Noise In Nonohmic Regimes Of Disordered Systems

We present here a short review of mainly experimental properties of noise as disordered systems are driven into non-ohmic regimes by applying voltages of few volts only. It is found that the noise does not simply follow the resistance in that the direction of change of noise could be opposite to that of resistance. It is discussed how this and other properties make the noise a complementary and incisive tool for studying complex systems, particularly its dynamic properties. Study of noise in non-ohmic regimes in physical systems is rather in a nascent stage. Some of the open issues are highlighted.Comment: 9 Pages, 7 figures. Reported in Unsolved Problems of Noise and Fluctuations: UPoN 2005, Gallipoli, Italy, June 6-10, 200

Variations in the Cyclotron Resonant Scattering Features during 2011 outburst of 4U 0115+63

We study the variations in the Cyclotron Resonant Scattering Feature (CRSF) during 2011 outburst of the high mass X-ray binary 4U 0115+63 using observations performed with Suzaku, RXTE, Swift and INTEGRAL satellites. The wide-band spectral data with low energy coverage allowed us to characterize the broadband continuum and detect the CRSFs. We find that the broadband continuum is adequately described by a combination of a low temperature (kT ~ 0.8 keV) blackbody and a power-law with high energy cutoff (Ecut ~ 5.4 keV) without the need for a broad Gaussian at ~ 10 keV as used in some earlier studies. Though winds from the companion can affect the emission from the neutron star at low energies (< 3 keV), the blackbody component shows a significant presence in our continuum model. We report evidence for the possible presence of two independent sets of CRSFs with fundamentals at ~ 11 keV and ~ 15 keV. These two sets of CRSFs could arise from spatially distinct emitting regions. We also find evidence for variations in the line equivalent widths, with the 11 keV CRSF weakening and the 15 keV line strengthening with decreasing luminosity. Finally, we propose that the reason for the earlier observed anti-correlation of line energy with luminosity could be due to modelling of these two independent line sets (~ 11 keV and ~ 15 keV) as a single CRSF.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures (4 in colour), 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Typos corrected, Figure 8 changed and some changes to draf

Kinematical Analogy for Marginal Dyon Decay

We describe a kinematical analogy for the marginal decay of 1/4-BPS dyons in 4-dimensional N=4 string compactifications. In this analogy, the electric and magnetic charges play the role of spatial momenta, the BPS mass plays the role of energy, and 1/2-BPS dyons correspond to massless particles. Using SO(12,1) "Lorentz" invariance and standard kinematical formulae in particle physics, we provide simple derivations of the curves of marginal stability. We also show how these curves map into the momentum ellipsoid, and propose some applications of this analogy.Comment: 10 pages, minor revision