12,073 research outputs found
The effect of magnetic dipolar interactions on the interchain spin wave dispersion in CsNiF_3
Inelastic neutron scattering measurements were performed on the ferromagnetic
chain system CsNiF_3 in the collinear antiferromagnetic ordered state below T_N
= 2.67K. The measured spin wave dispersion was found to be in good agreement
with linear spin wave theory including dipolar interactions. The additional
dipole tensor in the Hamiltonian was essential to explain some striking
phenomena in the measured spin wave spectrum: a peculiar feature of the
dispersion relation is a jump at the zone center, caused by strong dipolar
interactions in this system. The interchain exchange coupling constant and the
planar anisotropy energy were determined within the present model to be J'/k_B
= -0.0247(12)K and A/k_B = 3.3(1)K. This gives a ratio J/J' \approx 500, using
the previously determined intrachain coupling constant J/k_B = 11.8$. The small
exchange energy J' is of the same order as the dipolar energy, which implies a
strong competition between the both interactions.Comment: 18 pages, TeX type, 7 Postscript figures included. To be published in
Phys. Rev.
S-FaaS: Trustworthy and Accountable Function-as-a-Service using Intel SGX
Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) is a recent and already very popular paradigm in
cloud computing. The function provider need only specify the function to be
run, usually in a high-level language like JavaScript, and the service provider
orchestrates all the necessary infrastructure and software stacks. The function
provider is only billed for the actual computational resources used by the
function invocation. Compared to previous cloud paradigms, FaaS requires
significantly more fine-grained resource measurement mechanisms, e.g. to
measure compute time and memory usage of a single function invocation with
sub-second accuracy. Thanks to the short duration and stateless nature of
functions, and the availability of multiple open-source frameworks, FaaS
enables non-traditional service providers e.g. individuals or data centers with
spare capacity. However, this exacerbates the challenge of ensuring that
resource consumption is measured accurately and reported reliably. It also
raises the issues of ensuring computation is done correctly and minimizing the
amount of information leaked to service providers.
To address these challenges, we introduce S-FaaS, the first architecture and
implementation of FaaS to provide strong security and accountability guarantees
backed by Intel SGX. To match the dynamic event-driven nature of FaaS, our
design introduces a new key distribution enclave and a novel transitive
attestation protocol. A core contribution of S-FaaS is our set of resource
measurement mechanisms that securely measure compute time inside an enclave,
and actual memory allocations. We have integrated S-FaaS into the popular
OpenWhisk FaaS framework. We evaluate the security of our architecture, the
accuracy of our resource measurement mechanisms, and the performance of our
implementation, showing that our resource measurement mechanisms add less than
6.3% latency on standardized benchmarks
Dynamic scaling and universality in evolution of fluctuating random networks
We found that models of evolving random networks exhibit dynamic scaling
similar to scaling of growing surfaces. It is demonstrated by numerical
simulations of two variants of the model in which nodes are added as well as
removed [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 5587 (1999)]. The averaged size and connectivity
of the network increase as power-laws in early times but later saturate.
Saturated values and times of saturation change with paramaters controlling the
local evolution of the network topology. Both saturated values and times of
saturation obey also power-law dependences on controlling parameters. Scaling
exponents are calculated and universal features are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Europhysics Letters for
A Wavelet Melt Detection Algorithm Applied to Enhanced Resolution Scatterometer Data over Antarctica (2000-2009)
Melting is mapped over Antarctica at a high spatial resolution using a novel melt detection algorithm based on wavelets and multiscale analysis. The method is applied to Ku-band (13.4 GHz) normalized backscattering measured by SeaWinds onboard the satellite QuikSCAT and spatially enhanced on a 5 km grid over the operational life of the sensor (1999–2009). Wavelet-based estimates of melt spatial extent and duration are compared with those obtained by means of threshold-based detection methods, where melting is detected when the measured backscattering is 3 dB below the preceding winter mean value. Results from both methods are assessed by means of automatic weather station (AWS) air surface temperature records. The yearly melting index, the product of melted area and melting duration, found using a fixed threshold and wavelet-based melt algorithm are found to have a relative difference within 7% for all years. Most of the difference between melting records determined from QuikSCAT is related to short-duration backscatter changes identified as melting using the threshold methodology but not the wavelet-based method. The ability to classify melting based on relative persistence is a critical aspect of the wavelet-based algorithm. Compared with AWS air-temperature records, both methods show a relative agreement to within 10% based on estimated melt conditions, although the fixed threshold generally finds a greater agreement with AWS. Melting maps obtained with the wavelet-based approach are also compared with those obtained from spaceborne brightness temperatures recorded by the Special Sensor Microwave/Image (SSM/I). With respect to passive microwave records, we find a higher degree of agreement (9% relative difference) for the melting index using the wavelet-based approach than threshold-based methods (11% relative difference)
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In-situ multispectral and bathymetric measurements over a supraglacial lake in western Greenland using a remotely controlled watercraft
