7,450 research outputs found
Optimisation of on-line principal component analysis
Different techniques, used to optimise on-line principal component analysis,
are investigated by methods of statistical mechanics. These include local and
global optimisation of node-dependent learning-rates which are shown to be very
efficient in speeding up the learning process. They are investigated further
for gaining insight into the learning rates' time-dependence, which is then
employed for devising simple practical methods to improve training performance.
Simulations demonstrate the benefit gained from using the new methods.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Effect of manganese doping on the size effect of lead zirconate titanate thin films and the extrinsic nature of dead layers
We have investigated the size effect in lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin
films with a range of manganese (Mn) doping concentrations. We found that the
size effect in the conventional Pt/PZT/Pt thin-film capacitors could be
systematically reduced and almost completely eliminated by increasing Mn doping
concentration. The interfacial layer at the electrode-film interface appears to
disappear almost entirely for the PZT films with 2% Mn doping levels, confirmed
by the fits using the conventional in-series capacitor model. Our work
indicates that the size effect in ferroelectrics is extrinsic in nature,
supporting the work by Saad et al. Other implications of our results have also
been discussed. By comparing a variety of experimental studies in the
literature we propose a scenario that the dead layer between PZT (or barium
strontium titanate, BST) and metal electrodes such as Pt and Au might have a
defective pyrochlore/fluorite structure (possibly with a small portion of
ferroelectric perovskite phase).Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure
Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex
Visual short-term memory (VSTM) and visual imagery are believed to involve overlapping neuronal representations in the early visual cortex. While a number of studies have provided evidence for this overlap, at the behavioral level VSTM and imagery are dissociable processes; this begs the question of how their neuronal mechanisms differ. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine whether the neural bases of imagery and VSTM maintenance are dissociable in the early visual cortex (EVC). We intentionally used a similar task for VSTM and imagery in order to equate their assessment. We hypothesized that any differential effect of TMS on VSTM and imagery would indicate that their neuronal bases differ at the level of EVC. In the "alone" condition, participants were asked to engage either in VSTM or imagery, whereas in the "concurrent" condition, each trial required both VSTM maintenance and imagery simultaneously. A dissociation between VSTM and imagery was observed for reaction times: TMS slowed down responses for VSTM but not for imagery. The impact of TMS on sensitivity did not differ between VSTM and imagery, but did depend on whether the tasks were carried concurrently or alone. This study shows that neural processes associated with VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex can be partially dissociated. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Peer reviewe
Strain Gradients in Epitaxial Ferroelectrics
X-ray analysis of ferroelectric thin layers of Ba1/2Sr1/2TiO3 with different
thickness reveals the presence of internal strain gradients across the film
thickness and allows us to propose a functional form for the internal strain
profile. We use this to calculate the direct influence of strain gradient,
through flexoelectric coupling, on the degradation of the ferroelectric
properties of thin films with decreasing thickness, in excellent agreement with
the observed behaviour. This work highlights the link between strain relaxation
and strain gradients in epitaxial films, and shows the pressing need to avoid
strain gradients in order to obtain thin ferroelectrics with bulk-like
properties.Comment: 4 pages, 3 embedded figures (1 color), revTex
Linear response strength functions with iterative Arnoldi diagonalization
We report on an implementation of a new method to calculate RPA strength
functions with iterative non-hermitian Arnoldi diagonalization method, which
does not explicitly calculate and store the RPA matrix. We discuss the
treatment of spurious modes, numerical stability, and how the method scales as
the used model space is enlarged. We perform the particle-hole RPA benchmark
calculations for double magic nucleus 132Sn and compare the resulting
electromagnetic strength functions against those obtained within the standard
RPA.Comment: 9 RevTeX pages, 11 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Computing with Noise - Phase Transitions in Boolean Formulas
Computing circuits composed of noisy logical gates and their ability to
represent arbitrary Boolean functions with a given level of error are
investigated within a statistical mechanics setting. Bounds on their
performance, derived in the information theory literature for specific gates,
are straightforwardly retrieved, generalized and identified as the
corresponding typical-case phase transitions. This framework paves the way for
obtaining new results on error-rates, function-depth and sensitivity, and their
dependence on the gate-type and noise model used.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Self-adaptive Multiprecision Preconditioners on Multicore and Manycore Architectures
Abstract. Based on the premise that preconditioners needed for scien-tific computing are not only required to be robust in the numerical sense, but also scalable for up to thousands of light-weight cores, we argue that this two-fold goal is achieved for the recently developed self-adaptive multi-elimination preconditioner. For this purpose, we revise the under-lying idea and analyze the performance of implementations realized in the PARALUTION and MAGMA open-source software libraries on GPU architectures (using either CUDA or OpenCL), Intel’s Many Integrated Core Architecture, and Intel’s Sandy Bridge processor. The comparison with other well-established preconditioners like multi-coloured Gauss-Seidel, ILU(0) and multi-colored ILU(0), shows that the twofold goal of a numerically stable cross-platform performant algorithm is achieved.
Spin texture on the Fermi surface of tensile strained HgTe
We present ab initio and k.p calculations of the spin texture on the Fermi
surface of tensile strained HgTe, which is obtained by stretching the
zincblende lattice along the (111) axis. Tensile strained HgTe is a semimetal
with pointlike accidental degeneracies between a mirror symmetry protected
twofold degenerate band and two nondegenerate bands near the Fermi level. The
Fermi surface consists of two ellipsoids which contact at the point where the
Fermi level crosses the twofold degenerate band along the (111) axis. However,
the spin texture of occupied states indicates that neither ellipsoid carries a
compensating Chern number. Consequently, the spin texture is locked in the
plane perpendicular to the (111) axis, exhibits a nonzero winding number in
that plane, and changes winding number from one end of the Fermi ellipsoids to
the other. The change in the winding of the spin texture suggests the existence
of singular points. An ordered alloy of HgTe with ZnTe has the same effect as
stretching the zincblende lattice in the (111) direction. We present ab initio
calculations of ordered Hg_xZn_1-xTe that confirm the existence of a spin
texture locked in a 2D plane on the Fermi surface with different winding
numbers on either end.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
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