Chemical analysis by X-ray spectroscopy near phase transitions in the solid state

The methods discussed in this work show that the types of changes which may be observed, by precise XAS measurements of Absorbance A versus temperature, across a phase transition are: the changes in the relaxation time of the final states due to fluctuations near a phase transition; the detection of the anomalous Bragg condition coupled to phonon modes XAS enhancement that identifies the temperature interval where the phonon modes are active, the symmetry changes which introduce new allowed transitions to finite states below an element edge, near Tc indicate what symmetry changes occur, and the method of XTDAFST0 = XAFS(T) - XAFS(T0), allows the precise measurement of the progressive changes in the Debye-Waller factor versus T near a phase transition, and identify (when no other structural changes occur, except in the vibrational modes of a specific bond) the bond responsible for the transition. The methods have been applied to the superconducting transition in layer cuprates and the metal to insulator transition in NiS2-xSex

A Comparison of Blocking Methods for Record Linkage

Record linkage seeks to merge databases and to remove duplicates when unique identifiers are not available. Most approaches use blocking techniques to reduce the computational complexity associated with record linkage. We review traditional blocking techniques, which typically partition the records according to a set of field attributes, and consider two variants of a method known as locality sensitive hashing, sometimes referred to as "private blocking." We compare these approaches in terms of their recall, reduction ratio, and computational complexity. We evaluate these methods using different synthetic datafiles and conclude with a discussion of privacy-related issues.Comment: 22 pages, 2 tables, 7 figure

A size of ~1 AU for the radio source Sgr A* at the centre of the Milky Way

Although it is widely accepted that most galaxies have supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers^{1-3}, concrete proof has proved elusive. Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*)^4, an extremely compact radio source at the center of our Galaxy, is the best candidate for proof^{5-7}, because it is the closest. Previous Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations (at 7mm) have detected that Sgr A* is ~2 astronomical unit (AU) in size^8, but this is still larger than the "shadow" (a remarkably dim inner region encircled by a bright ring) arising from general relativistic effects near the event horizon^9. Moreover, the measured size is wavelength dependent^{10}. Here we report a radio image of Sgr A* at a wavelength of 3.5mm, demonstrating that its size is \~1 AU. When combined with the lower limit on its mass^{11}, the lower limit on the mass density is 6.5x10^{21} Msun pc^{-3}, which provides the most stringent evidence to date that Sgr A* is an SMBH. The power-law relationship between wavelength and intrinsic size (The size is proportional to wavelength^{1.09}), explicitly rules out explanations other than those emission models with stratified structure, which predict a smaller emitting region observed at a shorter radio wavelength.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Multiwavelength Observations of GX 339-4 in 1996. II. Rapid X-ray Variability

As part of our multiwavelength campaign of GX 339-4 observations in 1996 we present the rapid X-ray variability observed July 26 using the RXTE when the source was in a hard state (= soft X-ray low state). We found that the source was extremely variable, with many bright flares. The flares have relatively symmetric time profiles. There are a few time intervals where the flux rises steadily and then drops suddenly, sometimes to a level lower than the average before the increase. Hardness ratios showed that the source was slightly softer when the flux was brighter. The power density spectra (PDS) were also complicated and we found that broken power laws do not provide adequate fits to any of them. Instead a pair of zero-centered Lorentzians gives a good general description of the shape of the PDS. We found several quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO), including some that are harmonically spaced with the most stable frequency at 0.35 Hz. While the overall rms variability of the source was close to being constant throughout the observation (29% integrating between 0.01 and 50 Hz), there is a small but significant change in the PDS shape with time. More importantly, we show that the soft 2-5 keV band is more variable than the harder 5-10 and 10-40 keV bands, which is unusual for this source and for other black hole candidates. Cross correlation functions (CCF) between these bands show that the light curve for the 10-40 keV band lags that of the 2-5 keV band by 5 msec.Comment: Submitted to Astrophysical Journal. 20 pages. 8 figure

Heat capacity anomaly at the quantum critical point of the Transverse Ising Magnet CoNb_2O_6

The transverse Ising magnet Hamiltonian describing the Ising chain in a transverse magnetic field is the archetypal example of a system that undergoes a transition at a quantum critical point (QCP). The columbite CoNb$_2$O$_6$ is the closest realization of the transverse Ising magnet found to date. At low temperatures, neutron diffraction has observed a set of discrete collective spin modes near the QCP. We ask if there are low-lying spin excitations distinct from these relatively high energy modes. Using the heat capacity, we show that a significant band of gapless spin excitations exists. At the QCP, their spin entropy rises to a prominent peak that accounts for 30$\%$ of the total spin degrees of freedom. In a narrow field interval below the QCP, the gapless excitations display a fermion-like, temperature-linear heat capacity below 1 K. These novel gapless modes are the main spin excitations participating in, and affected, by the quantum transition.Comment: 14 pages total, 8 figure

Onset of unsteady horizontal convection in rectangle tank at Pr=1Pr=1

The horizontal convection within a rectangle tank is numerically simulated. The flow is found to be unsteady at high Rayleigh numbers. There is a Hopf bifurcation of $Ra$ from steady solutions to periodic solutions, and the critical Rayleigh number $Ra_c$ is obtained as $Ra_c=5.5377\times 10^8$ for the middle plume forcing at $Pr=1$, which is much larger than the formerly obtained value. Besides, the unstable perturbations are always generated from the central jet, which implies that the onset of instability is due to velocity shear (shear instability) other than thermally dynamics (thermal instability). Finally, Paparella and Young's [J. Fluid Mech. 466 (2002) 205] first hypotheses about the destabilization of the flow is numerically proved, i.e. the middle plume forcing can lead to a destabilization of the flow.Comment: 4pages, 6 figures, extension of Chin. Phys. Lett. 2008, 25(6), in pres

Nuclear charge-exchange excitations in localized covariant density functional theory

The recent progress in the studies of nuclear charge-exchange excitations with localized covariant density functional theory is briefly presented, by taking the fine structure of spin-dipole excitations in 16O as an example. It is shown that the constraints introduced by the Fock terms of the relativistic Hartree-Fock scheme into the particle-hole residual interactions are straightforward and robust.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of INPC2013, Florence, Italy, 2-7 June 201

Single transverse-spin asymmetry for DD-meson production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

We study the single-transverse spin asymmetry for open charm production in the semi-inclusive lepton-hadron deep inelastic scattering. We calculate the asymmetry in terms of the QCD collinear factorization approach for $D$ mesons at high enough $P_{h\perp}$, and find that the asymmetry is proportional to the twist-three tri-gluon correlation function in the proton. With a simple model for the tri-gluon correlation function, we estimate the asymmetry for both COMPASS and eRHIC kinematics, and discuss the possibilities of extracting the tri-gluon correlation function in these experiments.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure