On Selecting and Scheduling Assembly Plans Using Constraint Programming

This work presents the application of Constraint Programming to the problem of selecting and sequencing assembly operations. The set of all feasible assembly plans for a single product is represented using an And/Or graph. This representation embodies some of the constraints involved in the planning problem, such as precedence of tasks, and the constraints due to the completion of a correct assembly plan. The work is focused on the selection of tasks and their optimal ordering, taking into account their execution in a generic multi-robot system. In order to include all different constraints of the problem, the And/Or graph representation is extended, so that links between nodes corresponding to assembly tasks are added, taking into account the resource constraints. The resultant problem is mapped to a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP), and is solved using Constraint Programming, a powerful programming paradigm that is increasingly used to model and solve many hard real-life problems

A Pomset-Based Model for Estimating Workcells' Setups in Assembly Sequence Planning

This paper presents a model based on pomsets (partially ordered multisets) for estimating the minimum number of setups in the workcells in Assembly Sequence Planning. This problem is focused through the minimization of the makespan (total assembly time) in a multirobot system. The planning model considers, apart from the durations and resources needed for the assembly tasks, the delays due to the setups in the workcells. An A* algorithm is used to meet the optimal solution. It uses the And/Or graph for the product to assemble, that corresponds to a compressed representation of all feasible assembly plans. Two basic admissible heuristic functions can be defined from relaxed models of the problem, considering the precedence constraints and the use of resources separately. The pomset-based model presented in this paper takes into account the precedence constraints in order to obtain a better estimation for the second heuristic function, so that the performance of the algorithm could be improved

A Genetic Algorithm for Assembly Sequence Planning

This work presents a genetic algorithm for assembly sequence planning. This problem is more difficult than other sequencing problems that have already been tackled with success using these techniques, such as the classic Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) or the Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP). It not only involves the arranging of tasks, as in those problems, but also the selection of them from a set of alternative operations. Two families of genetic operators have been used for searching the whole solution space. The first includes operators that search for new sequences locally in a predetermined assembly plan, that of parent chromosomes. The other family of operators introduces new tasks in the solution, replacing others to maintain the validity of chromosomes, and it is intended to search for sequences in other assembly plans. Furthermore, some problem-based heuristics have been used for generating the individuals in the population

De Sitter Cosmic Strings and Supersymmetry

We study massive spinor fields in the geometry of a straight cosmic string in a de Sitter background. We find a hidden N=2 supersymmetry in the fermionic solutions of the equations of motion. We connect the zero mode solutions to the heat-kernel regularized Witten index of the supersymmetric algebra.Comment: Version similar to the one accepted by General Relativity and Gravitatio

Metal-insulator transition in the one-dimensional Holstein model at half filling

We study the one-dimensional Holstein model with spin-1/2 electrons at half-filling. Ground state properties are calculated for long chains with great accuracy using the density matrix renormalization group method and extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit. We show that for small electron-phonon coupling or large phonon frequency, the insulating Peierls ground state predicted by mean-field theory is destroyed by quantum lattice fluctuations and that the system remains in a metallic phase with a non-degenerate ground state and power-law electronic and phononic correlations. When the electron-phonon coupling becomes large or the phonon frequency small, the system undergoes a transition to an insulating Peierls phase with a two-fold degenerate ground state, long-range charge-density-wave order, a dimerized lattice structure, and a gap in the electronic excitation spectrum.Comment: 6 pages (LaTex), 10 eps figure

Tidal torques. A critical review of some techniques

We point out that the MacDonald formula for body-tide torques is valid only in the zeroth order of e/Q, while its time-average is valid in the first order. So the formula cannot be used for analysis in higher orders of e/Q. This necessitates corrections in the theory of tidal despinning and libration damping. We prove that when the inclination is low and phase lags are linear in frequency, the Kaula series is equivalent to a corrected version of the MacDonald method. The correction to MacDonald's approach would be to set the phase lag of the integral bulge proportional to the instantaneous frequency. The equivalence of descriptions gets violated by a nonlinear frequency-dependence of the lag. We explain that both the MacDonald- and Darwin-torque-based derivations of the popular formula for the tidal despinning rate are limited to low inclinations and to the phase lags being linear in frequency. The Darwin-torque-based derivation, though, is general enough to accommodate both a finite inclination and the actual rheology. Although rheologies with Q scaling as the frequency to a positive power make the torque diverge at a zero frequency, this reveals not the impossible nature of the rheology, but a flaw in mathematics, i.e., a common misassumption that damping merely provides lags to the terms of the Fourier series for the tidal potential. A hydrodynamical treatment (Darwin 1879) had demonstrated that the magnitudes of the terms, too, get changed. Reinstating of this detail tames the infinities and rehabilitates the "impossible" scaling law (which happens to be the actual law the terrestrial planets obey at low frequencies).Comment: arXiv admin note: sections 4 and 9 of this paper contain substantial text overlap with arXiv:0712.105

Quantum Monte Carlo and variational approaches to the Holstein model

Based on the canonical Lang-Firsov transformation of the Hamiltonian we develop a very efficient quantum Monte Carlo algorithm for the Holstein model with one electron. Separation of the fermionic degrees of freedom by a reweighting of the probability distribution leads to a dramatic reduction in computational effort. A principal component representation of the phonon degrees of freedom allows to sample completely uncorrelated phonon configurations. The combination of these elements enables us to perform efficient simulations for a wide range of temperature, phonon frequency and electron-phonon coupling on clusters large enough to avoid finite-size effects. The algorithm is tested in one dimension and the data are compared with exact-diagonalization results and with existing work. Moreover, the ideas presented here can also be applied to the many-electron case. In the one-electron case considered here, the physics of the Holstein model can be described by a simple variational approach.Comment: 18 pages, 11 Figures, v2: one typo correcte

Branching Fractions for D0 -> K+K- and D0 -> pi+pi-, and a Search for CP Violation in D0 Decays

Using the large hadroproduced charm sample collected in experiment E791 at Fermilab, we have measured ratios of branching fractions for the two-body singly-Cabibbo-suppressed charged decays of the D0: (D0 -> KK)/(D0 -> Kpi) = 0.109 +- 0.003 +- 0.003, (D0 -> pipi)/(D0 -> Kpi) = 0.040 +- 0.002 +- 0.003, and (D0 -> KK)/(D0 -> pipi) = 2.75 +- 0.15 +- 0.16. We have looked for differences in the decay rates of D0 and D0bar to the CP eigenstates K+K- and pi+pi-, and have measured the CP asymmetry parameters A_CP(K+K-) = -0.010 +- 0.049 +- 0.012 and A_CP(pi+pi-) = -0.049 +- 0.078 +- 0.030, both consistent with zero.Comment: 10 Postscript pages, including 2 figures. Submitted to Phys. Lett.

Asymmetries between the production of D+ and D- mesons from 500 GeV/c pi- nucleon interactions as a function of xF and pt**2

We present asymmetries between the production of D+ and D- mesons in Fermilab experiment E791 as a function of xF and pt**2. The data used here consist of 74,000 fully-reconstructed charmed mesons produced by a 500 GeV/c pi- beam on C and Pt foils. The measurements are compared to results of models which predict differences between the production of heavy-quark mesons that have a light quark in common with the beam (leading particles) and those that do not (non-leading particles). While the default models do not agree with our data, we can reach agreement with one of them, PYTHIA, by making a limited number of changes to parameters used