Expansive and collapsing behaviour of volume change soils

This thesis is designed to achieve three goals: Goal One - to introduce the reader to soils exhibiting expansive and/or collapsing behaviour; Goal Two - to provide an in depth understanding of aspects of this behaviour, obtained from an extensive study of these soil types; and, Goal Three - to serve as a reference for future research work (a recommendation for further research proposed in Chapter Ten of this thesis). The thesis is divided in two main parts. In the first part representative soil types were selected on the basis of their properties and expected engineering behaviour. The soil structure and clay minerals were also studied in part one of this thesis. The second part of the thesis deals with aspects of expansive and collapsing behaviour of soils. Chapter three provides the introduction to the subsequent chapters on expansive and collapsing behaviour of volume change soils

Reshuffling spins with short range interactions: When sociophysics produces physical results

Galam reshuffling introduced in opinion dynamics models is investigated under the nearest neighbor Ising model on a square lattice using Monte Carlo simulations. While the corresponding Galam analytical critical temperature T_C \approx 3.09 [J/k_B] is recovered almost exactly, it is proved to be different from both values, not reshuffled (T_C=2/arcsinh(1) \approx 2.27 [J/k_B]) and mean-field (T_C=4 [J/k_B]). On this basis, gradual reshuffling is studied as function of 0 \leq p \leq 1 where p measures the probability of spin reshuffling after each Monte Carlo step. The variation of T_C as function of p is obtained and exhibits a non-linear behavior. The simplest Solomon network realization is noted to reproduce Galam p=1 result. Similarly to the critical temperature, critical exponents are found to differ from both, the classical Ising case and the mean-field values.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures in 6 eps files, to appear in IJMP

Exchange stiffness in ultrathin perpendicularly-magnetized CoFeB layers determined using spin wave spectroscopy

We measure the frequencies of spin waves in nm-thick perpendicularly magnetized FeCoB systems, and model the frequencies to deduce the exchange stiffness of this material in the ultrathin limit. For this, we embody the layers in magnetic tunnel junctions patterned into circular nanopillars of diameters ranging from 100 to 300 nm and we use magneto-resistance to determine which rf-current frequencies are efficient in populating the spin wave modes. Micromagnetic calculations indicate that the ultrathin nature of the layer and the large wave vectors used ensure that the spin wave frequencies are predominantly determined by the exchange stiffness, such that the number of modes in a given frequency window can be used to estimate the exchange. For 1 nm layers the experimental data are consistent with an exchange stiffness A= 20 pJ/m, which is slightly lower that its bulk counterpart. The thickness dependence of the exchange stiffness has strong implications for the numerous situations that involve ultrathin films hosting strong magnetization gradients, and the micromagnetic description thereof.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Endogenous Cycles in Optimal Monetary Policy with a Nonlinear Phillips Curve

There is by now a large consensus in modern monetary policy. This consensus has been built upon a dynamic general equilibrium model of optimal monetary policy with sticky prices a la Calvo and forward looking behavior. In this paper we extend this standard model by introducing nonlinearity into the Phillips curve. As the linear Phillips curve may be questioned on theoretical grounds and seems not to be favoured by empirical evidence, a similar procedure has already been undertaken in a series papers over the last few years, e.g., Schaling (1999), Semmler and Zhang (2004), Nobay and Peel (2000), Tambakis (1999), and Dolado et al. (2004). However, these papers were mainly concerned with the analysis of the problem of inflation bias, by deriving an interest rate rule which is nonlinear, leaving the issues of stability and the possible existence of endogenous cycles in such a framework mostly overlooked. Under the specific form of nonlinearity proposed in our paper (which allows for both convexity and concavity and secures closed form solutions), we show that the introduction of a nonlinear Phillips curve into a fully deterministic structure of the standard model produces significant changes to the major conclusions regarding stability and the efficiency of monetary policy in the standard model. We should emphasize the following main results: (i) instead of a unique fixed point we end up with multiple equilibria; (ii) instead of saddle--path stability, for different sets of parameter values we may have saddle stability, totally unstable and chaotic fixed points (endogenous cycles); (iii) for certain degrees of convexity and/or concavity of the Phillips curve, where endogenous fluctuations arise, one is able to encounter various results that seem interesting. Firstly, when the Central Bank pays attention essentially to inflation targeting, the inflation rate may have a lower mean and is certainly less volatile; secondly, for changes in the degree of price stickiness the results are not are clear cut as in the previous case, however, we can also observe that when such stickiness is high the inflation rate tends to display a somewhat larger mean and also higher volatility; and thirdly, it shows that the target values for inflation and the output gap (π^,x^), both crucially affect the dynamics of the economy in terms of average values and volatility of the endogenous variables --- e.g., the higher the target value of the output gap chosen by the Central Bank, the higher is the inflation rate and its volatility --- while in the linear case only the π^ does so (obviously, only affecting in this case the level of the endogenous variables). Moreover, the existence of endogenous cycles due to chaotic motion may raise serious questions about whether the old dictum of monetary policy (that the Central Bank should conduct policy with discretion instead of commitment) is not still very much in the business of monetary policy.Optimal monetary policy, Interest Rate Rules, Nonlinear Phillips Curve, Endogenous Fluctuations and Stabilization

Graviton resonances on two-field thick branes

This work presents new results about the graviton massive spectrum in two-field thick branes. Analyzing the massive spectra with a relative probability method we have firstly showed the presence of resonance structures and obtained a connection between the thickness of the defect and the lifetimes of such resonances. We obtain another interesting results considering the degenerate Bloch brane solutions. In these thick brane models, we have the emergence of a splitting effect controlled by a degeneracy parameter. When the degeneracy constant tends to a critical value, we have found massive resonances to the gravitational field indicating the existence of modes highly coupled to the brane. We also discussed the influence of the brane splitting effect over the resonance lifetimes.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Exponentially Localized Magnetic Fields for Single-Spin Quantum Logic Gates

An infinite array of parallel current-carrying wires is known, from the field of neutral particle optics, to produce an exponentially localized magnetic field when the current direction is antiparallel in adjacent wires. We show that a finite array of several tens of superconducting Nb nanowires can produce a peak magnetic field of 10mT that decays by a factor of 10^4 over a length scale of 500nm. Such an array is readily manufacturable with current technology, and is compatible with both semiconductor and superconducting quantum computer architectures. A series of such arrays can be used to individually address single single-spin or flux qubits spaced as little as 100nm apart, and can lead to quantum logic gate times of 5ns.Comment: 5 pages, incl. 4 figure

Self-generated urban networks through digital physical simulation based on Frei Otto’s form-finding processes

Presently there is a progressive tendency to incorporate simulation and parametric design strategies in urban planning and design. Although the computational technologies that allow it are recent, fundamental theories and thinking processes behind it can be traced back to the work conducted at the Institute for Lightweight Structures (IL) in Stuttgart, between the 1960’s and 1980’s. This paper describes an experimental urban research work centred on Frei Otto's thoughts on unplanned settlements and spatial processes, and on the form-finding experiences carried out at IL. By exploring the digital development of parametric and algorithmic interactive patterns, founded on physically based modeling techniques, two urban design proposals were developed for a site in Porto city. Out of this experience, this paper suggests that today the act of design can benefit from a deeper understanding of the natural processes of occupation and connection.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio