Comments on the Chern-Simons photon term in the QED description of graphene

We revisit the Coleman-Hill theorem in the context of reduced planar QED. Using the global U(1) Ward identity for this non-local but still gauge invariant theory, we can confirm that the topological piece of the photon self-energy at zero momentum does not receive further quantum corrections apart from the potential one-loop contribution, even when considering the Lorentz non-invariant case due to the Fermi velocity $v_F<c$. This is of relevance to probe possible time parity odd dynamics in a planar sheet of graphene which has an effective description in terms of $(2+1)$-dimensional planar reduced QED.Comment: New section added, published versio

Gruta da figueira brava (Arrabida): Geological setting

Separata do Tomo XXXVIII das Memories da Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa (Classe de Ciencias)The Arrabida Mountain Range is the best example in Portugal of alpine movements. During Miocene times the Arrabida chain acquired the present structural set up: overthrusting accidents striking ENE-WSW and N-S or NNE-SSW sinistral lateral ramps. The main tectonic phases occurred about 17 Ma and somewhat less than 16 Ma. The Miocene deposits, mainly biocalcarenites, are middle Burdigalian and Langhian in age. During the Pleistocene the sea erosion cut several terrasse levels. Scattered remnants of conglomerates corresponding to the 12-15 and to 5-8 meters marine terrasses are ascribed to the last interglacial and to the beginning of the Wiirm glaciation (= 100000 years, Tyrrhenian II and III). The 5-8 meters terrasse, which is of particular interest, was deposited in a narrow marine erosion platform; the corresponding deposits tend to fill the entry of the caves excavated in the sea cliffs during the Upper Pleistocene such as Lapa de. St" Margarida and Figueira Brava Cave. These holes, protected by overhanging parts of the cliffs as a sort of ceiling, were good shelters forman. With the advance of the Wiirm glaciation the sea level was progressively going down. About 30000 years ago, the 5-8 meters platform and the caves dug in the cliffs were elevated as related to an extensive coastal plain. The sea level was ca. 60 meters below the present level (Miskovski, 1987). The human communities found in these territories an excellent hunting ground. The Santa Margarida and Figueira Brava caves were thus natural shelters. A large number of remnants of their occupation are preserved such as shells, animal bones, a few Neanderthal remnants as well as lithic and bone implements. 14C (and U series) dating indicate an age about 30000 years for level 2 where archaeologic remnants were exploited

Correction of artificial jumps in the historical geomagnetic measurements of Coimbra Observatory, Portugal

The Coimbra Magnetic Observatory (International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy code COI) in Portugal has a long history of observation of the geomagnetic field, spanning almost 150 yr since the first geomagnetic measurements in 1866. These long instrumental geomagnetic records provide very important information about variability of geomagnetic elements and indices, their trends and cycles, and can be used to improve our knowledge on the sources that drive variations of the geomagnetic field: liquid core dynamics (internal) and solar forcing (external). <br><br> However, during the long life of the Coimbra Observatory, some inevitable changes in station location, instrument's park and electromagnetic environment have taken place. These changes affected the quality of the data collected at COI causing breaks and jumps in the series of geomagnetic field components and local K index. Clearly, these inhomogeneities, typically shift-like (step-like) or trend-like, have to be corrected or, at least, minimized in order for the data to be used in scientific studies or to be submitted to international databases. <br><br> In this study, the series of local K index and declination of the geomagnetic field are analysed: the former because it allows direct application of standard homogenization methods and the latter because it is the longest continuous series produced at COI. For the homogenization, visual and statistical tests (e.g. standard normal homogeneity test) have been applied directly to the local geomagnetic K index series (from 1951 to 2012). The homogenization of the monthly averages of declination (from 1867 to 2012) has been done using visual analysis and statistical tests applied to the time series of the first differences of declination values, as an approximation to the first time derivative. This allowed not only estimating the level of inhomogeneity of the studied series but also detecting the highly probable homogeneity break points. These points have been cross-checked with the metadata, and the COI series have been compared with reference series from the nearest geomagnetic stations and, in the case of declination series, from the recent geomagnetic field model COV-OBS to set up the required correction factors. As a result, the homogenized series measured in COI are considered to be essentially free of artificial shifts starting from the second half of the 20th century, and ready to be used by the scientific community

