18,381 research outputs found
A definitive heat of vaporization of silicon through benchmark ab initio calculations on SiF_4
In order to resolve a significant uncertainty in the heat of vaporization of
silicon -- a fundamental parameter in gas-phase thermochemistry -- [Si(g)] has been determined from a thermochemical cycle involving
the precisely known experimental heats of formation of SiF_4(g) and F(g) and a
benchmark calculation of the total atomization energy (TAE_0) of SiF_4 using
coupled-cluster methods. Basis sets up to on Si and
on F have been employed, and extrapolations for residual basis
set incompleteness applied. The contributions of inner-shell correlation (-0.08
kcal/mol), scalar relativistic effects (-1.88 kcal/mol), atomic spin-orbit
splitting (-1.97 kcal/mol), and anharmonicity in the zero-point energy (+0.04
kcal/mol) have all been explicitly accounted for. Our benchmark TAE_0=565.89
\pm 0.22 kcal/mol leads to [Si(g)]=107.15 \pm 0.38
kcal/mol ([Si(g)]=108.19 \pm 0.38 kcal/mol): between
the JANAF/CODATA value of 106.5 \pm 1.9 kcal/mol and the revised value proposed
by Grev and Schaefer [J. Chem. Phys. 97, 8389 (1992}], 108.1 \pm 0.5 kcal/mol.
The revision will be relevant for future computational studies on heats of
formation of silicon compounds.Comment: J. Phys. Chem. A, submitted Feb 1, 199
Community and Labor Issues in Animal Agriculture
Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital, Livestock Production/Industries, Q13, R11, J61, J43, J28,
Randomized Smoothing for Stochastic Optimization
We analyze convergence rates of stochastic optimization procedures for
non-smooth convex optimization problems. By combining randomized smoothing
techniques with accelerated gradient methods, we obtain convergence rates of
stochastic optimization procedures, both in expectation and with high
probability, that have optimal dependence on the variance of the gradient
estimates. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first variance-based
rates for non-smooth optimization. We give several applications of our results
to statistical estimation problems, and provide experimental results that
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. We also describe how
a combination of our algorithm with recent work on decentralized optimization
yields a distributed stochastic optimization algorithm that is order-optimal.Comment: 39 pages, 3 figure
An alternate approach to measure specific star formation rates at 2<z<7
We trace the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of massive star-forming
galaxies () from to 7. Our method
is substantially different from previous analyses, as it does not rely on
direct estimates of star formation rate, but on the differential evolution of
the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF). We show the reliability of this
approach by means of semi-analytical and hydrodynamical cosmological
simulations. We then apply it to real data, using the SMFs derived in the
COSMOS and CANDELS fields. We find that the sSFR is proportional to
at , in agreement with other observations but in
tension with the steeper evolution predicted by simulations from to 2.
We investigate the impact of several sources of observational bias, which
however cannot account for this discrepancy. Although the SMF of high-redshift
galaxies is still affected by significant errors, we show that future
large-area surveys will substantially reduce them, making our method an
effective tool to probe the massive end of the main sequence of star-forming
galaxies.Comment: ApJ accepte
Information-theoretic lower bounds on the oracle complexity of stochastic convex optimization
Relative to the large literature on upper bounds on complexity of convex
optimization, lesser attention has been paid to the fundamental hardness of
these problems. Given the extensive use of convex optimization in machine
learning and statistics, gaining an understanding of these complexity-theoretic
issues is important. In this paper, we study the complexity of stochastic
convex optimization in an oracle model of computation. We improve upon known
results and obtain tight minimax complexity estimates for various function
classes
Methane release on Early Mars by atmospheric collapse and atmospheric reinflation
A candidate explanation for Early Mars rivers is atmospheric warming due to
surface release of H or CH gas. However, it remains unknown how much
gas could be released in a single event. We model the CH release by one
mechanism for rapid release of CH from clathrate. By modeling how
CH-clathrate release is affected by changes in Mars' obliquity and
atmospheric composition, we find that a large fraction of total outgassing from
CH clathrate occurs following Mars' first prolonged atmospheric collapse.
This atmosphere-collapse-initiated CH-release mechanism has three stages.
(1) Rapid collapse of Early Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere initiates a slower
shift of water ice from high ground to the poles. (2) Upon subsequent
CO-atmosphere re-inflation and CO-greenhouse warming, low-latitude
clathrate decomposes and releases methane gas. (3) Methane can then perturb
atmospheric chemistry and surface temperature, until photochemical processes
destroy the methane. Within our model, we find that under some circumstances a
Titan-like haze layer would be expected to form, consistent with transient
deposition of abundant complex abiotic organic matter on the Early Mars
surface. We also find that this CH-release mechanism can warm Early Mars,
but special circumstances are required in order to uncork 10 kg of
CH, the minimum needed for strong warming. Specifically, strong warming
only occurs when the fraction of the hydrate stability zone that is initially
occupied by clathrate exceeds 10%, and when Mars' first prolonged atmospheric
collapse occurs for atmospheric pressure > 1 bar.Comment: Accepted by Planetary and Space Scienc
Coupled currents in cosmic strings
We first examine the microstructure of a cosmic string endowed with two
simple Abelian currents. This microstructure depends on two state parameters.
We then provide the macroscopic description of such a string and show that it
depends on an additional Lorentz-invariant state parameter that relates the two
currents. We find that in most of the parameter space, the two-current string
is essentially equivalent to the single current-carrying string, i.e., only one
field condenses onto the defect. In the regions where two currents are present,
we find that as far as stability is concerned, one can approximate the dynamics
with good accuracy using an analytic model based on either a logarithmic (on
the electric side, i.e., for timelike currents) or a rational (on the magnetic
side, i.e., for spacelike currents) worldsheet Lagrangian.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure
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