The effect of magnetic dipolar interactions on the interchain spin wave dispersion in CsNiF_3

Inelastic neutron scattering measurements were performed on the ferromagnetic chain system CsNiF_3 in the collinear antiferromagnetic ordered state below T_N = 2.67K. The measured spin wave dispersion was found to be in good agreement with linear spin wave theory including dipolar interactions. The additional dipole tensor in the Hamiltonian was essential to explain some striking phenomena in the measured spin wave spectrum: a peculiar feature of the dispersion relation is a jump at the zone center, caused by strong dipolar interactions in this system. The interchain exchange coupling constant and the planar anisotropy energy were determined within the present model to be J'/k_B = -0.0247(12)K and A/k_B = 3.3(1)K. This gives a ratio J/J' \approx 500, using the previously determined intrachain coupling constant J/k_B = 11.8$. The small exchange energy J' is of the same order as the dipolar energy, which implies a strong competition between the both interactions.Comment: 18 pages, TeX type, 7 Postscript figures included. To be published in Phys. Rev.

S-FaaS: Trustworthy and Accountable Function-as-a-Service using Intel SGX

Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) is a recent and already very popular paradigm in cloud computing. The function provider need only specify the function to be run, usually in a high-level language like JavaScript, and the service provider orchestrates all the necessary infrastructure and software stacks. The function provider is only billed for the actual computational resources used by the function invocation. Compared to previous cloud paradigms, FaaS requires significantly more fine-grained resource measurement mechanisms, e.g. to measure compute time and memory usage of a single function invocation with sub-second accuracy. Thanks to the short duration and stateless nature of functions, and the availability of multiple open-source frameworks, FaaS enables non-traditional service providers e.g. individuals or data centers with spare capacity. However, this exacerbates the challenge of ensuring that resource consumption is measured accurately and reported reliably. It also raises the issues of ensuring computation is done correctly and minimizing the amount of information leaked to service providers. To address these challenges, we introduce S-FaaS, the first architecture and implementation of FaaS to provide strong security and accountability guarantees backed by Intel SGX. To match the dynamic event-driven nature of FaaS, our design introduces a new key distribution enclave and a novel transitive attestation protocol. A core contribution of S-FaaS is our set of resource measurement mechanisms that securely measure compute time inside an enclave, and actual memory allocations. We have integrated S-FaaS into the popular OpenWhisk FaaS framework. We evaluate the security of our architecture, the accuracy of our resource measurement mechanisms, and the performance of our implementation, showing that our resource measurement mechanisms add less than 6.3% latency on standardized benchmarks

Dynamic scaling and universality in evolution of fluctuating random networks

We found that models of evolving random networks exhibit dynamic scaling similar to scaling of growing surfaces. It is demonstrated by numerical simulations of two variants of the model in which nodes are added as well as removed [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 5587 (1999)]. The averaged size and connectivity of the network increase as power-laws in early times but later saturate. Saturated values and times of saturation change with paramaters controlling the local evolution of the network topology. Both saturated values and times of saturation obey also power-law dependences on controlling parameters. Scaling exponents are calculated and universal features are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Europhysics Letters for

A Wavelet Melt Detection Algorithm Applied to Enhanced Resolution Scatterometer Data over Antarctica (2000-2009)

Melting is mapped over Antarctica at a high spatial resolution using a novel melt detection algorithm based on wavelets and multiscale analysis. The method is applied to Ku-band (13.4 GHz) normalized backscattering measured by SeaWinds onboard the satellite QuikSCAT and spatially enhanced on a 5 km grid over the operational life of the sensor (1999–2009). Wavelet-based estimates of melt spatial extent and duration are compared with those obtained by means of threshold-based detection methods, where melting is detected when the measured backscattering is 3 dB below the preceding winter mean value. Results from both methods are assessed by means of automatic weather station (AWS) air surface temperature records. The yearly melting index, the product of melted area and melting duration, found using a fixed threshold and wavelet-based melt algorithm are found to have a relative difference within 7% for all years. Most of the difference between melting records determined from QuikSCAT is related to short-duration backscatter changes identified as melting using the threshold methodology but not the wavelet-based method. The ability to classify melting based on relative persistence is a critical aspect of the wavelet-based algorithm. Compared with AWS air-temperature records, both methods show a relative agreement to within 10% based on estimated melt conditions, although the fixed threshold generally finds a greater agreement with AWS. Melting maps obtained with the wavelet-based approach are also compared with those obtained from spaceborne brightness temperatures recorded by the Special Sensor Microwave/Image (SSM/I). With respect to passive microwave records, we find a higher degree of agreement (9% relative difference) for the melting index using the wavelet-based approach than threshold-based methods (11% relative difference)

A Probabilistic Analysis of Kademlia Networks

Kademlia is currently the most widely used searching algorithm in P2P (peer-to-peer) networks. This work studies an essential question about Kademlia from a mathematical perspective: how long does it take to locate a node in the network? To answer it, we introduce a random graph K and study how many steps are needed to locate a given vertex in K using Kademlia's algorithm, which we call the routing time. Two slightly different versions of K are studied. In the first one, vertices of K are labelled with fixed IDs. In the second one, vertices are assumed to have randomly selected IDs. In both cases, we show that the routing time is about c*log(n), where n is the number of nodes in the network and c is an explicitly described constant.Comment: ISAAC 201

Urinary and faecal N-methylhistamine concentrations do not serve as markers for mast cell activation or clinical disease activity in dogs with chronic enteropathies

This study sought to correlate faecal and urinary N-methylhistamine (NMH) concentrations with resting versus degranulated duodenal mast cell numbers in dogs with chronic enteropathies (CE), and investigate correlations between intestinal mast cell activation and clinical severity of disease as assessed by canine chronic enteropathy clinical activity index (CCECAI), and between urinary and faecal NMH concentrations, mast cell numbers, and histopathological scores. Twenty-eight dogs with CE were included. Duodenal biopsies were stained with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E), toluidine blue, and by immunohistochemical labelling for tryptase. Duodenal biopsies were assigned a histopathological severity score, and duodenal mast cell numbers were counted in five high-power fields after metachromatic and immunohistochemical staining. Faecal and urinary NMH concentrations were measured by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Teleportation: from probability distributions to quantum states

The role of the off-diagonal density matrix elements of the entangled pair is investigated in quantum teleportation of a qbit. The dependence between them and the off-diagonal elements of the teleported density matrix is shown to be linear. In this way the ideal quantum teleportation is related to an entirely classical communication protocol: the one-time pad cypher. The latter can be regarded as the classical counterpart of Bennett's quantum teleportation scheme. The quantum-to-classical transition is demonstrated on the statistics of a gedankenexperiment.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in J. Phys. A (Math. Gen.

The Strange Star Surface: A Crust with Nuggets

We reexamine the surface composition of strange stars. Strange quark stars are hypothetical compact stars which could exist if strange quark matter was absolutely stable. It is widely accepted that they are characterized by an enormous density gradient ($~10^{26}$ g/cm$^4$) and large electric fields at surface. By investigating the possibility of realizing a heterogeneous crust, comprised of nuggets of strange quark matter embedded in an uniform electron background, we find that the strange star surface has a much reduced density gradient and negligible electric field. We comment on how our findings will impact various proposed observable signatures for strange stars.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

"Exhaustion" Physics in the Periodic Anderson Model using Iterated Perturbation Theory

We discuss the "exhaustion" problem in the context of the Periodic Anderson Model using Iterated Perturbation Theory(IPT) within the Dynamical Mean Field Theory. We find that, despite its limitations, IPT captures the exhaustion physics, which manifests itself as a dramatic, strongly energy dependent suppression of the effective Anderson impurity problem. As a consequence, low energy scales in the lattice case are strongly suppressed compared to the "Kondo scale" in the single-impurity picture. The IPT results are in qualitative agreement with recent Quantum Monte Carlo results for the same problem.Comment: 13 preprint pages including 1 table and 4 eps figures, replaced by revised version, accepted for publication in Europhysics Letters, added references and conten