Ordering variable for parton showers

The parton splittings in a parton shower are ordered according to an ordering variable, for example the transverse momentum of the daughter partons relative to the direction of the mother, the virtuality of the splitting, or the angle between the daughter partons. We analyze the choice of the ordering variable and conclude that one particular choice has the advantage of factoring softer splittings from harder splittings graph by graph in a physical gauge.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figure

Comparing bird and human soaring strategies

Gliding saves much energy, and to make large distances using only this form of flight represents a great challenge for both birds and people. The solution is to make use of the so-called thermals, which are localized, warmer regions in the atmosphere moving upwards with a speed exceeding the descent rate of bird and plane. Whereas birds use this technique mainly for foraging, humans do it as a sporting activity. Thermalling involves efficient optimization including the skilful localization of thermals, trying to guess the most favorable route, estimating the best descending rate, etc. In this study, we address the question whether there are any analogies between the solutions birds and humans find to handle the above task. High-resolution track logs were taken from thermalling falcons and paraglider pilots to determine the essential parameters of the flight patterns. We find that there are relevant common features in the ways birds and humans use thermals. In particular, falcons seem to reproduce the MacCready formula widely used by gliders to calculate the best slope to take before an upcoming thermal.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary materials are available at the webpage dedicated to this work: http://angel.elte.hu/thermalling

Multi-jet cross sections in deep inelastic scattering at next-to-leading order

We present the perturbative prediction for three-jet production cross section in DIS at the NLO accuracy. We study the dependence on the renormalization and factorization scales of exclusive three-jet cross section. The perturbative prediction for the three-jet differential distribution as a function of the momentum transfer is compared to the corresponding data obtained by the H1 collaboration at HERA.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Three-jet cross sections in hadron-hadron collisions at next-to-leading order

We present a new QCD event generator for hadron collider which can calculate one-, two- and three-jet cross sections at next-to-leading order accuracy. In this letter we study the transverse energy spectrum of three-jet hadronic events using the kT algorithm. We show that the next-to-leading order correction significantly reduces the renormalization and factorization scale dependence of the three-jet cross section.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, REVTEX

General subtraction method for numerical calculation of one-loop QCD matrix elements

We present a subtraction scheme for eliminating the ultraviolet, soft, and collinear divergences in the numerical calculation of an arbitrary one-loop QCD amplitude with an arbitrary number of external legs. The subtractions consist of local counter terms in the space of the four-dimensional loop momentum. The ultraviolet subtraction terms reproduce MSbar renormalization. The key point in the method for the soft and collinear subtractions is that, although the subtraction terms are defined graph-by-graph and the matrix element is also calculated graph-by-graph, the sum over graphs of the integral of each the subtraction term can be evaluated analytically and provides the well known simple pole structure that arises from subtractions from real emission graphs, but with the opposite sign.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures, axodraw styl

Using diffusion MRI to discriminate areas of cortical grey matter

Cortical area parcellation is a challenging problem that is often approached by combining structural imaging (e.g., quantitative T1, diffusion-based connectivity) with functional imaging (e.g., task activations, topological mapping, resting state correlations). Diffusion MRI (dMRI) has been widely adopted to analyse white matter microstructure, but scarcely used to distinguish grey matter regions because of the reduced anisotropy there. Nevertheless, differences in the texture of the cortical 'fabric' have long been mapped by histologists to distinguish cortical areas. Reliable area-specific contrast in the dMRI signal has previously been demonstrated in selected occipital and sensorimotor areas. We expand upon these findings by testing several diffusion-based feature sets in a series of classification tasks. Using Human Connectome Project (HCP) 3T datasets and a supervised learning approach, we demonstrate that diffusion MRI is sensitive to architectonic differences between a large number of different cortical areas defined in the HCP parcellation. By employing a surface-based cortical imaging pipeline, which defines diffusion features relative to local cortical surface orientation, we show that we can differentiate areas from their neighbours with higher accuracy than when using only fractional anisotropy or mean diffusivity. The results suggest that grey matter diffusion may provide a new, independent source of information for dividing up the cortex

QCD Corrections to Four-jet Production and Three-jet Structure in e+ e- annihilation

We report on the general purpose numerical program MERCUTIO, which can be used to calculate any infrared safe four-jet quantity in electron-positron annihilation at next-to-leading order. The program is based on the dipole formalism and uses a remapping of phase-space in order to improve the efficiency of the Monte Carlo integration. Numerical results are given for the four-jet fraction and the D-parameter. These results are compared with already existing ones in the literature and serve as a cross-check. The program can also be used to investigate the internal structure of three-jet events at NLO. We give results for previously uncalculated observables: the jet broadening variable and the softest-jet explanarity.Comment: 28 pages, Latex, final versio

Detailed description of accelerating, simple solutions of relativistic perfect fluid hydrodynamics

In this paper we describe in full details a new family of recently found exact solutions of relativistic, perfect fluid dynamics. With an ansatz, which generalizes the well-known Hwa-Bjorken solution, we obtain a wide class of new exact, explicit and simple solutions, which have a remarkable advantage as compared to presently known exact and explicit solutions: they do not lack acceleration. They can be utilized for the description of the evolution of the matter created in high energy heavy ion collisions. Because these solutions are accelerating, they provide a more realistic picture than the well-known Hwa-Bjorken solution, and give more insight into the dynamics of the matter. We exploit this by giving an advanced simple estimation of the initial energy density of the produced matter in high energy collisions, which takes acceleration effects (i.e. the work done by the pressure and the modified change of the volume elements) into account. We also give an advanced estimation of the life-time of the reaction. Our new solutions can also be used to test numerical hydrodynamical codes reliably. In the end, we also give an exact, 1+1 dimensional, relativistic hydrodynamical solution, where the initial pressure and velocity profile is arbitrary, and we show that this general solution is stable for perturbations.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures, detailed write-up of http://arxiv.org/abs/nucl-th/0605070