Hypothesis testing for Gaussian states on bosonic lattices

The asymptotic state discrimination problem with simple hypotheses is considered for a cubic lattice of bosons. A complete solution is provided for the problems of the Chernoff and the Hoeffding bounds and Stein's lemma in the case when both hypotheses are gauge-invariant Gaussian states with translation-invariant quasi-free parts.Comment: 22 pages, submitted versio

Spontaneous thermal runaway as an ultimate failure mechanism of materials

The first theoretical estimate of the shear strength of a perfect crystal was given by Frenkel [Z. Phys. 37, 572 (1926)]. He assumed that as slip occurred, two rigid atomic rows in the crystal would move over each other along a slip plane. Based on this simple model, Frenkel derived the ultimate shear strength to be about one tenth of the shear modulus. Here we present a theoretical study showing that catastrophic material failure may occur below Frenkel's ultimate limit as a result of thermal runaway. We demonstrate that the condition for thermal runaway to occur is controlled by only two dimensionless variables and, based on the thermal runaway failure mechanism, we calculate the maximum shear strength $\sigma_c$ of viscoelastic materials. Moreover, during the thermal runaway process, the magnitude of strain and temperature progressively localize in space producing a narrow region of highly deformed material, i.e. a shear band. We then demonstrate the relevance of this new concept for material failure known to occur at scales ranging from nanometers to kilometers.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Eq. (6) and Fig. 2a corrected; added references; improved quality of figure

Ferromagnetic Properties of ZrZn2_2

The low Curie temperature (T_C approx 28K) and small ordered moment (M_0 approx 0.17 mu_B f.u.^-1) of ZrZn2 make it one of the few examples of a weak itinerant ferromagnet. We report results of susceptibility, magnetization, resistivity and specific heat measurements made on high-quality single crystals of ZrZn2. From magnetization scaling in the vicinity of T_C (0.001<|T-T_C|/T_C<0.08), we obtain the critical exponents beta=0.52+/-0.05 and delta=3.20+/-0.08, and T_C=27.50+/-0.05K. Low-temperature magnetization measurements show that the easy axis is [111]. Resistivity measurements reveal an anomaly at T_C and a non-Fermi liquid temperature dependence rho(T)=rho_0+AT^n, where n=1.67+/-0.02, for 1<T<14K. The specific heat measurements show a mean-field-like anomaly at T_C. We compare our results to various theoretical models.Comment: submitted to PR

Judging the impact of leadership-development activities on school practice

The nature and effectiveness of professional-development activities should be judged in a way that takes account of both the achievement of intended outcomes and the unintended consequences that may result. Our research project set out to create a robust approach that school staff members could use to assess the impact of professional-development programs on leadership and management practice without being constrained in this judgment by the stated aims of the program. In the process, we identified a number of factors and requirements relevant to a wider audience than that concerned with the development of leadership and management in England. Such an assessment has to rest upon a clear understanding of educational leadership,a clearly articulated model of practice, and a clear model of potential forms of impact. Such foundations, suitably adapted to the subject being addressed, are appropriate for assessing all teacher professional development

Longitudinal Momentum Fraction X_L for Two High P_t Protons in pp->ppX Reaction

We present an analysis of new data from Experiment E850 at BNL. We have characterized the inclusive cross section near the endpoint for pp exclusive scattering in Hydrogen and in Carbon with incident beam energy of 6 GeV. We select events with a pair of back-to-back hadrons at large transverse momentum. These cross sections are parameterized with a form $\frac{d \sigma}{d X_{L}}$ $\sim(1-X_{L})^{p}$, where ${X_{L}}$ is the ratio of the longitudinal momentum of the observed pair to the total incident beam momentum. Small value of $p$ may suggest that the number of partons participating in the reaction is large and reaction has a strong dependence on the center-of-mass energy. We also discuss nuclear effects observed in our kinematic region.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to be published in Proceedings of CIPANP2000, Quebec, May 22-28, 2000, requires aipproc.sty(included

Optical properties of quantum wires: Disorder-scattering in the Lloyd-model

The Lloyd model is extended to the exciton problem in quasi one-dimensional structures to study the interplay between the Coulomb attraction and disorder scattering. Within this model the averaging and resummation of the locator series can be performed analytically. As an application, the optical absorption in quantum box wires is investigated. Without electron-hole interaction, fluctuations in the well-width lead to an asymmetric broadening of the minibands with respect to the lower and upper band-edges.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Extended Ensemble Monte Carlo

``Extended Ensemble Monte Carlo''is a generic term that indicates a set of algorithms which are now popular in a variety of fields in physics and statistical information processing. Exchange Monte Carlo (Metropolis-Coupled Chain, Parallel Tempering), Simulated Tempering (Expanded Ensemble Monte Carlo), and Multicanonical Monte Carlo (Adaptive Umbrella Sampling) are typical members of this family. Here we give a cross-disciplinary survey of these algorithms with special emphasis on the great flexibility of the underlying idea. In Sec.2, we discuss the background of Extended Ensemble Monte Carlo. In Sec.3, 4 and 5, three types of the algorithms, i.e., Exchange Monte Carlo, Simulated Tempering, Multicanonical Monte Carlo are introduced. In Sec.6, we give an introduction to Replica Monte Carlo algorithm by Swendsen and Wang. Strategies for the construction of special-purpose extended ensembles are discussed in Sec.7. We stress that an extension is not necessary restricted to the space of energy or temperature. Even unphysical (unrealizable) configurations can be included in the ensemble, if the resultant fast mixing of the Markov chain offsets the increasing cost of the sampling procedure. Multivariate (multi-component) extensions are also useful in many examples. In Sec.8, we give a survey on extended ensembles with a state space whose dimensionality is dynamically varying. In the appendix, we discuss advantages and disadvantages of three types of extended ensemble algorithms.Comment: Major revision that includes addition of concrete examples, references, improved introduction to Multicanonical MC, change in the order of the sections, and a number of small but important corrections. 49 pages, no figure

The Unique Origin of Colors of Armchair Carbon Nanotubes

The colors of suspended metallic colloidal particles are determined by their size-dependent plasma resonance, while those of semiconducting colloidal particles are determined by their size-dependent band gap. Here, we present a novel case for armchair carbon nanotubes, suspended in aqueous medium, for which the color depends on their size-dependent excitonic resonance, even though the individual particles are metallic. We observe distinct colors of a series of armchair-enriched nanotube suspensions, highlighting the unique coloration mechanism of these one-dimensional metals.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure