On Making Good Games - Using Player Virtue Ethics and Gameplay Design Patterns to Identify Generally Desirable Gameplay Features

This paper uses a framework of player virtues to perform a theoretical exploration of what is required to make a game good. The choice of player virtues is based upon the view that games can be seen as implements, and that these are good if they support an intended use, and the intended use of games is to support people to be good players. A collection of gameplay design patterns, identified through their relation to the virtues, is presented to provide specific starting points for considering design options for this type of good games. 24 patterns are identified supporting the virtues, including RISK/REWARD, DYNAMIC ALLIANCES, GAME MASTERS, and PLAYER DECIDED RESULTS, as are 7 countering three or more virtues, including ANALYSIS PARALYSIS, EARLY ELIMINATION, and GRINDING. The paper concludes by identifying limitations of the approach as well as by showing how it can be applied using other views of what are preferable features in games

Towards a practical approach for self-consistent large amplitude collective motion

We investigate the use of an operatorial basis in a self-consistent theory of large amplitude collective motion. For the example of the pairing-plus-quadrupole model, which has been studied previously at equilibrium, we show that a small set of carefully chosen state-dependent basis operators is sufficient to approximate the exact solution of the problem accuratly. This approximation is used to study the interplay of quadrupole and pairing degrees of freedom along the collective path for realistic examples of nuclei. We show how this leads to a viable calculational scheme for studying nuclear structure, and discuss the surprising role of pairing collapse.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures Revised version To be published in Phys. Rev.

The nature of close companions of the BL Lac Objects 1ES 0502+675 and 1ES 1440+122

We report on deep radio images and optical spectroscopy of two BL Lac objects that have very close compact companions. The two targets, 1ES 0502+675 and 1ES 1440+122, were selected from the HST imaging survey of 110 BL Lacs as candidates for possible gravitational lensing. The new observations clearly demonstrate that the companion objects are not secondary images of the active nuclei but, in spite of the relatively low chance projection probability, foreground Galactic stars. Gravitational lensing appears to be unimportant to the BL Lac phenomenon. We discuss the radio properties of the BL Lac objects in the context of standard beaming models, and show they are as expected for beamed FRI radio galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, ApJ in pres

Novel self-assembled morphologies from isotropic interactions

We present results from particle simulations with isotropic medium range interactions in two dimensions. At low temperature novel types of aggregated structures appear. We show that these structures can be explained by spontaneous symmetry breaking in analytic solutions to an adaptation of the spherical spin model. We predict the critical particle number where the symmetry breaking occurs and show that the resulting phase diagram agrees well with results from particle simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Electronic structure of GaAs1-xNx alloy by soft-X-ray absorption and emission: Origin of the reduced optical efficiency

The local electronic structure of N atoms in a diluted GaAs1-xNx (x=3%) alloy, in view of applications in optoelectronics, is determined for the first time using soft-X-ray absorption (SXA) and emission (SXE). Deviations from crystalline GaN, in particular in the conduction band, are dramatic. Employing the orbital character and elemental specificity of the SXE/SXA spectroscopies, we identify a charge transfer from the N atoms at the valence band maximum, reducing the overlap with the wavefunction in conduction band minimum, as the main factor limiting the optical efficiency of GaAs1-xNx alloys. Moreover, a k-conserving process of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering involving the L1 derived valence and conduction states is discovered.Comment: 3 pages, physica status solidi (Rapid Research Notes), in pres

Scalable designs for quantum computing with rare-earth-ion-doped crystals

Due to inhomogeneous broadening, the absorption lines of rare-earth-ion dopands in crystals are many order of magnitudes wider than the homogeneous linewidths. Several ways have been proposed to use ions with different inhomogeneous shifts as qubit registers, and to perform gate operations between such registers by means of the static dipole coupling between the ions. In this paper we show that in order to implement high-fidelity quantum gate operations by means of the static dipole interaction, we require the participating ions to be strongly coupled, and that the density of such strongly coupled registers in general scales poorly with register size. Although this is critical to previous proposals which rely on a high density of functional registers, we describe architectures and preparation strategies that will allow scalable quantum computers based on rare-earth-ion doped crystals.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Kinetic modelling of runaway electron avalanches in tokamak plasmas

Runaway electrons (REs) can be generated in tokamak plasmas if the accelerating force from the toroidal electric field exceeds the collisional drag force due to Coulomb collisions with the background plasma. In ITER, disruptions are expected to generate REs mainly through knock-on collisions, where enough momentum can be transferred from existing runaways to slow electrons to transport the latter beyond a critical momentum, setting off an avalanche of REs. Since knock-on runaways are usually scattered off with a significant perpendicular component of the momentum with respect to the local magnetic field direction, these particles are highly magnetized. Consequently, the momentum dynamics require a full 3-D kinetic description, since these electrons are highly sensitive to the magnetic non-uniformity of a toroidal configuration. A bounce-averaged knock-on source term is derived. The generation of REs from the combined effect of Dreicer mechanism and knock-on collision process is studied with the code LUKE, a solver of the 3-D linearized bounce-averaged relativistic electron Fokker-Planck equation, through the calculation of the response of the electron distribution function to a constant parallel electric field. This work shows that the avalanche effect can be important even in non-disruptive scenarios. RE formation through knock-on collisions is found to be strongly reduced when taking place off the magnetic axis, since trapped electrons cannot contribute to the RE population. The relative importance of the avalanche mechanism is investigated as a function of the key parameters for RE formation; the plasma temperature and the electric field strength. In agreement with theoretical predictions, the simulations show that in low temperature and E-field knock-on collisions are the dominant source of REs and can play a significant role for RE generation, including in non-disruptive scenarios.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figure

Stellar properties of z ~ 1 Lyman-break galaxies from ACS slitless grism spectra

Lyman-break galaxies are now regularly found in the high redshift Universe by searching for the break in the galaxy spectrum caused by the Lyman-limit redshifted into the optical or even near-IR. At lower redshift, this break is covered by the GALEX UV channels and small samples of z ~ 1 LBGs have been presented in the literature. Here we give results from fitting the spectral energy distributions of a small sub-set of low redshift LBGs and demonstrate the advantage of including photometric points derived from HST ACS slitless grism observations. The results show these galaxies to have very young, star forming populations, while still being massive and dusty. LBGs at low and high redshift show remarkable similarities in their properties, indicating that the LBG selection method picks similar galaxies throughout the Universe.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted in A&