Synchronized flow and wide moving jams from balanced vehicular traffic

Recently we proposed an extension to the traffic model of Aw, Rascle and Greenberg. The extended traffic model can be written as a hyperbolic system of balance laws and numerically reproduces the reverse $\lambda$ shape of the fundamental diagram of traffic flow. In the current work we analyze the steady state solutions of the new model and their stability properties. In addition to the equilibrium flow curve the trivial steady state solutions form two additional branches in the flow-density diagram. We show that the characteristic structure excludes parts of these branches resulting in the reverse $\lambda$ shape of the flow-density relation. The upper branch is metastable against the formation of synchronized flow for intermediate densities and unstable for high densities, whereas the lower branch is unstable for intermediate densities and metastable for high densities. Moreover, the model can reproduce the typical speed of the downstream front of wide moving jams. It further reproduces a constant outflow from wide moving jams, which is far below the maximum free flow. Applying the model to simulate traffic flow at a bottleneck we observe a general pattern with wide moving jams traveling through the bottleneck.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure

Use of remote sensing for hydrological parameterisation of Alpine catchments

International audiencePhysically-based water balance models require a realistic parameterisation of land surface characteristics of a catchment. Alpine areas are very complex with strong topographically-induced gradients of environmental conditions, which makes the hydrological parameterisation of Alpine catchments difficult. Within a few kilometres the water balance of a region (mountain peak or valley) can differ completely. Hence, remote sensing is invaluable for retrieving hydrologically relevant land surface parameters. The assimilation of the retrieved information into the water balance model PROMET is demonstrated for the Toce basin in Piemonte/Northern Italy. In addition to land use, albedos and leaf area indices were derived from LANDSAT-TM imagery. Runoff, modelled by a water balance approach, agreed well with observations without calibration of the hydrological model. Keywords: PROMET, fuzzy logic based land use classification, albedo, leaf area inde

Electroweak and finite width corrections to top quark decays into transverse and longitudinal W W -bosons

We calculate the electroweak and finite width corrections to the decay of an unpolarized top quark into a bottom quark and a $W$-gauge boson where the helicities of the $W$ are specified as longitudinal, transverse-plus and transverse-minus. Together with the $O(\alpha_s)$ corrections these corrections may become relevant for the determination of the mass of the top quark through angular decay measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 7 postscript figures adde

Origin Of The Far Off-Axis GRB171205A

We show that observed properties of the low luminosity GRB171205A and its afterglow, like those of most other low-luminosity (LL) gamma ray bursts (GRBs) associate with a supernova (SN), indicate that it is an ordinary SN-GRB, which was produced by inverse Compton scattering of glory light by a highly relativistic narrowly collimated jet ejected in a supernova explosion and viewed from a far off-axis angle. As such, VLA/VLBI follow-up radio observations of a superluminal displacement of its bright radio afterglow from its parent supernova, will be able to test clearly whether it is an ordinary SN-GRB viewed from far off-axis or it belongs to a distinct class of GRBs, which are different from ordinary GRBs, and cannot be explained by standard fireball models of GRBs as ordinary GRBsComment: 5 pages, 6 figures, updated data in Fig. 3, Corrected GRB angular distance used in Fig.

O(αs) O(\alpha_s) corrections to polarized top decay into a charged Higgs t(↑)→H++b t(\uparrow) \to H^+ + b

We calculate the $O(\alpha_s)$ radiative corrections to polarized top quark decay into a charged Higgs boson and a massive bottom quark in two variants of the two-Higgs-doublet model. The radiative corrections to the polarization asymmetry of the decay may become as large as $25$. We provide analytical formulae for the unpolarized and polarized rates for $m_b \neq 0$ and for $m_b = 0$. For $m_b = 0$ our closed-form expressions for the unpolarized and polarized rates become rather compact.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures in the text, content modified, comments added, appendices added, references updated, replaced with published versio

Semi- and Non-relativistic Limit of the Dirac Dynamics with External Fields

We show how to approximate Dirac dynamics for electronic initial states by semi- and non-relativistic dynamics. To leading order, these are generated by the semi- and non-relativistic Pauli hamiltonian where the kinetic energy is related to $\sqrt{m^2 + \xi^2}$ and $\xi^2 / 2m$, respectively. Higher-order corrections can in principle be computed to any order in the small parameter v/c which is the ratio of typical speeds to the speed of light. Our results imply the dynamics for electronic and positronic states decouple to any order in v/c << 1. To decide whether to get semi- or non-relativistic effective dynamics, one needs to choose a scaling for the kinetic momentum operator. Then the effective dynamics are derived using space-adiabatic perturbation theory by Panati et. al with the novel input of a magnetic pseudodifferential calculus adapted to either the semi- or non-relativistic scaling.Comment: 42 page

Prenatal diagnosis for haemophilia: A nationwide survey among female carriers in the Netherlands

Carriers of haemophilia face difficult choices regarding prenatal diagnosis, but little is known about the determinants that influence their decisions. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of prenatal diagnosis and potential determinants affecting the choice for prenatal diagnosis. A nationwide survey was performed among all women who underwent carriership testing for haemophilia in the Netherlands between 1992 and 2004. Prenatal diagnosis was assessed i