68,112 research outputs found
The lattice Landau gauge gluon propagator: lattice spacing and volume dependence
The interplay between the finite volume and finite lattice spacing is
investigated using lattice QCD simulations to compute the Landau gauge gluon
propagator. Comparing several ensembles with different lattice spacings and
physical volumes, we conclude that the dominant effects, in the infrared
region, are associated with the use of a finite lattice spacing. The
simulations show that decreasing the lattice spacing, while keeping the same
physical volume, leads to an enhancement of the infrared gluon propagator. In
this sense, the data from simulations, which uses an fm, provides a lower bound for the infinite volume propagator.Comment: Final version to appear in Phys Rev
Fracturing the optimal paths
Optimal paths play a fundamental role in numerous physical applications
ranging from random polymers to brittle fracture, from the flow through porous
media to information propagation. Here for the first time we explore the path
that is activated once this optimal path fails and what happens when this new
path also fails and so on, until the system is completely disconnected. In fact
numerous applications can be found for this novel fracture problem. In the
limit of strong disorder, our results show that all the cracks are located on a
single self-similar connected line of fractal dimension .
For weak disorder, the number of cracks spreads all over the entire network
before global connectivity is lost. Strikingly, the disconnecting path
(backbone) is, however, completely independent on the disorder.Comment: 4 pages,4 figure
Learning roadmaps for Higher Education
An integrated platform for the support of teaching activities as been developed and deployed at the Aveiro Norte Polytechnic School of the University of Aveiro. In this paper we present an approach to Learning Roadmaps for Higher Education based on this platform. The aprend.e platform â Electronic Integrated System for Learning and Training - has at its core a Learning Management System with a number of plugins. It represents a new challenge for the University of Aveiro for higher education and is already being at its core is the concept of learning roadmaps that act upon two fundamental axes: education and learning. For the teachers, it aims at becoming a self-supporting tool that stimulates the organization and management of the course materials (lectures, presentations, multimedia content, and evaluation materials, amongst others). For the students, the learning roadmap aims at promoting self-study and supervised study, endowing the pupil with the capabilities to find the relevant information and to capture the concepts in the study materials. The outcome will be a stimulating learning process together with an organized management of those materials
Newtonian Perturbations on Models with Matter Creation
Creation of Cold Dark Matter (CCDM) can macroscopically be described by a
negative pressure, and, therefore, the mechanism is capable to accelerate the
Universe, without the need of an additional dark energy component. In this
framework we discuss the evolution of perturbations by considering a
Neo-Newtonian approach where, unlike in the standard Newtonian cosmology, the
fluid pressure is taken into account even in the homogeneous and isotropic
background equations (Lima, Zanchin and Brandenberger, MNRAS {\bf 291}, L1,
1997). The evolution of the density contrast is calculated in the linear
approximation and compared to the one predicted by the CDM model. The
difference between the CCDM and CDM predictions at the perturbative
level is quantified by using three different statistical methods, namely: a
simple -analysis in the relevant space parameter, a Bayesian
statistical inference, and, finally, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. We find that
under certain circumstances the CCDM scenario analysed here predicts an overall
dynamics (including Hubble flow and matter fluctuation field) which fully
recovers that of the traditional cosmic concordance model. Our basic conclusion
is that such a reduction of the dark sector provides a viable alternative
description to the accelerating CDM cosmology.Comment: Physical Review D in press, 10 pages, 4 figure
Large cities are less green
We study how urban quality evolves as a result of carbon dioxide emissions as
urban agglomerations grow. We employ a bottom-up approach combining two
unprecedented microscopic data on population and carbon dioxide emissions in
the continental US. We first aggregate settlements that are close to each other
into cities using the City Clustering Algorithm (CCA) defining cities beyond
the administrative boundaries. Then, we use data on emissions at a
fine geographic scale to determine the total emissions of each city. We find a
superlinear scaling behavior, expressed by a power-law, between
emissions and city population with average allometric exponent
across all cities in the US. This result suggests that the high productivity of
large cities is done at the expense of a proportionally larger amount of
emissions compared to small cities. Furthermore, our results are substantially
different from those obtained by the standard administrative definition of
cities, i.e. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Specifically, MSAs display
isometric scaling emissions and we argue that this discrepancy is due to the
overestimation of MSA areas. The results suggest that allometric studies based
on administrative boundaries to define cities may suffer from endogeneity bias
Analysis domain model for shared virtual environments
The field of shared virtual environments, which also
encompasses online games and social 3D environments, has a
system landscape consisting of multiple solutions that share great functional overlap. However, there is little system interoperability between the different solutions. A shared virtual environment has an associated problem domain that is highly complex raising difficult challenges to the development process, starting with the architectural design of the underlying system. This paper has two main contributions. The first contribution is a broad domain analysis of shared virtual environments, which enables developers to have a better understanding of the whole rather than the part(s). The second contribution is a reference domain model for discussing and describing solutions - the Analysis Domain Model
Universal behavior of spin-mediated energy transport in S=1/2 chain cuprates: BaCu2Si2O7 as an example
The thermal conductivity of the spin-1/2 chain cuprate BaCu2Si2O7 was
measured along different crystallographic directions in the temperature region
between 0.5 and 300 K. The thermal conductivity along the chain direction
considerably exceeds that along perpendicular directions. Near the
antiferromagnetic transition at T_N = 9.2 K the data indicates enhanced
scattering of phonons by critical fluctuations in the spin system. A comparison
of the data above T_N with available results on similar materials reveals
similarities in the main features of the temperature dependence of the mean
free path of itinerant spin excitations. This universal behavior is most likely
caused by the spin-lattice interaction.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Roughness exponents and grain shapes
In surfaces with grainy features, the local roughness shows a crossover
at a characteristic length , with roughness exponent changing from
to a smaller . The grain shape, the choice of
or height-height correlation function (HHCF) , and the procedure to
calculate root mean-square averages are shown to have remarkable effects on
. With grains of pyramidal shape, can be as low as 0.71,
which is much lower than the previous prediction 0.85 for rounded grains. The
same crossover is observed in the HHCF, but with initial exponent
for flat grains, while for some conical grains it may
increase to . The universality class of the growth process
determines the exponents after the crossover, but has no
effect on the initial exponents and , supporting the
geometric interpretation of their values. For all grain shapes and different
definitions of surface roughness or HHCF, we still observe that the crossover
length is an accurate estimate of the grain size. The exponents obtained
in several recent experimental works on different materials are explained by
those models, with some surface images qualitatively similar to our model
films.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures and 2 table
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