Neutrino-induced coherent pion production off nuclei reexamined

It is pointed out that so far all theoretical estimates of coherent pion production off nuclei induced by neutrinos rely on the 'local approximation' well known in photonuclear physics. The effects of dropping this approximation are discussed. It is found that in a plane wave approximation for the pion the local approximation overestimates the coherent neutrino-induced pion production on nuclei.Comment: v3: comments on pion FSI added, minor corrections; version as published in Phys. Rev.

Reduced Density Matrix Approach to Phononic Dissipation in Friction

Understanding mechanisms for energy dissipation from nanoparticles in contact with large samples is a central problem in describing friction microscopically. Calculation of the reduced density matrix appears to be the most suitable metho to study such systems that are coupled to a large environment. In this paper the time evolution of the reduced density matrix has been evaluated for an arbitrary system coupled to a heat reservoir. The formalism is then applied to study the vibrational relaxation following the stick-slip motion of a small adsorbate on a surface. The frequency dependence of the relaxation time is also determined.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures (included), revte

Unbounded Human Learning: Optimal Scheduling for Spaced Repetition

In the study of human learning, there is broad evidence that our ability to retain information improves with repeated exposure and decays with delay since last exposure. This plays a crucial role in the design of educational software, leading to a trade-off between teaching new material and reviewing what has already been taught. A common way to balance this trade-off is spaced repetition, which uses periodic review of content to improve long-term retention. Though spaced repetition is widely used in practice, e.g., in electronic flashcard software, there is little formal understanding of the design of these systems. Our paper addresses this gap in three ways. First, we mine log data from spaced repetition software to establish the functional dependence of retention on reinforcement and delay. Second, we use this memory model to develop a stochastic model for spaced repetition systems. We propose a queueing network model of the Leitner system for reviewing flashcards, along with a heuristic approximation that admits a tractable optimization problem for review scheduling. Finally, we empirically evaluate our queueing model through a Mechanical Turk experiment, verifying a key qualitative prediction of our model: the existence of a sharp phase transition in learning outcomes upon increasing the rate of new item introductions.Comment: Accepted to the ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining 201

Mol. Cell. Proteomics

Chemical cross-linking in combination with mass spectrometric analysis offers the potential to obtain low-resolution structural information from proteins and protein complexes. Identification of peptides connected by a cross-link provides direct evidence for the physical interaction of amino acid side chains, information that can be used for computational modeling purposes. Despite impressive advances that were made in recent years, the number of experimentally observed cross-links still falls below the number of possible contacts of cross-linkable side chains within the span of the cross-linker. Here, we propose two complementary experimental strategies to expand cross-linking data sets. First, enrichment of cross-linked peptides by size exclusion chromatography selects cross-linked peptides based on their higher molecular mass, thereby depleting the majority of unmodified peptides present in proteolytic digests of cross-linked samples. Second, we demonstrate that the use of proteases in addition to trypsin, such as Asp-N, can additionally boost the number of observable cross-linking sites. The benefits of both SEC enrichment and multiprotease digests are demonstrated on a set of model proteins and the improved workflow is applied to the characterization of the 20S proteasome from rabbit and Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Massive Dirac fermions and the zero field quantum Hall effect

Through an explicit calculation for a Lagrangian in quantum electrodynamics in (2+1)-space--time dimensions (QED$_3$), making use of the relativistic Kubo formula, we demonstrate that the filling factor accompanying the quantized electrical conductivity for massive Dirac fermions of a single species in two spatial dimensions is a half (in natural units) when time reversal and parity symmetries of the Lagrangian are explicitly broken by the fermion mass term. We then discuss the most general form of the QED$_3$ Lagrangian, both for irreducible and reducible representations of the Dirac matrices in the plane, with emphasis on the appearance of a Chern-Simons term. We also identify the value of the filling factor with a zero field quantum Hall effect (QHE).Comment: 15 pages. Accepted in Jour. Phys.

