356 research outputs found
Bayesian hierarchical modelling of growth curve derivatives via sequences of quotient differences
Growth curve studies are typically conducted to evaluate differences between group or treatment-specific curves. Most analyses focus solely on the growth curves, but it has been argued that the derivative of growth curves can highlight differences between groups that may be masked when considering the raw curves only. Motivated by the desire to estimate derivative curves hierarchically, we introduce a new sequence of quotient differences (empirical derivatives) which, among other things, are well behaved near the boundaries compared with other sequences in the literature. Using the sequence of quotient differences, we develop a Bayesian method to estimate curve derivatives in a multilevel setting (a common scenario in growth studies) and show ow the method can be used to estimate individual and group derivative curves and to make comparisons. We apply the new methodology to data collected from a study conducted to explore the effect that radiation-based therapies have on growth in female children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
Discovery of X-rays from the supernova remnant G0.9+0.1
During the survey of the Galactic Center region, we have
discovered X-ray emission from the central region of the supernova remnant
G0.9+0.1. The high interstellar absorption (N_H about 3 times 10^{23} cm^-2) is
consistent with a distance of order of 10 kpc and, correspondingly, an X-ray
luminosity of about 10^{35} erg s^{-1}. Although we cannot completely rule out
a thermal origin of the X-ray emission, its small angular extent (radius of
about 2'), the good fit with a power law, the presence of a flat spectrum radio
core, and the estimated SNR age of a few thousand years, favour the
interpretation in terms of synchrotron emission powered by a young, energetic
pulsar.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Uses espcrc2.sty (included). To appear in The
Active X-ray Sky: Results from BeppoSAX and Rossi-XTE, Nuclear Physics B
Proceedings Supplements, L. Scarsi, H. Bradt, P. Giommi and F. Fiore (eds.),
Elsevier Science B.
On classification of intrinsic localized modes for the Discrete Nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger Equation
We consider localized modes (discrete breathers) of the discrete nonlinear
Schr\"{o}dinger equation
,
, . We study the diversity of the steady-state
solutions of the form and the intervals of the
frequency, , of their existence. The base for the analysis is provided
by the anticontinuous limit ( negative and large enough) where all the
solutions can be coded by the sequences of three symbols "-", "0" and "+".
Using dynamical systems approach we show that this coding is valid for
and the point is a point of
accumulation of saddle-node bifurcations. Also we study other bifurcations of
intrinsic localized modes which take place for and give the
complete table of them for the solutions with codes consisting of less than
four symbols.Comment: 33 pages, 14 figures. To appear in Physica
On the vacuum fluctuations, Pioneer Anomaly and Modified Newtonian Dynamics
We argue that the so-called "Pioneer Anomaly" is related to the quantum
vacuum fluctuations. Our approach is based on the hypothesis of the
gravitational repulsion between matter and antimatter, what allows considering,
the virtual particle-antiparticle pairs in the physical vacuum, as
gravitational dipoles. Our simplified calculations indicate that the anomalous
deceleration of the Pioneer spacecrafts could be a consequence of the vacuum
polarization in the gravitational field of the Sun. At the large distances, the
vacuum polarization by baryonic matter could mimic dark matter what opens
possibility that dark matter do not exist, as advocated by the Modified
Newtonian Dynamics (MOND)
Thermodynamics and evaporation of the noncommutative black hole
We investigate the thermodynamics of the noncommutative black hole whose
static picture is similar to that of the nonsingular black hole known as the de
Sitter-Schwarzschild black hole. It turns out that the final remnant of
extremal black hole is a thermodynamically stable object. We describe the
evaporation process of this black hole by using the noncommutativity-corrected
Vaidya metric. It is found that there exists a close relationship between
thermodynamic approach and evaporation process.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, added references, to appear in JHE
Precision Measurement of PArity Violation in Polarized Cold Neutron Capture on the Proton: the NPDGamma Experiment
The NPDGamma experiment at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is
dedicated to measure with high precision the parity violating asymmetry in the
emission after capture of spin polarized cold neutrons in
para-hydrogen. The measurement will determine unambiguously the weak
pion-nucleon-nucleon () coupling constant {\it f}Comment: Proceedings of the PANIC'05 Conference, Santa Fe, NM, USA, October
24-28, 2005, 3 pages, 2 figure
A measurement of parity-violating gamma-ray asymmetries in polarized cold neutron capture on 35Cl, 113Cd, and 139La
An apparatus for measuring parity-violating asymmetries in gamma-ray emission
following polarized cold neutron capture was constructed as a 1/10th scale test
of the design for the forthcoming n+p->d+gamma experiment at LANSCE. The
elements of the polarized neutron beam, including a polarized 3He neutron spin
filter and a radio frequency neutron spin rotator, are described. Using CsI(Tl)
detectors and photodiode current mode readout, measurements were made of
asymmetries in gamma-ray emission following neutron capture on 35Cl, 113Cd, and
139La targets. Upper limits on the parity-allowed asymmetry were set at the level of 7 x 10^-6 for all three
targets. Parity-violating asymmetries were observed in
35Cl, A_gamma = (-29.1 +- 6.7) x 10^-6, and 139La, A_gamma = (-15.5 +- 7.1) x
10^-6, values consistent with previous measurements.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth.
