Wearable, small, and robust: the circular quarter-mode textile antenna

A miniaturized wearable antenna, entirely implemented in textile materials, is proposed that relies on a quarter-mode substrate integrated waveguide topology. The design combines compact dimensions with high body-antenna isolation, making it excellently suited for off-body communication in wearable electronics/smart textile applications. The fabricated antenna achieves stable on-body performance. A measured on-body impedance matching bandwidth of 5.1% is obtained, versus 4.8% in free space. The antenna gain equals 3.8 dBi in the on-body and 4.2 dBi for the free-space scenario. High radiation efficiency, measured to be 81% in free space, is combined with a low calculated specific absorption rate of 0.45 mW/g, averaged over 1 g of tissue, with 500 mW input power

Resonating Valence Bond Quantum Monte Carlo: Application to the ozone molecule

We study the potential energy surface of the ozone molecule by means of Quantum Monte Carlo simulations based on the resonating valence bond concept. The trial wave function consists of an antisymmetrized geminal power arranged in a single-determinant that is multiplied by a Jastrow correlation factor. Whereas the determinantal part incorporates static correlation effects, the augmented real-space correlation factor accounts for the dynamics electron correlation. The accuracy of this approach is demonstrated by computing the potential energy surface for the ozone molecule in three vibrational states: symmetric, asymmetric and scissoring. We find that the employed wave function provides a detailed description of rather strongly-correlated multi-reference systems, which is in quantitative agreement with experiment.Comment: 5 page, 3 figure

Root system chip-firing II: Central-firing

Jim Propp recently proposed a labeled version of chip-firing on a line and conjectured that this process is confluent from some initial configurations. This was proved by Hopkins-McConville-Propp. We reinterpret Propp's labeled chip-firing moves in terms of root systems: a "central-firing" move consists of replacing a weight $\lambda$ by $\lambda+\alpha$ for any positive root $\alpha$ that is orthogonal to $\lambda$. We show that central-firing is always confluent from any initial weight after modding out by the Weyl group, giving a generalization of unlabeled chip-firing on a line to other types. For simply-laced root systems we describe this unlabeled chip-firing as a number game on the Dynkin diagram. We also offer a conjectural classification of when central-firing is confluent from the origin or a fundamental weight.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; v2, v3: minor revision

Root system chip-firing I: Interval-firing

Jim Propp recently introduced a variant of chip-firing on a line where the chips are given distinct integer labels. Hopkins, McConville, and Propp showed that this process is confluent from some (but not all) initial configurations of chips. We recast their set-up in terms of root systems: labeled chip-firing can be seen as a root-firing process which allows the moves $\lambda \to \lambda + \alpha$ for $\alpha\in \Phi^{+}$ whenever $\langle\lambda,\alpha^\vee\rangle = 0$, where $\Phi^{+}$ is the set of positive roots of a root system of Type A and $\lambda$ is a weight of this root system. We are thus motivated to study the exact same root-firing process for an arbitrary root system. Actually, this central root-firing process is the subject of a sequel to this paper. In the present paper, we instead study the interval root-firing processes determined by $\lambda \to \lambda + \alpha$ for $\alpha\in \Phi^{+}$ whenever $\langle\lambda,\alpha^\vee\rangle \in [-k-1,k-1]$ or $\langle\lambda,\alpha^\vee\rangle \in [-k,k-1]$, for any $k \geq 0$. We prove that these interval-firing processes are always confluent, from any initial weight. We also show that there is a natural way to consistently label the stable points of these interval-firing processes across all values of $k$ so that the number of weights with given stabilization is a polynomial in $k$. We conjecture that these Ehrhart-like polynomials have nonnegative integer coefficients.Comment: 54 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables; v2: major revisions to improve exposition; v3: to appear in Mathematische Zeitschrift (Math. Z.

Attention, Work and Well-Being. What Happens When We Pay Attention to the Work We Are Doing?

SJU alum Dr. Sam Thomas shared his thoughts on Attention, Work and Well-Being. What happens when we pay attention to the work we are doing? He explored some of the connections between work, craft and spirituality and their importance for both personal fulfillment and community life