Emission from small dust particles in diffuse and molecular cloud medium

Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) observations of the whole galaxy has shown that long wavelength emission (100 and 60 micron bands) can be explained by thermal emission from big grains (approx 0.1 micron) radiating at their equilibrium temperature when heated by the InterStellar Radiation Field (ISRF). This conclusion has been confirmed by continuum sub-millimeter observations of the galactic plane made by the EMILIE experiment at 870 microns (Pajot et al. 1986). Nevertheless, shorter wavelength observations like 12 and 25 micron IRAS bands, show an emission from the galactic plane in excess with the long wavelength measurements which can only be explained by a much hotter particles population. Because dust at equilibrium cannot easily reach high temperatures required to explain this excess, this component is thought to be composed of very small dust grains or big molecules encompassing thermal fluctuations. Researchers present here a numerical model that computes emission, from Near Infrared Radiation (NIR) to Sub-mm wavelengths, from a non-homogeneous spherical cloud heated by the ISRF. This model fully takes into account the heating of dust by multi-photon processes and back-heating of dust in the Visual/Infrared Radiation (VIS-IR) so that it is likely to describe correctly emission from molecular clouds up to large A sub v and emission from dust experiencing temperature fluctuations. The dust is a three component mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, very small grains, and classical big grains with independent size distributions (cut-off and power law index) and abundances

The Galactic dust as a foreground to Cosmic Microwave Background maps

We present results obtained with the PRONAOS balloon-borne experiment on interstellar dust. In particular, the submillimeter / millimeter spectral index is found to vary between roughly 1 and 2.5 on small scales (3.5' resolution). This could have implications for component separation in Cosmic Microwave Background maps.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, proceeding of the Multi-Wavelength Cosmology conference held in Mykonos, Greece, June 2003, ed. Kluwe

Chiral structure of nucleon gravitational form factors

We study the low momentum behavior of nucleon gravitational form factors in the framework of the heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. At zero recoil they determine the momentum and spin apportion between nucleon constituents. Our result provides an insight into the response of the nucleon's pion cloud to an external weak gravitational field and establishes a theoretical framework for extrapolation of experimental and lattice data on the nucleon form factors to zero momentum transfer. We also discuss form factors corresponding to higher-rank tensor currents related to the moments of generalized parton distributions.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 1 figur

Conformal or Walking? Monte Carlo renormalization group studies of SU(3) gauge models with fundamental fermions

Strongly coupled gauge systems with many fermions are important in many phenomenological models. I use the 2-lattice matching Monte Carlo renormalization group method to study the fixed point structure and critical indexes of SU(3) gauge models with 8 and 12 flavors of fundamental fermions. With an improved renormalization group block transformation I am able to connect the perturbative and confining regimes of the N_f=8 flavor system, thus verifying its QCD-like nature. With N_f=12 flavors the data favor the existence of an infrared fixed point and conformal phase, though the results are also consistent with very slow walking. I measure the anomalous mass dimension in both systems at several gauge couplings and find that they are barely different from the free field value.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figure

Thermodynamical quantities of lattice full QCD from an efficient method

I extend to QCD an efficient method for lattice gauge theory with dynamical fermions. Once the eigenvalues of the Dirac operator and the density of states of pure gluonic configurations at a set of plaquette energies (proportional to the gauge action) are computed, thermodynamical quantities deriving from the partition function can be obtained for arbitrary flavor number, quark masses and wide range of coupling constants, without additional computational cost. Results for the chiral condensate and gauge action are presented on the $10^4$ lattice at flavor number $N_f=0$, 1, 2, 3, 4 and many quark masses and coupling constants. New results in the chiral limit for the gauge action and its correlation with the chiral condensate, which are useful for analyzing the QCD chiral phase structure, are also provided.Comment: Latex, 11 figures, version accepted for publicatio

Weak KAM for commuting Hamiltonians

For two commuting Tonelli Hamiltonians, we recover the commutation of the Lax-Oleinik semi-groups, a result of Barles and Tourin ([BT01]), using a direct geometrical method (Stoke's theorem). We also obtain a "generalization" of a theorem of Maderna ([Mad02]). More precisely, we prove that if the phase space is the cotangent of a compact manifold then the weak KAM solutions (or viscosity solutions of the critical stationary Hamilton-Jacobi equation) for G and for H are the same. As a corrolary we obtain the equality of the Aubry sets, of the Peierls barrier and of flat parts of Mather's $\alpha$ functions. This is also related to works of Sorrentino ([Sor09]) and Bernard ([Ber07b]).Comment: 23 pages, accepted for publication in NonLinearity (january 29th 2010). Minor corrections, fifth part added on Mather's $\alpha$ function (or effective Hamiltonian

Automatic programming of simulation models

The objective of automatic programming is to improve the overall environment for describing the program. This improved environment is realized by a reduction in the amount of detail that the programmer needs to know and is exposed to. Furthermore, this improved environment is achieved by a specification language that is more natural to the user's problem domain and to the user's way of thinking and looking at the problem. The goal of this research is to apply the concepts of automatic programming (AP) to modeling discrete event simulation system. Specific emphasis is on the design and development of simulation tools to assist the modeler define or construct a model of the system and to then automatically write the corresponding simulation code in the target simulation language, GPSS/PC. A related goal is to evaluate the feasibility of various languages for constructing automatic programming simulation tools

Automatic programming of simulation models

The concepts of software engineering were used to improve the simulation modeling environment. Emphasis was placed on the application of an element of rapid prototyping, or automatic programming, to assist the modeler define the problem specification. Then, once the problem specification has been defined, an automatic code generator is used to write the simulation code. The following two domains were selected for evaluating the concepts of software engineering for discrete event simulation: manufacturing domain and a spacecraft countdown network sequence. The specific tasks were to: (1) define the software requirements for a graphical user interface to the Automatic Manufacturing Programming System (AMPS) system; (2) develop a graphical user interface for AMPS; and (3) compare the AMPS graphical interface with the AMPS interactive user interface

The K+K+ Scattering Length from Lattice QCD

The K+K+ scattering length is calculated in fully-dynamical lattice QCD with domain-wall valence quarks on the MILC asqtad-improved gauge configurations with rooted staggered sea quarks. Three-flavor mixed-action chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order, which includes the leading effects of the finite lattice spacing, is used to extrapolate the results of the lattice calculation to the physical value of m_{K+}/f_{K+}. We find m_{K+} a_{K+K+} = -0.352 +- 0.016, where the statistical and systematic errors have been combined in quadrature.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures. NPLQCD collaboratio

Safety and tolerability of an ovine-derived polyclonal anti-TNFα Fab fragment (AZD9773) in patients with severe sepsis

Sepsis remains a significant medical problem. TNFα is a central cytokine in sepsis pathophysiology. We conducted a phase IIa trial in patients with severe sepsis to assess the safety and tolerability of an intravenously infused ovine-derived polyclonal anti-TNFα Fab fragment (AZD9773)