3,558 research outputs found
Modeling Bitcoin Contracts by Timed Automata
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer cryptographic currency system. Since its
introduction in 2008, Bitcoin has gained noticeable popularity, mostly due to
its following properties: (1) the transaction fees are very low, and (2) it is
not controlled by any central authority, which in particular means that nobody
can "print" the money to generate inflation. Moreover, the transaction syntax
allows to create the so-called contracts, where a number of
mutually-distrusting parties engage in a protocol to jointly perform some
financial task, and the fairness of this process is guaranteed by the
properties of Bitcoin. Although the Bitcoin contracts have several potential
applications in the digital economy, so far they have not been widely used in
real life. This is partly due to the fact that they are cumbersome to create
and analyze, and hence risky to use.
In this paper we propose to remedy this problem by using the methods
originally developed for the computer-aided analysis for hardware and software
systems, in particular those based on the timed automata. More concretely, we
propose a framework for modeling the Bitcoin contracts using the timed automata
in the UPPAAL model checker. Our method is general and can be used to model
several contracts. As a proof-of-concept we use this framework to model some of
the Bitcoin contracts from our recent previous work. We then automatically
verify their security in UPPAAL, finding (and correcting) some subtle errors
that were difficult to spot by the manual analysis. We hope that our work can
draw the attention of the researchers working on formal modeling to the problem
of the Bitcoin contract verification, and spark off more research on this
topic
Hermes and the spin of the proton
HERMES is a second generation experiment to study the spin structure of the
nucleon, in which measurements of the spin dependent properties of
semi-inclusive deep-inelastic lepton scattering are emphasized. Data have been
accumulated for semi-inclusive pion, kaon, and proton double-spin asymmetries,
as well as for high-p_T hadron pairs, and single-spin azimuthal asymmetries for
pion electroproduction and deep virtual Compton scattering. These results
provide information on the flavor decomposition of the polarized quark
distributions in the nucleon and a first glimpse of the gluon polarization,
while the observation of the azimuthal asymmetries show promise for probing the
tensor spin of the nucleon and isolating the total angular momentum carried by
the quarks.Comment: LaTeX, 21 page
The Density Matrix Renormalization Group technique with periodic boundary conditions
The Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) method with periodic boundary
conditions is introduced for two dimensional classical spin models. It is shown
that this method is more suitable for derivation of the properties of infinite
2D systems than the DMRG with open boundary conditions despite the latter
describes much better strips of finite width. For calculation at criticality,
phenomenological renormalization at finite strips is used together with a
criterion for optimum strip width for a given order of approximation. For this
width the critical temperature of 2D Ising model is estimated with seven-digit
accuracy for not too large order of approximation. Similar precision is reached
for critical indices. These results exceed the accuracy of similar calculations
for DMRG with open boundary conditions by several orders of magnitude.Comment: REVTeX format contains 8 pages and 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Series Expansions for the Massive Schwinger Model in Hamiltonian lattice theory
It is shown that detailed and accurate information about the mass spectrum of
the massive Schwinger model can be obtained using the technique of
strong-coupling series expansions. Extended strong-coupling series for the
energy eigenvalues are calculated, and extrapolated to the continuum limit by
means of integrated differential approximants, which are matched onto a
weak-coupling expansion. The numerical estimates are compared with exact
results, and with finite-lattice results calculated for an equivalent lattice
spin model with long-range interactions. Both the heavy fermion and the light
fermion limits of the model are explored in some detail.Comment: RevTeX, 10 figures, add one more referenc
Incommensurate structures studied by a modified Density Matrix Renormalization Group Method
A modified density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method is introduced
and applied to classical two-dimensional models: the anisotropic triangular
nearest- neighbor Ising (ATNNI) model and the anisotropic triangular
next-nearest-neighbor Ising (ANNNI) model. Phase diagrams of both models have
complex structures and exhibit incommensurate phases. It was found that the
incommensurate phase completely separates the disordered phase from one of the
commensurate phases, i. e. the non-existence of the Lifshitz point in phase
diagrams of both models was confirmed.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures included in text, LaTeX2e, submitted to PRB,
presented at MECO'24 1999 (Wittenberg, Germany
Mean Field Behavior of Cluster Dynamics
The dynamic behavior of cluster algorithms is analyzed in the classical mean
field limit. Rigorous analytical results below establish that the dynamic
exponent has the value for the Swendsen-Wang algorithm and
for the Wolff algorithm.
An efficient Monte Carlo implementation is introduced, adapted for using
these algorithms for fully connected graphs. Extensive simulations both above
and below demonstrate scaling and evaluate the finite-size scaling
function by means of a rather impressive collapse of the data.Comment: Revtex, 9 pages with 7 figure
On the intensity of the cosmic X-ray background
Measurements of the intensity of the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) carried
out over small solid angles are subject to spatial variations due to the
discrete nature of the XRB. This cosmic variance can account for the dispersion
of XRB intensity values found within the ASCA, BeppoSAX and ROSAT missions
separately. However there are differences among the values obtained in the
different missions which are not due to spatial fluctuations but, more likely,
to systematic cross-calibration errors. Prompted by recent work which shows
that ROSAT PSPC has calibration differences with all the other missions, we
compute a bayesian estimate for the XRB intensity at 1 keV of
10.0^{+0.6}_{-0.9} keV/cm2/s/keV/sr (90 per cent confidence errors) using the
ASCA and BeppoSAX data points. However, this value is still significantly
larger than the HEAO-1 intensity measured over many thousands of square degrees
(8 keV/cm2/s/keV/sr).Comment: 4 pages, MNRAS, in the pres
Theoretical study of incoherent phi photoproduction on a deuteron target
We study the photoproduction of phi mesons in deuteron, paying attention to
the modification of the cross section from bound protons to the free ones with
the aim of comparing with recent results at LEPS. For this purpose we take into
account Fermi motion in single scattering and rescattering of the phi to
account for phi absorption on a second nucleon as well as the rescattering of
the proton. We find that the contribution of the double scattering is much
smaller than the typical cross section of gamma p to phi p in free space, which
implies a very small screening of the phi production in deuteron. The
contribution from the proton rescattering, on the other hand, is found to be
not negligible compared to the cross section of gamma p to phi p in free space,
and leads to a moderate reduction of the phi photoproduction cross section on a
deuteron at forward angles if LEPS set up is taken into account. The Fermi
motion allows contribution of the single scattering in regions forbidden by
phase space in the free case. In particular, we find that for momentum
transferred squared close to the maximum value, the Fermi motion changes
drastically the shape of d sigma / dt, to the point that the ratio of this
cross section to the free one becomes very sensitive to the precise value of t
chosen, or the size of the bin used in an experimental analysis. Hence, this
particular region of t does not seem the most indicated to find effects of a
possible phi absorption in the deuteron. This reaction is studied theoretically
as a function of t and the effect of the experimental angular cuts at LEPS is
also discussed, providing guidelines for future experimental analyses of the
reaction.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figure
Angular Dependences of Third Harmonic Generation from Microdroplets
We present experimental and theoretical results for the angular dependence of
third harmonic generation (THG) of water droplets in the micrometer range (size
parameter ). The THG signal in - and -polarization obtained
with ultrashort laser pulses is compared with a recently developed nonlinear
extension of classical Mie theory including multipoles of order .
Both theory and experiment yield over a wide range of size parameters
remarkably stable intensity maxima close to the forward and backward direction
at ``magic angles''. In contrast to linear Mie scattering, both are of
comparable intensity.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 3 figures available on request from
[email protected], submitted to PR
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