58,445 research outputs found
Vortex Loop Phase Transitions in Liquid Helium, Cosmic Strings, and High-T_c Superconductors
The distribution of thermally excited vortex loops near a superfluid phase
transition is calculated from a renormalized theory. The number density of
loops with a given perimeter is found to change from exponential decay with
increasing perimeter to algebraic decay as T_c is approached, in agreement with
recent simulations of both cosmic strings and high-T_c superconductors.
Predictions of the value of the exponent of the algebraic decay at T_c and of
critical behavior in the vortex density are confirmed by the simulations,
giving strong support to the vortex-folding model proposed by Shenoy.Comment: Version to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett, with a number of corrections
and addition
Thermodynamic properties of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 calculated from the electronic dispersion
The electronic dispersion for Bi2Sr2CaCu2O(8+d) has been determined from
angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). From this dispersion we
calculate the entropy and superfluid density. Even with no adjustable
parameters we obtain an exceptional match with experimental data across the
entire phase diagram, thus indirectly confirming both the ARPES and
thermodynamic data. The van Hove singularity is crossed in the overdoped region
giving a distinctive linear-in-T temperature dependence in the superfluid
density there.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Empirical constraints on the origin of fast radio bursts: volumetric rates and host galaxy demographics as a test of millisecond magnetar connection
The localization of the repeating FRB 121102 to a low-metallicity dwarf
galaxy at , and its association with a quiescent radio source,
suggests the possibility that FRBs originate from magnetars, formed by the
unusual supernovae in such galaxies. We investigate this via a comparison of
magnetar birth rates, the FRB volumetric rate, and host galaxy demographics. We
calculate average volumetric rates of possible millisecond magnetar production
channels such as superluminous supernovae (SLSNe), long and short gamma-ray
bursts (GRBs), and general magnetar production via core-collapse supernovae.
For each channel we also explore the expected host galaxy demographics using
their known properties. We determine for the first time the number density of
FRB emitters (the product of their volumetric birthrate and lifetime), Gpc, assuming that FRBs are predominantly emitted
from repetitive sources similar to FRB 121102 and adopting a beaming factor of
0.1. By comparing rates we find that production via rare channels (SLSNe, GRBs)
implies a typical FRB lifetime of 30-300 yr, in good agreement with
other lines of argument. The total energy emitted over this time is consistent
with the available energy stored in the magnetic field. On the other hand, any
relation to magnetars produced via normal core-collapse supernovae leads to a
very short lifetime of 0.5yr, in conflict with both theory and
observation. We demonstrate that due to the diverse host galaxy distributions
of the different progenitor channels, many possible sources of FRB birth can be
ruled out with host galaxy identifications. Conversely, targeted
searches of galaxies that have previously hosted decades-old SLSNe and GRBs may
be a fruitful strategy for discovering new FRBs and related quiescent radio
sources, and determining the nature of their progenitors
Boosting clinical performance: The impact of enhanced final year placements.
