Let's face the music: A behavioral and electrophysiological exploration of score reading

This experiment was carried out to determine whether reading diatonic violations in a musical score elicits similar endogenous ERP components when hearing such violations in the auditory modality. In the behavioral study, musicians were visually presented with 120 scores of familiar musical pieces, half of which contained a diatonic violation. The score was presented in a measure-by-measure manner. Self-paced reading was significantly delayed for measures containing a violation, indicating that sight reading a violation requires additional effort. In the ERP study, the musical phrases were presented in a “RSVP”-like manner. We predicted that diatonic violations would elicit a late positive component. However, the ERP associated with the measure where a violation was presented showed a negativity instead. The negativity started around 100 ms and lasted for the entire recording period. This long-lasting negativity encompassed at least three distinct effects that were possibly related to violation detection, working memory processing, and a further integration/interpretation process

Tactics for Reasoning modulo AC in Coq

We present a set of tools for rewriting modulo associativity and commutativity (AC) in Coq, solving a long-standing practical problem. We use two building blocks: first, an extensible reflexive decision procedure for equality modulo AC; second, an OCaml plug-in for pattern matching modulo AC. We handle associative only operations, neutral elements, uninterpreted function symbols, and user-defined equivalence relations. By relying on type-classes for the reification phase, we can infer these properties automatically, so that end-users do not need to specify which operation is A or AC, or which constant is a neutral element.Comment: 16

Charm as a domain wall fermion in quenched lattice QCD

We report a study describing the charm quark by a domain-wall fermion (DWF) in lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Our study uses a quenched gauge ensemble with the DBW2 rectangle-improved gauge action at a lattice cutoff of $a^{-1} \sim 3$ GeV. We calculate masses of heavy-light (charmed) and heavy-heavy (charmonium) mesons with spin-parity $J^P = 0^\mp$ and $1^\mp$, leptonic decay constants of the charmed pseudoscalar mesons ($D$ and $D_s$), and the $D^0$-$\bar{D^0}$ mixing parameter. The charm quark mass is found to be $m^{\bar{\rm MS}}_{c}(m_{c})=1.24(1)(18)$ GeV. The mass splittings in charmed-meson parity partners $\Delta_{q,J=0}$ and $\Delta_{q, J=1}$ are degenerate within statistical errors, in accord with experiment, and they satisfy a relation $\Delta_{q=ud, J} > \Delta_{q=s, J}$, also consistent with experiment. A C-odd axial vector charmonium state, $h_c), lies 22(11) MeV above the$\chi_{c1}$meson, or$m_{h_{c}} = 3533(11)_{\rm stat.}$MeV using the experimental$\chi_{c1}) mass. However, in this regard, we emphasize significant discrepancies in the calculation of hyperfine splittings on the lattice. The leptonic decay constants of $D$ and $D_s$ mesons are found to be $f_D=232(7)_{\rm stat.}(^{+6}_{-0})_{\rm chiral}(11)_{\rm syst.}$ MeV and $f_{D_s}/f_{D} = 1.05(2)_{\rm stat.}(^{+0}_{-2})_{\rm chiral}(2)_{\rm syst.}$, where the first error is statistical, the second a systematic due to chiral extrapolation and the third error combination of other known systematics. The $D^0$-$\bar{D^0}$ mixing bag parameter, which enters the $\Delta C = 2$ transition amplitude, is found to be $B_D(2{GeV})=0.845(24)_{\rm stat.}(^{+24}_{-6})_{\rm chiral}(105)_{\rm syst.}$.Comment: 49 pages, 15 figure

Nonlinear Competition Between Small and Large Hexagonal Patterns

Recent experiments by Kudrolli, Pier and Gollub on surface waves, parametrically excited by two-frequency forcing, show a transition from a small hexagonal standing wave pattern to a triangular ``superlattice'' pattern. We show that generically the hexagons and the superlattice wave patterns bifurcate simultaneously from the flat surface state as the forcing amplitude is increased, and that the experimentally-observed transition can be described by considering a low-dimensional bifurcation problem. A number of predictions come out of this general analysis.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, revised, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Chiral radiative corrections and D_s(2317)/D(2308) mass puzzle

We show that one loop chiral corrections for heavy-light mesons in potential model can explain the small mass of D_s(2317) as well as the small mass gap between D_s(2317) and D(2308).Comment: To appear in EPJC. A figure and references addede

Dominant Topologies in Euclidean Quantum Gravity

The dominant topologies in the Euclidean path integral for quantum gravity differ sharply according on the sign of the cosmological constant. For $\Lambda>0$, saddle points can occur only for topologies with vanishing first Betti number and finite fundamental group. For $\Lambda<0$, on the other hand, the path integral is dominated by topologies with extremely complicated fundamental groups; while the contribution of each individual manifold is strongly suppressed, the ``density of topologies'' grows fast enough to overwhelm this suppression. The value $\Lambda=0$ is thus a sort of boundary between phases in the sum over topologies. I discuss some implications for the cosmological constant problem and the Hartle-Hawking wave function.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX. Minor additions (computability, relation to ``minimal volume'' in topology); error in eqn (3.5) corrected; references added. To appear in Class. Quant. Gra

Atomic structure and vibrational properties of icosahedral B4_4C boron carbide

The atomic structure of icosahedral B$_4$C boron carbide is determined by comparing existing infra-red absorption and Raman diffusion measurements with the predictions of accurate {\it ab initio} lattice-dynamical calculations performed for different structural models. This allows us to unambiguously determine the location of the carbon atom within the boron icosahedron, a task presently beyond X-ray and neutron diffraction ability. By examining the inter- and intra-icosahedral contributions to the stiffness we show that, contrary to recent conjectures, intra-icosahedral bonds are harder.Comment: 9 pages including 3 figures, accepted in Physical Review Letter