Elastic effects on relaxation volume tensor calculations

Relaxation volume tensors quantify the effect of stress on diffusion of crystal defects. Continuum linear elasticity predicts that calculations of these parameters using periodic boundary conditions do not suffer from systematic deviations due to elastic image effects and should be independent of supercell size or symmetry. In practice, however, calculations of formation volume tensors of the interstitial in Stillinger-Weber silicon demonstrate that changes in bonding at the defect affect the elastic moduli and result in system-size dependent relaxation volumes. These vary with the inverse of the system size. Knowing the rate of convergence permits accurate estimates of these quantities from modestly sized calculations. Furthermore, within the continuum linear elasticity assumptions the average stress can be used to estimate the relaxation volume tensor from constant volume calculations.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Non-equilibrium emission of complex fragments from p+Au collisions at 2.5 GeV proton beam energy

Energy and angular dependence of double differential cross sections d$^2\sigma$/d$\Omega$dE was measured for reactions induced by 2.5 GeV protons on Au target with isotopic identification of light products (H, He, Li, Be, and B) and with elemental identification of heavier intermediate mass fragments (C, N, O, F, Ne, Na, Mg, and Al). It was found that two different reaction mechanisms give comparable contributions to the cross sections. The intranuclear cascade of nucleon-nucleon collisions followed by evaporation from an equilibrated residuum describes low energy part of the energy distributions whereas another reaction mechanism is responsible for high energy part of the spectra of composite particles. Phenomenological model description of the differential cross sections by isotropic emission from two moving sources led to a very good description of all measured data. Values of the extracted parameters of the emitting sources are compatible with the hypothesis claiming that the high energy particles emerge from pre-equilibrium processes consisting in a breakup of the target into three groups of nucleons; small, fast and hot fireball of $\sim$ 8 nucleons, and two larger, excited prefragments, which emits the light charged particles and intermediate mass fragments. The smaller of them contains $\sim$ 20 nucleons and moves with velocity larger than the CM velocity of the proton projectile and the target. The heavier prefragment behaves similarly as the heavy residuum of the intranuclear cascade of nucleon-nucleon collisions. %The mass and charge dependence of the total production cross %sections was extracted from the above analysis for all observed %reaction products. This dependence follows the power low behavior %(A$^{-\tau}$ or Z$^{-\tau}$)

Species and abundance of ectoparasitic flies (Diptera) in pied flycatcher nests in Fennoscandia

Peer reviewe

The choice for EU theorists: Establishing a common framework for analysis

European Union (EU) studies have entered a highly contentious and, arguably, creative phase. A range of theoretical perspectives, seemingly quite highly differentiated from one another, now compete for influence and lsquospacersquo. However, the questions remain: is EU studies developing theories which are truly competing theories? Or is it developing theories that do not compete so much as they aim to explain distinctly different pieces of the EU puzzle? This paper responds directly to these two questions, while reviewing recent literature on EU governance. It argues, first, that we lack theories of EU governance that are true rivals; and, second, that leading models explain different outcomes at different levels in a multi-level system of governance. The result is somewhat phoney debates between compatible theories masquerading as rivals, and between lsquocomparative politicsrsquo and lsquointernational relationsrsquo approaches. Above all, perhaps, we find middle range theories posing as general or lsquometa-theoriesrsquo. In the absence of a plausible general theory of EU governance, theorists must choose precisely which type of outcome theywish to explain

Digital image watermarking using fast parametric transforms

This paper proposes a novel method for digital image watermarking, in which watermarks are embedded in the domain of fast para-metric transforms based on known spread spectrum approaches. Fast parametric transforms have the ability to adapt the forms of base vectors, which enables automatic selection of the domain of watermarking in relation to the pair: a marked image – a watermarking attack. The process of adapting the forms of fast parametric transforms is carried out with aid of the classical genetic algorithm with the fitting function based on the known measure of separability of watermarks. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been verified experimentally on the basis of the images of two classes, i.e. natural images and technical diagrams. The results taking into account both the efficiency of watermark embedding and the generated distortions in the marked images are summarized in tables and accompanied by an appropriate commentary

Ground-State Phase Diagram of the Extended Ising Model on the Shastry-Sutherland Lattice

The ground-state phase diagram of the Ising model on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice with the first ($J_1$), second ($J_2$), third ($J_3$) and fourth ($J_4$) nearest neighbour spin couplings is studied using the exact and well controlled numerical method. It is shown that switching on of the $J_3$ and $J_4$ interactions (in addition to usually considered $J_1$ and $J_2$ interactions) leads to stabilization of the following dominant magnetic phases with m/$m_s$=1/9, 1/6, 4/9, 1/2 and 5/9, which is manifested in appearance of new magnetization plateaus on the magnetization curve of the model at given values of m/$m_s$. The obtained results are consistent with experimental measurements of magnetization curves in selected rare-earth tetraborides