446 research outputs found
A Comprehensive Review of Critical Issues on Transitioning to a Vehicle Miles Traveled Fee System
Due to increased vehicle fuel efficiency, electric vehicles, inflation, and the fuel tax not being raised in the past 20 years, the Highway Trust Fund has been unable to cover the costs associated with expanding and maintaining the transportation system. Despite improved construction methods, better planning and superior materials, municipalities cannot keep up with wear and tear on roadways, let alone keep up with future expansion. There is simply not enough revenue to support the roadway system. This shortfall has led experts to look for alternative solutions to the current major method of funding the Highway Trust Fund: the fuel tax. The most attractive solution to emerge is the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fee.A VMT fee is an answer to many of the current problems facing fuel taxes such as increased fuel efficiency in vehicles, the rise in hybrids and electric vehicles, and responding to inflation. The VMT fee has been recommended by a number of professionals and experts as a complete replacement for the current fuel tax for these reasons. However, there are many obstacles to this attractive alternative including perception, administration, and implementation. The purpose of this study is to provide a thorough literature review of several states' approaches to the VMT fee, address prominent issues and concerns associated with the VMT fee, and provide several transition schemes which would minimize the concerns of the public, motorists, and decision-makers. It was found that allowing the motorist to choose the VMT fee collection system eases privacy concerns and thus has less resistance when passing the fee through legislation. It was found that allowing for a longer transition phase will be most desirable, because the user will have the option of paying the VMT fee or the fuel tax
Percolation of randomly distributed growing clusters
We investigate the problem of growing clusters, which is modeled by two
dimensional disks and three dimensional droplets. In this model we place a
number of seeds on random locations on a lattice with an initial occupation
probability, . The seeds simultaneously grow with a constant velocity to
form clusters. When two or more clusters eventually touch each other they
immediately stop their growth. The probability that such a system will result
in a percolating cluster depends on the density of the initially distributed
seeds and the dimensionality of the system. For very low initial values of
we find a power law behavior for several properties that we investigate, namely
for the size of the largest and second largest cluster, for the probability for
a site to belong to the finally formed spanning cluster, and for the mean
radius of the finally formed droplets. We report the values of the
corresponding scaling exponents. Finally, we show that for very low initial
concentration of seeds the final coverage takes a constant value which depends
on the system dimensionality.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure
Percolation of randomly distributed growing clusters: Finite Size Scaling and Critical Exponents
We study the percolation properties of the growing clusters model. In this
model, a number of seeds placed on random locations on a lattice are allowed to
grow with a constant velocity to form clusters. When two or more clusters
eventually touch each other they immediately stop their growth. The model
exhibits a discontinuous transition for very low values of the seed
concentration and a second, non-trivial continuous phase transition for
intermediate values. Here we study in detail this continuous transition
that separates a phase of finite clusters from a phase characterized by the
presence of a giant component. Using finite size scaling and large scale Monte
Carlo simulations we determine the value of the percolation threshold where the
giant component first appears, and the critical exponents that characterize the
transition. We find that the transition belongs to a different universality
class from the standard percolation transition.Comment: 5 two-column pages, 6 figure
Two-photon ionization of Helium studied with the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree-Fock method
The multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree-Fock method (MCTDHF) is
applied for simulations of the two-photon ionization of Helium. We present
results for the single- and double ionization from the groundstate for photon
energies in the non-sequential regime, and compare them to direct solutions of
the Schr\"odinger equation using the time-dependent (full) Configuration
Interaction method (TDCI). We find that the single-ionization is accurately
reproduced by MCTDHF, whereas the double ionization results correctly capture
the main trends of TDCI
Multiscale model of electronic behavior and localization in stretched dry DNA
When the DNA double helix is subjected to external forces it can stretch elastically to elongations reaching 100% of its natural length. These distortions, imposed at the mesoscopic or macroscopic scales, have a dramatic effect on electronic properties at the atomic scale and on electrical transport along DNA. Accordingly, a multiscale approach is necessary to capture the electronic behavior of the stretched DNA helix. To construct such a model, we begin with accurate density-functional-theory calculations for electronic states in DNA bases and base pairs in various relative configurations encountered in the equilibrium and stretched forms. These results are complemented by semi-empirical quantum mechanical calculations for the states of a small size [18 base pair poly(CG)–poly(CG)] dry, neutral DNA sequence, using previously published models for stretched DNA. The calculated electronic states are then used to parametrize an effective tight-binding model that can describe electron hopping in the presence of environmental effects, such as the presence of stray water molecules on the backbone or structural features of the substrate. These effects introduce disorder in the model hamiltonian which leads to electron localization. The localization length is smaller by several orders of magnitude in stretched DNA relative to that in the unstretched structure
Time-dependent calculation of ionization in Potassium at mid-infrared wavelengths
We study the dynamics of the Potassium atom in the mid-infrared, high
intensity, short laser pulse regime. We ascertain numerical convergence by
comparing the results obtained by the direct expansion of the time-dependent
Schroedinger equation onto B-Splines, to those obtained by the eigenbasis
expansion method. We present ionization curves in the 12-, 13-, and 14-photon
ionization range for Potassium. The ionization curve of a scaled system, namely
Hydrogen starting from the 2s, is compared to the 12-photon results. In the
13-photon regime, a dynamic resonance is found and analyzed in some detail. The
results for all wavelengths and intensities, including Hydrogen, display a
clear plateau in the peak-heights of the low energy part of the Above Threshold
Ionization (ATI) spectrum, which scales with the ponderomotive energy Up, and
extends to 2.8 +- 0.5 Up.Comment: 15 two-column pages with 15 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev A. Improved figures, language and punctuation, and
made minor corrections. We also added a comparison to the ADK theor
Variational finite-difference representation of the kinetic energy operator
A potential disadvantage of real-space-grid electronic structure methods is
the lack of a variational principle and the concomitant increase of total
energy with grid refinement. We show that the origin of this feature is the
systematic underestimation of the kinetic energy by the finite difference
representation of the Laplacian operator. We present an alternative
representation that provides a rigorous upper bound estimate of the true
kinetic energy and we illustrate its properties with a harmonic oscillator
potential. For a more realistic application, we study the convergence of the
total energy of bulk silicon using a real-space-grid density-functional code
and employing both the conventional and the alternative representations of the
kinetic energy operator.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. To appear in Phys. Rev. B. Contribution
for the 10th anniversary of the eprint serve
Posterior probability and fluctuation theorem in stochastic processes
A generalization of fluctuation theorems in stochastic processes is proposed.
The new theorem is written in terms of posterior probabilities, which are
introduced via the Bayes theorem. In usual fluctuation theorems, a forward path
and its time reversal play an important role, so that a microscopically
reversible condition is essential. In contrast, the microscopically reversible
condition is not necessary in the new theorem. It is shown that the new theorem
adequately recovers various theorems and relations previously known, such as
the Gallavotti-Cohen-type fluctuation theorem, the Jarzynski equality, and the
Hatano-Sasa relation, when adequate assumptions are employed.Comment: 4 page
- …