1,717 research outputs found
Cosmological Imprint of an Energy Component with General Equation of State
We examine the possibility that a significant component of the energy density
of the universe has an equation-of-state different from that of matter,
radiation or cosmological constant (). An example is a cosmic scalar
field evolving in a potential, but our treatment is more general. Including
this component alters cosmic evolution in a way that fits current observations
well. Unlike , it evolves dynamically and develops fluctuations,
leaving a distinctive imprint on the microwave background anisotropy and mass
power spectrum.Comment: revised version, with added references, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.
(4 pages Latex, 2 postscript figures
A phason disordered two dimensional quantum antiferromagnet
We examine a novel type of disorder in quantum antiferromagnets. Our model
consists of localized spins with antiferromagnetic exchanges on a bipartite
quasiperiodic structure, which is geometrically disordered in such a way that
no frustration is introduced. In the limit of zero disorder, the structure is
the perfect Penrose rhombus tiling. This tiling is progressively disordered by
augmenting the number of random "phason flips" or local tile-reshuffling
operations. The ground state remains N\'eel ordered, and we have studied its
properties as a function of increasing disorder using linear spin wave theory
and quantum Monte Carlo. We find that the ground state energy decreases,
indicating enhanced quantum fluctuations with increasing disorder. The magnon
spectrum is progressively smoothed, and the effective spin wave velocity of low
energy magnons increases with disorder. For large disorder, the ground state
energy as well as the average staggered magnetization tend towards limiting
values characteristic of this type of randomized tilings.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure
Where in the String Landscape is Quintessence
We argue that quintessence may reside in certain corners of the string
landscape. It arises as a linear combination of internal space components of
higher rank forms, which are axion-like at low energies, and may mix with
4-forms after compactification of the Chern-Simons terms to 4D due to internal
space fluxes. The mixing induces an effective mass term, with an action which
{\it preserves} the axion shift symmetry, breaking it spontaneously after the
background selection. With several axions, several 4-forms, and a low string
scale, as in one of the setups already invoked for dynamically explaining a
tiny residual vacuum energy in string theory, the 4D mass matrix generated by
random fluxes may have ultralight eigenmodes over the landscape, which are
quintessence. We illustrate how this works in simplest cases, and outline how
to get the lightest mass to be comparable to the Hubble scale now, . The shift symmetry protects the smallest mass from
perturbative corrections in field theory. Further, if the ultralight eigenmode
does not couple directly to any sector strongly coupled at a high scale, the
non-perturbative field theory corrections to its potential will also be
suppressed. Finally, if the compactification length is larger than the string
length by more than an order of magnitude, the gravitational corrections may
remain small too, even when the field value approaches .Comment: 8 pages RevTeX; added references, matches published versio
Non-local dilaton coupling to dark matter: cosmic acceleration and pressure backreaction
A model of non-local dilaton interactions, motivated by string duality
symmetries, is applied to a scenario of "coupled quintessence" in which the
dilaton dark energy is non-locally coupled to the dark-matter sources. It is
shown that the non-local effects tend to generate a backreaction which -- for
strong enough coupling -- can automatically compensate the acceleration due to
the negative pressure of the dilaton potential, thus asymptotically restoring
the standard (dust-dominated) decelerated regime. This result is illustrated by
analytical computations and numerical examples.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure ep
Constraints on the Interactions between Dark Matter and Baryons from the X-ray Quantum Calorimetry Experiment
Although the rocket-based X-ray Quantum Calorimetry (XQC) experiment was
designed for X-ray spectroscopy, the minimal shielding of its calorimeters, its
low atmospheric overburden, and its low-threshold detectors make it among the
most sensitive instruments for detecting or constraining strong interactions
between dark matter particles and baryons. We use Monte Carlo simulations to
obtain the precise limits the XQC experiment places on spin-independent
interactions between dark matter and baryons, improving upon earlier analytical
estimates. We find that the XQC experiment rules out a wide range of
nucleon-scattering cross sections centered around one barn for dark matter
particles with masses between 0.01 and 10^5 GeV. Our analysis also provides new
constraints on cases where only a fraction of the dark matter strongly
interacts with baryons.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. Extended discussion of methodology, to appear in
PR
Hyperuniformity of Quasicrystals
Hyperuniform systems, which include crystals, quasicrystals and special
disordered systems, have attracted considerable recent attention, but rigorous
analyses of the hyperuniformity of quasicrystals have been lacking because the
support of the spectral intensity is dense and discontinuous. We employ the
integrated spectral intensity, , to quantitatively characterize the
hyperuniformity of quasicrystalline point sets generated by projection methods.
The scaling of as tends to zero is computed for one-dimensional
quasicrystals and shown to be consistent with independent calculations of the
variance, , in the number of points contained in an interval of
length . We find that one-dimensional quasicrystals produced by projection
from a two-dimensional lattice onto a line of slope fall into distinct
classes determined by the width of the projection window. For a countable dense
set of widths, ; for all others, . This
distinction suggests that measures of hyperuniformity define new classes of
quasicrystals in higher dimensions as well.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure
Targeting accuracy and impact of a community-identified waiver card scheme for primary care user fees in Afghanistan
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>User fees are a known common barrier to using health services, particularly among the poor. When fees are present, many facilities have waiver systems for poor patients to exempt them from paying. Targeting waivers to patients who need them most has been a challenge, especially in fragile states, where relevant data are limited and trust in institutions is low.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Community-based targeting of vulnerable households was piloted in Afghanistan and evaluated for its feasibility, accuracy and effect on care-seeking. Waiver cards were distributed to very poor and female-headed households in catchment areas of 26 facilities in 10 provinces of Afghanistan in 2005 as one component of a larger health financing study. Households were nominated by community leaders using general guidelines to support 15% of the poorest members. In most cases, waiver cards were pro-actively distributed to them. Targeting accuracy, perceptions, as well the cards' effects on utilization were evaluated in 2007 through household surveys, health facility data, and in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with facility staff and community leaders.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The waiver system was implemented quickly at all but one facility charging fees. Facility staff and community leaders reported favorable perceptions of implementation and targeting accuracy.</p> <p>However, an analysis of the asset index of beneficiaries indicated that although targeting was progressive, significant leakage and high levels of under-coverage occurred; 42% of cards were used by people in the wealthiest three quintiles, and only 19% of people in the poorest quintile received a card. Households with waiver cards reported higher rates of care-seeking for recent illnesses compared to those without cards (p = 0.02).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Community identification of beneficiaries is feasible in a fragile state. Several recommendations are discussed to improve targeting accuracy of a waiver card system in the future, in light of this research and other international experiences.</p
Exploring Photometric Redshifts as an Optimization Problem: An Ensemble MCMC and Simulated Annealing-Driven Template-Fitting Approach
Using a grid of million elements () adapted from
COSMOS photometric redshift (photo-z) searches, we investigate the general
properties of template-based photo-z likelihood surfaces. We find these
surfaces are filled with numerous local minima and large degeneracies that
generally confound rapid but "greedy" optimization schemes, even with
additional stochastic sampling methods. In order to robustly and efficiently
explore these surfaces, we develop BAD-Z [Brisk Annealing-Driven Redshifts
(Z)], which combines ensemble Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling with
simulated annealing to sample arbitrarily large, pre-generated grids in
approximately constant time. Using a mock catalog of 384,662 objects, we show
BAD-Z samples times more efficiently compared to a brute-force
counterpart while maintaining similar levels of accuracy. Our results represent
first steps toward designing template-fitting photo-z approaches limited mainly
by memory constraints rather than computation time.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures; submitted to MNRAS; comments welcom
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