On the Construction of Sorted Reactive Systems

We develop a theory of sorted bigraphical reactive systems. Every application of bigraphs in the literature has required an extension, a sorting, of pure bigraphs. In turn, every such application has required a redevelopment of the theory of pure bigraphical reactive systems for the sorting at hand. Here we present a general construction of sortings. The constructed sortings always sustain the behavioural theory of pure bigraphs (in a precise sense), thus obviating the need to redevelop that theory for each new application. As an example, we recover Milner’s local bigraphs as a sorting on pure bigraphs. Technically, we give our construction for ordinary reactive systems, then lift it to bigraphical reactive systems. As such, we give also a construction of sortings for ordinary reactive systems. This construction is an improvement over previous attempts in that it produces smaller and much more natural sortings, as witnessed by our recovery of local bigraphs as a sorting

Coherent Ro-vibrational Revivals in a Thermal Molecular Ensemble

We report an experimental and theoretical study of the evolution of vibrational coherence in a thermal ensemble of nitrogen molecules. Rotational dephasing and rephasing of the vibrational coherence is detected by coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering. The existence of ro-vibrational coupling and the discrete energy spectrum of the rotational bath lead to a whole new class of full and fractional ro-vibrational revivals. Following the rich ro-vibrational dynamics on a nanosecond time scale with sub-picosecond time resolution enables us to determine the second-order ro-vibrational constant $gamma_e$ and assess new possibilities of controlling decoherence.Comment: submitted at Physical Review

The political economy of U.S. foreign aid: American legislators and the domestic politics of aid

Are there systematic political economy factors that shape preferences for foreign aid, a key component of American foreign policy? We analyze votes in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 2003 that would increase or decrease foreign aid by considering the political, economic, and ideological characteristics of legislators and their districts. To understand who supports and opposes foreign aid, we utilize theories of foreign economic policy preferences. By examining different types of aid policy, we show that domestic politics and especially the distributional consequences of economic aid can matter. The economic characteristics of a district and its left-right ideological predispositions influence support for aid in a systematic fashion over the nearly 25-year period. Stolper-Samuelson models along with political ideology can help explain legislators' preferences toward aid

Direct Hopf Bifurcation in Parametric Resonance of Hybridized Waves

We study parametric resonance of interacting waves having the same wave vector and frequency. In addition to the well-known period-doubling instability we show that under certain conditions the instability is caused by a Hopf bifurcation leading to quasiperiodic traveling waves. It occurs, for example, if the group velocities of both waves have different signs and the damping is weak. The dynamics above the threshold is briefly discussed. Examples concerning ferromagnetic spin waves and surface waves of ferro fluids are discussed.Comment: Appears in Phys. Rev. Lett., RevTeX file and three postscript figures. Packaged using the 'uufiles' utility, 33 k

Specification and Verification of Media Constraints using UPPAAL

We present the formal specification and verification of a multimedia stream. The stream is described in a timed automata notation. We verify that the stream satisfies certain quality of service properties, in particular, throughput and end-to-end latency. The verification tool used is the real-time model checker UPPAAL

Time-resolved dynamics of electron wave packets in chaotic and regular quantum billiards with leads

We perform numerical studies of the wave packet propagation through open quantum billiards whose classical counterparts exhibit regular and chaotic dynamics. We show that for t less or similar to tau (tau being the Heisenberg time), the features in the transmitted and reflected currents are directly related to specific classical trajectories connecting the billiard leads. In contrast, the long-time asymptotics of the wave packet dynamics is qualitatively different for classical and quantum billiards. In particularly, the decay of the quantum system obeys a power law that depends on the number of decay channels, and is not sensitive to the nature of classical dynamics (chaotic or regular).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Strong-Segregation Theory of Bicontinuous Phases in Block Copolymers

We compute phase diagrams for $A_nB_m$ starblock copolymers in the strong-segregation regime as a function of volume fraction $\phi$, including bicontinuous phases related to minimal surfaces (G, D, and P surfaces) as candidate structures. We present the details of a general method to compute free energies in the strong segregation limit, and demonstrate that the gyroid G phase is the most nearly stable among the bicontinuous phases considered. We explore some effects of conformational asymmetry on the topology of the phase diagram.Comment: 14 pages, latex, 21 figures, to appear in Macromolecule

Gluon Shadowing in DIS off Nuclei

Within a light-cone quantum-chromodynamics dipole formalism based on the Green function technique, we study nuclear shadowing in deep-inelastic scattering at small Bjorken xB < 0.01. Such a formalism incorporates naturally color transparency and coherence length effects. Calculations of the nuclear shadowing for the \bar{q}q Fock component of the photon are based on an exact numerical solution of the evolution equation for the Green function, using a realistic form of the dipole cross section and nuclear density function. Such an exact numerical solution is unavoidable for xB > 0.0001, when a variation of the transverse size of the \bar{q}q Fock component must be taken into account. The eikonal approximation, used so far in most other models, can be applied only at high energies, when xB < 0.0001 and the transverse size of the \bar{q}q Fock component is "frozen" during propagation through the nuclear matter. At xB < 0.01 we find quite a large contribution of gluon suppression to nuclear shadowing, as a shadowing correction for the higher Fock states containing gluons. Numerical results for nuclear shadowing are compared with the available data from the E665 and NMC collaborations. Nuclear shadowing is also predicted at very small xB corresponding to LHC kinematical range. Finally the model predictions are compared and discussed with the results obtained from other models.Comment: 29 pages including 7 figures; Fig.7 modified, some references and corresponding discussion adde

Enhancing strong-field induced molecular vibration with femtosecond pulse shaping

This work investigates the utility of femtosecond pulse shaping in increasing the efficiency of Raman excitation of molecules in the strong-field interaction regime. We study experimentally and theoretically the effect of pulse shaping on the strength of non-resonant coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering in iodine vapor at laser intensities exceeding $10^{13}$ W/cm$^2$. We show that unlike the perturbative case, shaping strong non-resonant laser pulses can increase the signal strength beyond that observed with the transform-limited excitation. Both adiabatic and non-adiabatic schemes of excitation are explored, and the differences of their potential in increasing the excitation efficiency are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, experimental and theoretical stud

Diffusion Resonances in Action Space for an Atom Optics Kicked Rotor with Decoherence

We numerically investigate momentum diffusion rates for the pulse kicked rotor across the quantum to classical transition as the dynamics are made more macroscopic by increasing the total system action. For initial and late time rates we observe an enhanced diffusion peak which shifts and scales with changing kick strength, and we also observe distinctive peaks around quantum resonances. Our investigations take place in the context of a system of ultracold atoms which is coupled to its environment via spontaneous emission decoherence, and the effects should be realisable in ongoing experiments.Comment: 4 Pages, RevTeX 4, 5 Figures. Updated Figures, Minor Changes to text, Corrected Reference