OT 060420: A Seemingly Optical Transient Recorded by All-Sky Cameras

We report on a ~5th magnitude flash detected for approximately 10 minutes by two CONCAM all-sky cameras located in Cerro Pachon - Chile and La Palma - Spain. A third all-sky camera, located in Cerro Paranal - Chile did not detect the flash, and therefore the authors of this paper suggest that the flash was a series of cosmic-ray hits, meteors, or satellite glints. Another proposed hypothesis is that the flash was an astronomical transient with variable luminosity. In this paper we discuss bright optical transient detection using fish-eye all-sky monitors, analyze the apparently false-positive optical transient, and propose possible causes to false optical transient detection in all-sky cameras.Comment: 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted PAS

All-sky Relative Opacity Mapping Using Night Time Panoramic Images

An all-sky cloud monitoring system that generates relative opacity maps over many of the world's premier astronomical observatories is described. Photometric measurements of numerous background stars are combined with simultaneous sky brightness measurements to differentiate thin clouds from sky glow sources such as air glow and zodiacal light. The system takes a continuous pipeline of all-sky images, and compares them to canonical images taken on other nights at the same sidereal time. Data interpolation then yields transmission maps covering almost the entire sky. An implementation of this system is currently operating through the Night Sky Live network of CONCAM3s located at Cerro Pachon (Chile), Mauna Kea (Hawaii), Haleakala (Hawaii), SALT (South Africa) and the Canary Islands (Northwestern Africa).Comment: Accepted for publication in PAS

Mobility edge in lattice QCD

We determine the location $\lambda_c$ of the mobility edge in the spectrum of the hermitian Wilson operator on quenched ensembles. We confirm a theoretical picture of localization proposed for the Aoki phase diagram. When $\lambda_c>0$ we also determine some key properties of the localized eigenmodes with eigenvalues $|\lambda|<\lambda_c$. Our results lead to simple tests for the validity of simulations with overlap and domain-wall fermions.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, 1 figure, minor change

Running coupling and mass anomalous dimension of SU(3) gauge theory with two flavors of symmetric-representation fermions

We have measured the running coupling constant of SU(3) gauge theory coupled to Nf=2 flavors of symmetric representation fermions, using the Schrodinger functional scheme. Our lattice action is defined with hypercubic smeared links which, along with the larger lattice sizes, bring us closer to the continuum limit than in our previous study. We observe that the coupling runs more slowly than predicted by asymptotic freedom, but we are unable to observe fixed point behavior before encountering a first order transition to a strong coupling phase. This indicates that the infrared fixed point found with the thin-link action is a lattice artifact. The slow running of the gauge coupling permits an accurate determination of the mass anomalous dimension for this theory, which we observe to be small, gamma_m < 0.6, over the range of couplings we can reach. We also study the bulk and finite-temperature phase transitions in the strong coupling region.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures. Substantial modifications to explain why the fat-link result for the beta function supersedes our thin-link result; also updated the phase diagram to reflect additional numerical work. Added references. Final versio

On the induced gauge invariant mass

We derive a general expression for the gauge invariant mass (m_G) for an Abelian gauge field, as induced by vacuum polarization, in 1+1 dimensions. From its relation to the chiral anomaly, we show that m_G has to satisfy a certain quantization condition. This quantization can be, on the other hand, explicitly verified by using the exact general expression for the gauge invariant mass in terms of the fermion propagator. This result is applied to some explicit examples, exploring the possibility of having interesting physical situations where the value of $m_G$ departs from its canonical value. We also study the possibility of generalizing the results to the 2+1 dimensional case at finite temperature, showing that there are indeed situations where a finite and non-vanishing gauge invariant mass is induced.Comment: 18 pages, Latex, 3 figures (pstex

Quantum Energies of Interfaces

We present a method for computing the one-loop, renormalized quantum energies of symmetrical interfaces of arbitrary dimension and codimension using elementary scattering data. Internal consistency requires finite-energy sum rules relating phase shifts to bound state energies.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, minor changes, Phys. Rev. Lett., in prin

Chirality Correlation within Dirac Eigenvectors from Domain Wall Fermions

In the dilute instanton gas model of the QCD vacuum, one expects a strong spatial correlation between chirality and the maxima of the Dirac eigenvectors with small eigenvalues. Following Horvath, {\it et al.} we examine this question using lattice gauge theory within the quenched approximation. We extend the work of those authors by using weaker coupling, $\beta=6.0$, larger lattices, $16^4$, and an improved fermion formulation, domain wall fermions. In contrast with this earlier work, we find a striking correlation between the magnitude of the chirality density, $|\psi^\dagger(x)\gamma^5\psi(x)|$, and the normal density, $\psi^\dagger(x)\psi(x)$, for the low-lying Dirac eigenvectors.Comment: latex, 25 pages including 12 eps figure

Revisiting Current Strategies for Primary Prevention of Motorcycle Collisions in Jamaica

Motorcycle Road Traffic Collisions place a heavy burden on emergency medical ‎services in Jamaica. We explore the existing strategies and legislative policies that ‎may prevent or reduce the severity of these injuries in Jamaica. This is an important ‎aspect of health care as it may minimize the impact of these preventable injuries on ‎the limited resources of the health services.

Chiral Symmetry Restoration in the Schwinger Model with Domain Wall Fermions

Domain Wall Fermions utilize an extra space time dimension to provide a method for restoring the regularization induced chiral symmetry breaking in lattice vector gauge theories even at finite lattice spacing. The breaking is restored at an exponential rate as the size of the extra dimension increases. Before this method can be used in dynamical simulations of lattice QCD, the dependence of the restoration rate to the other parameters of the theory and, in particular, the lattice spacing must be investigated. In this paper such an investigation is carried out in the context of the two flavor lattice Schwinger model.Comment: LaTeX, 37 pages including 18 figures. Added comments regarding power law fitting in sect 7. Also, few changes were made to elucidate the content in sect. 5.1 and 5.3. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Ginsparg-Wilson Fermions: A study in the Schwinger Model

Qualitative features of Ginsparg-Wilson fermions, as formulated by Neuberger, coupled to two dimensional U(1) gauge theory are studied. The role of the Wilson mass parameter in changing the number of massless flavors in the theory and its connection with the index of the Dirac operator is studied. Although the index of the Dirac operator is not related to the geometric definition of the topological charge for strong couplings, the two start to agree as soon as one goes to moderately weak couplings. This produces the desired singularity in the quenched chiral condensate which appears to be very difficult to reproduce with staggered fermions. The fermion determinant removes the singularity and reproduces the known chiral condensate and the meson mass within understandable errors.Comment: Corrected a few typos and changed some references. Minor changes to the conten