NIMBUS SPACECRAFT DEVELOPMENT

Nimbus meteorological satellite system for data on worldwide atmospheric processes - real-time weather forecasting and researc

The PSCz Galaxy Power Spectrum Compared to N-Body Simulations

By comparing the PSCz galaxy power spectrum with haloes from nested and phased N-body simulations, we try to understand how IRAS infrared-selected galaxies populate dark-matter haloes. We pay special attention to the way we identify haloes in the simulations.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in "The IGM/Galaxy Connection: The Distribution of Baryons at z=0," eds. J.L. Rosenberg and M.E. Putma

Atypical eye contact in autism: Models, mechanisms and development

An atypical pattern of eye contact behaviour is one of the most significant symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Recent empirical advances have revealed the developmental, cognitive and neural basis of atypical eye contact behaviour in ASD. We review different models and advance a new ‘fast-track modulator model’. Specifically, we propose that atypical eye contact processing in ASD originates in the lack of influence from a subcortical face and eye contact detection route, which is hypothesized to modulate eye contact processing and guide its emergent specialization during development

Relaxation to quantum equilibrium for Dirac fermions in the de Broglie-Bohm pilot-wave theory

Numerical simulations indicate that the Born rule does not need to be postulated in the de Broglie-Bohm pilot-wave theory, but arises dynamically (relaxation to quantum equilibrium). These simulations were done for a particle in a two-dimensional box whose wave-function obeys the non-relativistic Schroedinger equation and is therefore scalar. The chaotic nature of the de Broglie-Bohm trajectories, thanks to the nodes of the wave-function which act as vortices, is crucial for a fast relaxation to quantum equilibrium. For spinors, we typically do not expect any node. However, in the case of the Dirac equation, the de Broglie-Bohm velocity field has vorticity even in the absence of nodes. This observation raises the question of the origin of relaxation to quantum equilibrium for fermions. In this article, we provide numerical evidence to show that Dirac particles also undergo relaxation, by simulating the evolution of various non-equilibrium distributions for two-dimensional systems (the 2D Dirac oscillator and the Dirac particle in a spherical 2D box).Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

The LiAl/FeS2 battery power source for the future

Advanced high power density rechargeable batteries are currently under development. These batteries have the potential of greatly increasing the power and energy densities available for space applications. Depending on whether the system is optimized for high power or high energy, values up to 150 Wh/kg and 2100 W/kg (including hardware) are projected. This is due to the fact that the system uses a high conductivity molten salt electrolyte. The electrolyte also serves as a separator layer with unlimited freeze thaw capabilities. Life of 1000 cycles and ten calendar years is projected. The electrochemistry consists of a lithium aluminum alloy negative electrode, iron disulfide positive electrode, and magnesium oxide powder immobilized molten salt electrolyte. Processed powders are cold compacted into circular discs which are assembled into bipolar cell hardware with peripheral ceramic salts. The culmination of the work will be a high energy battery of 40 kWh and a high power battery of 28 kWh

A variance-minimization scheme for optimizing Jastrow factors

We describe a new scheme for optimizing many-electron trial wave functions by minimizing the unreweighted variance of the energy using stochastic integration and correlated-sampling techniques. The scheme is restricted to parameters that are linear in the exponent of a Jastrow correlation factor, which are the most important parameters in the wave functions we use. The scheme is highly efficient and allows us to investigate the parameter space more closely than has been possible before. We search for multiple minima of the variance in the parameter space and compare the wave functions obtained using reweighted and unreweighted variance minimization.Comment: 19 pages; 12 figure

Nonequilibrium dynamics in the O(N) model to next-to-next-to-leading order in the 1/N expansion

Nonequilibrium dynamics in quantum field theory has been studied extensively using truncations of the 2PI effective action. Both 1/N and loop expansions beyond leading order show remarkable improvement when compared to mean-field approximations. However, in truncations used so far, only the leading-order parts of the self energy responsible for memory loss, damping and equilibration are included, which makes it difficult to discuss convergence systematically. For that reason we derive the real and causal evolution equations for an O(N) model to next-to-next-to-leading order in the 2PI-1/N expansion. Due to the appearance of internal vertices the resulting equations appear intractable for a full-fledged 3+1 dimensional field theory. Instead, we solve the closely related three-loop approximation in the auxiliary-field formalism numerically in 0+1 dimensions (quantum mechanics) and compare to previous approximations and the exact numerical solution of the Schroedinger equation.Comment: 29 pages, minor changes, references added; to appear in PR

Thermodynamics of the Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg Model on the Checkerboard Lattice

Employing numerical linked-cluster expansions (NLCEs) along with exact diagonalizations of finite clusters with periodic boundary condition, we study the energy, specific heat, entropy, and various susceptibilities of the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the checkerboard lattice. NLCEs, combined with extrapolation techniques, allow us to access temperatures much lower than those accessible to exact diagonalization and other series expansions. We find that the high-temperature peak in specific heat decreases as the frustration increases, consistent with the large amount of unquenched entropy in the region around maximum classical frustration, where the nearest-neighbor and next-nearest neighbor exchange interactions (J and J', respectively) have the same strength, and with the formation of a second peak at lower temperatures. The staggered susceptibility shows a change of character when J' increases beyond 0.75J, implying the disappearance of the long-range antiferromagnetic order at zero temperature. For J'=4J, in the limit of weakly coupled crossed chains, we find large susceptibilities for stripe and Neel order with Q=(pi/2,pi/2) at low temperatures with antiferromagnetic correlations along the chains. Other magnetic and bond orderings, such as a plaquette valence-bond solid and a crossed-dimer order suggested by previous studies, have also been investigated.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figure

Joining Forces of Bayesian and Frequentist Methodology: A Study for Inference in the Presence of Non-Identifiability

Increasingly complex applications involve large datasets in combination with non-linear and high dimensional mathematical models. In this context, statistical inference is a challenging issue that calls for pragmatic approaches that take advantage of both Bayesian and frequentist methods. The elegance of Bayesian methodology is founded in the propagation of information content provided by experimental data and prior assumptions to the posterior probability distribution of model predictions. However, for complex applications experimental data and prior assumptions potentially constrain the posterior probability distribution insufficiently. In these situations Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling can be infeasible. From a frequentist point of view insufficient experimental data and prior assumptions can be interpreted as non-identifiability. The profile likelihood approach offers to detect and to resolve non-identifiability by experimental design iteratively. Therefore, it allows one to better constrain the posterior probability distribution until Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling can be used securely. Using an application from cell biology we compare both methods and show that a successive application of both methods facilitates a realistic assessment of uncertainty in model predictions.Comment: Article to appear in Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.

Massive scalar field instability in Kerr spacetime

We study the Klein-Gordon equation for a massive scalar field in Kerr spacetime in the time-domain. We demonstrate that under conditions of super-radiance, the scalar field becomes unstable and its amplitude grows without bound. We also estimate the growth rate of this instability.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure