Testing the cooling flow model in the intermediate polar EX Hydrae

We use the best available X-ray data from the intermediate polar EX Hydrae to study the cooling-flow model often applied to interpret the X-ray spectra of these accreting magnetic white dwarf binaries. First, we resolve a long-standing discrepancy between the X-ray and optical determinations of the mass of the white dwarf in EX Hya by applying new models of the inner disk truncation radius. Our fits to the X-ray spectrum now agree with the white dwarf mass of 0.79 M$_{\odot}$sun determined using dynamical methods through spectroscopic observations of the secondary. We use a simple isobaric cooling flow model to derive the emission line fluxes, emission measure distribution, and H-like to He-like line ratios for comparison with the 496 ks Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating observation of EX Hydrae. We find that the H/He ratios are not well reproduced by this simple isobaric cooling flow model and show that while H-like line fluxes can be accurately predicted, fluxes of lower-Z He-like lines are significantly underestimated. This discrepancy suggests that some extra heating mechanism plays an important role at the base of the accretion column, where cooler ions form. We thus explored more complex cooling models including the change of gravitational potential with height in the accretion column and a magnetic dipole geometry. None of these modifications to the standard cooling flow model are able to reproduce the observed line ratios. While a cooling flow model with subsolar (0.1 $\odot$) abundances is able to reproduce the line ratios by reducing the cooling rate at temperatures lower than $\sim 10^{7.3}$ K, the predicted line-to-continuum ratios are much lower than observed. We discuss and discard mechanisms such as photoionization, departures from constant pressure, resonant scattering, different electron-ion temperatures, and Compton cooling. [Abridged]Comment: Accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics, modified version after referee comments and proof correction

Periodic Chaotic Billiards: Quantum-Classical Correspondence in Energy Space

We investigate the properties of eigenstates and local density of states (LDOS) for a periodic 2D rippled billiard, focusing on their quantum-classical correspondence in energy representation. To construct the classical counterparts of LDOS and the structure of eigenstates (SES), the effects of the boundary are first incorporated (via a canonical transformation) into an effective potential, rendering the one-particle motion in the 2D rippled billiard equivalent to that of two-interacting particles in 1D geometry. We show that classical counterparts of SES and LDOS in the case of strong chaotic motion reveal quite a good correspondence with the quantum quantities. We also show that the main features of the SES and LDOS can be explained in terms of the underlying classical dynamics, in particular of certain periodic orbits. On the other hand, statistical properties of eigenstates and LDOS turn out to be different from those prescribed by random matrix theory. We discuss the quantum effects responsible for the non-ergodic character of the eigenstates and individual LDOS that seem to be generic for this type of billiards with a large number of transverse channels.Comment: 13 pages, 18 figure

Influence of a dynamical gluon mass in the pppp and pˉp\bar{p}p forward scattering

We compute the tree level cross section for gluon-gluon elastic scattering taking into account a dynamical gluon mass, and show that this mass scale is a natural regulator for this subprocess cross section. Using an eikonal approach in order to examine the relationship between this gluon-gluon scattering and the elastic $pp$ and $\bar{p}p$ channels, we found that the dynamical gluon mass is of the same order of magnitude as the {\it ad hoc} infrared mass scale $m_{0}$ underlying eikonalized QCD-inspired models. We argue that this correspondence is not an accidental result, and that this dynamical scale indeed represents the onset of non-perturbative contributions to the elastic hadron-hadron scattering. We apply the eikonal model with a dynamical infrared mass scale to obtain predictions for $\sigma_{tot}^{pp,\bar{p}p}$, $\rho^{pp,\bar{p}p}$, slope $B^{pp,\bar{p}p}$, and differential elastic scattering cross section $d\sigma^{\bar{p}p}/dt$ at Tevatron and CERN-LHC energies.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures; misprints corrected and comments added. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Basin structure in the two-dimensional dissipative circle map

Fractal basin structure in the two-dimensional dissipative circle map is examined in detail. Numerically obtained basin appears to be riddling in the parameter region where two periodic orbits co-exist near a boundary crisis, but it is shown to consist of layers of thin bands.Comment: published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn., 72, 1943-1947 (2003

