Consequences of Fine-Tuning for Fifth Force Searches

Light bosonic fields mediate long range forces between objects. If these fields have self-interactions, i.e., non-quadratic terms in the potential, the experimental constraints on such forces can be drastically altered due to a screening (chameleon) or enhancement effect. We explore how technically natural values for such self-interaction coupling constants modify the existing constraints. We point out that assuming the existence of these natural interactions leads to new constraints, contrary to the usual expectation that screening leads to gaps in coverage. We discuss how screening can turn fundamentally equivalence principle (EP)-preserving forces into EP-violating ones. This means that when natural screening is present, searches for EP violation can be used to constrain EP-preserving forces. We show how this effect enables the recently discovered stellar triple system \textit{PSR J0337$+$1715} to place a powerful constraint on EP-preserving fifth forces. Finally, we demonstrate that technically natural cubic self-interactions modify the vacuum structure of the scalar potential, leading to new constraints from spontaneous and induced vacuum decay.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures -- v3 reflects version published in JHE

Leveraging ASTM Industry Standard F3269-17 for Providing Safe Operations of a Highly Autonomous Aircraft

This paper expands upon the ASTM industry standard F3269-17 to outline a run-time assurance (RTA) network architecture for use in ensuring safe flight operations of a highly autonomous aircraft. An RTA network architecture is proposed and critical features discussed to implement functions where automation is primarily responsible for the safety of the aircraft instead of a pilot. This shift in responsibility, made possible by the proposed architecture, is key to highly resilient automation and is a core enabler for future pilotless transportation concepts. The findings in this paper stem from the researchers experiences with ASTM in the generation of the standard and some seven years of RTA system development on various flight programs leveraging the RTA concepts outlined in the ASTM standard

Multiphotons and Photon-Jets

We discuss an extension of the Standard Model with a new vector-boson decaying predominantly into a multi-photon final state through intermediate light degrees of freedom. The model has a distinctive phase in which the photons are collimated. As such, they would fail the isolation requirements of standard multi-photon searches, but group naturally into a novel object, the photon-jet. Once defined, the photon-jet object facilitates more inclusive searches for similar phenomena. We present a concrete model, discuss photon-jets more generally, and outline some strategies that may prove useful when searching for such objects.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Automated optical identification of a large complete northern hemisphere sample of flat spectrum radio sources with S_6cm > 200 mJy

This paper describes the automated optical APM identification of radio sources from the Jodrell Bank - VLA Astrometric Survey (JVAS), as used for the search for distant radio-loud quasars. The sample has been used to investigate possible relations between optical and radio properties of flat spectrum radio sources. From the 915 sources in the sample, 756 have an optical APM identification at a red (e) and/or blue (o) plate,resulting in an identification fraction of 83% with a completeness and reliability of 98% and 99% respectively. About 20% are optically identified with extended APM objects on the red plates, e.g. galaxies. However the distinction between galaxies and quasars can not be done properly near the magnitude limit of the POSS-I plates. The identification fraction appears to decrease from >90% for sources with a 5 GHz flux density of >1 Jy, to <80% for sources at 0.2 Jy. The identification fraction, in particular that for unresolved quasars, is found to be lower for sources with steeper radio spectra. In agreement with previous studies, we find that the quasars at low radio flux density levels also tend to have fainter optical magnitudes, although there is a large spread. In addition, objects with a steep radio-to-optical spectral index are found to be mainly highly polarised quasars, supporting the idea that in these objects the polarised synchrotron component is more prominent. It is shown that the large spread in radio-to-optical spectral index is possibly caused by source to source variations in the Doppler boosting of the synchrotron component [Abridged].Comment: LaTex, 17 pages, 5 gif figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. High resolution figures can be found at http://www.roe.ac.uk/~ignas

Litigation Analytics: A Framework For Understanding, Using & Teaching

This article, appearing in the American Association of Law Libraries bimonthly member magazine, provides a brief introduction (under 2000 words) to litigation analytics. It contains a definition, common uses of litigation analytics, a brief history, as well as why litigation analytics should be taught in law school. The author provides his framework for teaching and understanding litigation analytics which includes types of analytics, pivot points (perspectives from which the analytics may be understood), and contextualizes the various analytics offerings by insight-needs categories: (1) categorizing and clustering; (2) ordering, ranking, and sorting; (3) distribution; (4) comparison; (5) trends; (6) geospatial location; (7) composition; and (8) relationships. Additionally, the article contains a cautionary hypothetical as to how the predictive nature of analytics might stifle the development of the law in a particular area