8,993 research outputs found
Flash of photons from the early stage of heavy-ion collisions
The dynamics of partonic cascades may be an important aspect for particle
production in relativistic collisions of nuclei at CERN SPS and BNL RHIC
energies. Within the Parton-Cascade Model, we estimate the production of single
photons from such cascades due to scattering of quarks and gluons q g -> q
gamma, quark-antiquark annihilation q qbar -> g gamma, or gamma gamma, and from
electromagnetic brems-strahlung of quarks q -> q gamma. We find that the latter
QED branching process plays the dominant role for photon production, similarly
as the QCD branchings q -> q g and g -> g g play a crucial role for parton
multiplication. We conclude therefore that photons accompanying the parton
cascade evolution during the early stage of heavy-ion collisions shed light on
the formation of a partonic plasma.Comment: 4 pages including 3 postscript figure
Parton cascade description of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at CERN SPS energies ?
We examine Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS energy 158 A GeV, by employing the
earlier developed and recently refined parton-cascade/cluster-hadronization
model and its Monte Carlo implementation. This space-time model involves the
dynamical interplay of perturbative QCD parton production and evolution, with
non-perturbative parton-cluster formation and hadron production through cluster
decays. Using computer simulations, we are able to follow the entwined
time-evolution of parton and hadron degrees of freedom in both position and
momentum space, from the instant of nuclear overlap to the final yield of
particles. We present and discuss results for the multiplicity distributions,
which agree well with the measured data from the CERN SPS, including those for
K mesons. The transverse momentum distributions of the produced hadrons are
also found to be in good agreement with the preliminary data measured by the
NA49 and the WA98 collaboration for the collision of lead nuclei at the CERN
SPS. The analysis of the time evolution of transverse energy deposited in the
collision zone and the energy density suggests an existence of partonic matter
for a time of more than 5 fm.Comment: 16 pages including 7 postscript figure
Deep Convolutional Neural Networks as strong gravitational lens detectors
Future large-scale surveys with high resolution imaging will provide us with
a few new strong galaxy-scale lenses. These strong lensing systems
however will be contained in large data amounts which are beyond the capacity
of human experts to visually classify in a unbiased way. We present a new
strong gravitational lens finder based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs).
The method was applied to the Strong Lensing challenge organised by the Bologna
Lens Factory. It achieved first and third place respectively on the space-based
data-set and the ground-based data-set. The goal was to find a fully automated
lens finder for ground-based and space-based surveys which minimizes human
inspect. We compare the results of our CNN architecture and three new
variations ("invariant" "views" and "residual") on the simulated data of the
challenge. Each method has been trained separately 5 times on 17 000 simulated
images, cross-validated using 3 000 images and then applied to a 100 000 image
test set. We used two different metrics for evaluation, the area under the
receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) score and the recall with no
false positive (). For ground based data our
best method achieved an AUC score of and a
of . For space-based data our best
method achieved an AUC score of and a
of . On space-based data adding dihedral invariance to the CNN
architecture diminished the overall score but achieved a higher no
contamination recall. We found that using committees of 5 CNNs produce the best
recall at zero contamination and consistenly score better AUC than a single
CNN. We found that for every variation of our CNN lensfinder, we achieve AUC
scores close to within .Comment: 9 pages, accepted to A&
Space station integrated wall design and penetration damage control. Task 3: Theoretical analysis of penetration mechanics
The efforts to provide a penetration code called PEN4 version 10 is documented for calculation of projectile and target states for the impact of 2024-T3 aluminum, R sub B 90 1018 steel projectiles and icy meteoroids onto 2024-T3 aluminum plates at impact velocities from 0 to 16 km/s. PEN4 determines whether a plate is perforated by calculating the state of fragmentation of projectile and first plate. Depth of penetration into the second to n sup th plate by fragments resulting from first plate perforation is determined by multiple cratering. The results from applications are given
Challenges facing primary school educators of English Second (or Other) Language learners in the Western Cape
We were prompted by the prevalence of English Second or Other Language(ESOL) learners identified by educators as having language disorders and being referred for Speech-Language Therapy. We describe challenges faced by Grade 1, 2 and 3 educators at government schools in the Cape Metropolitan area who were working with such learners. Applying a mixed-methods descriptive design, a self-administered questionnaire and three focus groups were used for data collection. Educator perceptions and experiences regarding ESOL learners were described. Some participant educators at schools that were not former Model C schools had large classes, including large proportions of ESOL learners. Furthermore,there was a shortage of educators who were able to speak isiXhosa,the most frequently occurring first (or home) language of the region’s ESOL learners. Challenges faced by educators when teaching ESOL learners included learners’ academic and socio-emotional difficulties and a lack of parent involvement in their children’s education. Participant educators indicated a need for departmental, professional and parental support, and additional training and resources. Implications and recommendations for speech-language therapist and educator collaborations and speech-language therapists’ participation in educator training were identified
Analysis of reaction dynamics at RHIC in a combined parton/hadron transport approach
We introduce a transport approach which combines partonic and hadronic
degrees of freedom on an equal footing and discuss the resulting reaction
dynamics. The initial parton dynamics is modeled in the framework of the parton
cascade model, hadronization is performed via a cluster hadronization model and
configuration space coalescence, and the hadronic phase is described by a
microscopic hadronic transport approach. The resulting reaction dynamics
indicates a strong influence of hadronic rescattering on the space-time pattern
of hadronic freeze-out and on the shape of transverse mass spectra. Freeze-out
times and transverse radii increase by factors of 2 - 3 depending on the hadron
species.Comment: 10 pages, 4 eps figures include
MoodBar: Increasing new user retention in Wikipedia through lightweight socialization
Socialization in online communities allows existing members to welcome and
recruit newcomers, introduce them to community norms and practices, and sustain
their early participation. However, socializing newcomers does not come for
free: in large communities, socialization can result in a significant workload
for mentors and is hard to scale. In this study we present results from an
experiment that measured the effect of a lightweight socialization tool on the
activity and retention of newly registered users attempting to edit for the
first time Wikipedia. Wikipedia is struggling with the retention of newcomers
and our results indicate that a mechanism to elicit lightweight feedback and to
provide early mentoring to newcomers improves their chances of becoming
long-term contributors.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for presentation at CSCW'1
Heavy resonance production in high energy nuclear collisions
We estimate freezeout conditions for , , and quarks in high energy
nuclear collisions. Freezeout is due either to loss of thermal contact, or to
particles ``wandering'' out of the region of hot matter. We then develop a
thermal recombination model in which both single-particle (quark and antiquark)
and two-particle (quark-antiquark) densities are conserved. Conservation of
two-particle densities is necessary because quarks and antiquarks are always
produced in coincidence, so that the local two-particle density can be much
larger than the product of the single-particle densities. We use the freezeout
conditions and recombination model to discuss heavy resonance production at
zero baryon density in high energy nuclear collisions.Comment: revtex, 15 pages, no figures, KSUCNR-009-9
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