Nullity and Loop Complementation for Delta-Matroids

We show that the symmetric difference distance measure for set systems, and more specifically for delta-matroids, corresponds to the notion of nullity for symmetric and skew-symmetric matrices. In particular, as graphs (i.e., symmetric matrices over GF(2)) may be seen as a special class of delta-matroids, this distance measure generalizes the notion of nullity in this case. We characterize delta-matroids in terms of equicardinality of minimal sets with respect to inclusion (in addition we obtain similar characterizations for matroids). In this way, we find that, e.g., the delta-matroids obtained after loop complementation and after pivot on a single element together with the original delta-matroid fulfill the property that two of them have equal "null space" while the third has a larger dimension.Comment: Changes w.r.t. v4: different style, Section 8 is extended, and in addition a few small changes are made in the rest of the paper. 15 pages, no figure

Long-Range Plasmon Assisted Energy Transfer Between Fluorescent Emitters

We demonstrate plasmon assisted energy transfer between fluorophores located at distances up to $7 \, \mu$m on the top of a thin silver film. Thanks to the strong confinement and large propagation length of surface plasmon polaritons, the range of the energy transfer is almost two orders of magnitude larger than the values reported in the literature so far. The parameters driving the energy transfer range are thoroughly characterized and are in very good agreement with theoretically expected values.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Diffuse emission measurement with INTEGRAL/SPI as indirect probe of cosmic-ray electrons and positrons

Significant advances have been made in the understanding of the diffuse Galactic hard X-ray continuum emission using data from the INTEGRAL observatory. The diffuse hard power-law component seen with the INTEGRAL/SPI spectrometer has been identified with inverse-Compton emission from relativistic (GeV) electrons on the cosmic microwave background and Galactic interstellar radiation field. In the present analysis, SPI data from 2003 to 2009, with a total exposure time of ~ 10^8 s, are used to derive the Galactic ridge hard X-ray spatial distribution and spectrum between 20 keV and 2.4 MeV. Both are consistent with predictions from the GALPROP code. The good agreement between measured and predicted emission from keV to GeV energies suggests that the correct production mechanisms have been identified. We discuss the potential of the SPI data to provide an indirect probe of the interstellar cosmic-ray electron distribution, in particular for energies below a few GeV.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Dessins, their delta-matroids and partial duals

Given a map $\mathcal M$ on a connected and closed orientable surface, the delta-matroid of $\mathcal M$ is a combinatorial object associated to $\mathcal M$ which captures some topological information of the embedding. We explore how delta-matroids associated to dessins d'enfants behave under the action of the absolute Galois group. Twists of delta-matroids are considered as well; they correspond to the recently introduced operation of partial duality of maps. Furthermore, we prove that every map has a partial dual defined over its field of moduli. A relationship between dessins, partial duals and tropical curves arising from the cartography groups of dessins is observed as well.Comment: 34 pages, 20 figures. Accepted for publication in the SIGMAP14 Conference Proceeding

Formation and dynamics of self-sustained neutron haloes in disk accreting sources

It has been recognized long ago that the presence of hot plasma in the inner accretion disks around black holes could lead to the neutron production via dissociation of helium nuclei. We show that, for a broad range of accretion parameters, neutrons effectively decouple from protons and pile up in the inner disk leading to the formation of self-sustained halo. This means that new neutrons in the halo are supplied mainly by the splitting of helium nuclei in their collisions with existing neutrons. Once formed, such a halo can exist even if the proton temperature is much lower than the energy threshold of helium dissociation. We show that neutron haloes can be the natural source of relativistic electrons and positrons, providing characteristic comptonization spectra and hard spectral tails observed in many black hole candidates, and also giving rise to relativistic outflows. Deuterium gamma-ray line at 2.2 MeV resulting from neutron capture is also expected at a level detectable by future INTEGRAL mission. Furthermore, the presence of a neutron halo strongly affects the dynamics of accretion and leads to the rich variety of transient dynamical regimes.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic

Relationship Between the Starch Granule Structure and the Textural Properties of Heat-Induced Surimi Gels

