19,098 research outputs found
Energy dissipation and equivalent damping of RC columns subjected to biaxial bending: an investigation based in experimental results
The cyclic behaviour of reinforced concrete columns have been object of many experimental studies in the
recent past years. However, the experimental studies on the biaxial response of RC columns are still limited. In
this paper are presented the main results of an experimental study of 24 full-scale rectangular building columns
tested for different loading paths under uniaxial and biaxial conditions. The experimental results are presented
and discussed in terms of global behaviour, particularly focusing on the stiffness and strength degradation due to
the increasing cyclic demand, and energy dissipation evolution. The equivalent viscous damping was estimated
based on the experimental results of the RC columns tested under biaxial loading and empirical expressions are proposed
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
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
, 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
Enhancing Context Specifications for Dependable Adaptive Systems: A Data Mining Approach
Context: Adaptive systems are expected to cater for various operational contexts by having multiple strategies in achieving their objectives and the logic for
matching strategies to an actual context. The prediction of relevant contexts at
design time is paramount for dependability. With the current trend on using data
mining to support the requirements engineering process, this task of understanding context for adaptive system at design time can benefit from such techniques
as well.
Objective: The objective is to provide a method to refine the specification of
contextual variables and their relation to strategies for dependability. This refinement shall detect dependencies between such variables, priorities in monitoring
them, and decide on their relevance in choosing the right strategy in a decision
tree.
Method: Our requirements-driven approach adopts the contextual goal modelling structure in addition to the operationalization values of sensed information
to map contexts to the system’s behaviour. We propose a design time analysis process using a subset of data mining algorithms to extract a list of relevant contexts
and their related variables, tasks, and/or goals.
Results: We experimentally evaluated our proposal on a Body Sensor Network
system (BSN), simulating 12 resources that could lead to a variability space of
4096 possible context conditions. Our approach was able to elicit subtle contexts that would significantly affect the service provided to assisted patients and
relations between contexts, assisting the decision on their need, and priority in
monitoring.
Conclusion: The use of some data mining techniques can mitigate the lack
of precise definition of contexts and their relation to system strategies for dependability. Our method is practical and supportive to traditional requirements
specification methods, which typically require intense human intervention
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
Lateral Casimir force beyond the Proximity Force Approximation
We argue that the appropriate variable to study a non trivial geometry
dependence of the Casimir force is the lateral component of the Casimir force,
which we evaluate between two corrugated metallic plates outside the validity
of the Proximity Force Approximation (PFA). The metallic plates are described
by the plasma model, with arbitrary values for the plasma wavelength, the plate
separation and the corrugation period, the corrugation amplitude remaining the
smallest length scale. Our analysis shows that in realistic experimental
situations the Proximity Force Approximation overestimates the force by up to
30%.Comment: 4 pages. Identical to v1, which was accidentally replaced by a
different paper (quant-ph/0610026
Vacuum induced torque between corrugated metallic plates
We study the torque arising between two corrugated metallic plates due to the
interaction with electromagnetic vacuum. This Casimir torque can be measured
with torsion pendulum techniques for separation distances as large as 1m.
It allows one to probe the nontrivial geometry dependence of the Casimir energy
in a configuration which can be evaluated theoretically with accuracy. In the
optimal experimental configuration, the commonly used proximity force
approximation turns out to overestimate the torque by a factor 2 or larger.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Europhysics Letters. Technical
problem with eps file for figure 4 was fixe
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]
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