3,120 research outputs found
Levy-stable distributions revisited: tail index > 2 does not exclude the Levy-stable regime
Power-law tail behavior and the summation scheme of Levy-stable distributions
is the basis for their frequent use as models when fat tails above a Gaussian
distribution are observed. However, recent studies suggest that financial asset
returns exhibit tail exponents well above the Levy-stable regime (). In this paper we illustrate that widely used tail index estimates (log-log
linear regression and Hill) can give exponents well above the asymptotic limit
for close to 2, resulting in overestimation of the tail exponent in
finite samples. The reported value of the tail exponent around 3 may
very well indicate a Levy-stable distribution with .Comment: To be published in Int. J. Modern Physics C (2001) vol. 12 no.
Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians
Warren McCulloch was a significant influence on a number of British cyberneticians, as some British pioneers in this area were on him. He interacted regularly with most of the main figures on the British cybernetics scene, forming close friendships and collaborations with several, as well as mentoring others. Many of these interactions stemmed from a 1949 visit to London during which he gave the opening talk at the inaugural meeting of the Ratio Club, a gathering of brilliant, mainly young, British scientists working in areas related to cybernetics. This paper traces some of these relationships and interaction
Energy versus electron transfer in organic solar cells: a comparison of the photophysics of two indenofluorene: fullerene blend films
In this paper, we compare the photophysics and photovoltaic device performance of two indenofluorene based polymers: poly[2,8-(6,6,12,12-tetraoctylindenofluorene)-co-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiodiazole] (IF8BT) and poly[2,8-(6,6,12,12-tetraoctylindenofluorene)-co-5,5-(40,70-di-2-thienyl-20,10,30-benzothiodiazole] (IF8TBTT) blended with [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). Photovoltaic devices made with IF8TBTT exhibit greatly superior photocurrent generation and photovoltaic efficiency compared to those made with IF8BT. The poor device efficiency of IF8BT/PCBM devices is shown to result from efficient, ultrafast singlet F€orster energy transfer from IF8BT to PCBM, with the resultant PCBM singlet exciton lacking sufficient energy to drive charge photogeneration. The higher photocurrent generation observed for IF8TBTT/PCBM devices is shown to result from IF8TBTT’s relatively weak, red-shifted photoluminescence characteristics, which switches off the polymer to fullerene singlet energy transfer pathway. As a consequence, IF8TBTT singlet excitons are able to drive charge separation at the polymer/fullerene interface, resulting in efficient photocurrent generation. These results are discussed in terms of the impact of donor/acceptor energy transfer upon photophysics and energetics of charge photogeneration in organic photovoltaic\ud
devices. The relevance of these results to the design of polymers for organic photovoltaic applications is also discussed, particularly with regard to explaining why highly luminescent polymers developed for organic light emitting diode applications often give relatively poor performance in organic photovoltaic devices
Correlation density matrices for 1- dimensional quantum chains based on the density matrix renormalization group
A useful concept for finding numerically the dominant correlations of a given
ground state in an interacting quantum lattice system in an unbiased way is the
correlation density matrix. For two disjoint, separated clusters, it is defined
to be the density matrix of their union minus the direct product of their
individual density matrices and contains all correlations between the two
clusters. We show how to extract from the correlation density matrix a general
overview of the correlations as well as detailed information on the operators
carrying long-range correlations and the spatial dependence of their
correlation functions. To determine the correlation density matrix, we
calculate the ground state for a class of spinless extended Hubbard models
using the density matrix renormalization group. This numerical method is based
on matrix product states for which the correlation density matrix can be
obtained straightforwardly. In an appendix, we give a detailed tutorial
introduction to our variational matrix product state approach for ground state
calculations for 1- dimensional quantum chain models. We show in detail how
matrix product states overcome the problem of large Hilbert space dimensions in
these models and describe all techniques which are needed for handling them in
practice.Comment: 50 pages, 34 figures, to be published in New Journal of Physic
Eastern Asian emissions of anthropogenic halocarbons deduced from aircraft concentration data
The Montreal Protocol restricts production of ozone-depleting halocarbons worldwide. Enforcement of the protocol has relied mainly on annual government statistics of production and consumption of these compounds (bottom-up approach). We show here that aircraft observations of halocarbon:CO enhancement ratios on regional to continental scales can be used to infer halocarbon emissions, providing independent verification of the bottom-up approach. We apply this top-down approach to aircraft observations of Asian outflow from the TRACE-P mission over the western Pacific (March April 2001) and derive emissions from eastern Asia (China, Japan, and Korea). We derive an eastern Asian carbon tetrachloride (CCl ) source of 21.5 Gg yr , several-fold larger than previous estimates and amounting to 30% of the global budget for this gas. Our emission estimate for CFC-11 from eastern Asia is 50% higher than inventories derived from manufacturing records. Our emission estimates for methyl chloroform (CH ) and CFC-12 are in agreement with existing inventories. For halon 1211 we find only a strong local source originating from the Shanghai area. Our emission estimates for the above gases result in a 40% increase in the ozone depletion potential (ODP) of Asian emissions relative to previous estimates, corresponding to a 10% global increase in ODP
