Electron and Ion Acceleration in Relativistic Shocks with Applications to GRB Afterglows

We have modeled the simultaneous first-order Fermi shock acceleration of protons, electrons, and helium nuclei by relativistic shocks. By parameterizing the particle diffusion, our steady-state Monte Carlo simulation allows us to follow particles from particle injection at nonthermal thermal energies to above PeV energies, including the nonlinear smoothing of the shock structure due to cosmic-ray (CR) backpressure. We observe the mass-to-charge (A/Z) enhancement effect believed to occur in efficient Fermi acceleration in non-relativistic shocks and we parameterize the transfer of ion energy to electrons seen in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. For a given set of environmental and model parameters, the Monte Carlo simulation determines the absolute normalization of the particle distributions and the resulting synchrotron, inverse-Compton, and pion-decay emission in a largely self-consistent manner. The simulation is flexible and can be readily used with a wide range of parameters typical of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. We describe some preliminary results for photon emission from shocks of different Lorentz factors and outline how the Monte Carlo simulation can be generalized and coupled to hydrodynamic simulations of GRB blast waves. We assume Bohm diffusion for simplicity but emphasize that the nonlinear effects we describe stem mainly from an extended shock precursor where higher energy particles diffuse further upstream. Quantitative differences will occur with different diffusion models, particularly for the maximum CR energy and photon emission, but these nonlinear effects should be qualitatively similar as long as the scattering mean free path is an increasing function of momentum.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Gait Verification using Knee Acceleration Signals

A novel gait recognition method for biometric applications is proposed. The approach has the following distinct features. First, gait patterns are determined via knee acceleration signals, circumventing difficulties associated with conventional vision-based gait recognition methods. Second, an automatic procedure to extract gait features from acceleration signals is developed that employs a multiple-template classification method. Consequently, the proposed approach can adjust the sensitivity and specificity of the gait recognition system with great flexibility. Experimental results from 35 subjects demonstrate the potential of the approach for successful recognition. By setting sensitivity to be 0.95 and 0.90, the resulting specificity ranges from 1 to 0.783 and 1.00 to 0.945, respectively

String Cosmology of the D-brane Universe

We analyze homogeneous anisotropic cosmology driven by the dilaton and the self-interacting ``massive'' antisymmetric tensor field which are indispensable bosonic degrees with the graviton in the NS-NS sector of string theories with D-branes. We found the attractor solutions for this system, which show the overall features of general solutions, and confirmed it through numerical analysis. The dilaton possesses the potential due to the presence of the D-brane and the curvature of extra dimensions. In the presence of the non-vanishing antisymmetric tensor field, the homogeneous universe expands anisotropically while the D-brane term dominates. The isotropy is recovered as the dilaton rolls down and the curvature term dominates. With the stabilizing potential for the dilaton, the isotropy can also be recovered.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures. Final version, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Fourier mode dynamics for the nonlinear Schroedinger equation in one-dimensional bounded domains

We analyze the 1D focusing nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation in a finite interval with homogeneous Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. There are two main dynamics, the collapse which is very fast and a slow cascade of Fourier modes. For the cubic nonlinearity the calculations show no long term energy exchange between Fourier modes as opposed to higher nonlinearities. This slow dynamics is explained by fairly simple amplitude equations for the resonant Fourier modes. Their solutions are well behaved so filtering high frequencies prevents collapse. Finally these equations elucidate the unique role of the zero mode for the Neumann boundary conditions

Analytical three-dimensional bright solitons and soliton-pairs in Bose-Einstein condensates with time-space modulation

We provide analytical three-dimensional bright multi-soliton solutions to the (3+1)-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation with time and space-dependent potential, time-dependent nonlinearity, and gain/loss. The zigzag propagation trace and the breathing behavior of solitons are observed. Different shapes of bright solitons and fascinating interactions between two solitons can be achieved with different parameters. The obtained results may raise the possibility of relative experiments and potential applications.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure