The Disappearance of the HMS Umbra

A sailor aboard the HMS Umbra has a strange run-in with an ominous fog that won\u27t lift. As the days drag by, the weather is the least of his problems

Homological Domination in Large Random Simplicial Complexes

In this paper we state the homological domination principle for random multi-parameter simplicial complexes, claiming that the Betti number in one specific dimension (which is explicitly determined by the probability multi-parameter) significantly dominates the Betti numbers in all other dimensions. We also state and discuss evidence for two interesting conjectures which would imply a stronger version of the homological domination principle, namely that generically homology of a random simplicial complex coincides with that of a wedges of k-dimensional spheres. These two conjectures imply that under an additional assumption (specified in the paper) a random simplicial complex collapses to a k-dimensional complex homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres of dimension k.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Perturbative renormalization functions of local operators for staggered fermions with stout improvement

In this paper we present the perturbative computation of the renormalization functions for the quark field and for a complete set of ultra-local fermion bilinears. The computation of the relevant Green's functions was carried out at 1-loop level for the staggered action using massive fermions. The gluon links which appear both in the fermion action and in the definition of the bilinears have been improved by applying a stout smearing procedure up to 2 times, iteratively. In the gluon sector we employed the Symanzik improved gauge action for different sets of values of the Symanzik coefficients. The renormalization functions are presented in (two variants of) the RI' and in the MSbar renormalization scheme; the dependence on all stout parameters, as well as on the fermion mass, the gauge fixing parameter and the renormalization scale, is shown explicitly. This work is related to our recent paper [Phys. Rev. D86 (2012) 094512, arXiv:1209.6015]. To make our results easily accessible to the reader, we include them in the distribution package of this paper, as a Mathematica input file, Staggered.m.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 3 Appendices. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

News from the p-process: is the s-process a troublemaker?

The most detailed calculations of the p-process call for its development in the O/Ne layers of Type II supernovae. In spite of their overall success in reproducing the solar system content of p-nuclides, they suggest a significant underproduction of the light Mo and Ru isotopes. On grounds of a model for the explosion of a 25 solar mass star with solar metallicity, we demonstrate that this failure might just be related to the uncertainties left in the rate of the 22Ne(alpha,n)25Mg neutron producing reaction. The latter indeed has a direct impact on the distribution of the s-process seeds for the p-process.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Review talk at Nuclei in the Cosmos 2000, Aarhus, June 27 - July 1, 200

Monte Carlo Study of the Spin-1 Baxter-Wu Model

The two-dimensional spin-1 Baxter-Wu model is studied by using Monte Carlo simulations. The standard single-spin-flip Metropolis algorithm is used to generate the configurations from which the order parameter, specific heat and magnetic susceptibility are measured. The finite-size scaling procedure is employed in order to get the critical behavior. The extensive simulations shown that the critical exponents are different from those of the spin-1/2 model suggesting that the spin-1 model is in a different universality class.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Superstring dualities and p-brane bound states

We show that the M-theory/IIA and IIA/IIB superstring dualities together with the diffeomorphism invariance of the underlying theories require the presence of certain p-brane bound states in IIA and IIB superstring theories preserving 1/2 of the spacetime supersymmetry. We then confirm the existence of IIA and IIB supergravity solutions having the appropriate p-brane bound states interpretation.Comment: 21 pages, Phyzzx, Minor corrections, Version that will appear in Nucl. Phys.