1,029 research outputs found
Anomalous Axion Interactions and Topological Currents in Dense Matter
Recently an effective Lagrangian for the interactions of photons,
Nambu-Goldstone bosons and superfluid phonons in dense quark matter has been
derived using anomaly matching arguments. In this paper we illuminate the
nature of certain anomalous terms in this Lagrangian by an explicit microscopic
calculation. We also generalize the corresponding construction to introduce the
axion field. We derive an anomalous axion effective Lagrangian describing the
interactions of axions with photons and superfluid phonons in the dense matter
background. This effective Lagrangian, among other things, implies that an
axion current will be induced in the presence of magnetic field. We speculate
that this current may be responsible for the explanation of neutron star kicks.Comment: 10 page
A measurement of the 4He(g,n) reaction from 23 < Eg < 70 MeV
A comprehensive set of 4He(g,n) absolute cross-section measurements has been
performed at MAX-lab in Lund, Sweden. Tagged photons from 23 < Eg < 70 MeV were
directed toward a liquid 4He target, and neutrons were identified using
pulse-shape discrimination and the Time-of-flight Technique in two
liquid-scintillator detector arrays. Seven-point angular distributions have
been measured for fourteen photon energies. The results have been subjected to
complementary Transition-coefficient and Legendre-coefficient analyses. The
results are also compared to experimental data measured at comparable photon
energies as well as Recoil-Corrected Continuum Shell Model, Resonating Group
Method, and Effective Interaction Hyperspherical-Harmonic Expansion
calculations. For photon energies below 29 MeV, the angle-integrated data are
significantly larger than the values recommended by Calarco, Berman, and
Donnelly in 1983.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, some more revisions, submitted to Physical
Review
The furan microsolvation blind challenge for quantum chemical methods: First steps
© 2018 Author(s). Herein we present the results of a blind challenge to quantum chemical methods in the calculation of dimerization preferences in the low temperature gas phase. The target of study was the first step of the microsolvation of furan, 2-methylfuran and 2,5-dimethylfuran with methanol. The dimers were investigated through IR spectroscopy of a supersonic jet expansion. From the measured bands, it was possible to identify a persistent hydrogen bonding OH-O motif in the predominant species. From the presence of another band, which can be attributed to an OH-π interaction, we were able to assert that the energy gap between the two types of dimers should be less than or close to 1 kJ/mol across the series. These values served as a first evaluation ruler for the 12 entries featured in the challenge. A tentative stricter evaluation of the challenge results is also carried out, combining theoretical and experimental results in order to define a smaller error bar. The process was carried out in a double-blind fashion, with both theory and experimental groups unaware of the results on the other side, with the exception of the 2,5-dimethylfuran system which was featured in an earlier publication
Increasing generality in machine learning through procedural content generation
Procedural Content Generation (PCG) refers to the practice, in videogames and
other games, of generating content such as levels, quests, or characters
algorithmically. Motivated by the need to make games replayable, as well as to
reduce authoring burden, limit storage space requirements, and enable
particular aesthetics, a large number of PCG methods have been devised by game
developers. Additionally, researchers have explored adapting methods from
machine learning, optimization, and constraint solving to PCG problems. Games
have been widely used in AI research since the inception of the field, and in
recent years have been used to develop and benchmark new machine learning
algorithms. Through this practice, it has become more apparent that these
algorithms are susceptible to overfitting. Often, an algorithm will not learn a
general policy, but instead a policy that will only work for a particular
version of a particular task with particular initial parameters. In response,
researchers have begun exploring randomization of problem parameters to
counteract such overfitting and to allow trained policies to more easily
transfer from one environment to another, such as from a simulated robot to a
robot in the real world. Here we review the large amount of existing work on
PCG, which we believe has an important role to play in increasing the
generality of machine learning methods. The main goal here is to present RL/AI
with new tools from the PCG toolbox, and its secondary goal is to explain to
game developers and researchers a way in which their work is relevant to AI
research
A spectral study of gamma-ray emitting AGN
In this paper we present a statistical analysis of the gamma-ray spectra of
flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ) compared to those of BL Lacs. The average
spectra and possible systematic deviations from power-law behaviour are
investigated by summing up the intensity and the power-law fit statistic for
both classes of objects. We also compare the time-averaged spectrum to that at
the time of gamma-ray outbursts. The spectrum of the average AGN is softer than
that of the extragalactic gamma-ray background. It may be that BL Lacs, which
on average have a harder spectrum than FSRQs, make up the bulk of the
extragalactic background. We also find apparent cut-offs at both low and high
energies in the spectra of FSRQs at the time of gamma-ray outbursts. While the
cut-off at high energies may have something to do with opacity, the cut-off at
low energies may be taken as indication that the gamma-ray emission of FSRQs is
not a one component spectrum.Comment: 8 pages, accepted for publication in A&
Binary and Millisecond Pulsars at the New Millennium
We review the properties and applications of binary and millisecond pulsars.
Our knowledge of these exciting objects has greatly increased in recent years,
mainly due to successful surveys which have brought the known pulsar population
to over 1300. There are now 56 binary and millisecond pulsars in the Galactic
disk and a further 47 in globular clusters. This review is concerned primarily
with the results and spin-offs from these surveys which are of particular
interest to the relativity community.Comment: 59 pages, 26 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Living
Reviews in Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org
Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP
We measure cosmological parameters using the three-dimensional power spectrum
P(k) from over 200,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in
combination with WMAP and other data. Our results are consistent with a
``vanilla'' flat adiabatic Lambda-CDM model without tilt (n=1), running tilt,
tensor modes or massive neutrinos. Adding SDSS information more than halves the
WMAP-only error bars on some parameters, tightening 1 sigma constraints on the
Hubble parameter from h~0.74+0.18-0.07 to h~0.70+0.04-0.03, on the matter
density from Omega_m~0.25+/-0.10 to Omega_m~0.30+/-0.04 (1 sigma) and on
neutrino masses from <11 eV to <0.6 eV (95%). SDSS helps even more when
dropping prior assumptions about curvature, neutrinos, tensor modes and the
equation of state. Our results are in substantial agreement with the joint
analysis of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is an impressive
consistency check with independent redshift survey data and analysis
techniques. In this paper, we place particular emphasis on clarifying the
physical origin of the constraints, i.e., what we do and do not know when using
different data sets and prior assumptions. For instance, dropping the
assumption that space is perfectly flat, the WMAP-only constraint on the
measured age of the Universe tightens from t0~16.3+2.3-1.8 Gyr to
t0~14.1+1.0-0.9 Gyr by adding SDSS and SN Ia data. Including tensors, running
tilt, neutrino mass and equation of state in the list of free parameters, many
constraints are still quite weak, but future cosmological measurements from
SDSS and other sources should allow these to be substantially tightened.Comment: Minor revisions to match accepted PRD version. SDSS data and ppt
figures available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspars.htm
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