1,538 research outputs found
Avalanche statistics of sand heaps
Large scale computer simulations are presented to investigate the avalanche
statistics of sand piles using molecular dynamics. We could show that different
methods of measurement lead to contradicting conclusions, presumably due to
avalanches not reaching the end of the experimental table.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Self-organized criticality in a rice-pile model
We present a new model for relaxations in piles of granular material. The
relaxations are determined by a stochastic rule which models the effect of
friction between the grains. We find power-law distributions for avalanche
sizes and lifetimes characterized by the exponents and
, respectively. For the discharge events, we find a
characteristic size that scales with the system size as , with . We also find that the frequency of the discharge events
decrease with the system size as with .Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, multicol, epsf, rotate (sty files provided). To
appear Phys. Rev. E Rapid Communication (Nov or Dec 96
Universality classes for rice-pile models
We investigate sandpile models where the updating of unstable columns is done
according to a stochastic rule. We examine the effect of introducing nonlocal
relaxation mechanisms. We find that the models self-organize into critical
states that belong to three different universality classes. The models with
local relaxation rules belong to a known universality class that is
characterized by an avalanche exponent , whereas the models
with nonlocal relaxation rules belong to new universality classes characterized
by exponents and . We discuss the values
of the exponents in terms of scaling relations and a mapping of the sandpile
models to interface models.Comment: 4 pages, including 3 figure
Multifractal properties of power-law time sequences; application to ricepiles
We study the properties of time sequences extracted from a self-organized
critical system, within the framework of the mathematical multifractal
analysis. To this end, we propose a fixed-mass algorithm, well suited to deal
with highly inhomogeneous one dimensional multifractal measures. We find that
the fixed mass (dual) spectrum of generalized dimensions depends on both the
system size L and the length N of the sequence considered, being however stable
when these two parameters are kept fixed. A finite-size scaling relation is
proposed, allowing us to define a renormalized spectrum, independent of size
effects.We interpret our results as an evidence of extremely long-range
correlations induced in the sequence by the criticality of the systemComment: 12 pages, RevTex, includes 9 PS figures, Phys. Rev. E (in press
Modeling relaxation and jamming in granular media
We introduce a stochastic microscopic model to investigate the jamming and
reorganization of grains induced by an object moving through a granular medium.
The model reproduces the experimentally observed periodic sawtooth fluctuations
in the jamming force and predicts the period and the power spectrum in terms of
the controllable physical parameters. It also predicts that the avalanche
sizes, defined as the number of displaced grains during a single advance of the
object, follow a power-law, , where the exponent is
independent of the physical parameters
Changes in Blood Cell Deformability in Chorea-Acanthocytosis and Effects of Treatment With Dasatinib or Lithium
Misshaped red blood cells (RBCs), characterized by thorn-like protrusions known as acanthocytes, are a key diagnostic feature in Chorea-Acanthocytosis (ChAc), a rare neurodegenerative disorder. The altered RBC morphology likely influences their biomechanical properties which are crucial for the cells to pass the microvasculature. Here, we investigated blood cell deformability of five ChAc patients compared to healthy controls during up to 1-year individual off-label treatment with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib or several weeks with lithium. Measurements with two microfluidic techniques allowed us to assess RBC deformability under different shear stresses. Furthermore, we characterized leukocyte stiffness at high shear stresses. The results showed that blood cell deformability–including both RBCs and leukocytes - in general was altered in ChAc patients compared to healthy donors. Therefore, this study shows for the first time an impairment of leukocyte properties in ChAc. During treatment with dasatinib or lithium, we observed alterations in RBC deformability and a stiffness increase for leukocytes. The hematological phenotype of ChAc patients hinted at a reorganization of the cytoskeleton in blood cells which partly explains the altered mechanical properties observed here. These findings highlight the need for a systematic assessment of the contribution of impaired blood cell mechanics to the clinical manifestation of ChAc
Comment on "On the subtleties of searching for dark matter with liquid xenon detectors"
In a recent manuscript (arXiv:1208.5046) Peter Sorensen claims that
XENON100's upper limits on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross sections for
WIMP masses below 10 GeV "may be understated by one order of magnitude or
more". Having performed a similar, though more detailed analysis prior to the
submission of our new result (arXiv:1207.5988), we do not confirm these
findings. We point out the rationale for not considering the described effect
in our final analysis and list several potential problems with his study.Comment: 3 pages, no figure
Search for Event Rate Modulation in XENON100 Electronic Recoil Data
We have searched for periodic variations of the electronic recoil event rate
in the (2-6) keV energy range recorded between February 2011 and March 2012
with the XENON100 detector, adding up to 224.6 live days in total. Following a
detailed study to establish the stability of the detector and its background
contributions during this run, we performed an un-binned profile likelihood
analysis to identify any periodicity up to 500 days. We find a global
significance of less than 1 sigma for all periods suggesting no statistically
significant modulation in the data. While the local significance for an annual
modulation is 2.8 sigma, the analysis of a multiple-scatter control sample and
the phase of the modulation disfavor a dark matter interpretation. The
DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation interpreted as a dark matter signature with
axial-vector coupling of WIMPs to electrons is excluded at 4.8 sigma.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Lowering the radioactivity of the photomultiplier tubes for the XENON1T dark matter experiment
The low-background, VUV-sensitive 3-inch diameter photomultiplier tube R11410
has been developed by Hamamatsu for dark matter direct detection experiments
using liquid xenon as the target material. We present the results from the
joint effort between the XENON collaboration and the Hamamatsu company to
produce a highly radio-pure photosensor (version R11410-21) for the XENON1T
dark matter experiment. After introducing the photosensor and its components,
we show the methods and results of the radioactive contamination measurements
of the individual materials employed in the photomultiplier production. We then
discuss the adopted strategies to reduce the radioactivity of the various PMT
versions. Finally, we detail the results from screening 216 tubes with
ultra-low background germanium detectors, as well as their implications for the
expected electronic and nuclear recoil background of the XENON1T experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Removing krypton from xenon by cryogenic distillation to the ppq level
The XENON1T experiment aims for the direct detection of dark matter in a
cryostat filled with 3.3 tons of liquid xenon. In order to achieve the desired
sensitivity, the background induced by radioactive decays inside the detector
has to be sufficiently low. One major contributor is the -emitter
Kr which is an intrinsic contamination of the xenon. For the XENON1T
experiment a concentration of natural krypton in xenon Kr/Xe < 200
ppq (parts per quadrillion, 1 ppq = 10 mol/mol) is required. In this
work, the design of a novel cryogenic distillation column using the common
McCabe-Thiele approach is described. The system demonstrated a krypton
reduction factor of 6.410 with thermodynamic stability at process
speeds above 3 kg/h. The resulting concentration of Kr/Xe < 26 ppq
is the lowest ever achieved, almost one order of magnitude below the
requirements for XENON1T and even sufficient for future dark matter experiments
using liquid xenon, such as XENONnT and DARWIN
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