An associative memory for the on-line recognition and prediction of temporal sequences

This paper presents the design of an associative memory with feedback that is capable of on-line temporal sequence learning. A framework for on-line sequence learning has been proposed, and different sequence learning models have been analysed according to this framework. The network model is an associative memory with a separate store for the sequence context of a symbol. A sparse distributed memory is used to gain scalability. The context store combines the functionality of a neural layer with a shift register. The sensitivity of the machine to the sequence context is controllable, resulting in different characteristic behaviours. The model can store and predict on-line sequences of various types and length. Numerical simulations on the model have been carried out to determine its properties.Comment: Published in IJCNN 2005, Montreal, Canad

Millimeter wave experiment for ATS-F

A detailed description of spaceborne equipment is provided. The equipment consists of two transmitters radiating signals at 20 and 30 GHz from either U.S. coverage horn antennas or a narrow beam parabolic antenna. Three modes of operation are provided: a continuous wave mode, a multitone mode in which nine spectral lines having 180 MHz separation and spaced symmetrically about each carrier, and a communications mode in which communications signals from the main spacecraft transponder are modulated on the two carriers. Detailed performance attained in the flight/prototype model of the equipment is presented both under laboratory conditions and under environmental extremes. Provisions made for ensuring reliability in space operation are described. Also described the bench test equipment developed for use with the experiment, and a summary of the new technology is included

Cosmologies with variable parameters and dynamical cosmon: implications on the cosmic coincidence problem

Dynamical dark energy (DE) has been proposed to explain various aspects of the cosmological constant (CC) problem(s). For example, it is very difficult to accept that a strictly constant Lambda-term constitutes the ultimate explanation for the DE in our Universe. It is also hard to acquiesce in the idea that we accidentally happen to live in an epoch where the CC contributes an energy density value right in the ballpark of the rapidly diluting matter density. It should perhaps be more plausible to conceive that the vacuum energy, is actually a dynamical quantity as the Universe itself. More generally, we could even entertain the possibility that the total DE is in fact a mixture of vacuum energy and other dynamical components (e.g. fields, higher order terms in the effective action etc) which can be represented collectively by an effective entity X (dubbed the ``cosmon''). The ``cosmon'', therefore, acts as a dynamical DE component different from the vacuum energy. While it can actually behave phantom-like by itself, the overall DE fluid may effectively appear as standard quintessence, or even mimic at present an almost exact CC behavior. Thanks to the versatility of such cosmic fluid we can show that a composite DE system of this sort (``LXCDM'') may have a key to resolving the mysterious coincidence problem.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages, 5 figure

Color superconducting matter in a magnetic field

We investigate the effect of a magnetic field on cold dense three-flavor quark matter using an effective model with four-Fermi interactions with electric and color neutrality taken into account. The gap parameters Delta_1, Delta_2, and Delta_3 representing respectively the predominant pairing between down and strange (d-s) quarks, strange and up (s-u) quarks, and up and down (u-d) quarks, show the de Haas-van Alphen effect, i.e. oscillatory behavior as a function of the modified magnetic field B that can penetrate the color superconducting medium. Without applying electric and color neutrality we find Delta_2 \approx Delta_3 >> Delta_1 for 2 e B / mu_q^2, where e is the modified electromagnetic coupling constant and mu_q is one third of the baryon chemical potential. Because the average Fermi surface for each pairing is affected by taking into account neutrality, the gap structure changes drastically in this case; we find Delta_1 >> Delta_2 \approx Delta_3 for 2 e B > mu_q^2. We point out that the magnetic fields as strong as presumably existing inside magnetars might induce significant deviations from the gap structure Delta_1 \approx Delta_2 \approx Delta_3 at zero magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Transition from spot to faculae domination -- An alternate explanation for the dearth of intermediate \textit{Kepler} rotation periods

The study of stellar activity cycles is crucial to understand the underlying dynamo and how it causes activity signatures such as dark spots and bright faculae. We study the appearance of activity signatures in contemporaneous photometric and chromospheric time series. Lomb-Scargle periodograms are used to search for cycle periods present in both time series. To emphasize the signature of the activity cycle we account for rotation-induced scatter in both data sets by fitting a quasi-periodic Gaussian process model to each observing season. After subtracting the rotational variability, cycle amplitudes and the phase difference between the two time series are obtained by fitting both time series simultaneously using the same cycle period. We find cycle periods in 27 of the 30 stars in our sample. The phase difference between the two time series reveals that the variability in fast rotating active stars is usually in anti-phase, while the variability of slowly rotating inactive stars is in phase. The photometric cycle amplitudes are on average six times larger for the active stars. The phase and amplitude information demonstrates that active stars are dominated by dark spots, whereas less active stars are dominated by bright faculae. We find the transition from spot to faculae domination at the Vaughan-Preston gap, and around a Rossby number equal to one. We conclude that faculae are the dominant ingredient of stellar activity cycles at ages >2.55 Gyr. The data further suggest that the Vaughan-Preston gap can not explain the previously detected dearth of Kepler rotation periods between 15-25 days. Nevertheless, our results led us to propose an explanation for the rotation period dearth to be due to the non-detection of periodicity caused by the cancellation of dark spots and bright faculae at 800 Myr.Comment: 12+15 pages, 10+2 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Automated Seebeck Measurements Applied to Conducting Ceramics

The Seebeck coefficient (also known as thermopower) is important in the characterization of conducting ceramics because it is very sensitive to the electronic structure. An apparatus was built during the Fall of 1990 and Spring of 1991 which was designed to measure the Seebeck coefficient in small high-resistivity samples in the temperature range from 80 K to 450 K. A reproducible thermocouple-to-sample electrical and thermal contact technique was found to be important to data accuracy but difficult to achieve. The goals of this project were to improve the thermocouple block design to give better thermal and electrical contact with the sample and to make statistically significant and accurate measurements on several sets of samples

What is there in the black box of dark energy: variable cosmological parameters or multiple (interacting) components?

The coincidence problems and other dynamical features of dark energy are studied in cosmological models with variable cosmological parameters and in models with the composite dark energy. It is found that many of the problems usually considered to be cosmological coincidences can be explained or significantly alleviated in the aforementioned models.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, talk given at IRGAC2006 (Barcelona, July 11-15, 2006), to appear in J. Phys.