3,293 research outputs found
The equations of motion for moist atmospheric air
How phase transitions affect the motion of moist atmospheric air remains
controversial. In the early 2000s two distinct differential equations of motion
were proposed. Besides their contrasting formulations for the acceleration of
condensate, the equations differ concerning the presence/absence of a term
equal to the rate of phase transitions multiplied by the difference in velocity
between condensate and air. This term was interpreted in the literature as the
"reactive motion" associated with condensation. The reasoning behind this
"reactive motion" was that when water vapor condenses and droplets begin to
fall the remaining gas must move upwards to conserve momentum. Here we show
that the two contrasting formulations imply distinct assumptions about how
gaseous air and condensate particles interact. We show that these assumptions
cannot be simultaneously applicable to condensation and evaporation. "Reactive
motion" leading to an upward acceleration of air during condensation does not
exist. The "reactive motion" term can be justified for evaporation only; it
describes the downward acceleration of air. We emphasize the difference between
the equations of motion (i.e., equations constraining velocity) and those
constraining momentum (i.e., equations of motion and continuity combined). We
show that, owing to the imprecise nature of the continuity equations,
consideration of total momentum can be misleading and that this led to the
"reactive motion" controversy. Finally, we provide a revised and generally
applicable equation for the motion of moist air.Comment: 11 pages, two figure
Effects of Random Biquadratic Couplings in a Spin-1 Spin-Glass Model
A spin-1 model, appropriated to study the competition between bilinear
(J_{ij}S_{i}S_{j}) and biquadratic (K_{ij}S_{i}^{2}S_{j}^{2}) random
interactions, both of them with zero mean, is investigated. The interactions
are infinite-ranged and the replica method is employed. Within the
replica-symmetric assumption, the system presents two phases, namely,
paramagnetic and spin-glass, separated by a continuous transition line. The
stability analysis of the replica-symmetric solution yields, besides the usual
instability associated with the spin-glass ordering, a new phase due to the
random biquadratic couplings between the spins.Comment: 16 pages plus 2 ps figure
The Effect of Retro-Cueing on an ERP Marker of VSTM Maintenance
Previous research has found that Contralateral Delay Activity (CDA) is correlated with the number of items maintained in Visual Short Term Memory from one visual field (VF) (Vogel & Machizawa, 2004). CDA is usually elicited by a to-be-remembered array after a prospective cue (pro-cue) signalling the relevant side of the visual display, and is interpreted as a putative electrophysiological signature of WM maintenance. Attention can also be directed to the contents of VSTM, after the presentation of a visual array, using a retroactive cue (retro-cue) (Nobre, Griffin, & Rao, 2008). Because retro-cueing directs attention within a memory trace, potentially reducing the load of items to be maintained, we hypothesised that this would significantly attenuate the CDA. Participants were initially presented with a spatial pro-cue which reduced the number of to-be-remembered items to one side. After a delay, a memory array of either four (low load) or eight (high load) items was displayed. A retro-cue then cued participants to one location within the relevant VF, further reducing the load of to-be-remembered items; or provided no information, requiring participants to hold all items in the relevant VF. At the end of the trial, participants performed a same/different judgement on a test stimulus. Retro-cues significantly improved VSTM performance. Unexpectedly, the CDA was found to be abolished by the presentation of both spatially predictive and neutral cues, independently of the VSTM load participants had to maintain
Spin-glass phase transition and behavior of nonlinear susceptibility in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model with random fields
The behavior of the nonlinear susceptibility and its relation to the
spin-glass transition temperature , in the presence of random fields, are
investigated. To accomplish this task, the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model is
studied through the replica formalism, within a one-step
replica-symmetry-breaking procedure. In addition, the dependence of the
Almeida-Thouless eigenvalue (replicon) on the random fields
is analyzed. Particularly, in absence of random fields, the temperature
can be traced by a divergence in the spin-glass susceptibility ,
which presents a term inversely proportional to the replicon . As a result of a relation between and , the
latter also presents a divergence at , which comes as a direct consequence
of at . However, our results show that, in the
presence of random fields, presents a rounded maximum at a temperature
, which does not coincide with the spin-glass transition temperature
(i.e., for a given applied random field). Thus, the maximum
value of at reflects the effects of the random fields in the
paramagnetic phase, instead of the non-trivial ergodicity breaking associated
with the spin-glass phase transition. It is also shown that still
maintains a dependence on the replicon , although in a more
complicated way, as compared with the case without random fields. These results
are discussed in view of recent observations in the LiHoYF
compound.Comment: accepted for publication in PR
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