10,844 research outputs found
Straight Round the Twist: Frustration and Chirality in Smectics-A
Frustration is a powerful mechanism in condensed matter systems, driving both
order and co plexity. In smectics, the frustration between macroscopic
chirality and equally spaced layers generates textures characterised by a
proliferation of defects. In this article, we study several different ground
states of the chiral Landau-de Gennes free energy for a smectic liquid crystal.
The standard theory finds the twist grain boundary (TGB) phase to be the ground
state for chiral type II smectics. However, for very highly chiral systems, the
hierarchical helical nanofilament (HN) phase can form and is stable over the
TGB.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, submitted to J. Interface Focu
Scalar field localization on a brane with cosmological constant
We address the localization of a scalar field, whose bulk-mass M is
considered in a wide range including the tachyonic region,on a three-brane. The
brane with non-zero cosmological constant is embedded in five
dimensional bulk space. We find in this case that the trapped scalar could have
mass which has an upper bound and expressed as with the calculable numbers . We point
out that this result would be important to study the stability of the brane and
cosmological problems based on the brane-world.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
X-ray Dust Scattering at Small Angles: The Complete Halo around GX13+1
The exquisite angular resolution available with Chandra should allow
precision measurements of faint diffuse emission surrounding bright sources,
such as the X-ray scattering halos created by interstellar dust. However, the
ACIS CCDs suffer from pileup when observing bright sources, and this creates
difficulties when trying to extract the scattered halo near the source. The
initial study of the X-ray halo around GX13+1 using only the ACIS-I detector
done by Smith, Edgar & Shafer (2002) suffered from a lack of sensitivity within
50'' of the source, limiting what conclusions could be drawn.
To address this problem, observations of GX13+1 were obtained with the
Chandra HRC-I and simultaneously with the RXTE PCA. Combined with the existing
ACIS-I data, this allowed measurements of the X-ray halo between 2-1000''.
After considering a range of dust models, each assumed to be smoothly
distributed with or without a dense cloud along the line of sight, the results
show that there is no evidence in this data for a dense cloud near the source,
as suggested by Xiang et al. (2005). Finally, although no model leads to
formally acceptable results, the Weingartner & Draine (2001) and nearly all of
the composite grain models from Zubko, Dwek & Arendt (2004) give poor fits.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The Power of Poincar\'e: Elucidating the Hidden Symmetries in Focal Conic Domains
Focal conic domains are typically the "smoking gun" by which smectic liquid
crystalline phases are identified. The geometry of the equally-spaced smectic
layers is highly generic but, at the same time, difficult to work with. In this
Letter we develop an approach to the study of focal sets in smectics which
exploits a hidden Poincar\'e symmetry revealed only by viewing the smectic
layers as projections from one-higher dimension. We use this perspective to
shed light upon several classic focal conic textures, including the concentric
cyclides of Dupin, polygonal textures and tilt-grain boundaries.Comment: 4 pages, 3 included figure
On the Friedmann Equation in Brane-World Scenarios
The Friedmann law on the brane generically depends quadratically on the brane
energy density and involves a ``dark radiation'' term due to the bulk Weyl
tensor. Despite its unfamiliar form, we show how it can be derived from a
standard four-dimensional Brans-Dicke theory at low energy. In particular, the
dark radiation term is found to depend linearly on the brane energy densities.
For any equation of state on the branes, the radion evolves such as to generate
radiation-dominated cosmology. The radiation-dominated era is conventional and
consistent with nucleosynthesis.Comment: 4 pages. v2,v3: discussion on BBN extended, minor correction
Gravitational Waves from Warped Spacetime
We argue that the RSI model can provide a strong signature in gravitational
waves. This signal is a relic stochastic background generated during the
cosmological phase transition from an AdS-Schwarschild phase to the RS1
geometry that should occur at a temperature in the TeV range. We estimate the
amplitude of the signal in terms of the parameters of the potential stabilizing
the radion and show that over much of the parameter region in which the phase
transition completes, a signal should be detectable at the planned space
interferometer, LISA.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures; v2: discussion improved, in particular on the
justification of the thick wall approximation. 6 figures added. 4 pi factor
corrected in perturbativity bound. N-dependence displayed. Conclusions
unchanged. JHEP versio
PARSEC: A Constraint-Based Parser for Spoken Language Processing
PARSEC (1), a text-based and spoken language processing framework based on the Constraint Dependency Grammar (CDG) developed by Maruyama [26,27], is discussed. The scope of CDG is expanded to allow for the analysis of sentences containing lexically ambiguous words, to allow feature analysis in constraints, and to efficiently process multiple sentence candidates that are likely to arise in spoken language processing. The benefits of the CDG parsing approach are summarized. Additionally, the development CDG grammars using PARSEC grammar writing tools and the implementation of the PARSEC parser for word graphs is discussed. (1) Parallel ARchitecture Sentence Constraine
The Geometry of the Cholesteric Phase
We propose a construction of a cholesteric pitch axis for an arbitrary
nematic director field as an eigenvalue problem. Our definition leads to a
Frenet-Serret description of an orthonormal triad determined by this axis, the
director, and the mutually perpendicular direction. With this tool we are able
to compare defect structures in cholesterics, biaxial nematics, and smectics.
Though they all have similar ground state manifolds, the defect structures are
different and cannot be, in general, translated from one phase to the other.Comment: 5 pages, the full catastroph
Colloquium : disclination loops, point defects, and all that in nematic liquid crystals
The homotopy theory of topological defects is a powerful tool for organizing and unifying many ideas across a broad range of physical systems. Recently, experimental progress was made in controlling and measuring colloidal inclusions in liquid crystalline phases. The topological structure of these systems is quite rich but, at the same time, subtle. Motivated by experiment and the power of topological reasoning, the classification of defects in uniaxial nematic liquid crystals was reviewed and expounded upon. Particular attention was paid to the ambiguities that arise in these systems, which have no counterpart in the much-storied XY model or the Heisenberg ferromagnet
Growing Pains or Opportunities? A Customer Survey of Three Farmers\u27 Markets in One Rural Community
The continued growth of farmers\u27 markets is presenting new challenges to Extension. As the number of markets expands, how can Extension help those in the same community work together for mutual benefit? The study reported here examined similarities and differences among customers attending three different farmers\u27 markets within a single locality in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Based on 370 customer surveys, study results underscore the diversity of markets operating within the same community and provide insights into ways Extension might assist markets to work together to expand their shared customer base, increase revenues, and better serve local residents
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