Supraglacial lakes form from meltwater on the Greenland ice sheet in topographic depressions on the surface, affecting both surface and sub-glacial processes. As the reflectance in the visible and near-infrared regions of a column of water is modulated by its height, retrieval techniques using spaceborne remote sensing data (e.g. Landsat, MODIS) have been proposed in the literature for the detection of lakes and estimation of their volume. These techniques require basic assumptions on the spectral properties of the water as well as the bottom of the lake, among other things. In this study, we report results obtained from the analysis of concurrent in-situ multi-spectral and depth measurements collected over a supraglacial lake during early July 2010 in West Greenland (Lake Olivia, 69°36'35" N, 49°29'40" W) and aim to assess some of the underlying hypotheses in remote sensing based bathymetric approaches. In particular, we focus our attention on the analysis of the lake bottom albedo and of the water attenuation coefficient. The analysis of in-situ data (collected by means of a remotely controlled boat equipped with a GPS, a sonar and a spectrometer) highlights the exponential trend of the water-leaving reflectance with lake depth. The values of the attenuation factor obtained from in-situ data are compared with those computed using approaches proposed in the literature. Also, the values of the lake bottom albedo from in-situ measurements are compared with those obtained from the analysis of reflectance of shallow waters. Finally, we quantify the error between in-situ measured and satellite-estimated lake depth values for the lake under study
Magneto-elastic oscillations of neutron stars: exploring different magnetic field configurations
We study magneto-elastic oscillations of highly magnetized neutron stars
(magnetars) which have been proposed as an explanation for the quasi-periodic
oscillations (QPOs) appearing in the decaying tail of the giant flares of soft
gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs). We extend previous studies by investigating various
magnetic field configurations, computing the Alfv\'en spectrum in each case and
performing magneto-elastic simulations for a selected number of models. By
identifying the observed frequencies of 28 Hz (SGR 1900+14) and 30 Hz (SGR
1806-20) with the fundamental Alfv\'en QPOs, we estimate the required surface
magnetic field strength. For the magnetic field configurations investigated
(dipole-like poloidal, mixed toroidal-poloidal with a dipole-like poloidal
component and a toroidal field confined to the region of field lines closing
inside the star, and for poloidal fields with an additional quadrupole-like
component) the estimated dipole spin-down magnetic fields are between 8x10^14 G
and 4x10^15 G, in broad agreement with spin-down estimates for the SGR sources
producing giant flares. A number of these models exhibit a rich Alfv\'en
continuum revealing new turning points which can produce QPOs. This allows one
to explain most of the observed QPO frequencies as associated with
magneto-elastic QPOs. In particular, we construct a possible configuration with
two turning points in the spectrum which can explain all observed QPOs of SGR
1900+14. Finally, we find that magnetic field configurations which are entirely
confined in the crust (if the core is assumed to be a type I superconductor)
are not favoured, due to difficulties in explaining the lowest observed QPO
frequencies (f<30 Hz).Comment: 21 pages, 16 figures, 6 tables, matched to version accepted by MNRAS
with extended comparison/discussion to previous wor
A Probabilistic Analysis of Kademlia Networks
Kademlia is currently the most widely used searching algorithm in P2P
(peer-to-peer) networks. This work studies an essential question about Kademlia
from a mathematical perspective: how long does it take to locate a node in the
network? To answer it, we introduce a random graph K and study how many steps
are needed to locate a given vertex in K using Kademlia's algorithm, which we
call the routing time. Two slightly different versions of K are studied. In the
first one, vertices of K are labelled with fixed IDs. In the second one,
vertices are assumed to have randomly selected IDs. In both cases, we show that
the routing time is about c*log(n), where n is the number of nodes in the
network and c is an explicitly described constant.Comment: ISAAC 201
Urinary and faecal N-methylhistamine concentrations do not serve as markers for mast cell activation or clinical disease activity in dogs with chronic enteropathies
This study sought to correlate faecal and urinary N-methylhistamine (NMH) concentrations with resting versus degranulated duodenal mast cell numbers in dogs with chronic enteropathies (CE), and investigate correlations between intestinal mast cell activation and clinical severity of disease as assessed by canine chronic enteropathy clinical activity index (CCECAI), and between urinary and faecal NMH concentrations, mast cell numbers, and histopathological scores. Twenty-eight dogs with CE were included. Duodenal biopsies were stained with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E), toluidine blue, and by immunohistochemical labelling for tryptase. Duodenal biopsies were assigned a histopathological severity score, and duodenal mast cell numbers were counted in five high-power fields after metachromatic and immunohistochemical staining. Faecal and urinary NMH concentrations were measured by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry
Teleportation: from probability distributions to quantum states
The role of the off-diagonal density matrix elements of the entangled pair is
investigated in quantum teleportation of a qbit. The dependence between them
and the off-diagonal elements of the teleported density matrix is shown to be
linear. In this way the ideal quantum teleportation is related to an entirely
classical communication protocol: the one-time pad cypher. The latter can be
regarded as the classical counterpart of Bennett's quantum teleportation
scheme. The quantum-to-classical transition is demonstrated on the statistics
of a gedankenexperiment.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in J. Phys. A (Math.
Gen.
The Strange Star Surface: A Crust with Nuggets
We reexamine the surface composition of strange stars. Strange quark stars
are hypothetical compact stars which could exist if strange quark matter was
absolutely stable. It is widely accepted that they are characterized by an
enormous density gradient ( g/cm) and large electric fields at
surface. By investigating the possibility of realizing a heterogeneous crust,
comprised of nuggets of strange quark matter embedded in an uniform electron
background, we find that the strange star surface has a much reduced density
gradient and negligible electric field. We comment on how our findings will
impact various proposed observable signatures for strange stars.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
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