Quark-hybrid matter in the cores of massive neutron stars

Using a nonlocal extension of the SU(3) Nambu-Jona Lasinio model, which reproduces several of the key features of Quantum Chromodynamics, we show that mixed phases of deconfined quarks and confined hadrons (quark-hybrid matter) may exist in the cores of neutron stars as massive as around 2.1 M_Sun. The radii of these objects are found to be in the canonical range of $\sim 12-13$ km. According to our study, the transition to pure quark matter does not occur in stable neutron stars, but is shifted to neutron stars which are unstable against radial oscillations. The implications of our study for the recently discovered, massive neutron star PSR J1614-2230, whose gravitational mass is $1.97 \pm 0.04 M_Sun$, are that this neutron star may contain an extended region of quark-hybrid matter at it center, but no pure quark matter.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Quark deconfinement in high-mass neutron stars

In this paper, we explore whether or not quark deconfinement may occur in high-mass neutron stars such as J1614-2230 (1.97 \pm 0.04 M_Sun) and J0348+0432 (2.01 \pm 0.04 M_Sun). Our study is based on a non-local extension of the SU(3) Nambu Jona-Lasinio (n3NJL) model with repulsive vector interactions among the quarks. This model goes beyond the frequently used local version of the Nambu Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model by accounting for several key features of QCD which are not part of the local model. Confined hadronic matter is treated in the framework of non-linear relativistic mean field theory. We find that both the local as well as the non-local NJL model predict the existence of extended regions of mixed quark-hadron (quark-hybrid) matter in high-mass neutron stars with masses of 2.1 to 2.4 M_Sun. Pure quark matter in the cores of neutron stars is obtained for certain parametrizations of the hadronic lagrangian and choices of the vector repulsion among quarks. The radii of high-mass neutron stars with quark-hybrid matter and/or pure quark matter cores in their centers are found to lie in the canonical range of 12 to 13 km.Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures, PRC accepted versio

Vacuum fluctuations of a scalar field near a reflecting boundary and their effects on the motion of a test particle

The contribution from quantum vacuum fluctuations of a real massless scalar field to the motion of a test particle that interacts with the field in the presence of a perfectly reflecting flat boundary is here investigated. There is no quantum induced dispersions on the motion of the particle when it is alone in the empty space. However, when a reflecting wall is introduced, dispersions occur with magnitude dependent on how fast the system evolves between the two scenarios. A possible way of implementing this process would be by means of an idealized sudden switching, for which the transition occurs instantaneously. Although the sudden process is a simple and mathematically convenient idealization it brings some divergences to the results, particularly at a time corresponding to a round trip of a light signal between the particle and the wall. It is shown that the use of smooth switching functions, besides regularizing such divergences, enables us to better understand the behavior of the quantum dispersions induced on the motion of the particle. Furthermore, the action of modifying the vacuum state of the system leads to a change in the particle energy that depends on how fast the transition between these states is implemented. Possible implications of these results to the similar case of an electric charge near a perfectly conducting wall are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

A systematic comparison of supervised classifiers

Pattern recognition techniques have been employed in a myriad of industrial, medical, commercial and academic applications. To tackle such a diversity of data, many techniques have been devised. However, despite the long tradition of pattern recognition research, there is no technique that yields the best classification in all scenarios. Therefore, the consideration of as many as possible techniques presents itself as an fundamental practice in applications aiming at high accuracy. Typical works comparing methods either emphasize the performance of a given algorithm in validation tests or systematically compare various algorithms, assuming that the practical use of these methods is done by experts. In many occasions, however, researchers have to deal with their practical classification tasks without an in-depth knowledge about the underlying mechanisms behind parameters. Actually, the adequate choice of classifiers and parameters alike in such practical circumstances constitutes a long-standing problem and is the subject of the current paper. We carried out a study on the performance of nine well-known classifiers implemented by the Weka framework and compared the dependence of the accuracy with their configuration parameter configurations. The analysis of performance with default parameters revealed that the k-nearest neighbors method exceeds by a large margin the other methods when high dimensional datasets are considered. When other configuration of parameters were allowed, we found that it is possible to improve the quality of SVM in more than 20% even if parameters are set randomly. Taken together, the investigation conducted in this paper suggests that, apart from the SVM implementation, Weka's default configuration of parameters provides an performance close the one achieved with the optimal configuration

Técnicas de levantamento e monitoração de populações de carnívoros

Diferentes técnicas vêm sendo utilizadas em levantamentos de carnívoros, e o principal fator que influencia as estimativas é a detectabilidade. Raramente todos os animais presentes em uma dada área são detectados num levantamento, e a maioria das estimativas são baseadas em contagens incompletas. Por outro lado, nem sempre se faz necessário a obtenção de estimativas de abundãncia absoluta ou de densidade absoluta, e um índice de abundância pode ser o suficiente para, por exemplo, avaliar as tendências da população. Índices de abundância precisam ter uma forte correlação com a abundância absoluta ou com a densidade, para que sejam úteis. Índices podem ser obtidos de contagens incompletas, em relação ao esforço empregado, usando sinais da presença de animais, fotografia remota e outras técnicas. Métodos para estimar a densidade ou abundância absoluta podem ser divididos em diretas e indiretas.bitstream/CPAP/55978/1/DOC73.pdfFormato Eletrônic

Importância da Sebastiania hispida para o veado-campeiro, Ozotoceros bezoarticus, em períodos de seca no Pantanal.

