Effects of the liquid-gas phase transition and cluster formation on the symmetry energy

Various definitions of the symmetry energy are introduced for nuclei, dilute nuclear matter below saturation density and stellar matter, which is found in compact stars or core-collapse supernovae. The resulting differences are exemplified by calculations in a theoretical approach based on a generalized relativistic density functional for dense matter. It contains nucleonic clusters as explicit degrees of freedom with medium dependent properties that are derived for light clusters from a quantum statistical approach. With such a model the dissolution of clusters at high densities can be described. The effects of the liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear matter and of cluster formation in stellar matter on the density dependence of the symmetry energy are studied for different temperatures. It is observed that correlations and the formation of inhomogeneous matter at low densities and temperatures causes an increase of the symmetry energy as compared to calculations assuming a uniform uncorrelated spatial distribution of constituent baryons and leptons.Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures, version accepted for publication in EPJA special volume on Nuclear Symmetry Energ

The combined approach to ontology-based data access

The use of ontologies for accessing data is one of the most exciting new applications of description logics in databases and other information systems. A realistic way of realising sufficiently scalable ontology- based data access in practice is by reduction to querying relational databases. In this paper, we describe the combined approach, which incorporates the information given by the ontology into the data and employs query rewriting to eliminate spurious answers. We illustrate this approach for ontologies given in the DL-Lite family of description logics and briefly discuss the results obtained for the EL family

Combining Spatial and Temporal Logics: Expressiveness vs. Complexity

In this paper, we construct and investigate a hierarchy of spatio-temporal formalisms that result from various combinations of propositional spatial and temporal logics such as the propositional temporal logic PTL, the spatial logics RCC-8, BRCC-8, S4u and their fragments. The obtained results give a clear picture of the trade-off between expressiveness and computational realisability within the hierarchy. We demonstrate how different combining principles as well as spatial and temporal primitives can produce NP-, PSPACE-, EXPSPACE-, 2EXPSPACE-complete, and even undecidable spatio-temporal logics out of components that are at most NP- or PSPACE-complete

Combined FO rewritability for conjunctive query answering in DL-Lite

Standard description logic (DL) reasoning services such as satisfiability and subsumption mainly aim to support TBox design. When the design stage is over and the TBox is used in an actual application, it is usually combined with instance data stored in an ABox, and therefore query answering becomes the most importan

A 1/10 Scale Model Test of a Fixed Chute Mixer-Ejector Nozzle in Unsuppressed Model

This paper discusses a test of a nozzle concept for a high-speed commercial aircraft. While a great deal of effort has been expended to und erstand the noise-suppressed, take-off performance of mixer-ejector n ozzles, little has been done to assess their performance in unsuppressed mode at other flight conditions. To address this, a 1/10th scale m odel mixer-ejector nozzle in unsuppressed mode was tested at conditio ns representing transonic acceleration, supersonic cruise, subsonic cruise, and approach. Various configurations were tested to understand the effects of acoustic liners and several geometric parameters, such as throat area, expansion ratio, and nozzle length on nozzle performance. Thrust, flow, and internal pressures were measured. A statistica l model of the peak thrust coefficient results is presented and discussed

Qualitative reasoning with directional relations

AbstractQualitative spatial reasoning (QSR) pursues a symbolic approach to reasoning about a spatial domain. Qualitative calculi are defined to capture domain properties in relation operations, granting a relation algebraic approach to reasoning. QSR has two primary goals: providing a symbolic model for human common-sense level of reasoning and providing efficient means for reasoning. In this paper, we dismantle the hope for efficient reasoning about directional information in infinite spatial domains by showing that it is inherently hard to decide consistency of a set of constraints that represents positions in the plane by specifying directions from reference objects. We assume that these reference objects are not fixed but only constrained through directional relations themselves. Known QSR reasoning methods fail to handle this information

Connecting qualitative spatial and temporal representations by propositional closure

This paper establishes new relationships between existing qualitative spatial and temporal representations. Qualitative spatial and temporal representation (QSTR) is concerned with abstractions of infinite spatial and temporal domains, which represent configurations of objects using a finite vocabulary of relations, also called a qualitative calculus. Classically, reasoning in QSTR is based on constraints. An important task is to identify decision procedures that are able to handle constraints from a single calculus or from several calculi. In particular the latter aspect is a longstanding challenge due to the multitude of calculi proposed. In this paper we consider propositional closures of qualitative constraints which enable progress with respect to the longstanding challenge. Propositional closure allows one to establish several translations between distinct calculi. This enables joint reasoning and provides new insights into computational complexity of individual calculi. We conclude that the study of propositional languages instead of previously considered purely relational languages is a viable research direction for QSTR leading to expressive formalisms and practical algorithms

Composition and thermodynamics of nuclear matter with light clusters

We investigate nuclear matter at finite temperature and density, including the formation of light clusters up to the alpha particle The novel feature of this work is to include the formation of clusters as well as their dissolution due to medium effects in a systematic way using two many-body theories: a microscopic quantum statistical (QS) approach and a generalized relativistic mean field (RMF) model. Nucleons and clusters are modified by medium effects. Both approaches reproduce the limiting cases of nuclear statistical equilibrium (NSE) at low densities and cluster-free nuclear matter at high densities. The treatment of the cluster dissociation is based on the Mott effect due to Pauli blocking, implemented in slightly different ways in the QS and the generalized RMF approaches. We compare the numerical results of these models for cluster abundances and thermodynamics in the region of medium excitation energies with temperatures T <= 20 MeV and baryon number densities from zero to a few times saturation density. The effect of cluster formation on the liquid-gas phase transition and on the density dependence of the symmetry energy is studied. Comparison is made with other theoretical approaches, in particular those, which are commonly used in astrophysical calculations. The results are relevant for heavy-ion collisions and astrophysical applications.Comment: 32 pages, 15 figures, minor corrections, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Mechanisms for Direct Breakup Reactions

We review some simple mechanisms of breakup in nuclear reactions. We mention the spectator breakup, which is described in the post-form DWBA. The relation to other formulations is also indicated. An especially important mechanism is Coulomb dissociation. It is a distinct advantage that the perturbation due to the electric field of the nucleus is exactly known. Therefore firm conclusions can be drawn from such measurements. Some new applications of Coulomb dissociation for nuclear astrophysics are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the RCNP-TMU Symposium on Spins in Nuclear and Hadronic Reactions, October 16-18 199