Ergodic property of Markovian semigroups on standard forms of von Neumann algebras

We give sufficient conditions for ergodicity of the Markovian semigroups associated to Dirichlet forms on standard forms of von Neumann algebras constructed by the method proposed in Refs. [Par1,Par2]. We apply our result to show that the diffusion type Markovian semigroups for quantum spin systems are ergodic in the region of high temperatures where the uniqueness of the KMS-state holds.Comment: 25 page

Quasinormal Ringing for Acoustic Black Holes at Low Temperature

We investigate a condensed matter ``black hole'' analogue, taking the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation as a starting point. The linearized GP equation corresponds to a wave equation on a black hole background, giving quasinormal modes under some appropriate conditions. We suggest that we can know the detailed characters and corresponding geometrical information about the acoustic black hole by observing quasinormal ringdown waves in the low temperature condensed matters.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, PRD accepted versio

A statistical study of the post-impulsive-phase acceleration of flare-associated coronal mass ejections

It is now generally accepted that the impulsive acceleration of a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the inner corona is closely correlated in time with the main energy release of the associated solar flare. In this paper, we examine in detail the post-impulsive-phase acceleration of a CME in the outer corona, which is the phase of evolution immediately following the main impulsive acceleration of the CME; this phase is believed to correspond to the decay phase of the associated flare. This observational study is based on a statistical sample of 247 CMEs that are associated with M- and X-class GOES soft X-ray flares from 1996 to 2006. We find that, from many examples of events, the CMEs associated with flares with long-decay time (or so-called long-duration flares) tend to have positive post-impulsive-phase acceleration, even though some of them have already obtained a high speed at the end of the impulsive acceleration but do not show a deceleration expected from the aerodynamic dragging of the background solar wind. On the other hand, the CMEs associated with flares of short-decay time tend to have significant deceleration. In the scattering plot of all events, there is a weak correlation between CME post-impulsive-phase acceleration and flare decay time. The CMEs deviated from the general trend are mostly slow or weak ones associated with flares of short-decay time; the deviation is caused by the relatively stronger solar wind dragging force for these events. The implications of our results on CME dynamics and CME-flare relations are discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Ultrasound attenuation and a P-B-T phase diagram of superfluid 3He in 98% aerogel

Longitudinal sound attenuation measurements in superfluid 3He in 98% aerogel were conducted at pressures between 14 and 33 bar and in magnetic fields up to 4.44 kG. The temperature dependence of the ultrasound attenuation in the A-like phase was determined for the entire superfluid region exploiting the field induced meta-stable A-like phase at the highest field. In the lower field, the A-B transition in aerogel was identified by a smooth jump in attenuation on both cooling and warming. Based on the transitions observed on warming, a phase diagram as a function of pressure (P), temperature (T) and magnetic field (B) is constructed. We find that the A-B phase boundary in aerogel recedes in a drastically different manner than in bulk in response to an increasing magnetic field. The implications of the observed phase diagram are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, accepted to PR

Large X-ray Flares from LMC X-4: Discovery of Milli-hertz Quasi-periodic Oscillations and QPO-modulated Pulsations

We report the discovery of milli-hertz (mHz) quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) and QPO-modulated pulsations during large X-ray flares from the high-mass X-ray binary pulsar LMC X-4 using data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The lightcurves of flares show that, in addition to ~74 mHz coherent pulsations, there exist two more time-varying temporal structures at frequencies of ~0.65-1.35 and ~2-20 mHz. These relatively long-term structures appear in the power density spectra as mHz QPOs and as well-developed sidebands around the coherent pulse frequency as well, indicating that the amplitudes of the coherent pulsation is modulated by those of the mHz QPOs. One interesting feature is that, while the first flare shows symmetric sidebands around the coherent pulse frequency, the second flare shows significant excess emission in the lower-frequency sidebands due to the ~2-20 mHz QPOs. We discuss the origin of the QPOs using a combination of the beat-frequency model and a modified version of the Keplerian-frequency model. According to our discussion, it seems to be possible to attribute the origin of the ~0.65-1.35 and ~2-20 mHz QPOs to the beating between the rotational frequency of the neutron star and the Keplerian frequency of large accreting clumps near the corotation radius and to the orbital motion of clumps at Keplerian radii of 2-10 times 10^9 cm, respectively.Comment: 12 pages, including 4 figures; accepted by ApJ Letter