12,570 research outputs found
Secular increase of the Astronomical Unit and perihelion precessions as tests of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati multi-dimensional braneworld scenario
An unexpected secular increase of the Astronomical Unit, the length scale of
the Solar System, has recently been reported by three different research groups
(Krasinsky and Brumberg, Pitjeva, Standish). The latest JPL measurements amount
to 7+-2 m cy^-1. At present, there are no explanations able to accommodate such
an observed phenomenon, neither in the realm of classical physics nor in the
usual four-dimensional framework of the Einsteinian General Relativity. The
Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati braneworld scenario, which is a multi-dimensional model
of gravity aimed to the explanation of the observed cosmic acceleration without
dark energy, predicts, among other things, a perihelion secular shift, due to
Lue and Starkman, of 5 10^-4 arcsec cy^-1 for all the planets of the Solar
System. It yields a variation of about 6 m cy^-1 for the Earth-Sun distance
which is compatible at 1-sigma level with the observed rate of the Astronomical
Unit. The recently measured corrections to the secular motions of the perihelia
of the inner planets of the Solar System are in agreement, at 1-sigma level,
with the predicted value of the Lue-Starkman effect for Mercury and Mars and at
2-sigma level for the Earth.Comment: LaTex2e, 7 pages, no figures, no tables, 13 references. Minor
correction
Insertion reliability studies for the RBC-type control rods in ASTRID
International audienceThis paper reports on preliminary studies performed regarding the insertion reliability of theRBC-type Control Rods designed for the ASTRID Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor. At this stage, the primary aim of the analysis is to evaluate the mechanical behavior of RBC Control Rods under Emergency Shutdown conditions, for which reactor core structures are subjected to significant misalignments (including earthquakeimposed displacements). Using a Finite Element Model based on the Cast3M solver and developed specifically for these studies, computations are performed that allow assessing contact reactions (and the associated friction forces and contact pressures), deformations and stresses (mostly due to bending-induced deformations) which are considered for design. Based on these preliminary results, some optimization of the Control Rod design is proposed that ensures some stable behavior all along the rod drop, with substantial design margin
Microcanonical finite-size scaling in specific heat diverging 2nd order phase transitions
A Microcanonical Finite Site Ansatz in terms of quantities measurable in a
Finite Lattice allows to extend phenomenological renormalization (the so called
quotients method) to the microcanonical ensemble. The Ansatz is tested
numerically in two models where the canonical specific-heat diverges at
criticality, thus implying Fisher-renormalization of the critical exponents:
the 3D ferromagnetic Ising model and the 2D four-states Potts model (where
large logarithmic corrections are known to occur in the canonical ensemble). A
recently proposed microcanonical cluster method allows to simulate systems as
large as L=1024 (Potts) or L=128 (Ising). The quotients method provides
extremely accurate determinations of the anomalous dimension and of the
(Fisher-renormalized) thermal exponent. While in the Ising model the
numerical agreement with our theoretical expectations is impressive, in the
Potts case we need to carefully incorporate logarithmic corrections to the
microcanonical Ansatz in order to rationalize our data.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
On the effects of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati braneworld gravity on the orbital motion of a test particle
In this paper we explicitly work out the secular perturbations induced on all
the Keplerian orbital elements of a test body to order O(e^2) in the
eccentricity e by the weak-field long-range modifications of the usual
Newton-Einstein gravity due to the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) braneworld
model. The Gauss perturbative scheme is used. It turns out that the argument of
pericentre and the mean anomaly are affected by secular rates which are
independent of the semimajor axis of the orbit of the test particle. The first
nonvaishing eccentricity-dependent corrections are of order O(e^2). For
circular orbits the Lue-Starkman (LS) effect on the pericentre is obtained.
