Instantons in the Langevin dynamics: an application to spin glasses

We develop a general technique to calculate the probability of transitions over the barriers in spin-glasses in the framework of the dynamical theory. We use Lagrangian formulation of the instanton dynamics in which the transitions are represented by instantons. We derive the full set of the equations that determine the instantons but instead of solving them directly we prove that an instanton process can be mapped into a usual process going back in time which simplifies the problem significantly. We apply this general considerations to a simple example of the spherical Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model and we find the probability of the transition between the metastable states which is in agreement with physical expectations.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure

Effect of different omega-6/omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid ratios on the formation of monohydroxylated fatty acids in THP-1 derived macrophages

Omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-6 and n-3 PUFA) can modulate inflammatory processes. In western diets, the content of n-6 PUFA is much higher than that of n-3 PUFA, which has been suggested to promote a pro-inflammatory phenotype. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of modulating the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio on the formation of monohydroxylated fatty acid (HO-FAs) derived from the n-6 PUFA arachidonic acid (AA) and the n-3 PUFAs eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in THP-1 macrophages by means of LC-MS. Lipid metabolites were measured in THP-1 macrophage cell pellets. The concentration of AA-derived hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs) was not significantly changed when incubated THP-1 macrophages in a high AA/(EPA+DHA) ratio of 19/1 vs. a low ratio AA/(EPA+DHA) of 1/1 (950.6 +/- 110 ng/mg vs. 648.2 +/- 92.4 ng/mg, p = 0.103). Correspondingly, the concentration of EPA-derived hydroxyeicosapentaenoic acids (HEPEs) and DHA-derived hydroxydocosahexaenoic acids (HDHAs) were significantly increased (63.9 +/- 7.8 ng/mg vs. 434.4 +/- 84.3 ng/mg, p = 0.012 and 84.9 +/- 18.3 ng/mg vs. 439.4 +/- 82.7 ng/mg, p = 0.014, respectively). Most notable was the strong increase of 18-hydroxyeicosapentaenoic acid (18-HEPE) formation in THP-1 macrophages, with levels of 170.9 +/- 40.2 ng/mg protein in the high n-3 PUFA treated cells. Thus our data indicate that THP-1 macrophages prominently utilize EPA and DHA for monohydroxylated metabolite formation, in particular 18-HEPE, which has been shown to be released by macrophages to prevent pressure overload-induced maladaptive cardiac remodeling

Simulated-tempering approach to spin-glass simulations

After developing an appropriate iteration procedure for the determination of the parameters, the method of simulated tempering has been successfully applied to the 2D Ising spin glass. The reduction of the slowing down is comparable to that of the multicanonical algorithm. Simulated tempering has, however, the advantages to allow full vectorization of the programs and to provide the canonical ensemble directly.Comment: 12 pages (LaTeX), 4 postscript figures, uufiles encoded, submitted to Physical Review

Pion photoproduction on the nucleon in the quark model

We present a detailed quark-model study of pion photoproduction within the effective Lagrangian approach. Cross sections and single-polarization observables are investigated for the four charge channels, $\gamma p\to \pi^+ n$, $\gamma n\to \pi^- p$, $\gamma p\to \pi^0 p$, and $\gamma n\to \pi^0 n$. Leaving the $\pi N\Delta$ coupling strength to be a free parameter, we obtain a reasonably consistent description of these four channels from threshold to the first resonance region. Within this effective Lagrangian approach, strongly constrainted by the quark model, we consider the issue of double-counting which may occur if additional {\it t}-channel contributions are included.Comment: Revtex, 35 pages, 16 eps figures; version to appear on PR

Cluster Spin Glass Distribution Functions in La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_4

Signatures of the cluster spin glass have been found in a variety of experiments, with an effective onset temperature $T_{on}$ that is frequency dependent. We reanalyze the experimental results and find that they are characterized by a distribution of activation energies, with a nonzero glass transition temperature $T_g(x)<T_{on}$. While the distribution of activation energies is the same, the distribution of weights depends on the process. Remarkably, the weights are essentially doping independent.Comment: 5 pages, 5 ps figure

Low frequency response of a collectively pinned vortex manifold

A low frequency dynamic response of a vortex manifold in type-II superconductor can be associated with thermally activated tunneling of large portions of the manifold between pairs of metastable states (two-level systems). We suggest that statistical properties of these states can be verified by using the same approach for the analysis of thermal fluctuations the behaviour of which is well known. We find the form of the response for the general case of vortex manifold with non-dispersive elastic moduli and for the case of thin superconducting film for which the compressibility modulus is always non-local.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, ReVTeX, the final version. Text strongly modified, all the results unchange

Langevin Simulations of Two Dimensional Vortex Fluctuations: Anomalous Dynamics and a New IVIV-exponent

The dynamics of two dimensional (2D) vortex fluctuations are investigated through simulations of the 2D Coulomb gas model in which vortices are represented by soft disks with logarithmic interactions. The simulations trongly support a recent suggestion that 2D vortex fluctuations obey an intrinsic anomalous dynamics manifested in a long range 1/t-tail in the vortex correlations. A new non-linear IV-exponent a, which is different from the commonly used AHNS exponent, a_AHNS and is given by a = 2a_AHNS - 3, is confirmed by the simulations. The results are discussed in the context of earlier simulations, experiments and a phenomenological description.Comment: Submitted to PRB, RevTeX format, 28 pages and 13 figures, figures in postscript format are available at http://www.tp.umu.se/~holmlund/papers.htm

Aftershocks in Modern Perspectives: Complex Earthquake Network, Aging, and Non-Markovianity

The phenomenon of aftershocks is studied in view of science of complexity. In particular, three different concepts are examined: (i) the complex-network representation of seismicity, (ii) the event-event correlations, and (iii) the effects of long-range memory. Regarding (i), it is shown the clustering coefficient of the complex earthquake network exhibits a peculiar behavior at and after main shocks. Regarding (ii), it is found that aftershocks experience aging, and the associated scaling holds. And regarding (iii), the scaling relation to be satisfied by a class of singular Markovian processes is violated, implying the existence of the long-range memory in processes of aftershocks.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures and 1 table. Acta Geophysica, in pres

Superconducting Transition Temperature in Heterogeneous Ferromagnet-Superconductor Systems

We study the shift of the the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ in ferromagnetic-superconducting bi-layers and in a superconducting film supplied a square array of ferromagnetic dots. We find that the transition temperature in these two cases change presumably in opposite direction and that its change is not too small. We extend these results to multilayer structures. We predict that rather small external magnetic field $\sim 10$ Oe can change the transition temperature of the bilayer by 10% .Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Spin glass overlap barriers in three and four dimensions

For the Edwards-Anderson Ising spin-glass model in three and four dimensions (3d and 4d) we have performed high statistics Monte Carlo calculations of those free-energy barriers $F^q_B$ which are visible in the probability density $P_J(q)$ of the Parisi overlap parameter $q$. The calculations rely on the recently introduced multi-overlap algorithm. In both dimensions, within the limits of lattice sizes investigated, these barriers are found to be non-self-averaging and the same is true for the autocorrelation times of our algorithm. Further, we present evidence that barriers hidden in $q$ dominate the canonical autocorrelation times.Comment: 20 pages, Latex, 12 Postscript figures, revised version to appear in Phys. Rev.