Effects of non-equilibrated topological charge distributions on pseudoscalar meson masses and decay constants

We study the effects of failure to equilibrate the squared topological charge $Q^2$ on lattice calculations of pseudoscalar masses and decay constants. The analysis is based on chiral perturbation theory calculations of the dependence of these quantities on the QCD vacuum angle $\theta$. For the light-light partially quenched case, we rederive the known chiral perturbation theory results of Aoki and Fukaya, but using the nonperturbatively-valid chiral theory worked out by Golterman, Sharpe and Singleton, and by Sharpe and Shoresh. We then extend these calculations to heavy-light mesons. Results when staggered taste-violations are important are also presented. The derived $Q^2$ dependence is compared to that of simulations using the MILC collaboration's ensembles of lattices with four flavors of HISQ dynamical quarks. We find agreement, albeit with large statistical errors. These results can be used to correct for the leading effects of unequilibrated $Q^2$, or to make estimates of the systematic error coming from the failure to equilibrate $Q^2$. In an appendix, we show that the partially quenched chiral theory may be extended beyond a lower bound on valence masses discovered by Sharpe and Shoresh. Subtleties occurring when a sea-quark mass vanishes are discussed in another appendix.Comment: 46 pages, 5 figures; added section on the effect of staggered taste violations and made other improvements for clarity. Version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Bayesian Analysis of Many-Pole Fits of Hadron Propagators in Lattice QCD

We use Bayes' probability theorem to analyze many-pole fits of hadron propagators. An alternative method of estimating values and uncertainties of the fit parameters is offered, which has certain advantages over the conventional methods. The probability distribution of the parameters of a fit is calculated. The relative probability of various models is calculated.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Latex with espcrc2.sty, uuencoded compressed tar file contains 7 Latex files: 1 with the paper and 6 with the figures. Talk presented at LATTICE96(spectrum

The strange quark condensate in the nucleon in 2+1 flavor QCD

We calculate the "strange quark content of the nucleon", , which is important for interpreting the results of some dark matter detection experiments. The method is to evaluate quark-line disconnected correlations on the MILC lattice ensembles, which include the effects of dynamical strange quarks. After continuum and chiral extrapolations, the result is <N |s s_bar |N> = 0.69 +- 0.07(statistical) +- 0.09(systematic), in the modified minimal subtraction scheme (2 GeV), or for the renormalization scheme invariant form, m_s partial{M_N}/partial{m_s} = 59(6)(8) MeV.Comment: Added figures and references, especially for fit range choice. Other changes for clarity. Version to appear in publicatio

The Quenched Continuum Limit

We show that all current formalisms for quarks in lattice QCD are consistent in the quenched continuum limit, as they should be. We improve on previous extrapolations to this limit, and the understanding of lattice systematic errors there, by using a constrained fit including both leading and sub-leading dependence on a.Comment: Poster presented at Lattice2004(spectrum), Fermilab, June 21-26, 200

Comparison of clustering techniques for residential load profiles in South Africa

This work compares techniques for clustering metered residential energy consumption data to construct representative daily load profiles in South Africa. The input data captures a population with high variability across temporal, geographic, social and economic dimensions. Different algorithms, normalisation and pre-binning techniques are evaluated to determine their effect on producing a good clustering structure. A Combined Index is developed as a relative score to ease the comparison of experiments across different metrics. The study shows that normalisation, specifically unit norm and the zero-one scaler, produce the best clusters. Pre-binning appears to improve clustering structures as a whole, but its effect on individual experiments remains unclear. Like several previous studies, the k-means algorithm produces the best results. To our knowledge this is the first work that rigorously compares state of the art cluster analysis techniques in the residential energy domain in a developing country context

High density QCD with static quarks

We study lattice QCD in the limit that the quark mass and chemical potential are simultaneously made large, resulting in a controllable density of quarks which do not move. This is similar in spirit to the quenched approximation for zero density QCD. In this approximation we find that the deconfinement transition seen at zero density becomes a smooth crossover at any nonzero density, and that at low enough temperature chiral symmetry remains broken at all densities.Comment: LaTeX, 18 pages, uses epsf.sty, postscript figures include

Third type of domain wall in soft magnetic nanostrips

Magnetic domain walls (DWs) in nanostructures are low-dimensional objects that separate regions with uniform magnetisation. Since they can have different shapes and widths, DWs are an exciting playground for fundamental research, and became in the past years the subject of intense works, mainly focused on controlling, manipulating, and moving their internal magnetic configuration. In nanostrips with in-plane magnetisation, two DWs have been identified: in thin and narrow strips, transverse walls are energetically favored, while in thicker and wider strips vortex walls have lower energy. The associated phase diagram is now well established and often used to predict the low-energy magnetic configuration in a given magnetic nanostructure. However, besides the transverse and vortex walls, we find numerically that another type of wall exists in permalloy nanostrips. This third type of DW is characterised by a three-dimensional, flux closure micromagnetic structure with an unusual length and three internal degrees of freedom. Magnetic imaging on lithographically-patterned permalloy nanostrips confirms these predictions and shows that these DWs can be moved with an external magnetic field of about 1mT. An extended phase diagram describing the regions of stability of all known types of DWs in permalloy nanostrips is provided.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure