222 research outputs found
A Reinforcement Learning Agent for Minutiae Extraction from Fingerprints
In this paper we show that reinforcement learning can be used for minutiae detection in fingerprint matching. Minutiae are characteristic features of fingerprints that determine their uniqueness. Classical approaches use a series of image processing steps for this task, but lack robustness because they are highly sensitive to noise and image quality. We propose a more robust approach, in which an autonomous agent walks around in the fingerprint and learns how to follow ridges in the fingerprint and how to recognize minutiae. The agent is situated in the environment, the fingerprint, and uses reinforcement learning to obtain an optimal policy. Multi-layer perceptrons are used for overcoming the difficulties of the large state space. By choosing the right reward structure and learning environment, the agent is able to learn the task. One of the main difficulties is that the goal states are not easily specified, for they are part of the learning task as well. That is, the recognition of minutiae has to be learned in addition to learning how to walk over the ridges in the fingerprint. Results of successful first experiments are presented
Electrostatics of Vortices in Type II Superconductors
In a type II superconductor the gap variation in the core of a vortex line
induces a local charge modulation. Accounting for metallic screening, we
determine the line charge of individual vortices and calculate the electric
field distribution in the half space above a field penetrated superconductor.
The resulting field is that of an atomic size dipole , is the Bohr radius, acting
on a force microscope in the pico to femto Newton range.Comment: 9 pages, late
Charge Frustration Effects in Capacitively Coupled Two-Dimensional Josephson-Junction Arrays
We investigate the quantum phase transitions in two capacitively coupled
two-dimensional Josephson-junction arrays with charge frustration. The system
is mapped onto the S=1 and anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets near
the particle-hole symmetry line and near the maximal-frustration line,
respectively, which are in turn argued to be effectively described by a single
quantum phase model. Based on the resulting model, it is suggested that near
the maximal frustration line the system may undergo a quantum phase transition
from the charge-density wave to the super-solid phase, which displays both
diagonal and off- diagonal long-range order.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Magnetization process of the spin-1/2 XXZ models on square and cubic lattices
The magnetization process of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic XXZ model with
Ising-like anisotropy in the ground state is investigated. We show numerically
that the Ising-like XXZ models on square and cubic lattices show a first-order
phase transition at some critical magnetic field. We estimate the value of the
critical field and the magnetization jump on the basis of the Maxwell
construction. The magnetization jump in the Ising-limit is investigated by
means of perturbation theory. Based on our numerical results, we briefly
discuss the phase diagram of the extended Bose-Hubbard model in the hard-core
limit.Comment: 13 pages, RevTex, 7 PostScript figures, to appear in Phys.Rev.
Phase diagrams, critical and multicritical behavior of hard-core Bose-Hubbard models
We determine the zero-temperature phase diagram of the hard-core Bose-Hubbard
model on a square lattice by mean-field theory supplemented by a linear
spin-wave analysis. Due to the interplay between nearest and next-nearest
neighbor interaction and cubic anisotropy several supersolid phases with
checkerboard, stripe domain or intermediate symmetry are stabilized. The phase
diagrams show three different topologies depending on the relative strength of
nearest and next-nearest neighbor interaction. We also find a rich variety of
new quantum critical behavior and multicritical points and discuss the
corresponding effective actions and universality classes.Comment: 19 pages, ReVTeX, 18 figures included, submitted to PR
first isolation of acetovanillone and piceol from crinum buphanoides and crinum graminicola i verd amaryllidaceae
Screening of three native South African Amaryllidaceae bulbs, aimed at finding new metabolites for their promising biological activities, lead to the initial discovery of two interesting non-alkaloid compounds viz., acetovanillone 1 (also known as apocynin) and 4-hydroxyacetophenone 2 (also named piceol) isolated from Crinum buphonoides, while only the former was isolated from Crinum graminicola. This is the first time that acetovanillone 1 and piceol 2 were isolated from C. graminicola and C. buphanoides, respectively. Acetovanillone 1 was recently reported as a metabolite of Boophane disticha (L.f.), another South Africa Amaryllidacea species
Tunnel junctions of unconventional superconductors
The phenomenology of Josephson tunnel junctions between unconventional
superconductors is developed further. In contrast to s-wave superconductors,
for d-wave superconductors the direction dependence of the tunnel matrix
elements that describe the barrier is relevant. We find the full I-V
characteristics and comment on the thermodynamical properties of these
junctions. They depend sensitively on the relative orientation of the
superconductors. The I-V characteristics differ from the normal s-wave RSJ-like
behavior.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 4 (encapsulated postscript) figures (figures
replaced
Quantum phase transitions in superconducting arrays under external magnetic fields
We study the zero-temperature phase transitions of two-dimensional
superconducting arrays with both the self- and the junction capacitances in the
presence of external magnetic fields. We consider two kinds of excitations from
the Mott insulating phase: charge-dipole excitations and single-charge
excitations, and apply the second-order perturbation theory to find their
energies. The resulting phase boundaries are found to depend strongly on the
magnetic frustration, which measures the commensurate-incommensurate effects.
Comparison of the obtained values with those in recent experiment suggests the
possibility that the superconductor-insulator transition observed in experiment
may not be of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type. The system is also
transformed to a classical three-dimensional XY model with the magnetic field
in the time-direction; this allows the analogy to bulk superconductors,
revealing the nature of the phase transitions.Comment: 9 pages including 7 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Screening effects in superconductors
The partition function of the Hubbard model with local attraction and long
range Coulomb repulsion between electrons is written as a functional integral
with an action involving a pairing field and a local potential
. After integration over and over fluctuations in , the
final form of involves a Josephson coupling between the local phases of
and a "kinetic energy" term, representing the screened Coulomb
interaction between charge fluctuations. The competition between Josephson
coupling and charging energy allows to understand the relation between
and composition in high- materials, in particular superlattices, alloys
and bulk systems of low doping.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, no figures, submitted to Physica B (Proceedings of
SCES '96 International Conference, held in Zurich from 19th to 21st of
August
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