Scaling law and critical exponent for alpha_0 at the 3D Anderson transition

We use high-precision, large system-size wave function data to analyse the scaling properties of the multifractal spectra around the disorder-induced three-dimensional Anderson transition in order to extract the critical exponents of the transition. Using a previously suggested scaling law, we find that the critical exponent is significantly larger than suggested by previous results. We speculate that this discrepancy is due to the use of an oversimplified scaling relation

Finding the divine in challenging conversations

This article was originally published in The Prophet -- a journal created by and for the students at the Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) to amplify the voices of STH students by promoting and sharing a range of perspectives on matters of concern including, but not limited to, spiritual practices, faith communities and society, the nature of theology, and current affairs. It serves as a platform for STH students to share their academic work, theological reflections, and life experiences with one another and the wider community.This reflection is part of a collection of responses to the theme: "What is Theology?

[Review of] Mario T. Garcfa, Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880- 1920

Mario T. Garcia\u27s Desert Immigrants documents and analyzes the growth of the border city of El Paso, Texas. The transformation of El Paso from a small crossroads community between Mexico and the U.S. to a major commercial and industrial metropolis is presented in terms of the growth of American industrial capitalism and its need for new sources of cheap and manageable labor. Garcia\u27s attention to the economic underpinnings of El Paso\u27s growth is well developed and he integrates many types of historical information. Business and labor statistics, demographic figures and newspaper accounts of day-to-day life in the city show the impact of immigration upon the border town

Physics of beer tapping

The popular bar prank known in colloquial English as beer tapping consists in hitting the top of a beer bottle with a solid object, usually another bottle, to trigger the foaming over of the former within a few seconds. Despite the trick being known for long time, to the best of our knowledge, the phenomenon still lacks scientific explanation. Although it seems natural to think that shock-induced cavitation enhances the diffusion of CO$_2$ from the supersaturated bulk liquid into the bubbles by breaking them up, the subtle mechanism by which this happens remains unknown. Here we show that the overall foaming-over process can be divided into three stages where different physical phenomena take place in different time-scales, namely: bubble-collapse (or cavitation) stage, diffusion-driven stage and buoyancy-driven stage. In the bubble-collapse stage, the impact generates a train of expansion-compression waves in the liquid that leads to the fragmentation of pre-existing gas cavities. Upon bubble fragmentation, the sudden increase of the interface-area-to-volume ratio enhances mass transfer significantly, which makes the bubble volume grow by a large factor until CO$_2$ is locally depleted. At that point buoyancy takes over, making the bubble clouds rise and eventually form buoyant vortex rings whose volume grows fast due to the feedback between the buoyancy-induced rising speed and the advection-enhanced CO$_2$ transport from the bulk liquid to the bubble. The physics behind this explosive process might also be connected to some geological phenomena.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 4 movies Accepted in Physical Review Letter