BACKGROUND: This study follows on from a study that investigated how to develop effective final year medical student assistantship placements, using multidisciplinary clinical teams in planning and delivery. AIMS: This study assessed the effects on objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) performance of the in-course enhanced "super-assistantship" placement introduced to a randomly selected sample of 2013-14 final year medical students at Leeds medical school. METHODS: Quantitative data analysis was used to compare the global grades of OSCE stations between students who undertook this placement against those who did not. RESULTS: There was a small overall improvement in the "super-assistantship" student scores across the whole assessment (effect size = 0.085). "Pre-op Capacity", "Admissions Prescribing" and "Hip Pain" stations had small-medium effect sizes (0.226, 0.215, and 0.214) in favor of the intervention group. Other stations had small effect sizes (0.107-0.191), mostly in favor of the intervention group. CONCLUSIONS: The "super-assistantship" experience characterized by increasing student responsibility on placement can help to improve competence and confidence in clinical decision-making "in a simulated environment". The clinical environment and multidisciplinary team must be ready and supported to provide these opportunities effectively. Further in-course opportunities for increasing final year student responsibility should be developed
Saddle-point van Hove singularity and the phase diagram of high-Tc cuprates
We examine the generic phase behavior of high-Tc cuprate superconductors in
terms a universal van Hove singularity in the strongly overdoped region. Using
a rigid ARPES-derived dispersion we solve the BCS gap equation and show that
the pairing interaction or pairing energy cutoff must be a rapidly declining
function of doping. This result is prejudicial to a phonon-based pairing
interaction and more consistent with a magnetic or magnetically enhanced
interaction.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Spectral Simplicity of Apparent Complexity, Part II: Exact Complexities and Complexity Spectra
The meromorphic functional calculus developed in Part I overcomes the
nondiagonalizability of linear operators that arises often in the temporal
evolution of complex systems and is generic to the metadynamics of predicting
their behavior. Using the resulting spectral decomposition, we derive
closed-form expressions for correlation functions, finite-length Shannon
entropy-rate approximates, asymptotic entropy rate, excess entropy, transient
information, transient and asymptotic state uncertainty, and synchronization
information of stochastic processes generated by finite-state hidden Markov
models. This introduces analytical tractability to investigating information
processing in discrete-event stochastic processes, symbolic dynamics, and
chaotic dynamical systems. Comparisons reveal mathematical similarities between
complexity measures originally thought to capture distinct informational and
computational properties. We also introduce a new kind of spectral analysis via
coronal spectrograms and the frequency-dependent spectra of past-future mutual
information. We analyze a number of examples to illustrate the methods,
emphasizing processes with multivariate dependencies beyond pairwise
correlation. An appendix presents spectral decomposition calculations for one
example in full detail.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables; most recent version at
http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/compmech/pubs/sdscpt2.ht
Decay of scalar turbulence revisited
We demonstrate that at long times the rate of passive scalar decay in a
turbulent, or simply chaotic, flow is dominated by regions (in real space or in
inverse space) where mixing is less efficient. We examine two situations. The
first is of a spatially homogeneous stationary turbulent flow with both viscous
and inertial scales present. It is shown that at large times scalar
fluctuations decay algebraically in time at all spatial scales (particularly in
the viscous range, where the velocity is smooth). The second example explains
chaotic stationary flow in a disk/pipe. The boundary region of the flow
controls the long-time decay, which is algebraic at some transient times, but
becomes exponential, with the decay rate dependent on the scalar diffusion
coefficient, at longer times.Comment: 4 pages, no figure
DCO, DCN and ND reveal three different deuteration regimes in the disk around the Herbig Ae star HD163296
The formation pathways of deuterated species trace different regions of
protoplanetary disks and may shed light into their physical structure. We aim
to constrain the radial extent of main deuterated species; we are particularly
interested in spatially characterizing the high and low temperature pathways
for enhancing deuteration of these species. We observed the disk surrounding
the Herbig Ae star HD 163296 using ALMA in Band 6 and obtained resolved
spectral imaging data of DCO (=3-2), DCN (=3-2) and ND
(=3-2). We model the radial emission profiles of DCO, DCN and
ND, assuming their emission is optically thin, using a parametric model
of their abundances and radial excitation temperature estimates. DCO can be
described by a three-region model, with constant-abundance rings centered at 70
AU, 150 AU and 260 AU. The DCN radial profile peaks at about ~60 AU and
ND is seen in a ring at ~160 AU. Simple models of both molecules using
constant abundances reproduce the data. Assuming reasonable average excitation
temperatures for the whole disk, their disk-averaged column densities (and
deuterium fractionation ratios) are 1.6-2.6 cm
(0.04-0.07), 2.9-5.2 cm (0.02) and 1.6-2.5 cm (0.34-0.45) for DCO, DCN and ND, respectively.
Our simple best-fit models show a correlation between the radial location of
the first two rings in DCO and the DCN and ND abundance
distributions that can be interpreted as the high and low temperature
deuteration pathways regimes. The origin of the third DCO ring at 260 AU is
unknown but may be due to a local decrease of ultraviolet opacity allowing the
photodesorption of CO or due to thermal desorption of CO as a consequence of
radial drift and settlement of dust grains
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