Tracing Galaxy Formation with Stellar Halos II: Relating Substructure in Phase- and Abundance-Space to Accretion Histories

This paper explores the mapping between the observable properties of a stellar halo in phase- and abundance-space and the parent galaxy's accretion history in terms of the characteristic epoch of accretion and mass and orbits of progenitor objects. The study utilizes a suite of eleven stellar halo models constructed within the context of a standard LCDM cosmology. The results demonstrate that coordinate-space studies are sensitive to the recent (0-8 Gyears ago) merger histories of galaxies (this timescale corresponds to the last few to tens of percent of mass accretion for a Milky-Way-type galaxy). Specifically, the {\it frequency, sky coverage} and {\it fraction of stars} in substructures in the stellar halo as a function of surface brightness are indicators of the importance of recent merging and of the luminosity function of infalling dwarfs. The {\it morphology} of features serves as a guide to the orbital distribution of those dwarfs. Constraints on the earlier merger history (> 8 Gyears ago) can be gleaned from the abundance patterns in halo stars: within our models, dramatic differences in the dominant epoch of accretion or luminosity function of progenitor objects leave clear signatures in the [alpha/Fe] and [Fe/H] distributions of the stellar halo - halos dominated by very early accretion have higher average [alpha/Fe], while those dominated by high luminosity satellites have higher [Fe/H]. This intuition can be applied to reconstruct much about the merger histories of nearby galaxies from current and future data sets.Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures. To appear in the Astrophysical Journa

Long-Time Asymptotics of Perturbed Finite-Gap Korteweg-de Vries Solutions

We apply the method of nonlinear steepest descent to compute the long-time asymptotics of solutions of the Korteweg--de Vries equation which are decaying perturbations of a quasi-periodic finite-gap background solution. We compute a nonlinear dispersion relation and show that the $x/t$ plane splits into $g+1$ soliton regions which are interlaced by $g+1$ oscillatory regions, where $g+1$ is the number of spectral gaps. In the soliton regions the solution is asymptotically given by a number of solitons travelling on top of finite-gap solutions which are in the same isospectral class as the background solution. In the oscillatory region the solution can be described by a modulated finite-gap solution plus a decaying dispersive tail. The modulation is given by phase transition on the isospectral torus and is, together with the dispersive tail, explicitly characterized in terms of Abelian integrals on the underlying hyperelliptic curve.Comment: 45 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0705.034

QuantUM: Quantitative Safety Analysis of UML Models

When developing a safety-critical system it is essential to obtain an assessment of different design alternatives. In particular, an early safety assessment of the architectural design of a system is desirable. In spite of the plethora of available formal quantitative analysis methods it is still difficult for software and system architects to integrate these techniques into their every day work. This is mainly due to the lack of methods that can be directly applied to architecture level models, for instance given as UML diagrams. Also, it is necessary that the description methods used do not require a profound knowledge of formal methods. Our approach bridges this gap and improves the integration of quantitative safety analysis methods into the development process. All inputs of the analysis are specified at the level of a UML model. This model is then automatically translated into the analysis model, and the results of the analysis are consequently represented on the level of the UML model. Thus the analysis model and the formal methods used during the analysis are hidden from the user. We illustrate the usefulness of our approach using an industrial strength case study.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL 2011, arXiv:1107.074

A Turbulent Origin for Flocculent Spiral Structure in Galaxies: II. Observations and Models of M33

Fourier transform power spectra of azimuthal scans of the optical structure of M33 are evaluated for B, V, and R passbands and fit to fractal models of continuum emission with superposed star formation. Power spectra are also determined for Halpha. The best models have intrinsic power spectra with 1D slopes of around -0.7pm0.7, significantly shallower than the Kolmogorov spectrum (slope =-1.7) but steeper than pure noise (slope=0). A fit to the power spectrum of the flocculent galaxy NGC 5055 gives a steeper slope of around -1.5pm0.2, which could be from turbulence. Both cases model the optical light as a superposition of continuous and point-like stellar sources that follow an underlying fractal pattern. Foreground bright stars are clipped in the images, but they are so prominent in M33 that even their residual affects the power spectrum, making it shallower than what is intrinsic to the galaxy. A model consisting of random foreground stars added to the best model of NGC 5055 fits the observed power spectrum of M33 as well as the shallower intrinsic power spectrum that was made without foreground stars. Thus the optical structure in M33 could result from turbulence too.Comment: accepted by ApJ, 13 pages, 10 figure

Einstein metrics in projective geometry

It is well known that pseudo-Riemannian metrics in the projective class of a given torsion free affine connection can be obtained from (and are equivalent to) the solutions of a certain overdetermined projectively invariant differential equation. This equation is a special case of a so-called first BGG equation. The general theory of such equations singles out a subclass of so-called normal solutions. We prove that non-degerate normal solutions are equivalent to pseudo-Riemannian Einstein metrics in the projective class and observe that this connects to natural projective extensions of the Einstein condition.Comment: 10 pages. Adapted to published version. In addition corrected a minor sign erro