Degenerating families of dendrograms

Dendrograms used in data analysis are ultrametric spaces, hence objects of nonarchimedean geometry. It is known that there exist $p$-adic representation of dendrograms. Completed by a point at infinity, they can be viewed as subtrees of the Bruhat-Tits tree associated to the $p$-adic projective line. The implications are that certain moduli spaces known in algebraic geometry are $p$-adic parameter spaces of (families of) dendrograms, and stochastic classification can also be handled within this framework. At the end, we calculate the topology of the hidden part of a dendrogram.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

RISK PERCEPTIONS AND MANAGEMENT RESPONSES: PRODUCER-GENERATED HYPOTHESES FOR RISK MODELING

Farm level risk analyses have used price and yield variability almost exclusively to represent risk. Results from a survey of 149 agricultural producers in 12 states indicate that producers consider a broader range of sources of variability in their operations. Significant differences exist among categories with respect to the importance of the sources of variability in crop and livestock production. Producers also used a variety of management responses to variability. There were significant difference among categories in the importance given to particular responses and their use of them. These results have implications for research, extension, and policy programs.Risk and Uncertainty,

Scale-up and turbulence modelling in pipes

Large diameter pipes are commonly used for oil and gas transportation. Experimental and numerical results, including turbulence properties, are often obtained for small diameter pipes. Only little information is available for pipes larger or equal to 200 mm. Results obtained with Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence models for single phase flow in pipes of different sizes are presented and discussed. The use of non-dimensional data is usually assumed sufficient to present general information and is assumed valid for any size of pipe. The validity of such assumptions has been checked and the flow behaviour in small, medium and large pipes obtained with several of the most common RANS turbulence models, has been established under specific conditions via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques. Although difficulties were sometimes encountered to reproduce correctly the turbulence properties described in the literature with the turbulence models implemented in open source CFD codes, it is shown that a scaling-up approach is valid as the general flow pattern can be predicted by a non-dimensional strategy

Infrared images of reflection nebulae and Orion's bar: Fluorescent molecular hydrogen and the 3.3 micron feature

Images were obtained of the (fluorescent) molecular hydrogen 1-0 S(1) line, and of the 3.3 micron emission feature, in Orion's Bar and three reflection nebulae. The emission from these species appears to come from the same spatial locations in all sources observed. This suggests that the 3.3 micron feature is excited by the same energetic UV-photons which cause the molecular hydrogen to fluoresce

Sodium vacancy ordering and the co-existence of localized spins and itinerant charges in NaxCoO2

The sodium cobaltate family (NaxCoO2) is unique among transition metal oxides because the Co sits on a triangular lattice and its valence can be tuned over a wide range by varying the Na concentration x. Up to now detailed modeling of the rich phenomenology (which ranges from unconventional superconductivity to enhanced thermopower) has been hampered by the difficulty of controlling pure phases. We discovered that certain Na concentrations are specially stable and are associated with superlattice ordering of the Na clusters. This leads naturally to a picture of co-existence of localized spins and itinerant charge carriers. For x = 0.84 we found a remarkably small Fermi energy of 87 K. Our picture brings coherence to a variety of measurements ranging from NMR to optical to thermal transport. Our results also allow us to take the first step towards modeling the mysterious ``Curie-Weiss'' metal state at x = 0.71. We suggest the local moments may form a quantum spin liquid state and we propose experimental test of our hypothesis.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Deep K_s-near-infrared Surface Photometry of 80 Dwarf Irregular Galaxies in the Local Volume

We present deep near-infrared (K_s) images and surface photometry for 80 dwarf irregular galaxies (dIs) within ~5 Mpc of the Milky Way. The galaxy images were obtained at five different facilities between 2004 and 2006. The image reductions and surface photometry have been performed using methods specifically designed for isolating faint galaxies from the high and varying near-infrared sky level. Fifty-four of the 80 dIs have surface brightness profiles which could be fit to a hyperbolic-secant (sech) function, while the remaining profiles could be fit to the sum of a sech and a Gaussian function. From these fits, we have measured central surface brightnesses, scale lengths, and integrated magnitudes. This survey is part of a larger study of the connection between large-scale structure and the global properties of dIs, the hypothesized building-blocks of more massive galaxies

