2,548 research outputs found
From Doubled Chern-Simons-Maxwell Lattice Gauge Theory to Extensions of the Toric Code
We regularize compact and non-compact Abelian Chern-Simons-Maxwell theories
on a spatial lattice using the Hamiltonian formulation. We consider a doubled
theory with gauge fields living on a lattice and its dual lattice. The Hilbert
space of the theory is a product of local Hilbert spaces, each associated with
a link and the corresponding dual link. The two electric field operators
associated with the link-pair do not commute. In the non-compact case with
gauge group , each local Hilbert space is analogous to the one of a
charged "particle" moving in the link-pair group space in a
constant "magnetic" background field. In the compact case, the link-pair group
space is a torus threaded by units of quantized "magnetic" flux,
with being the level of the Chern-Simons theory. The holonomies of the
torus give rise to two self-adjoint extension parameters, which form
two non-dynamical background lattice gauge fields that explicitly break the
manifest gauge symmetry from to . The local Hilbert space
of a link-pair then decomposes into representations of a magnetic translation
group. In the pure Chern-Simons limit of a large "photon" mass, this results in
a -symmetric variant of Kitaev's toric code, self-adjointly
extended by the two non-dynamical background lattice gauge fields. Electric
charges on the original lattice and on the dual lattice obey mutually anyonic
statistics with the statistics angle . Non-Abelian
Berry gauge fields that arise from the self-adjoint extension parameters may be
interesting in the context of quantum information processing.Comment: 38 pages, 4 figure
Reducing Global Warming and Adapting to Climate Change: The Potential of Organic Agriculture
Climate change mitigation is urgent and adaptation to climate change is crucial, particularly in agriculture, where food security is at stake. Agriculture, currently responsible for 20-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions counting direct and indirect agricultural emissions), can however contribute to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. The main mitigation potential lies in the capacity of agricultural soils to sequester CO2 through building organic matter. This potential can be realized by employing sustainable agricultural practices, such as those commonly found within organic farming systems. Examples of these practices are the use of organic fertilizers and crop rotations including legumes leys and cover crops. Mitigation is also achieved in organic agriculture through the avoidance of open biomass burning and the avoidance of synthetic fertilizers and the related production emissions from fossil fuels. Common organic practices also contribute to adaptation. Building soil organic matter increases water retention capacity, and creates more stabile, fertile soils, thus reducing vulnerability to drought, extreme precipitation events, floods and water logging. Adaptation is further supported by increased agro-ecosystem diversity of organic farms, due to reduced nitrogen inputs and the absence of chemical pesticides. The high diversity together with the lower input costs of organic agriculture is key in reducing production risks associated with extreme weather events. All these advantageous practices are not exclusive to organic agriculture. However, they are core parts of the organic production system, in contrast to most non-organic agriculture, where they play a minor role only.
Mitigation in agriculture cannot be restricted to the agricultural sector alone, though. Consumer behaviour strongly influences agricultural production systems, and thus their mitigation potential. Significant factors are meat consumption and food wastage. Any discussion on mitigation climate change in agriculture needs to address the entire food chain and needs to be linked to general sustainable development strategies.
