10,312 research outputs found
Asteroseismology of eclipsing binary stars using Kepler and the HERMES spectrograph
We introduce our PhD project in which we focus on pulsating stars in
eclipsing binaries. The combination of high-precision Kepler photometry with
high-resolution HERMES spectroscopy allows for detailed descriptions of our
sample of target stars. We report here the detection of three false positives
by radial velocity measurements.Comment: Proceedings paper, 2 pages, 2 figures, to appear in "Setting a New
Standard in the Analysis of Binary Stars", Eds K. Pavlovski, A. Tkachenko,
and G. Torres, EAS Publications Serie
Double Entropic Stochastic Resonance
We demonstrate the appearance of a purely entropic stochastic resonance (ESR)
occurring in a geometrically confined system, where the irregular boundaries
cause entropic barriers. The interplay between a periodic input signal, a
constant bias and intrinsic thermal noise leads to a resonant ESR-phenomenon in
which feeble signals become amplified. This new phenomenon is characterized by
the presence of two peaks in the spectral amplification at corresponding
optimal values of the noise strength. The main peak is associated with the
manifest stochastic resonance synchronization mechanism involving the
inter-well noise-activated dynamics while a second peak relates to a regime of
optimal sensitivity for intra-well dynamics. The nature of ESR, occurring when
the origin of the barrier is entropic rather than energetic, offers new
perspectives for novel investigations and potential applications. ESR by itself
presents yet another case where one constructively can harvest noise in driven
nonequilibrium systems.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures ; Europhys. Lett., in press (2009
Three-body breakup within the fully discretized Faddeev equations
A novel approach is developed to find the three-body breakup amplitudes and
cross sections within the modified Faddeev equation framework. The method is
based on the lattice-like discretization of the three-body continuum with a
three-body stationary wave-packet basis in momentum space. The approach makes
it possible to simplify drastically all the three- and few-body breakup
calculations due to discrete wave-packet representations for the few-body
continuum and simultaneous lattice representation for all the scattering
operators entering the integral equation kernels. As a result, the few-body
breakup can be treated as a particular case of multi-channel scattering in
which part of the channels represents the true few-body continuum states. As an
illustration for the novel approach, an accurate calculations for the
three-body breakup process with non-local and local
interactions are calculated. The results obtained reproduce nicely the
benchmark calculation results using the traditional Faddeev scheme which
requires much more tedious and time-consuming calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure
Title Stabilization of Membrane Pores by Packing
We present a model for pore stabilization in membranes without surface
tension. Whereas an isolated pore is always unstable (since it either shrinks
tending to re-seal or grows without bound til to membrane disintegration), it
is shown that excluded volume interactions in a system of many pores can
stabilize individual pores of a given size in a certain range of model
parameters. For such a multipore membrane system, the distribution of pore size
and associated pore lifetime are calculated within the mean field
approximation. We predict that, above certain temperature when the effective
line tension becomes negative, the membrane exhibits a dynamic sieve-like
porous structure.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Ultrasound mapping of lymph node and subcutaneous metastases in patients with cutaneous melanoma: Results of a prospective multicenter study
Background: Ultrasound (sonography, B-mode sonography, ultrasonography) examination improves the sensitivity in more than 25% compared to the clinical palpation, especially after surgery on the regional lymph node area. Objective: To evaluate the distribution of metastases during follow-up in the draining lymph node areas from the scar of primary to regional lymph nodes ( head and neck, supraclavicular, axilla, infraclavicular, groin) in patients with cutaneous melanoma with or without sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) or former elective or consecutive complete lymph node dissection in case of positive sentinel lymph node (CLND). Methods: Prospective multicenter study of the Departments of Dermatology of the Universities of Homburg/Saar, Tubingen and Munich (Germany) in which the distribution of lymph node and subcutaneous metastases were mapped from the scar of primary to the lymphatic drainage region in 53 melanoma patients ( 23 women, 30 men; median age: 64 years; median tumor thickness: 1.99 mm) with known primary, visible lymph nodes or subcutaneous metastases proven by ultrasound and histopathology during the follow-up. Results: Especially in the axilla, infraclavicular region and groin the metastases were not limited to the anatomic lymph node regions. In 5 patients (9.4%) ( 4 of them were in stage IV) lymph node metastases were not located in the corresponding lymph node area. 32 patients without former SLNB had a time range between melanoma excision and lymph node metastases of 31 months ( median), 21 patients with SLNB had 18 months ( p < 0.005). In 11 patients with positive SLNB the time range was 17 months, in 10 patients with negative SLNB 21 months ( p < 0.005); in 32 patients with CLND the time range was 31 m< 0.005). In thinner melanomas lymph node metastases occurred later ( p < 0.05). Conclusions: After surgery of cutaneous melanoma, SLNB and CLND the lymphatic drainage can show significant changes which should be considered in clinical and ultrasound follow-up examinations. Especially for high-risk melanoma patients follow-up examinations should be performed at intervals of 3 months in the first years. Patients at stage IV should be examined in all regional lymph node areas clinically and by ultrasound. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel
Disorder Induced Stripes in d-Wave Superconductors
Stripe phases are observed experimentally in several copper-based high-Tc
superconductors near 1/8 hole doping. However, the specific characteristics may
vary depending on the degree of dopant disorder and the presence or absence of
a low- temperature tetragonal phase. On the basis of a Hartree-Fock decoupling
scheme for the t-J model we discuss the diverse behavior of stripe phases. In
particular the effect of inhomogeneities is investigated in two distinctly
different parameter regimes which are characterized by the strength of the
interaction. We observe that small concen- trations of impurities or vortices
pin the unidirectional density waves, and dopant disorder is capable to
stabilize a stripe phase in parameter regimes where homogeneous phases are
typically favored in clean systems. The momentum-space results exhibit
universal features for all coexisting density-wave solutions, nearly unchanged
even in strongly disordered systems. These coexisting solutions feature
generically a full energy gap and a particle-hole asymmetry in the density of
states.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figure
Support for graphicacy: a review of textbooks available to accounting students
This Teaching Note reports on the support available in textbooks for graphicacy that will help students understand the complexities of graphical displays. Graphical displays play a significant role in financial reporting, and studies have found evidence of measurement distortion and selection bias. To understand the complexities of graphical displays, students need a sound understanding of graphicacy and support from the textbooks available to them to develop that understanding. The Teaching Note reports on a survey that examined the textbooks available to students attending two Scottish universities. The support of critical graphicacy skills was examined in conjunction with textbook characteristics. The survey, which was not restricted to textbooks designated as required reading, examined the textbooks for content on data measurement and graphical displays. The findings highlight a lack of support for graphicacy in the textbooks selected. The study concludes that accounting educators need to scrutinize more closely the selection of textbooks and calls for more extensive research into textbooks as a pedagogic tool
Geometrical Description of Quantum Mechanics - Transformations and Dynamics
In this paper we review a proposed geometrical formulation of quantum
mechanics. We argue that this geometrization makes available mathematical
methods from classical mechanics to the quantum frame work. We apply this
formulation to the study of separability and entanglement for states of
composite quantum systems.Comment: 22 pages, to be published in Physica Script
SU(4) and SU(2) Kondo Effects in Carbon Nanotube Quantum Dots
We study the SU(4) Kondo effect in carbon nanotube quantum dots, where doubly
degenerate orbitals form 4-electron ``shells''. The SU(4) Kondo behavior is
investigated for one, two and three electrons in the topmost shell. While the
Kondo state of two electrons is quenched by magnetic field, in case of an odd
number of electrons two types of SU(2) Kondo effect may survive. Namely, the
spin SU(2) state is realized in the magnetic field parallel to the nanotube
(inducing primarily orbital splitting). Application of the perpendicular field
(inducing Zeeman splitting) results in the orbital SU(2) Kondo effect.Comment: 5 pages. Some material was previously posted in cond-mat/0608573, v
Coulomb drag between one-dimensional conductors
We have analyzed Coulomb drag between currents of interacting electrons in
two parallel one-dimensional conductors of finite length attached to
external reservoirs. For strong coupling, the relative fluctuations of electron
density in the conductors acquire energy gap . At energies larger than
, where
is the impurity scattering rate, and for , where is the
fluctuation velocity, the gap leads to an ``ideal'' drag with almost equal
currents in the conductors. At low energies the drag is suppressed by coherent
instanton tunneling, and the zero-temperature transconductance vanishes,
indicating the Fermi liquid behavior.Comment: 5 twocolumn pages in RevTex, added 1 eps-Figure and calculation of
trans-resistanc
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