36,669 research outputs found
Dark Matter Seeding in Neutron Stars
We present a mechanism that may seed compact stellar objects with stable
lumps of quark matter, or {\it strangelets}, through the self-annihilation of
gravitationally accreted WIMPs. We show that dark matter particles with masses
above a few GeV may provide enough energy in the nuclear medium for quark
deconfinement and subsequent strangelet formation. If this happens this effect
may then trigger a partial or full conversion of the star into a strange star.
We set a new limit on the WIMP mass in the few-GeV range that seems to be
consistent with recent indications in dark matter direct detection experiments.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Prepared for 19th Particles and Nuclei
International Conference (PANIC 2011), Boston, USA 25-29 Jul 201
The mixing of interplanetary magnetic field lines: A significant transport effect in studies of the energy spectra of impulsive flares
Using instrumentation on board the ACE spacecraft we describe short-time scale (~3 hour) variations observed in the arrival profiles of ~20 keV nucleon^(–1) to ~2 MeV nucleon^(–1) ions from impulsive solar flares. These variations occurred simultaneously across all energies and were generally not in coincidence with any local magnetic field or plasma signature. These features appear to be caused by the convection of magnetic flux tubes past the observer that are alternately filled and devoid of flare ions even though they had a common flare source at the Sun. In these particle events we therefore have a means to observe and measure the mixing of the interplanetary magnetic field due to random walk. In a survey of 25 impulsive flares observed at ACE between 1997 November and 1999 July these features had an average time scale of 3.2 hours, corresponding to a length of ~0.03 AU. The changing magnetic connection to the flare site sometimes lead to an incomplete observation of a flare at 1 AU; thus the field-line mixing is an important effect in studies of impulsive flare energy spectra
The role of virtual reality in built environment education
This study builds upon previous research on the integration of Virtual Reality (VR) within the built environment curriculum and aims to investigate the role of VR and three-dimensional (3D) computer modelling on learning and teaching in a school of the built environment. In order to achieve this aim, a number of academic experiences were analysed to explore the applicability and viability of 3D computer modelling and VR into built environment subject areas. Although two-dimensional (2D) representations have been greatly accepted by built environment professions and education, 3D computer representations and VR applications, offering interactivity and immersiveness, are not yet widely accepted. The study attempts to understand the values and challenges of integrating visualisation technologies into built environment teaching and investigates tutors’ perceptions, opinions and concerns with respect to these technologies. The study reports on the integration process and considers how 3D computer modelling and VR technologies can combine with, and extend, the existing range of learning and teaching methods appropriate to different disciplines and programme areas
Infinite Symmetry in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect
We have generalized recent results of Cappelli, Trugenberger and Zemba on the
integer quantum Hall effect constructing explicitly a for
the fractional quantum Hall effect such that the negative modes annihilate the
Laughlin wave functions. This generalization has a nice interpretation in
Jain's composite fermion theory. Furthermore, for these models we have
calculated the wave functions of the edge excitations viewing them as area
preserving deformations of an incompressible quantum droplet, and have shown
that the is the underlying symmetry of the edge
excitations in the fractional quantum Hall effect. Finally, we have applied
this method to more general wave functions.Comment: 15pp. LaTeX, BONN-HE-93-2
Finite Nuclei in the Quark-Meson Coupling (QMC) Model
We report the first use of the effective QMC energy density functional (EDF),
derived from a quark model of hadron structure, to study a broad range of
ground state properties of even-even nuclei across the periodic table in the
non-relativistic Hartree-Fock+BCS framework. The novelty of the QMC model is
that the nuclear medium effects are treated through modification of the
internal structure of the nucleon. The density dependence is microscopically
derived and the spin-orbit term arises naturally. The QMC EDF depends on a
single set of four adjustable parameters having clear physical basis. When
applied to diverse ground state data the QMC EDF already produces, in its
present simple form, overall agreement with experiment of a quality comparable
to a representative Skyrme EDF. There exist however multiple Skyrme paramater
sets, frequently tailored to describe selected nuclear phenomena. The QMC EDF
set of fewer parameters, as derived in this work, is not open to such
variation, chosen set being applied, without adjustment, to both the properties
of finite nuclei and nuclear matter.Comment: 9 pages, 1 table, 4 figures; in print in Phys. Rev. Letters. A minor
change in the abstract, a few typos corrected and some small technical
adjustments made to comply with the journal regulation
Energy Anomaly and Polarizability of Carbon Nanotubes
The energy of electron Fermi sea perturbed by external potential, represented
as energy anomaly which accounts for the contribution of the deep-lying states,
is analyzed for massive d = 1+1 Dirac fermions on a circle. The anomaly is a
universal function of the applied field, and is related to known
field-theoretic anomalies. We express transverse polarizability of Carbon
nanotubes via the anomaly, in a way which exhibits the universality and
scale-invariance of the response dominated by pi-electrons and qualitatively
different from that of dielectric and conducting shells. Electron band
transformation in a strong-field effect regime is predicted.Comment: 4 pg
The role of interplanetary scattering in western hemisphere large solar energetic particle events
Using high-sensitivity instruments on the ACE spacecraft, we have examined the intensities of O and Fe in 14 large solar energetic particle events whose parent activity was in the solar western hemisphere. Sampling the intensities at low (~273 keV nucleon to the -1) and high (~12 MeV nucleon to the -1) energies, we find that at the same kinetic energy per nucleon, the Fe/O ratio decreases with time, as has been reported previously. This behavior is seen in more than 70% of the cases during the rise to maximum intensity and continues in most cases into the decay phase. We find that for most events if we compare the Fe intensity with the O intensity at a higher kinetic energy per nucleon, the two time-intensity profiles are strikingly similar. Examining alternate scenarios that could produce this behavior, we conclude that for events showing this behavior the most likely explanation is that the Fe and O share similar injection profiles near the Sun, and that scattering in the interplanetary medium dominates the profiles observed at 1 AU
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