Quantum vacuum and dark matter
Recently, the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum was proposed
as alternative to the dark matter paradigm. In the present paper we consider
four benchmark measurements: the universality of the central surface density of
galaxy dark matter haloes, the cored dark matter haloes in dwarf spheroidal
galaxies, the non-existence of dark disks in spiral galaxies and distribution
of dark matter after collision of clusters of galaxies (the Bullet cluster is a
famous example). Only some of these phenomena (but not all of them) can (in
principle) be explained by the dark matter and the theories of modified
gravity. However, we argue that the framework of the gravitational polarization
of the quantum vacuum allows the understanding of the totality of these
phenomena.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc
Nab: Measurement Principles, Apparatus and Uncertainties
The Nab collaboration will perform a precise measurement of 'a', the
electron-neutrino correlation parameter, and 'b', the Fierz interference term
in neutron beta decay, in the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the SNS,
using a novel electric/magnetic field spectrometer and detector design. The
experiment is aiming at the 10^{-3} accuracy level in (Delta a)/a, and will
provide an independent measurement of lambda = G_A/G_V, the ratio of
axial-vector to vector coupling constants of the nucleon. Nab also plans to
perform the first ever measurement of 'b' in neutron decay, which will provide
an independent limit on the tensor weak coupling.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, talk presented at the International
Workshop on Particle Physics with Slow Neutrons, Grenoble, 29-31 May 2008; to
appear in Nucl. Instrum. Meth. in Physics Research
Logarithmic Corrections to Rotating Extremal Black Hole Entropy in Four and Five Dimensions
We compute logarithmic corrections to the entropy of rotating extremal black
holes using quantum entropy function i.e. Euclidean quantum gravity approach.
Our analysis includes five dimensional supersymmetric BMPV black holes in type
IIB string theory on T^5 and K3 x S^1 as well as in the five dimensional CHL
models, and also non-supersymmetric extremal Kerr black hole and slowly
rotating extremal Kerr-Newmann black holes in four dimensions. For BMPV black
holes our results are in perfect agreement with the microscopic results derived
from string theory. In particular we reproduce correctly the dependence of the
logarithmic corrections on the number of U(1) gauge fields in the theory, and
on the angular momentum carried by the black hole in different scaling limits.
We also explain the shortcomings of the Cardy limit in explaining the
logarithmic corrections in the limit in which the (super)gravity description of
these black holes becomes a valid approximation. For non-supersymmetric
extremal black holes, e.g. for the extremal Kerr black hole in four dimensions,
our result provides a stringent testing ground for any microscopic explanation
of the black hole entropy, e.g. Kerr/CFT correspondence.Comment: LaTeX file, 50 pages; v2: added extensive discussion on the relation
between boundary condition and choice of ensemble, modified analysis for
slowly rotating black holes, all results remain unchanged, typos corrected;
v3: minor additions and correction
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