Double non-perturbative gluon exchange: an update on the soft Pomeron contribution to pp scattering

We employ a set of recent, theoretically motivated, fits to non-perturbative unquenched gluon propagators to check in how far double gluon exchange can be used to describe the soft sector of pp scattering data (total and differential cross section). In particular, we use the refined Gribov--Zwanziger gluon propagator (as arising from dealing with the Gribov gauge fixing ambiguity) and the massive Cornwall-type gluon propagator (as motivated from Dyson-Schwinger equations) in conjunction with a perturbative quark-gluon vertex, next to a model based on the non-perturbative quark-gluon Maris-Tandy vertex, popular from Bethe-Salpeter descriptions of hadronic bound states. We compare the cross sections arising from these models with "older" ISR and more recent TOTEM and ATLAS data. The lower the value of total energy \sqrt{s}, the better the results appear to be.Comment: 14 pages, 8 .pdf figures. To appear in Phys.Rev.

Effect of the Gribov horizon on the Polyakov loop and vice versa

We consider finite temperature SU(2) gauge theory in the continuum formulation, which necessitates the choice of a gauge fixing. Choosing the Landau gauge, the existing gauge copies are taken into account by means of the Gribov-Zwanziger (GZ) quantization scheme, which entails the introduction of a dynamical mass scale (Gribov mass) directly influencing the Green functions of the theory. Here, we determine simultaneously the Polyakov loop (vacuum expectation value) and Gribov mass in terms of temperature, by minimizing the vacuum energy w.r.t. the Polyakov loop parameter and solving the Gribov gap equation. Inspired by the Casimir energy-style of computation, we illustrate the usage of Zeta function regularization in finite temperature calculations. Our main result is that the Gribov mass directly feels the deconfinement transition, visible from a cusp occurring at the same temperature where the Polyakov loop becomes nonzero. In this exploratory work we mainly restrict ourselves to the original Gribov-Zwanziger quantization procedure in order to illustrate the approach and the potential direct link between the vacuum structure of the theory (dynamical mass scales) and (de)confinement. We also present a first look at the critical temperature obtained from the Refined Gribov-Zwanziger approach. Finally, a particular problem for the pressure at low temperatures is reported.Comment: 19 pages, 8 .pdf figures. v2: extended section 3 + extra references; version accepted for publication in EPJ

On the experimental full scale vibrational response analysis of a large pleasure yacht

This paper presents an experimental investigation carried out on a large pleasure yacht during a sea trial using vibration signal processing methods to characterize its dynamic operational behaviour and to identify contributions of the main sources acting on the system including the onset of the propeller cavitation phenomenon. Synchronous averages were computed to isolate vibration components associated with a specific source acting on the system. Their use jointly with variance computation allowed the detection of the rise of cavitation. Spectral Kurtosis analysis suggested optimal-bandwidth of the filter for system response demodulation and so better identify the rise of high frequency energy of bursting contents induced from cavitation strictly linked to propeller rotation. Cyclic modulation spectrum was also adopted, which allows to extract the modulation features of cyclostationary signals, shows the rise of an interaction between high frequency contents and blade passage phenomenon approaching cavitating condition. The results seem to provide an interesting solution based on the vessel vibrational response to define source contribution to the targets for a better identification of the dynamic system. Moreover, the proposed diagnostic methods reveal reliable tools for real time condition-based monitoring of the marine propeller to distinguish cavitation and wake energy contribution using vibrational response measured on the hull instead of hydrophone arrays

Mathematical circus clown tricks

The Mathematical Circus project was created in 2011 by the LUDUS association with the main goal of promoting the interest and motivation for learning mathematics. The Mathematical Circus team performs mathematical magic shows where complementary skills are merged to produce a high intervention capacity within a wide geographical range in Portugal. Some tricks are performed by a mathematical clown, a unique character in the circus world, who brings together the usual foolish characteristics of a clown and the rigorous mathematical knowledge. In this paper we will describe and explain some of the tricks of the Mathematical Circus repertoire involving the clown.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio