Dynamics of many-particle fragmentation in a Cellular Automaton model

A 3D Cellular Automaton model developed by the authors to deal with the dynamics of N-body interactions has been adapted to investigate the head-on collision of two identical bound clusters of particles, and the ensuing process of fragmentation. The range of impact energies is chosen low enough, to secure that a compound bound cluster can be formed. The model is devised to simulate the laboratory set-up of fragmentation experiments as monitored by 4pi detectors. The particles interact via a Lennard-Jones potential. At low impact energies the numerical experiments following the dynamics of the individual particles indicate a phase of energy sharing among all the particles of the compound cluster. Fragments of all sizes are then found to evaporate from the latter cluster. The cluster sizes, measured in our set-up by simulated 4pi detectors, conform to a power law of exponent around 2.6.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Phase space characteristics of fragmenting nuclei described as excited disordered systems

We investigate the thermodynamical content of a cellular model which describes nuclear fragmentation as a process taking place in an excited disordered system. The model which reproduces very well the size distribution of fragments does not show the existence of a first order phase transition.Comment: 14 pages, TeX type, 7 figure

Microscopic three-body force for asymmetric nuclear matter

Brueckner calculations including a microscopic three-body force have been extended to isospin asymmetric nuclear matter. The effects of the three-body force on the equation of state and on the single-particle properties of nuclear matter are discussed with a view to possible applications in nuclear physics and astrophysics. It is shown that, even in the presence of the three-body force, the empirical parabolic law of the energy per nucleon vs isospin asymmetry $\beta=(N-Z)/A$ is fulfilled in the whole asymmetry range $0\le\beta\le 1$ up to high densities. The three-body force provides a strong enhancement of symmetry energy increasing with the density in good agreement with relativistic approaches. The Lane's assumption that proton and neutron mean fields linearly vary vs the isospin parameter is violated at high density in the presence of the three-body force. Instead the momentum dependence of the mean fields is rather insensitive to three body force which brings about a linear isospin deviation of the neutron and proton effective masses. The isospin effects on multifragmentation events and collective flows in heavy-ion collisions are briefly discussed along with the conditions for direct URCA processes to occur in the neutron-star cooling.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Reading bodies: A case study analysis of adolescent girls\u27 experiences in an after school book group

In this study, adolescent female readers participated in an after-school literature based discussion group or Book Group as we came to call it, reading contemporary young adult novels that deal with issues of the body. The purpose of this study was to examine the adolescent girls\u27 experiences within the literature discussions, as most studies relating to literature circle discussions, book clubs, or book groups do not focus on the students\u27 experiences. A related purpose of the study was to investigate how literature based discussion groups reflect and reveal readers\u27 own identities as well as dominant social discourse about issues of femininity. This study was grounded in several areas of research into best practices in adolescent literacy as well as evolving theories on adolescent bodies as sites inscribed by power, culture, and gender. Findings for the study revealed multiple aspects of girls\u27 reading and gendered identities as well as issues of conflict within the readers regarding issues related to the body and their appearance

Nuclear Matter EOS with a Three-body Force

The effect of a microscopic three-body force on the saturation properties of nuclear matter is studied within the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach. The calculations show a decisive improvement of the saturation density along with an overall agreement with the empirical saturation point. With the three-body force the symmetry energy turns more rapidly increasing with density, which allows for the direct URCA process to occur in $\beta$-stable neutron star matter. The influence of the three-body force on the nuclear mean field does not diminish the role of the ground state correlations.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Automated Determination of Stellar Parameters from Simulated Dispersed Images for DIVA

We have assessed how well stellar parameters (T_eff, logg and [Fe/H]) can be retrieved from low-resolution dispersed images to be obtained by the DIVA satellite. Although DIVA is primarily an all-sky astrometric mission, it will also obtain spectrophotometric information for about 13 million stars (operational limiting magnitude V ~ 13.5 mag). Constructional studies foresee a grating system yielding a dispersion of ~200nm/mm on the focal plane (first spectral order). For astrometric reasons there will be no cross dispersion which results in the overlapping of the first to third diffraction orders. The one-dimensional, position related intensity function is called a DISPI (DISPersed Intensity). We simulated DISPIS from synthetic spectra (...) for a limited range of metallicites i.e. our results are for [Fe/H] in the range -0.3 to 1 dex. We show that there is no need to deconvolve these low resolution signals in order to obtain basic stellar parameters. Using neural network methods and by including simulated data of DIVA's UV telescope, we can determine T_eff to an average accuracy of about 2% for DISPIS from stars with 2000 K < T_eff < 20000 K and visual magnitudes of V=13 mag (end of mission data). logg can be determined for all temperatures with an accuracy better than 0.25 dex for magnitudes brighter than V=12 mag. For low temperature stars with 2000 K < T_eff < 5000 K and for metallicities in the range -0.3 to +1 dex a determination of [Fe/H] is possible (to better than 0.2 dex) for these magnitudes. Additionally we examined the effects of extinction E(B-V) on DISPIS and found that it can be determined to better than 0.07 mag for magnitudes brighter than V=14 mag if the UV information is included.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Interplay of Three-Body Interactions in the EOS of Nuclear Matter

The equation of state of symmetric nuclear matter has been investigated within Brueckner approach adopting the charge-dependent Argonne $V_{18}$ two-body force plus a microscopic three-body force based on a meson-exchange model. The effects on the equation of state of the individual processes giving rise to the three-body force are explored up to high baryonic density. It is found that the major role is played by the competition between the strongly repulsive $(\sigma, \omega)$ exchange term with virtual nucleon-antinucleon excitation and the large attractive contribution due to $(\sigma, \omega)$ exchange with $N^*(1440)$ resonance excitation. The net result is a repulsive term which shifts the saturation density corresponding to the only two-body force much closer to the empirical value, while keeping constant the saturation energy per particle. The contribution from $(\pi, \rho)$ exchange 3BF is shown to be attractive and rather small. The analysis of the separate three-body force contributions allows to make a comparison with the prediction of Dirac-Brueckner approach which is supposed to incorporate via the {\it dressed} Dirac spinors the same virtual nucleon-antinucleon excitations as in the present three-body force. The numerical results suggest that the three-body force components missing from the Dirac-Brueckner approach are not negligible, especially at high density. The calculation of the nuclear mean field and the effective mass shows that the three-body force affects to a limited extent such properties.Comment: 12 pages 7 figure

Multi-Objective Probabilistically Constrained Programming with Variable Risk: New Models and Applications

We consider a class of multi-objective probabilistically constrained problems MOPCP with a joint chance constraint, a multi-row random technology matrix, and a risk parameter (i.e., the reliability level) defined as a decision variable. We propose a Boolean modeling framework and derive a series of new equivalent mixed-integer programming formulations. We demonstrate the computational efficiency of the formulations that contain a small number of binary variables. We provide modeling insights pertaining to the most suitable reformulation, to the trade-off between the conflicting cost/revenue and reliability objectives, and to the scalarization parameter determining the relative importance of the objectives. Finally, we propose several MOPCP variants of multi-portfolio financial optimization models that implement a downside risk measure and can be used in a centralized or decentralized investment context. We study the impact of the model parameters on the portfolios, show, via a cross-validation study, the robustness of the proposed models, and perform a comparative analysis of the optimal investment decisions