15,561 research outputs found
Hadronization Approach for a Quark-Gluon Plasma Formed in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
A transport model is developed to describe hadron emission from a strongly
coupled quark-gluon plasma formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The
quark-gluon plasma is controlled by ideal hydrodynamics, and the hadron motion
is characterized by a transport equation with loss and gain terms. The two sets
of equations are coupled to each other, and the hadronization hypersurface is
determined by both the hydrodynamic evolution and the hadron emission. The
model is applied to calculate the transverse momentum distributions of mesons
and baryons, and most of the results agree well with the experimental data at
RHIC.Comment: 16 pages, 24 figures. Version accepted by PR
A Remark on Boundary Effects in Static Vacuum Initial Data sets
Let (M, g) be an asymptotically flat static vacuum initial data set with
non-empty compact boundary. We prove that (M, g) is isometric to a spacelike
slice of a Schwarzschild spacetime under the mere assumption that the boundary
of (M, g) has zero mean curvature, hence generalizing a classic result of
Bunting and Masood-ul-Alam. In the case that the boundary has constant positive
mean curvature and satisfies a stability condition, we derive an upper bound of
the ADM mass of (M, g) in terms of the area and mean curvature of the boundary.
Our discussion is motivated by Bartnik's quasi-local mass definition.Comment: 10 pages, to be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Optical guiding in meter-scale plasma waveguides
We demonstrate a new highly tunable technique for generating meter-scale low
density plasma waveguides. Such guides can enable electron acceleration to tens
of GeV in a single stage. Plasma waveguides are imprinted in hydrogen gas by
optical field ionization induced by two time-separated Bessel beam pulses: The
first pulse, a J_0 beam, generates the core of the waveguide, while the delayed
second pulse, here a J_8 or J_16 beam, generates the waveguide cladding. We
demonstrate guiding of intense laser pulses over hundreds of Rayleigh lengths
with on axis plasma densities as low as N_e0=5x10^16 cm^-3
Quantisation of 2D-gravity with Weyl and area-preserving diffeomorphism invariances
The constraint structure of 2D-gravity with the Weyl and area-preserving
diffeomorphism invariances is analysed in the ADM formulation. It is found that
when the area-preserving diffeomorphism constraints are kept, the usual
conformal gauge does not exist, whereas there is the possibility to choose the
so-called ``quasi-light-cone'' gauge, in which besides the area-preserving
diffeomorphism invariance, the reduced Lagrangian also possesses the SL(2,R)
residual symmetry. The string-like approach is applied to quantise this model,
but a fictitious non-zero central charge in the Virasoro algebra appears. When
a set of gauge-independent SL(2,R) current-like fields is introduced instead of
the string-like variables, a consistent quantum theory is obtained.Comment: 14 pages, Latex fil
Certifying and removing disparate impact
What does it mean for an algorithm to be biased? In U.S. law, unintentional
bias is encoded via disparate impact, which occurs when a selection process has
widely different outcomes for different groups, even as it appears to be
neutral. This legal determination hinges on a definition of a protected class
(ethnicity, gender, religious practice) and an explicit description of the
process.
When the process is implemented using computers, determining disparate impact
(and hence bias) is harder. It might not be possible to disclose the process.
In addition, even if the process is open, it might be hard to elucidate in a
legal setting how the algorithm makes its decisions. Instead of requiring
access to the algorithm, we propose making inferences based on the data the
algorithm uses.
We make four contributions to this problem. First, we link the legal notion
of disparate impact to a measure of classification accuracy that while known,
has received relatively little attention. Second, we propose a test for
disparate impact based on analyzing the information leakage of the protected
class from the other data attributes. Third, we describe methods by which data
might be made unbiased. Finally, we present empirical evidence supporting the
effectiveness of our test for disparate impact and our approach for both
masking bias and preserving relevant information in the data. Interestingly,
our approach resembles some actual selection practices that have recently
received legal scrutiny.Comment: Extended version of paper accepted at 2015 ACM SIGKDD Conference on
Knowledge Discovery and Data Minin
Enhanced spin-orbit torques in MnAl/Ta films with improving chemical ordering
We report the enhancement of spin-orbit torques in MnAl/Ta films with
improving chemical ordering through annealing. The switching current density is
increased due to enhanced saturation magnetization MS and effective anisotropy
field HK after annealing. Both damplinglike effective field HD and fieldlike
effective field HF have been increased in the temperature range of 50 to 300 K.
HD varies inversely with MS in both of the films, while the HF becomes liner
dependent on 1/MS in the annealed film. We infer that the improved chemical
ordering has enhanced the interfacial spin transparency and the transmitting of
the spin current in MnAl layer
Development of high critical current density in multifilamentary round-wire Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x by strong overdoping
Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x is the only cuprate superconductor that can be made into a
round-wire conductor form with a high enough critical current density Jc for
applications. Here we show that the Jc(5 T,4.2 K) of such Ag-sheathed
filamentary wires can be doubled to more than 1.4x10^5 A/cm^2 by low
temperature oxygenation. Careful analysis shows that the improved performance
is associated with a 12 K reduction in transition temperature Tc to 80 K and a
significant enhancement in intergranular connectivity. In spite of the
macroscopically untextured nature of the wire, overdoping is highly effective
in producing high Jc values.Comment: 4 figure
- …