9,929 research outputs found
Gibbs attractor: a chaotic nearly Hamiltonian system, driven by external harmonic force
A chaotic autonomous Hamiltonian systems, perturbed by small damping and
small external force, harmonically dependent on time, can acquire a strange
attractor with properties similar to that of the canonical distribution - the
Gibbs attractor. The evolution of the energy in such systems can be described
as the energy diffusion. For the nonlinear Pullen - Edmonds oscillator with two
degrees of freedom the properties of the Gibbs attractor and their dependence
on parameters of the perturbation are studied both analytically and
numerically.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX, 3 figure
Chirality inversion and radius blow-up of a N\'eel-type skyrmion by a Pearl vortex
We develop a theory for the coaxial configuration of a N\'eel-type skyrmion
and a Pearl vortex in thin superconductor-chiral ferromagnetic
heterostructures. Using direct numerical solution of the Euler-Lagrange
equation and micromagnetic simulations we demonstrate that the inhomogeneous
magnetic field of the Pearl vortex significantly modifies the skyrmion profile
with respect to the one in the absence of the vortex. We discover drastic
enlargement of the skyrmion's radius and inversion of the skyrmion's chirality.
To unravel physics behind these effects we invent novel two-parameter ansatz
for the magnetization profile of the skyrmion in the presence of the vortex.
Chirality inversion and radius blow-up are controlled not only by the material
parameters of the heterostructure but also by the thickness of the
superconductor. Our findings can have implications for Majorana modes localized
at skyrmion-vortex pairs.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; 1 video file and its description (as ancillary
files
Collision damping in the pi 3He -> d'N reaction near the threshold
We present a simple quantum mechanical model exploiting the optical potential
approach for the description of collision damping in the reaction pi 3He -> d'N
near the threshold, which recently has been measured at TRIUMF. The influence
of the open d'N -> NNN channel is taken into account. It leads to a suppression
factor of about ten in the d' survival probability. Applications of the method
to other reactions are outlined.Comment: RevTeX4, 14 pages, 3 Postscript figures, uses epsfig.sty, to appear
in Phys.Rev.
Measurement of the front-end dead-time of the LHCb muon detector and evaluation of its contribution to the muon detection inefficiency
A method is described which allows to deduce the dead-time of the front-end
electronics of the LHCb muon detector from a series of measurements performed
at different luminosities at a bunch-crossing rate of 20 MHz. The measured
values of the dead-time range from 70 ns to 100 ns. These results allow to
estimate the performance of the muon detector at the future bunch-crossing rate
of 40 MHz and at higher luminosity
An Ishihara-style test of animal colour vision
ABSTRACT Colour vision mediates ecologically relevant tasks for many animals, such as mate choice, foraging and predator avoidance. However, our understanding of animal colour perception is largely derived from human psychophysics, and behavioural tests of non-human animals are required to understand how colour signals are perceived. Here, we introduce a novel test of colour vision in animals inspired by the Ishihara colour charts, which are widely used to identify human colour deficiencies. In our method, distractor dots have a fixed chromaticity (hue and saturation) but vary in luminance. Animals can be trained to find single target dots that differ from distractor dots in chromaticity. We provide MATLAB code for creating these stimuli, which can be modified for use with different animals. We demonstrate the success of this method with triggerfish, Rhinecanthus aculeatus, which quickly learnt to select target dots that differed from distractor dots, and highlight behavioural parameters that can be measured, including success of finding the target dot, time to detection and error rate. We calculated discrimination thresholds by testing whether target colours that were of increasing colour distances (ΔS) from distractor dots could be detected, and calculated discrimination thresholds in different directions of colour space. At least for some colours, thresholds indicated better discrimination than expected from the receptor noise limited (RNL) model assuming 5% Weber fraction for the long-wavelength cone. This methodology could be used with other animals to address questions such as luminance thresholds, sensory bias, effects of sensory noise, colour categorization and saliency
HYDRODISSECTION FOR PRESERVATION OF NEUROVASCULAR BUNDLE DURING RADICAL PROSTATECTOMY
Nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy is one of the high-tech operations in urology, and the challenge of the surgeon is not only to remove the prostate tumor, but also to provide a high quality of life. The fact that most questions devoted from patients in a conversation with the surgeon before the operation are devoted to this issue, shows the importance and relevance. At present, the diagnostic methods allow significantly more likely to detect early prostate cancer, making finding and treatment of these patients more affordable and allows to apply this operation.Lately, it seems urgent to explore the possibility of water jet dissection in the field of urology, in particular, for nerve-sparing prostatectomy. Preservation of erectile function depends largely on the quality of separating the neurovascular bundle. Standard use of electrocautery is associated with damage to the neurovascular bundle. When performing operations using water-jet mobilization of prostate the selective dissection of tissue is performed. This avoids injury of neurovascular bundle and further postoperative complications. The use of this technique may allow the surgeon to provide a more accurate mobilization prostate and selectively controlled intersection vessels heading to the prostate from the neurovascular bundle, reduce intraoperative blood loss, maintaining continence, erectile function.This literature review is considered by the experience of using nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy using a water-jet dissector, estimated intraoperative parameters using this method.However, we have the lack of extensive research capabilities of this technique when performing nerve-preserving radical prostatectomy, that does not allow to make a comprehensive presentation on the benefits of this technique and its effects on erectile function and quality of urination, further study of this issue in such a difficult category of patients
Performance of the LHCb muon system
The performance of the LHCb Muon system and its stability across the full
2010 data taking with LHC running at ps = 7 TeV energy is studied. The
optimization of the detector setting and the time calibration performed with
the first collisions delivered by LHC is described. Particle rates, measured
for the wide range of luminosities and beam operation conditions experienced
during the run, are compared with the values expected from simulation. The
space and time alignment of the detectors, chamber efficiency, time resolution
and cluster size are evaluated. The detector performance is found to be as
expected from specifications or better. Notably the overall efficiency is well
above the design requirementsComment: JINST_015P_1112 201
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