Spacetime and Euclidean Geometry

Using only the principle of relativity and Euclidean geometry we show in this pedagogical article that the square of proper time or length in a two-dimensional spacetime diagram is proportional to the Euclidean area of the corresponding causal domain. We use this relation to derive the Minkowski line element by two geometric proofs of the "spacetime Pythagoras theorem".Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures; for a festschrift honoring Michael P. Ryan; v.2: References to related work adde

Axial anomaly and Ginsparg-Wilson fermions in the Lattice Dirac Sea picture

The axial anomaly equation in 1+1 dimensional QED is obtained on the lattice for fermions obeying the Ginsparg-Wilson relation. We make use of the properties of the Lattice Dirac sea to investigate the connection between the anomaly and the Ginsparg-Wilson operator in the Hamiltonian picture. The correct anomaly is reproduced for gauge fields whose characteristic time is much larger than the lattice spacing, which is the regime where the adiabatic approximation applies. A non-zero Wilson $r$ parameter is necessary to get the correct anomaly. The anomaly is shown to be independent of $r$ for $r>0.5$. The generalization to 3+1 dimensions is also discussed.Comment: 19 pages latex,12 figures; manuscript revised, references adde

Digital Design Considerations for Volunteer Recruitment: Making the Implicit Promises of Volunteering More Explicit

Non-profit organisations may find it difficult to demonstrate to potential volunteers what is required in their voluntary role-resulting in a mismatch between expectations and reality for volunteers. This mismatch could be perceived as a psychological contract breach. We interviewed 18 volunteers and 7 coordinators about their experiences and expectations in order to understand how the experience of volunteers can better be captured and communicated. Further, we wished to consider how future digital platforms might capture important elements of the volunteer experience to better support recruitment, retention and recognition. We present our findings and discuss digital platform implications around the four implicit 'promises' of volunteering: the social promise, the opportunity promise, the value promise and the organisational citizenship promise. We add to literature exploring the voluntary sector by assessing the feasibility of digital interventions to support various aspects of volunteer and coordinator roles

Sensitivity Analysis of an Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor Control Rod Model

A model has been made of the primary shutdown system of an Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor nuclear power station. The aim of this paper is to explore the use of sensitivity analysis techniques on this model. The two motivations for performing sensitivity analysis are to quantify how much individual uncertain parameters are responsible for the model output uncertainty, and to make predictions about what could happen if one or several parameters were to change. Global sensitivity analysis techniques were used based on Gaussian process emulation; the software package GEM-SA was used to calculate the main effects , the main effect index and the total sensitivity index for each parameter and these were compared to local sensitivity analysis results. The results suggest that the system performance is resistant to adverse changes in several parameters at once

Coarse-Graining and Renormalization Group in the Einstein Universe

The Kadanoff-Wilson renormalization group approach for a scalar self-interacting field theor generally coupled with gravity is presented. An average potential that monitors the fluctuations of the blocked field in different scaling regimes is constructed in a nonflat background and explicitly computed within the loop-expansion approximation for an Einstein universe. The curvature turns out to be dominant in setting the crossover scale from a double-peak and a symmetric distribution of the block variables. The evolution of all the coupling constants generated by the blocking procedure is examined: the renormalized trajectories agree with the standard perturbative results for the relevant vertices near the ultraviolet fixed point, but new effective interactions between gravity and matter are present. The flow of the conformal coupling constant is therefore analyzed in the improved scheme and the infrared fixed point is reached for arbitrary values of the renormalized parameters.Comment: 18 pages, REVTex, two uuencoded figures. (to appear in Phys. Rev. D15, July) Transmission errors have been correcte

Finite size scaling in the 2D XY-model and generalized universality

In recent works (BHP), a generalized universality has been proposed, linking phenomena as dissimilar as 2D magnetism and turbulence. To test these ideas, we performed a MC study of the 2D XY-model. We found that the shape of the probability distribution function for the magnetization M is non Gaussian and independent of the system size --in the range of the lattice sizes studied-- below the Kosterlitz-Thoules temperature. However, the shape of these distributions does depend on the temperature, contrarily to the BHP's claim. This behavior is successfully explained by using an extended finite-size scaling analysis and the existence of bounds for M.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. Details of changes: 1. We emphasized in the abstract the range of validity of our results. 2. In the last paragraph the temperature dependence of the PDF was slightly re-formulate