State-Dependent Computation Using Coupled Recurrent Networks
Although conditional branching between possible behavioral states is a hallmark of intelligent behavior, very little is known about the neuronal mechanisms that support this processing. In a step toward solving this problem, we demonstrate by theoretical analysis and simulation how
networks of richly interconnected neurons, such as those observed in the superficial layers of the neocortex, can embed reliable, robust finite state machines. We show how a multistable neuronal network containing a number of states can be created very simply by coupling two recurrent
networks whose synaptic weights have been configured for soft winner-take-all (sWTA) performance. These two sWTAs have simple, homogeneous, locally recurrent connectivity except for a small fraction of recurrent cross-connections between them, which are used to embed the required states. This coupling between the maps allows the network to continue to express the current state even after the input that elicited that state iswithdrawn. In addition, a small number of transition neurons implement the necessary input-driven transitions between the embedded states. We provide simple rules to systematically design and construct neuronal state machines of this kind. The significance of our finding is that it offers a method whereby the cortex could construct networks supporting a broad range of sophisticated processing by applying only small specializations to the same generic neuronal circuit
The Tajmar effect from quantised inertia
The Tajmar anomaly is an unexplained acceleration observed by gyroscopes
close to, but isolated from, rotating rings cooled to 5K. The observed ratio
between the gyroscope and ring accelerations was 3+/-1.2*10^-8 for clockwise
rotations and about half this size for anticlockwise ones. Here, this anomaly
is predicted using a new model that assumes that the inertial mass of the
gyroscope is caused by Unruh radiation that appears as the ring and the fixed
stars accelerate relative to it, and that this radiation is subject to a
Hubble-scale Casimir effect. The model predicts that the sudden acceleration of
the ring causes a slight increase in the inertial mass of the gyroscope, and,
to conserve momentum the gyroscope must move with the ring with an acceleration
ratio of 2.67+/-0.24*10^-8 for clockwise rotations and 1.34+/-0.12*10^-8 for
anticlockwise ones, in agreement with the observations. The model predicts that
in the southern hemisphere the anomaly should be larger for anticlockwise
rotations instead, and that with a significant reduction of the mass of the
disc, the decay of the effect with vertical distance should become measurable.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Accepted by EPL on the 16th June, 201
Single-Shot Electron Diffraction using a Cold Atom Electron Source
Cold atom electron sources are a promising alternative to traditional
photocathode sources for use in ultrafast electron diffraction due to greatly
reduced electron temperature at creation, and the potential for a corresponding
increase in brightness. Here we demonstrate single-shot, nanosecond electron
diffraction from monocrystalline gold using cold electron bunches generated in
a cold atom electron source. The diffraction patterns have sufficient signal to
allow registration of multiple single-shot images, generating an averaged image
with significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio than obtained with unregistered
averaging. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) was also
demonstrated, showing that cold atom electron sources may be useful in
resolving nanosecond dynamics of nanometre scale near-surface structures.Comment: This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article
published in Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. IOP
Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version
of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is
available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/48/21/21400
Excitations in two-component Bose-gases
In this paper, we study a strongly correlated quantum system that has become
amenable to experiment by the advent of ultracold bosonic atoms in optical
lattices, a chain of two different bosonic constituents. Excitations in this
system are first considered within the framework of bosonization and Luttinger
liquid theory which are applicable if the Luttinger liquid parameters are
determined numerically. The occurrence of a bosonic counterpart of fermionic
spin-charge separation is signalled by a characteristic two-peak structure in
the spectral functions found by dynamical DMRG in good agreement with
analytical predictions. Experimentally, single-particle excitations as probed
by spectral functions are currently not accessible in cold atoms. We therefore
consider the modifications needed for current experiments, namely the
investigation of the real-time evolution of density perturbations instead of
single particle excitations, a slight inequivalence between the two
intraspecies interactions in actual experiments, and the presence of a
confining trap potential. Using time-dependent DMRG we show that only
quantitative modifications occur. With an eye to the simulation of strongly
correlated quantum systems far from equilibrium we detect a strong dependence
of the time-evolution of entanglement entropy on the initial perturbation,
signalling limitations to current reasonings on entanglement growth in
many-body systems
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