O veado-campeiro é um herbívoro do tipo podador seletivo, ou seja, alimenta-se principalmente de espécies de plantas dicotiledôneas. Uma das espécies presentes na dieta deste cervídeo é o mercúrio. Esta espécie, em anos mais secos, pode apresentar um aumento considerável na abundância formando extensas manchas nas pastagens

Unusual formations of the free electromagnetic field in vacuum

It is shown that there are exact solutions of the free Maxwell equations (FME) in vacuum allowing an existence of stable spherical formations of the free magnetic field and ring-like formations of the free electric field. It is detected that a form of these spheres and rings does not change with time in vacuum. It is shown that these convergent solutions are the result of an interference of some divergent solutions of FME. One can surmise that these electromagnetic formations correspond to Kapitsa's hypothesis about interference origin and a structure of fireball.Comment: Revtex-file, without figures. To get lournal-pdf-copy with figures contact with [email protected]

Vacuum induced dispersions on the motion of test particles in D+1 dimensions

CNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOFAPEMIG - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE MINAS GERAISFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORWhen the vacuum state of a scalar or electromagnetic field is modified by the presence of a reflecting boundary, an interacting test particle undergoes velocity fluctuations. Such effect is regarded as a sort of quantum analog of the classical Brownian motion. Several aspects about this system have been recently investigated in the literature, for instance, finite temperature effects, curved spacetime framework, near-boundary regime, late time behavior, and subvacuum phenomena. Here, further steps are given in this analysis by considering the effect of vacuum fluctuations of a scalar field in the presence of a perfectly reflecting flat boundary over the motion of a scalar test particle when the background field does not satisfy the Huygens' principle. Specifically, the background field is allowed to have mass and the system is studied in D + 1 dimensions. A method of implementing a smooth transition between distinct states of the field is also developed, rendering regularized analytic expressions describing the velocity fluctuations of the test particle. This method is applied to study some special behaviors of the system. Possible applications include fields known to occur in nature as, for instance, the massive Higgs' field, for which the velocity fluctuations are here predicted to acquire a characteristic oscillation, thus behaving differently from their electromagnetic counterparts.1006110CNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOFAPEMIG - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE MINAS GERAISFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOFAPEMIG - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE MINAS GERAISFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIOR302248/2015-3Sem informação2015/26438-8Sem informaçã

Revisão do conhecimento sobre ocorrência e distribuição de mamíferos do Pantanal.

O Pantanal é reconhecido como um importante refúgio da fauna silvestre. Entretanto, apesar de alguns inventários já terem sido realizados no Pantanal, sua fauna de mamíferos ainda é mal conhecida. Apesar de em geral ainda estar bem conservado, o Pantanal já sofre impactos ambientais visíveis, como mudanças no pulso de enchentes, causadas por assoreamento e/ou represamento de rios, e remoção da vegetação arbórea. Estes impactos podem ameaçar a fauna silvestre, e pesquisadores e conservacionistas se preocupam em identificar organismos indicadores da "saúde" deste bioma. Os mamíferos carnívoros são considerados bons indicadores biológicos, pois são predadores de topo e com isso dependem de toda a estrutura de presas e seus ambientes, em bom estado de conservação. Além disso, os carnívoros podem funcionar como reguladores das populações de presas, com fortes implicações nas comunidades de plantas. Os mamíferos do grupo Xenarthra também funcionam como bons indicadores biológicos, já que neste grupo encontram-se animais ameaçados de extinção e altamente especializados, como o tamanduá-bandeira e o tatu-canastra. Apesar de o Pantanal possuir uma alta abundância de espécies de mamíferos, o mapeamento de ocorrência destas espécies é insatisfatório, sendo necessário o acesso a informações secundárias e a aquisição de dados primários, geo-referenciados, da ocorrência das espécies. O aumento e a disponibilização de conhecimento sobre a biologia e distribuição das espécies de mamíferos do Pantanal pode permitir a elaboração de estratégias gerais para a conservação destas espécies.bitstream/item/81202/1/DOC38.pd

Efeitos de diferentes substratos na produção de mudas de alface.

O presente trabalho teve por objetivo testar diferentes tipos de substratos, bem como as mais adequadas proporções entre seus constituintes, para a produção de mudas de alface.bitstream/item/46772/1/COT-1420001.pd