Relativistic quantum clocks

The conflict between quantum theory and the theory of relativity is exemplified in their treatment of time. We examine the ways in which their conceptions differ, and describe a semiclassical clock model combining elements of both theories. The results obtained with this clock model in flat spacetime are reviewed, and the problem of generalizing the model to curved spacetime is discussed, before briefly describing an experimental setup which could be used to test of the model. Taking an operationalist view, where time is that which is measured by a clock, we discuss the conclusions that can be drawn from these results, and what clues they contain for a full quantum relativistic theory of time.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Invited contribution for the proceedings for "Workshop on Time in Physics" Zurich 201

Local fluctuations in quantum critical metals

We show that spatially local, yet low-energy, fluctuations can play an essential role in the physics of strongly correlated electron systems tuned to a quantum critical point. A detailed microscopic analysis of the Kondo lattice model is carried out within an extended dynamical mean-field approach. The correlation functions for the lattice model are calculated through a self-consistent Bose-Fermi Kondo problem, in which a local moment is coupled both to a fermionic bath and to a bosonic bath (a fluctuating magnetic field). A renormalization-group treatment of this impurity problem--perturbative in $\epsilon=1-\gamma$, where $\gamma$ is an exponent characterizing the spectrum of the bosonic bath--shows that competition between the two couplings can drive the local-moment fluctuations critical. As a result, two distinct types of quantum critical point emerge in the Kondo lattice, one being of the usual spin-density-wave type, the other ``locally critical.'' Near the locally critical point, the dynamical spin susceptibility exhibits $\omega/T$ scaling with a fractional exponent. While the spin-density-wave critical point is Gaussian, the locally critical point is an interacting fixed point at which long-wavelength and spatially local critical modes coexist. A Ginzburg-Landau description for the locally critical point is discussed. It is argued that these results are robust, that local criticality provides a natural description of the quantum critical behavior seen in a number of heavy-fermion metals, and that this picture may also be relevant to other strongly correlated metals.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures; typos in figure 3 and in the main text corrected, version as publishe

Tune in to your emotions: a robust personalized affective music player

The emotional power of music is exploited in a personalized affective music player (AMP) that selects music for mood enhancement. A biosignal approach is used to measure listeners’ personal emotional reactions to their own music as input for affective user models. Regression and kernel density estimation are applied to model the physiological changes the music elicits. Using these models, personalized music selections based on an affective goal state can be made. The AMP was validated in real-world trials over the course of several weeks. Results show that our models can cope with noisy situations and handle large inter-individual differences in the music domain. The AMP augments music listening where its techniques enable automated affect guidance. Our approach provides valuable insights for affective computing and user modeling, for which the AMP is a suitable carrier application

Nonperturbative renormalization group approach to frustrated magnets

This article is devoted to the study of the critical properties of classical XY and Heisenberg frustrated magnets in three dimensions. We first analyze the experimental and numerical situations. We show that the unusual behaviors encountered in these systems, typically nonuniversal scaling, are hardly compatible with the hypothesis of a second order phase transition. We then review the various perturbative and early nonperturbative approaches used to investigate these systems. We argue that none of them provides a completely satisfactory description of the three-dimensional critical behavior. We then recall the principles of the nonperturbative approach - the effective average action method - that we have used to investigate the physics of frustrated magnets. First, we recall the treatment of the unfrustrated - O(N) - case with this method. This allows to introduce its technical aspects. Then, we show how this method unables to clarify most of the problems encountered in the previous theoretical descriptions of frustrated magnets. Firstly, we get an explanation of the long-standing mismatch between different perturbative approaches which consists in a nonperturbative mechanism of annihilation of fixed points between two and three dimensions. Secondly, we get a coherent picture of the physics of frustrated magnets in qualitative and (semi-) quantitative agreement with the numerical and experimental results. The central feature that emerges from our approach is the existence of scaling behaviors without fixed or pseudo-fixed point and that relies on a slowing-down of the renormalization group flow in a whole region in the coupling constants space. This phenomenon allows to explain the occurence of generic weak first order behaviors and to understand the absence of universality in the critical behavior of frustrated magnets.Comment: 58 pages, 15 PS figure