5,441 research outputs found
Shock wave study and theoretical modeling of the thermal decomposition of c-C4F8
The thermal dissociation of octafluorocyclobutane, c-C4F8, was studied in shock waves over the range 1150-2300 K by recording UV absorption signals of CF2. It was found that the primary reaction nearly exclusively produces 2 C2F4 which afterwards decomposes to 4 CF2. A primary reaction leading to CF2 + C3F6 is not detected (an upper limit to the yield of the latter channel was found to be about 10 percent). The temperature range of earlier single pulse shock wave experiments was extended. The reaction was shown to be close to its high pressure limit. Combining high and low temperature results leads to a rate constant for the primary dissociation of k1 = 1015.97 exp(-310.5 kJ mol-1/RT) s-1 in the range 630-1330 K, over which k1 varies over nearly 14 orders of magnitude. Calculations of the energetics of the reaction pathway and the rate constants support the conclusions from the experiments. Also they shed light on the role of the 1,4-biradical CF2CF2CF2CF2 as an intermediate of the reaction.Fil: Cobos, Carlos Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas; ArgentinaFil: Hintzer, K.. Dyneon Gmbh; AlemaniaFil: Sölter, L.. Universität Göttingen; AlemaniaFil: Tellbach, E.. Universität Göttingen; AlemaniaFil: Thaler, A.. Dyneon Gmbh; AlemaniaFil: Troe, J.. Universität Göttingen; Alemania. Max-Planck-Institut fu¨r biophysikalische Chemie; Alemani
Prospects for Mirage Mediation
Mirage mediation reduces the fine-tuning in the minimal supersymmetric
standard model by dynamically arranging a cancellation between anomaly-mediated
and modulus-mediated supersymmetry breaking. We explore the conditions under
which a mirage "messenger scale" is generated near the weak scale and the
little hierarchy problem is solved. We do this by explicitly including the
dynamics of the SUSY-breaking sector needed to cancel the cosmological
constant. The most plausible scenario for generating a low mirage scale does
not readily admit an extra-dimensional interpretation. We also review the
possibilities for solving the mu/Bmu problem in such theories, a potential
hidden source of fine-tuning.Comment: 14 page
Quasiparticle Description of Hot QCD at Finite Quark Chemical Potential
We study the extension of a phenomenologically successful quasiparticle model
that describes lattice results of the equation of state of the deconfined phase
of QCD for Tc <= T < 4 Tc, to finite quark chemical potential mu. The phase
boundary line Tc(mu), the pressure difference (p(T,mu)-p(T,mu=0))/T^4 and the
quark number density nq(T,mu)/T^3 are calculated and compared to recent lattice
results. Good agreement is found up to quark chemical potentials of order mu =
Tc.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures; added reference
Combined effects of pressure and Ru substitution on BaFe2As2
The ab-plane resistivity of Ba(Fe1-xRux)2As2 (x = 0.00, 0.09, 0.16, 0.21, and
0.28) was studied under nearly hydrostatic pressures, up to 7.4 GPa, in order
to explore the T-P phase diagram and to compare the combined effects of
iso-electronic Ru substitution and pressure. The parent compound BaFe2As2
exhibits a structural/magnetic phase transition near 134 K. At ambient
pressure, progressively increasing Ru concentration suppresses this phase
transition to lower temperatures at the approximate rate of ~5 K/% Ru and is
correlated with the emergence of superconductivity. By applying pressure to
this system, a similar behavior is seen for each concentration: the
structural/magnetic phase transition is further suppressed and
superconductivity induced and ultimately, for larger x Ru and P, suppressed. A
detailed comparison of the T-P phase diagrams for all Ru concentrations shows
that 3 GPa of pressure is roughly equivalent to 10% Ru substitution.
Furthermore, due to the sensitivity of Ba(Fe1-xRux)2As2 to pressure conditions,
the melting of the liquid media, 4 : 6 light mineral oil : n-pentane and 1 : 1
iso-pentane : n-pentane, used in this study could be readily seen in the
resistivity measurements. This feature was used to determine the freezing
curves for these media and infer their room temperature, hydrostatic limits:
3.5 and 6.5 GPa, respectively.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figure
Why do people opt-out or not opt-out of automatic enrolment? A focus group study of automatic enrolment into a workplace pension in the United Kingdom
Automatic enrolment (AE) into a workplace pension is an important recent development in pension policy. An important question for this policy is why do people opt-out or not opt-out of AE? This question is important for understanding the power of suggestion associated with AE as well as responding to concerns that women might face undue pressure to opt-out. This article addresses this question through a focus group study into the United Kingdom’s new AE policy. Women were more likely than men to cite lack of affordability as a reason for opting out. Lack of information also seemed important for the power of suggestion associated with AE. Further research should explore how to make AE less gender blind as well as the types of information or advice that should be provided alongside AE
Nearly Optimal Private Convolution
We study computing the convolution of a private input with a public input
, while satisfying the guarantees of -differential
privacy. Convolution is a fundamental operation, intimately related to Fourier
Transforms. In our setting, the private input may represent a time series of
sensitive events or a histogram of a database of confidential personal
information. Convolution then captures important primitives including linear
filtering, which is an essential tool in time series analysis, and aggregation
queries on projections of the data.
We give a nearly optimal algorithm for computing convolutions while
satisfying -differential privacy. Surprisingly, we follow
the simple strategy of adding independent Laplacian noise to each Fourier
coefficient and bounding the privacy loss using the composition theorem of
Dwork, Rothblum, and Vadhan. We derive a closed form expression for the optimal
noise to add to each Fourier coefficient using convex programming duality. Our
algorithm is very efficient -- it is essentially no more computationally
expensive than a Fast Fourier Transform.
To prove near optimality, we use the recent discrepancy lowerbounds of
Muthukrishnan and Nikolov and derive a spectral lower bound using a
characterization of discrepancy in terms of determinants
Gauge theory of Faddeev-Skyrme functionals
We study geometric variational problems for a class of nonlinear sigma-models
in quantum field theory. Mathematically, one needs to minimize an energy
functional on homotopy classes of maps from closed 3-manifolds into compact
homogeneous spaces G/H. The minimizers are known as Hopfions and exhibit
localized knot-like structure. Our main results include proving existence of
Hopfions as finite energy Sobolev maps in each (generalized) homotopy class
when the target space is a symmetric space. For more general spaces we obtain a
weaker result on existence of minimizers in each 2-homotopy class.
Our approach is based on representing maps into G/H by equivalence classes of
flat connections. The equivalence is given by gauge symmetry on pullbacks of
G-->G/H bundles. We work out a gauge calculus for connections under this
symmetry, and use it to eliminate non-compactness from the minimization problem
by fixing the gauge.Comment: 34 pages, no figure
Diboson-Jets and the Search for Resonant Zh Production
New particles at the TeV-scale may have sizeable decay rates into boosted
Higgs bosons or other heavy scalars. Here, we investigate the possibility of
identifying such processes when the Higgs/scalar subsequently decays into a
pair of W bosons, constituting a highly distinctive "diboson-jet." These can
appear as a simple dilepton (plus MET) configuration, as a two-prong jet with
an embedded lepton, or as a four-prong jet. We study jet substructure methods
to discriminate these objects from their dominant backgrounds. We then
demonstrate the use of these techniques in the search for a heavy spin-one Z'
boson, such as may arise from strong dynamics or an extended gauge sector,
utilizing the decay chain Z' -> Zh -> Z(WW^(*)). We find that modes with
multiple boosted hadronic Zs and Ws tend to offer the best prospects for the
highest accessible masses. For 100/fb luminosity at the 14 TeV LHC, Z' decays
into a standard 125 GeV Higgs can be observed with 5-sigma significance for
masses of 1.5-2.5 TeV for a range of models. For a 200 GeV Higgs (requiring
nonstandard couplings, such as fermiophobic), the reach may improve to up to
2.5-3.0 TeV.Comment: 23 pages plus appendices, 9 figure
Operator renewal theory and mixing rates for dynamical systems with infinite measure
We develop a theory of operator renewal sequences in the context of infinite
ergodic theory. For large classes of dynamical systems preserving an infinite
measure, we determine the asymptotic behaviour of iterates of the
transfer operator. This was previously an intractable problem.
Examples of systems covered by our results include (i) parabolic rational
maps of the complex plane and (ii) (not necessarily Markovian) nonuniformly
expanding interval maps with indifferent fixed points.
In addition, we give a particularly simple proof of pointwise dual ergodicity
(asymptotic behaviour of ) for the class of systems under
consideration.
In certain situations, including Pomeau-Manneville intermittency maps, we
obtain higher order expansions for and rates of mixing. Also, we obtain
error estimates in the associated Dynkin-Lamperti arcsine laws.Comment: Preprint, August 2010. Revised August 2011. After publication, a
minor error was pointed out by Kautzsch et al, arXiv:1404.5857. The updated
version includes minor corrections in Sections 10 and 11, and corresponding
modifications of certain statements in Section 1. All main results are
unaffected. In particular, Sections 2-9 are unchanged from the published
versio
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