Starch, used as a textural additive in heat-induced surimi gel, influences the rigidity of the protein gel matrix and hence the gel strength according to its botanical characteristics. The present study focuses on the correlations existing between the textural properties of heatind uced surimi gels obtained by physical measurements and the characteristics of different commercial starches. The gelatinization temperature of starch was closely related to the expressible moisture, work to fracture, and elongation. Behaviour of starchy components during thermal processing and its relationship to fish protein gel matrix were studied by light and electron microscopy. These studies showed differences in starch swelling, amylose leaching , and amylopectin behaviour depending on water intake. Cryo-scanning electron microscopy revealed structural features which have never been observed by the classical cyto-techniques

SPI Measurements of the Diffuse Galactic Hard X-ray Continuum

INTEGRAL Spectrometer SPI data from the first year of the Galactic Centre Deep Exposure has been analysed for the diffuse continuum from the Galactic ridge. A new catalogue of sources from the INTEGRAL Imager IBIS has been used to account for their contribution to the celestial signal. Apparently diffuse emission is detected at a level ~10% of the total source flux. A comparison of the spectrum of diffuse emission with that from an analysis of IBIS data alone shows that they are consistent. The question of the contribution of unresolved sources to this ridge emission is still open.Comment: Proceedings of the 5th INTEGRAL Workshop, Munich 16-20 February 2004. ESA SP-552. Reference to Terrier et al. (2004) updated to include astro-ph versio

The Optical - Infrared Colors of CORALS QSOs: Searching for Dust Reddening Associated With High Redshift Damped Lyman Alpha Systems

The presence of dust in quasar absorbers, such as damped Lyman alpha (DLA) systems, may cause the background QSO to appear reddened. We investigate the extent of this potential reddening by comparing the optical-to-infrared (IR) colors of QSOs with and without intervening absorbers. Our QSO sample is based on the Complete Optical and Radio Absorption Line System (CORALS) survey of Ellison et al (2001). We have obtained near-simultaneous B and K band magnitudes for subset of the CORALS sample and supplemented our observations with further measurements published in the literature. To account for redshift-related color changes, the B-K colors are normalized using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) QSO composite. The mean normalized B-K color of the DLA sub-sample is +0.12, whereas the mean for the no-DLA sample is -0.10; both distributions have RMS scatters ~0.5. Neither a student's T-test nor a KS test indicate that there is any significant difference between the two color distributions. Based on simulations which redden the colors of QSOs with intervening DLAs, we determine a reddening limit which corresponds to E(B-V) < 0.04 (SMC-like extinction) at 99% confidence (3 sigma), assuming that E(B-V) is the same for all DLAs. Finally, we do not find any general correlation between absorber properties (such as [Fe/Zn] or neutral hydrogen column density) and B-K color. One of these two QSOs shows evidence for strong associated absorption from X-ray observations, an alternative explanation for its very red color. We conclude that the presence of intervening galaxies causes a minimal reddening of the background QSO.Comment: Accepted for publication in A

Coulomb-U and magnetic moment collapse in δ\delta-Pu

The around-the-mean-field version of the LDA+U method is applied to investigate electron correlation effects in $\delta$-Pu. It yields a non-magnetic ground state of $\delta-$Pu, and provides a good agreement with experimental equilibrium volume, bulk modulus and explains important features of the photoelectron spectra

Beyond Zel'dovich-Type Approximations in Gravitational Instability Theory --- Pad\'e Prescription in Spheroidal Collapse ---

Among several analytic approximations for the growth of density fluctuations in the expanding Universe, Zel'dovich approximation in Lagrangian coordinate scheme is known to be unusually accurate even in mildly non-linear regime. This approximation is very similar to the Pad\'e approximation in appearance. We first establish, however, that these two are actually different and independent approximations with each other by using a model of spheroidal mass collapse. Then we propose Pad\'e-prescribed Zel'dovich-type approximations and demonstrate, within this model, that they are much accurate than any other known nonlinear approximations.Comment: 4 pages, latex, 3 figures include