DMP online: the Digital Curation Centre’s web-based tool for creating, maintaining and exporting data management plans

Funding bodies increasingly require researchers to produce Data Management Plans (DMPs). The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) has created DMP Online, a web-based tool which draws upon an analysis of funders’ requirements to enable researchers to create and export customisable DMPs, both at the grant application stage and during the project’s lifetime

Single vortex states in a confined Bose-Einstein condensate

It has been demonstrated experimentally that non-axially symmetric vortices precess around the centre of a Bose-Einstein condensate. Two types of single vortex states have been observed, usually referred to as the S-vortex and the U-vortex. We study theoretically the single vortex excitations in spherical and elongated condensates as a function of the interaction strength. We solve numerically the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and calculate the angular momentum as a function of precession frequency. The existence of two types of vortices means that we have two different precession frequencies for each angular momentum value. As the interaction strength increases the vortex lines bend and the precession frequencies shift to lower values. We establish that for given angular momentum the S-vortex has higher energy than the U-vortex in a rotating elongated condensate. We show that the S-vortex is related to the solitonic vortex which is a nonlinear excitation in the nonrotating system. For small interaction strengths the S-vortex is related to the dark soliton. In the dilute limit a lowest Landau level calculation provides an analytic description of these vortex modes in terms of the harmonic oscillator states

Infusing Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Into Science Methods Courses Across Virginia

This article outlines the results of a collaborative study of the effects of infusing problem-based learning (PBL) into K-12 science methods courses across four universities in Virginia. Changes in pre-service teachers\u27 attitudes surrounding science teaching were measured before and after completing a science methods course in which they experienced PBL first-hand as participants, and then practiced designing their own PBL units for use in their future classrooms. The results indicate that exposure to PBL enhances pre-service teachers\u27 knowledge of inquiry methods and self-efficacy in teaching science

The SERENDIP 2 SETI project: Current status

Over the past 30 years, interest in extraterrestrial intelligence has progressed from philosophical discussion to rigorous scientific endeavors attempting to make contact. Since it is impossible to assess the probability of success and the amount of telescope time needed for detection, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Projects are plagued with the problem of attaining the large amounts of time needed on the world's precious few large radio telescopes. To circumvent this problem, the Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations (SERENDIP) instrument operates autonomously in a piggyback mode utilizing whatever observing plan is chosen by the primary observer. In this way, large quantities of high-quality data can be collected in a cost-effective and unobtrusive manner. During normal operations, SERENDIP logs statistically significant events for further offline analysis. Due to the large number of terrestrial and near-space transmitters on earth, a major element of the SERENDIP project involves identifying and rejecting spurious signals from these sources. Another major element of the SERENDIP Project (as well as most other SETI efforts) is detecting extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) signals. Events selected as candidate ETI signals are studied further in a targeted search program which utilizes between 24 to 48 hours of dedicated telescope time each year

Vortices in fermion droplets with repulsive dipole-dipole interactions

Vortices are found in a fermion system with repulsive dipole-dipole interactions, trapped by a rotating quasi-two-dimensional harmonic oscillator potential. Such systems have much in common with electrons in quantum dots, where rotation is induced via an external magnetic field. In contrast to the Coulomb interactions between electrons, the (externally tunable) anisotropy of the dipole-dipole interaction breaks the rotational symmetry of the Hamiltonian. This may cause the otherwise rotationally symmetric exact wavefunction to reveal its internal structure more directly.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Thermodynamic inequalities in superfluid

We investigate general thermodynamic stability conditions for the superfluid. This analysis is performed in an extended space of thermodynamic variables containing (along with the usual thermodynamic coordinates such as pressure and temperature) superfluid velocity and momentum density. The stability conditions lead to thermodynamic inequalities which replace the Landau superfluidity criterion at finite temperatures.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Vortex signatures in annular Bose-Einstein condensates

We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a ``Mexican hat'' potential, with a quartic minus quadratic radial dependence. We find conditions under which the ground state is annular in shape, with a hole in the center of the condensate. Rotation leads to the appearance of stable multiply-quantized vortices, giving rise to a superfluid flow around the ring. The collective modes of the system are explored both numerically and analytically using the Gross-Pitaevskii and hydrodynamic equations. Potential experimental schemes to detect vorticity are proposed and evaluated, which include measuring the splitting of collective mode frequencies, observing expansion following release from the trap, and probing the momentum distribution of the condensate.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Inelastic electron-nucleus scattering and scaling at high inelasticity

Highly inelastic electron scattering is analyzed within the context of the unified relativistic approach previously considered in the case of quasielastic kinematics. Inelastic relativistic Fermi gas modeling that includes the complete inelastic spectrum - resonant, non-resonant and Deep Inelastic Scattering - is elaborated and compared with experimental data. A phenomenological extension of the model based on direct fits to data is also introduced. Within both models, cross sections and response functions are evaluated and binding energy effects are analyzed. Finally, an investigation of the second-kind scaling behavior is also presented.Comment: 39 pages, 13 figures; formalism extended and slightly reorganized, conclusions extended; to appear in Phys. Rev.