Some observational consequences are discussed for the Solar System planetary
mean longitudes lambda which would undergo a 1.2\cdot 10^-3 arcseconds per
century braneworld secular precession. According to recent data analysis over
92 years for the EPM2004 ephemerides, the 1-sigma formal accuracy in
determining the Martian mean longitude amounts to 3\cdot 10^-3 milliarcseconds,
while the braneworld effect over the same time span would be 1.159
milliarcseconds. The major limiting factor is the 2.6\cdot 10^-3 arcseconds per
century systematic error due to the mismodelling in the Keplerian mean motion
of Mars. A suitable linear combination of the mean longitudes of Mars and Venus
may overcome this problem. The formal, 1-sigma obtainable observational
accuracy would be \sim 7%. The systematic error due to the present-day
uncertainties in the solar quadrupole mass moment, the Keplerian mean motions,
the general relativistic Schwarzschild field and the asteroid ring would amount
to some tens of percent.Comment: LaTex2e, 23 pages, 5 tables, 1 figure, 37 references. Second-order
corrections in eccentricity explicitly added. Typos corrected. References
update
Kinematic and stellar population properties of the counter-rotating components in the S0 galaxy NGC 1366
Context. Many disk galaxies host two extended stellar components that rotate in opposite directions. The analysis of the stellar populations of the counter-rotating components provides constraints on the environmental and internal processes that drive their formation. Aims. The S0 NGC 1366 in the Fornax cluster is known to host a stellar component that is kinematically decoupled from the main body of the galaxy. Here we successfully separated the two counter-rotating stellar components to independently measure the kinematics and properties of their stellar populations. Methods. We performed a spectroscopic decomposition of the spectrum obtained along the galaxy major axis and separated the relative contribution of the two counter-rotating stellar components and of the ionized-gas component. We measured the line-strength indices of the two counter-rotating stellar components and modeled each of them with single stellar population models that account for the \u3b1/Fe overabundance. Results. We found that the counter-rotating stellar component is younger, has nearly the same metallicity, and is less \u3b1/Fe enhanced than the corotating component. Unlike most of the counter-rotating galaxies, the ionized gas detected in NGC 1366 is neither associated with the counter-rotating stellar component nor with the main galaxy body. On the contrary, it has a disordered distribution and a disturbed kinematics with multiple velocity components observed along the minor axis of the galaxy. Conclusions. The different properties of the counter-rotating stellar components and the kinematic peculiarities of the ionized gas suggest that NGC 1366 is at an intermediate stage of the acquisition process, building the counter-rotating components with some gas clouds still falling onto the galaxy. \ua9 ESO 2017
GdDOTAGA(C18)2: an efficient amphiphilic Gd(iii) chelate for the preparation of self-assembled high relaxivity MRI nanoprobes
A new amphiphilic GdDOTA-like complex functionalized with two octadecyl chains was synthesised and incorporated into the bilayer of liposomes and dendrimersomes. (1)H NMR relaxometric studies and in vivo MRI experiments on mice bearing a syngeneic melanoma tumour have shown a great improvement in performance
Intrinsic Qp at Mt. Etna from the inversion of rise times of 2002 microearthquake sequence
About three-hundred microearthquakes, preceeding and accompanying the 2002-2003 Mt. Etna flank eruption,
were considered in this study. On the high-quality velocity seismograms, measurements of the first half cycle of
the wave, the so-called rise time τ, were carried out. By using the rise time method, these data were inverted to
infer an estimate of the intrinsic quality factor Qp of P waves and of the source rise time τ0 of the events, which
represents an estimate of the duration of the rupture process. Two kind of inversions were carried out. In the first
inversion τ0 was derived from the magnitude duration of the events, assuming a constant stress drop and Qp was
inferred from the inversion of reduced rise times τ−τ0. In the second inversion both τ0 and Qp were inferred from
the inversion of rise times. To determine the model parameters that realize the compromise between model simplicity
and quality of the fit, the corrected Akaike information criterion was used. After this analysis we obtained
Qp=57±42. The correlation among the inferred τ0 and Qp, which is caused by some events which concomitantly
have high τ0 (>30 ms) and high Qp (>100) indicates that the technique used is able to model rise time versus
travel time trend only for source dimensions less than about 80 m
New evidence for super-roughening in crystalline surfaces with disordered substrate
We study the behavior of the Binder cumulant related to long distance
correlation functions of the discrete Gaussian model of disordered substrate
crystalline surfaces. We exhibit numerical evidence that the non-Gaussian
behavior in the low- region persists on large length scales, in agreement
with the broken phase being super-rough.Comment: 10 pages and 4 figures, available at
http://chimera.roma1.infn.it/index_papers_complex.html . We have extended the
RG discussion and minor changes in the tex
Integrable model for interacting electrons in metallic grains
We find an integrable generalization of the BCS model with non-uniform
Coulomb and pairing interaction. The Hamiltonian is integrable by construction
since it is a functional of commuting operators; these operators, which
therefore are constants of motion of the model, contain the anisotropic Gaudin
Hamiltonians. The exact solution is obtained diagonalizing them by means of
Bethe Ansatz. Uniform pairing and Coulomb interaction are obtained as the
``isotropic limit'' of the Gaudin Hamiltonians. We discuss possible
applications of this model to a single grain and to a system of few interacting
grains.Comment: 4 pages, revtex. Revised version to be published in Phys. Rev. Let
- …