Chaotic Waveguide-Based Resonators for Microlasers

We propose the construction of highly directional emission microlasers using two-dimensional high-index semiconductor waveguides as {\it open} resonators. The prototype waveguide is formed by two collinear leads connected to a cavity of certain shape. The proposed lasing mechanism requires that the shape of the cavity yield mixed chaotic ray dynamics so as to have the appropiate (phase space) resonance islands. These islands allow, via Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the appearance of quasi bound states (QBS) which, in turn, propitiate the lasing mechanism. The energy values of the QBS are found through the solution of the Helmholtz equation. We use classical ray dynamics to predict the direction and intensity of the lasing produced by such open resonators for typical values of the index of refraction.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Multi-objective Robust Strategy Synthesis for Interval Markov Decision Processes

Interval Markov decision processes (IMDPs) generalise classical MDPs by having interval-valued transition probabilities. They provide a powerful modelling tool for probabilistic systems with an additional variation or uncertainty that prevents the knowledge of the exact transition probabilities. In this paper, we consider the problem of multi-objective robust strategy synthesis for interval MDPs, where the aim is to find a robust strategy that guarantees the satisfaction of multiple properties at the same time in face of the transition probability uncertainty. We first show that this problem is PSPACE-hard. Then, we provide a value iteration-based decision algorithm to approximate the Pareto set of achievable points. We finally demonstrate the practical effectiveness of our proposed approaches by applying them on several case studies using a prototypical tool.Comment: This article is a full version of a paper accepted to the Conference on Quantitative Evaluation of SysTems (QEST) 201

Multiplicity of photohadronization and photon--hadron scaling violation

The method of scaling transformations permitting to carry out the reconstruction of cross sections of $\gamma N$ and $\gamma\gamma$ interactions on the basis of cross sections of nucleon-(anti)nucleon interactions is suggested. The photon--hadron scaling violation is a consequence of dependence of scaling transformation parameter $\bar n(s)$ on the energy. The universal function $\bar n(s)$ is interpreted as the multiplicity of photohadronization. This function is established by processing the data on $\gamma p$ cross sections in the low energy region \sqrt{s}< 20 \GeV and is extrapolated to the high energy region up to \sqrt{s}\sim 200 \GeV. The results of the reconstruction of $\gamma N$ cross sections at high energies and of $\gamma\gamma$ ones at all energies are in a remarkable agreement with available experimental data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2: reference correcte

A versatile and compact capacitive dilatometer

We describe the design, construction, calibration, and operation of a relatively simple differential capacitive dilatometer suitable for measurements of thermal expansion and magnetostriction from 300 K to below 1 K with a low-temperature resolution of about 0.05 angstroms. The design is characterized by an open architecture permitting measurements on small samples with a variety of shapes. Dilatometers of this design have operated successfully with a commercial physical property measurement system, with several types of cryogenic refrigeration systems, in vacuum, in helium exchange gas, and while immersed in liquid helium (magnetostriction only) to temperatures of 30 mK and in magnetic fields to 45 T.Comment: 8 pages, incorporating 6 figures, submitted to Rev. Sci. Instru

New Spectroscopic Observations of the Post-AGB Star V354Lac=IRAS22272+5435

The strongest absorption features with the lower-level excitation potentials $\chi_{\rm low}<1$ eV are found to be split in the high-resolution optical spectra of the post-AGB star V354 Lac taken in 2007--2008. Main parameters, T$_{eff}$=5650 K, $\log g$=0.2, $\xi_t$=5.0 km/s, and the abundances of 22 chemical elements in the star's atmosphere are found. The overabundance of the $s$-process chemical elements (Ba, La, Ce, Nd) in the star's atmosphere is partly due to the splitting of strong lines of the ions of these metals. The peculiarities of the spectrum in the wavelength interval containing the LiI $\lambda$ 6707 \AA{} line can be naturally explained only by taking the overabundances of the CeII and SmII heavy-metal ions into account. The best agreement with the synthetic spectrum is achieved assuming $\epsilon$(LiI)=2.0, $\epsilon$(CeII)=3.2, and $\epsilon$(SmII)=2.7. The velocity field both in the atmosphere and in the circumstellar envelope of V354 Lac remained stationary throughout the last 15 years of our observations.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 2 table