Dynamic cratering of graphite : experimental results and simulations

The cratering process in brittle materials under hypervelocity impact (HVI) is of major relevance for debris shielding in spacecraft or high-power laser applications. Amongst other materials, carbon is of particular interest since it is widely used as elementary component in composite materials. In this paper we study a porous polycrystalline graphite under HVI and laser impact, both leading to strong debris ejection and cratering. First, we report new experimental data for normal impacts at 4100 and 4200 m s-1 of a 500-μm-diameter steel sphere on a thick sample of graphite. In a second step, dynamic loadings have been performed with a high-power nanosecond laser facility. High-resolution X-ray tomographies and observations with a scanning electron microscope have been performed in order to visualize the crater shape and the subsurface cracks. These two post-mortem diagnostics also provide evidence that, in the case of HVI tests, the fragmented steel sphere was buried into the graphite target below the crater surface. The current study aims to propose an interpretation of the results, including projectile trapping. In spite of their efficiency to capture overall trends in crater size and shape, semi-empirical scaling laws do not usually predict these phenomena. Hence, to offer better insight into the processes leading to this observation, the need for a computational damage model is argued. After discussing energy partitioning in order to identify the dominant physical mechanisms occurring in our experiments, we propose a simple damage model for porous and brittle materials. Compaction and fracture phenomena are included in the model. A failure criterion relying on Weibull theory is used to relate material tensile strength to deformation rate and damage. These constitutive relations have been implemented in an Eulerian hydrocode in order to compute numerical simulations and confront them with experiments. In this paper, we propose a simple fitting procedure of the unknown Weibull parameters based on HVI results. Good agreement is found with experimental observations of crater shapes and dimensions, as well as debris velocity. The projectile inclusion below the crater is also reproduced by the model and a mechanism is proposed for the trapping process. At least two sets of Weibull parameters can be used to match the results. Finally, we show that laser experiment simulations may discriminate in favor of one set of parameters

Redshift clustering in the Hubble Deep Field

We present initial results from a redshift survey carried out with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph on the 10~m W. M. Keck Telescope in the Hubble Deep Field. In the redshift distribution of the 140 extragalactic objects in this sample we find 6 strong peaks, with velocity dispersions of ${\sim}400${\kms}. The areal density of objects within a particular peak, while it may be non-uniform, does not show evidence for strong central concentration. These peaks have characteristics (velocity dispersions, density enhancements, spacing, and spatial extent) similar to those seen in a comparable redshift survey in a different high galactic latitude field (Cohen et al 1996), confirming that the structures are generic. They are probably the high redshift counterparts of huge galaxy structures (``walls'') observed locally.Comment: 14 pages, including 2 figures, to appear in ApJ Letter

Extragalactic Fields Optimized for Adaptive Optics

In this paper we present the coordinates of 67 55' x 55' patches of sky which have the rare combination of both high stellar surface density (>0.5 arcmin^{-2} with 13<R<16.5 mag) and low extinction (E(B-V)<0.1). These fields are ideal for adaptive-optics based follow-up of extragalactic targets. One region of sky, situated near Baade's Window, contains most of the patches we have identified. Our optimal field, centered at RA: 7h24m3s, Dec: -1deg27'15", has an additional advantage of being accessible from both hemispheres. We propose a figure of merit for quantifying real-world adaptive optics performance, and use this to analyze the performance of multi-conjugate adaptive optics in these fields. We also compare our results to those that would be obtained in existing deep fields. In some cases adaptive optics observations undertaken in the fields given in this paper would be orders of magnitude more efficient than equivalent observations undertaken in existing deep fields.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in PAS

Explicit formulas for the generalized Hermite polynomials in superspace

We provide explicit formulas for the orthogonal eigenfunctions of the supersymmetric extension of the rational Calogero-Moser-Sutherland model with harmonic confinement, i.e., the generalized Hermite (or Hi-Jack) polynomials in superspace. The construction relies on the triangular action of the Hamiltonian on the supermonomial basis. This translates into determinantal expressions for the Hamiltonian's eigenfunctions.Comment: 19 pages. This is a recasting of the second part of the first version of hep-th/0305038 which has been splitted in two articles. In this revised version, the introduction has been rewritten and a new appendix has been added. To appear in JP