The main challenges to climate change mitigation and adaptation in organic agriculture and agriculture in general concern
a)the understanding of some of the basic processes, such as the interaction of N2O emissions and soil carbon sequestration, contributions of roots to soil carbon sequestration and the life-cycle emissions of organic fertilizers such as compost;
b) approaches for emissions accounting that adequately represent agricultural production systems with multiple and diverse outputs and that also encompass ecosystem services;
c) the identification and implementation of most adequate policy frameworks for supporting mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, i.e: not putting systemic approaches at a disadvantage due to difficulties in the quantification of emissions, and in their allocation to single products;
d) how to assure that the current focus on mitigation does not lead to neglect of the other sustainability aspects of agriculture, such as pesticide loads, eutrophication, acidification or soil erosion and
e) the question how to address consumer behaviour and how to utilize the mitigation potential of changes in consumption patterns
Quantum corrections from a path integral over reparametrizations
We study the path integral over reparametrizations that has been proposed as
an ansatz for the Wilson loops in the large- QCD and reproduces the area law
in the classical limit of large loops. We show that a semiclassical expansion
for a rectangular loop captures the L\"uscher term associated with
dimensions and propose a modification of the ansatz which reproduces the
L\"uscher term in other dimensions, which is observed in lattice QCD. We repeat
the calculation for an outstretched ellipse advocating the emergence of an
analog of the L\"uscher term and verify this result by a direct computation of
the determinant of the Laplace operator and the conformal anomaly
Nucleation of quark matter bubbles in neutron stars
The thermal nucleation of quark matter bubbles inside neutron stars is
examined for various temperatures which the star may realistically encounter
during its lifetime. It is found that for a bag constant less than a critical
value, a very large part of the star will be converted into the quark phase
within a fraction of a second. Depending on the equation of state for neutron
star matter and strange quark matter, all or some of the outer parts of the
star may subsequently be converted by a slower burning or a detonation.Comment: 13 pages, REVTeX, Phys.Rev.D (in press), IFA 93-32. 5 figures (not
included) available upon request from [email protected]
Competition between Diffusion and Fragmentation: An Important Evolutionary Process of Nature
We investigate systems of nature where the common physical processes
diffusion and fragmentation compete. We derive a rate equation for the size
distribution of fragments. The equation leads to a third order differential
equation which we solve exactly in terms of Bessel functions. The stationary
state is a universal Bessel distribution described by one parameter, which fits
perfectly experimental data from two very different system of nature, namely,
the distribution of ice crystal sizes from the Greenland ice sheet and the
length distribution of alpha-helices in proteins.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, (minor changes
Free-electron Model for Mesoscopic Force Fluctuations in Nanowires
When two metal electrodes are separated, a nanometer sized wire (nanowire) is
formed just before the contact breaks. The electrical conduction measured
during this retraction process shows signs of quantized conductance in units of
G_0=2e^2/h. Recent experiments show that the force acting on the wire during
separation fluctuates, which has been interpreted as being due to atomic
rearrangements. In this report we use a simple free electron model, for two
simple geometries, and show that the electronic contribution to the force
fluctuations is comparable to the experimentally found values, about 2 nN.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, reference correcte
Correlator of Fundamental and Anti-symmetric Wilson Loops in AdS/CFT Correspondence
We study the two circular Wilson loop correlator in which one is of
anti-symmetric representation, while the other is of fundamental representation
in 4-dimensional super Yang-Mills theory. This correlator has a
good AdS dual, which is a system of a D5-brane and a fundamental string. We
calculated the on-shell action of the string, and clarified the Gross-Ooguri
transition in this correlator. Some limiting cases are also examined.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, v2: typos corrected, v3: final version in JHE
Quantum Conductance in Semimetallic Bismuth Nanocontacts
Electronic transport properties of bismuth nanocontacts are analyzed by means
of a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. The subquantum steps
observed in the conductance versus elongation curves give evidence of atomic
rearrangements in the contact. The underlying quantum nature of the conductance
reveals itself through peaks in the conductance histograms. The shape of the
conductance curves at 77 K is well described by a simple gliding mechanism for
the contact evolution during elongation. The strikingly different behaviour at
4 K suggests a charge carrier transition from light to heavy ones as the
contact cross section becomes sufficiently small.Comment: 5 pages including 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
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Transport coefficients for electrolytes in arbitrarily shaped nano and micro-fluidic channels
We consider laminar flow of incompressible electrolytes in long, straight
channels driven by pressure and electro-osmosis. We use a Hilbert space
eigenfunction expansion to address the general problem of an arbitrary cross
section and obtain general results in linear-response theory for the hydraulic
and electrical transport coefficients which satisfy Onsager relations. In the
limit of non-overlapping Debye layers the transport coefficients are simply
expressed in terms of parameters of the electrolyte as well as the geometrical
correction factor for the Hagen-Poiseuille part of the problem. In particular,
we consider the limits of thin non-overlapping as well as strongly overlapping
Debye layers, respectively, and calculate the corrections to the hydraulic
resistance due to electro-hydrodynamic interactions.Comment: 13 pages including 4 figures and 1 table. Typos corrected. Accepted
for NJ
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