Screening and collective modes in gapped bilayer graphene

We study the static and dynamic screening of gapped bilayer graphene. Unlike previous works we use the 4-band model instead of the simplified 2-band model. We find that there are important qualitative differences between the dielectric screening function obtained using the 2-band and that obtained using the 4-band model. In particular within the 4-band model in the presence of a band-gap the static screening exhibits Kohn anomalies that are absent within the 2-band model. Moreover, using the 4-band model, we are able to examine the effect of trigonal warping (absent in the 2-band model) on the screening properties of bilayer graphene. We also find that the plasmon modes have qualitatively different character in the 4-band model compared to 2-band results.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Published versio

A temperature-dependent phase-field model for phase separation and damage

In this paper we study a model for phase separation and damage in thermoviscoelastic materials. The main novelty of the paper consists in the fact that, in contrast with previous works in the literature (cf., e.g., [C. Heinemann, C. Kraus: Existence results of weak solutions for Cahn-Hilliard systems coupled with elasticity and damage. Adv. Math. Sci. Appl. 21 (2011), 321--359] and [C. Heinemann, C. Kraus: Existence results for diffuse interface models describing phase separation and damage. European J. Appl. Math. 24 (2013), 179--211]), we encompass in the model thermal processes, nonlinearly coupled with the damage, concentration and displacement evolutions. More in particular, we prove the existence of "entropic weak solutions", resorting to a solvability concept first introduced in [E. Feireisl: Mathematical theory of compressible, viscous, and heat conducting fluids. Comput. Math. Appl. 53 (2007), 461--490] in the framework of Fourier-Navier-Stokes systems and then recently employed in [E. Feireisl, H. Petzeltov\'a, E. Rocca: Existence of solutions to a phase transition model with microscopic movements. Math. Methods Appl. Sci. 32 (2009), 1345--1369], [E. Rocca, R. Rossi: "Entropic" solutions to a thermodynamically consistent PDE system for phase transitions and damage. SIAM J. Math. Anal., 47 (2015), 2519--2586] for the study of PDE systems for phase transition and damage. Our global-in-time existence result is obtained by passing to the limit in a carefully devised time-discretization scheme

Fingerprints of the Hierarchical Building up of the Structure on the Mass-Metallicity Relation

We study the mass-metallicity relation of galactic systems with stellar masses larger than 10^9 Mo in Lambda-CDM scenarios by using chemical hydrodynamical simulations. We find that this relation arises naturally as a consequence of the formation of the structure in a hierarchical scenario. The hierarchical building up of the structure determines a characteristic stellar mass at M_c ~10^10.2 Moh^-1 which exhibits approximately solar metallicities from z ~ 3 to z=0. This characteristic mass separates galactic systems in two groups with massive ones forming most of their stars and metals at high redshift. We find evolution in the zero point and slope of the mass-metallicity relation driven mainly by the low mass systems which exhibit the larger variations in the chemical properties. Although stellar mass and circular velocity are directly related, the correlation between circular velocity and metallicity shows a larger evolution with redshift making this relation more appropriate to confront models and observations. The dispersion found in both relations is a function of the stellar mass and reflects the different dynamical history of evolution of the systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Accepted MNRAS Letter

Identification of Showers with Cores Outside the ARGO-YBJ Detector

In any EAS array, the rejection of events with shower cores outside the detector boundaries is of great importance. A large difference between the true and the reconstructed shower core positions may lead to a systematic miscalculation of some shower characteristics. Moreover, an accurate determination of the shower core position for selected internal events is important to reconstruct the primary direction using conical fits to the shower front, improving the detector angular resolution, or to performe an efficient gamma/hadron discrimination. In this paper we present a procedure able to identify and reject showers with cores outside the ARGO-YBJ carpet boundaries. A comparison of the results for gamma and proton induced showers is reported.Comment: 4 pages, to be published in the Proceedings of the 28th International Cosmic Ray Conference (Tsukuba, Japan 2003

Strong coupling expansion of chiral models

A general precedure is outlined for an algorithmic implementation of the strong coupling expansion of lattice chiral models on arbitrary lattices. A symbolic character expansion in terms of connected values of group integrals on skeleton diagrams may be obtained by a fully computerized approach.Comment: 2 pages, PostScript file, contribution to conference LATTICE '9

Surface mixing and biological activity in the four Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems

Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUS) are characterized by a high productivity of plankton associated with large commercial fisheries, thus playing key biological and socio-economical roles. The aim of this work is to make a comparative study of these four upwelling systems focussing on their surface stirring, using the Finite Size Lyapunov Exponents (FSLEs), and their biological activity, based on satellite data. First, the spatial distribution of horizontal mixing is analysed from time averages and from probability density functions of FSLEs. Then we studied the temporal variability of surface stirring focussing on the annual and seasonal cycle. There is a global negative correlation between surface horizontal mixing and chlorophyll standing stocks over the four areas. To try to better understand this inverse relationship, we consider the vertical dimension by looking at the Ekman-transport and vertical velocities. We suggest the possibility of a changing response of the phytoplankton to sub/mesoscale turbulence, from a negative effect in the very productive coastal areas to a positive one in the open ocean.Comment: 12 pages. NPG Special Issue on "Nonlinear processes in oceanic and atmospheric flows". Open Access paper, available also at the publisher site: http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/16/557/2009

Can Modus Vivendi Save Liberalism from Moralism? A Critical Assessment of John Gray’s Political Realism

This chapter assesses John Gray’s modus vivendi-based justification for liberalism. I argue that his approach is preferable to the more orthodox deontological or teleological justificatory strategies, at least because of the way it can deal with the problem of diversity. But then I show how that is not good news for liberalism, for grounding liberal political authority in a modus vivendi undermines liberalism’s aspiration to occupy a privileged normative position vis-à-vis other kinds of regimes. So modus vivendi can save liberalism from moralism, but at cost many liberals will not be prepared to pay

Exploring the phase structure of lattice QCD with twisted mass quarks

The phase structure of zero temperature twisted mass lattice QCD is investigated. We find strong metastabilities in the plaquette observable when the untwisted quark mass sweeps across zero.Comment: Talks presented at Lattice2004(spectrum), 6 pages, 6 figure

The host galaxies of long-duration GRBs in a cosmological hierarchical scenario

We developed a Monte Carlo code to generate long-duration gamma ray burst (LGRB) events within cosmological hydrodynamical simulations consistent with the concordance model. As structure is assembled, LGRBs are generated in the substructure that formed galaxies today. We adopted the collapsar model so that LGRBs are produced by single, massive stars at the final stage of their evolution. We found that the observed properties of the LGRB host galaxies (HGs) are reproduced if LGRBs are also required to be generated by low metallicity stars. The low metallicity condition imposed on the progenitor stars of LGRBs selects a sample of HGs with mean gas abundances of 12 + log O/H \~ 8.6. For z<1 the simulated HGs of low metallicity LGRB progenitors tend to be faint, slow rotators with high star formation efficiency, compared with the general galaxy population, in agreement with observations. At higher redshift, our results suggest that larger systems with high star formation activity could also contribute to the generation of LGRBs from low metallicity progenitors since the fraction of low metallicity gas available for star formation increases for all systems with look-back time. Under the hypothesis of our LGRB model, our results support the claim that LGRBs could be unbiased tracers of star formation at high redshifts.Comment: Final revised version with minor changes. 9 pages, 9 figures, mn2e.cls. To appear in MNRA