances. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011.Jose E. Roman and Enrique S. Quintana-Orti were partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion under grants TIN2009-07519, and TIN2008-06570-C04-01, respectively.Schauer, M.; Román MoltĂł, JE.; Quintana Orti, ES.; Langer, S. (2012). Parallel computation of 3-D soil-structure interaction in time domain with a coupled FEM/SBFEM approach. Journal of Scientific Computing. 52(2):446-467. doi:10.1007/s10915-011-9551-xS446467522Anderson, E., Bai, Z., Bischof, C., Demmel, J., Dongarra, J., Croz, J.D., Greenbaum, A., Hammarling, S., McKenney, A., Sorensen, D.: LAPACK User’s Guide. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia (1992)Antes, H., Spyrakos, C.: Soil-structure interaction. In: Beskos, D., Anagnotopoulos, S. (eds.) Computer Analysis and Design of Earthquake Resistant Structures, p. 271. Computational Mechanics Publications, Southampton (1997)Appelö, D., Colonius, T.: A high-order super-grid-scale absorbing layer and its application to linear hyperbolic systems. J. Comput. 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Algorithms 20(1), 75–100 (1999)Benner, P., Byers, R., Quintana-OrtĂ, E., Quintana-OrtĂ, G.: Solving algebraic Riccati equations on parallel computers using Newton’s method with exact line search. Parallel Comput. 26(10), 1345–1368 (2000)Benner, P., Quintana-OrtĂ, E.S., Quintana-OrtĂ, G.: Solving linear-quadratic optimal control problems on parallel computers. Optim. Methods Softw. 23(6), 879–909 (2008)Bettess, P.: Infinite Elements. Penshaw Press, Sunderland (1992)Blackford, L.S., Choi, J., Cleary, A., D’Azevedo, E., Demmel, J., Dhillon, I., Dongarra, J., Hammarling, S., Henry, G., Petitet, A., Stanley, K., Walker, D., Whaley, R.C.: ScaLAPACK Users’ Guide. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia (1997)Borsutzky, R.: Braunschweiger Schriften zur Mechanik - Seismic Risk Analysis of Buried Lifelines, vol. 63. Mechanik-Zentrum Technische Universität. Braunschweig (2008)Dongarra, J.J., Whaley, R.C.: LAPACK working note 94: A user’s guide to the BLACS v1.1. Tech. Rep. 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Neutron cross-sections for advanced nuclear systems : The n-TOF project at CERN
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe study of neutron-induced reactions is of high relevance in a wide variety of fields, ranging from stellar nucleosynthesis and fundamental nuclear physics to applications of nuclear technology. In nuclear energy, high accuracy neutron data are needed for the development of Generation IV fast reactors and accelerator driven systems, these last aimed specifically at nuclear waste incineration, as well as for research on innovative fuel cycles. In this context, a high luminosity Neutron Time Of Flight facility, n-TOF, is operating at CERN since more than a decade, with the aim of providing new, high accuracy and high resolution neutron cross-sections. Thanks to the features of the neutron beam, a rich experimental program relevant to nuclear technology has been carried out so far. The program will be further expanded in the near future, thanks in particular to a new high-flux experimental area, now under construction.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
238U(n, Îł) reaction cross section measurement with C 6D6 detectors at the n-TOF CERN facility
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe radiative capture cross section of 238U is very important for the developing of new reactor technologies and the safety of existing ones. Here the preliminary results of the 238U(n,Îł) cross section measurement performed at n-TOF with C6D6 scintillation detectors are presented, paying particular attention to data reduction and background subtraction.Peer reviewe
High accuracy 234U(n,f) cross section in the resonance energy region
New results are presented of the 234U neutron-induced fission cross section, obtained with high accuracy in the resonance region by means of two methods using the 235U(n,f) as reference. The recent evaluation of the 235U(n,f) obtained with SAMMY by L. C. Leal et al. (these Proceedings), based on previous n-TOF data [1], has been used to calculate the 234U(n,f) cross section through the 234U/235U ratio, being here compared with the results obtained by using the n-TOF neutron flux
The nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in Stars : The key isotope 25Mg
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedWe have measured the radiative neutron-capture cross section and the total neutron-induced cross section of one of the most important isotopes for the s process, the 25Mg. The measurements have been carried out at the neutron time-of-flight facilities n-TOF at CERN (Switzerland) and GELINA installed at the EC-JRC-IRMM (Belgium). The cross sections as a function of neutron energy have been measured up to approximately 300 keV, covering the energy region of interest to the s process. The data analysis is ongoing and preliminary results show the potential relevance for the s process.Peer reviewe
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