SLE-type growth processes and the Yang-Lee singularity

The recently introduced SLE growth processes are based on conformal maps from an open and simply-connected subset of the upper half-plane to the half-plane itself. We generalize this by considering a hierarchy of stochastic evolutions mapping open and simply-connected subsets of smaller and smaller fractions of the upper half-plane to these fractions themselves. The evolutions are all driven by one-dimensional Brownian motion. Ordinary SLE appears at grade one in the hierarchy. At grade two we find a direct correspondence to conformal field theory through the explicit construction of a level-four null vector in a highest-weight module of the Virasoro algebra. This conformal field theory has central charge c=-22/5 and is associated to the Yang-Lee singularity. Our construction may thus offer a novel description of this statistical model.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, v2: thorough revision with corrections, v3: version to be publishe

Correlation functions of disorder operators in massive ghost theories

The two-dimensional ghost systems with negative integral central charge received much attention in the last years for their role in a number of applications and in connection with logarithmic conformal field theory. We consider the free massive bosonic and fermionic ghost systems and concentrate on the non-trivial sectors containing the disorder operators. A unified analysis of the correlation functions of such operators can be performed for ghosts and ordinary complex bosons and fermions. It turns out that these correlators depend only on the statistics although the scaling dimensions of the disorder operators change when going from the ordinary to the ghost case. As known from the study of the ordinary case, the bosonic and fermionic correlation functions are the inverse of each other and are exactly expressible through the solution of a non-linear differential equation.Comment: 8 pages, late

Avancée de Diabrotica virgifera virgifera [Coleoptera : Chrysomelidae] dans les champs de maïs au Québec et collecte dans le soja à Ottawa, Ontario

La chrysomèle des racines du maïs de l’Ouest, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, a été trouvée au Québec en septembre 2000 dans la région de la Montérégie. Ceci constitue une extension vers le nord de son aire de répartition. De plus, à Ottawa, quelques individus se sont développés à partir du soja. Ceci constitue la première mention de développement de cet insecte sur du soja au Canada.The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, was found in the Monteregie region in the province of Quebec in September 2000. This finding constitutes a northern extension of the species distribution. Moreover, at Ottawa, some specimens were found developing from soybean plants. This constitutes the first mention of development of this insect on soybean in Canada

Large tectonic earthquakes induce sharp temporary decreases in seismic velocity in Volcán de Colima, Mexico

International audienceWe used the ambient noise cross-correlation and stretching methods to calculate variations in seismic velocities in the region of Volcán de Colima, Mexico. More than 15 years of continuous records were processed, producing long time series of velocity variations related to volcanic activity, meteorological effects, and earthquakes. Velocity variations associated with eruptive activity are tenuous, which probably reflects the open state of the volcano during the study period. Fifteen events among 26 regional tectonic earthquakes produced sharp, temporary decreases in seismic velocities, which then recovered progressively following a linear trend as a function of the logarithm of time. For the 15 events, the amplitude of the perturbation increased almost linearly with the logarithm of the amplitude of the seismic waves that shook the edifice. The most dramatic apparent velocity variation was a drop of up to 2.6% during the nearby M7.4 Tecomán earthquake in 2003. In order to locate the perturbation in the horizontal plane we applied an inverse method based on the radiative transfer approximation. We also used an original approach based on the frequency dependence of velocity variations to estimate the depth of the perturbation. Our results show that the velocity variation was well localized in the shallow layers (< 800 m) of the volcano, with almost no variations occurring outside the edifice. We discuss several possible interpretations and conclude that the most plausible explanation for the velocity decreases is the nonlinear elastic behavior of the granular volcanic material and its mechanical softening induced by transient strains

Synergistic effect of dual flocculation between inorganic salts and chitosan on harvesting microalgae Chlorella vulgaris

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. The flocculation efficiency of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris for subsequent harvesting was investigated using single flocculants of inorganic salts, synthetic polymer, chitosan and dual flocculants of inorganic salts and chitosan. Synthetic polymer (FlopamTM) could achieve over 90% optical density removal (OD680removal) at a low flocculant dose (20 to 40 mg polymer per litre of algal suspension) through the bridging mechanism and charge neutralisation. Inorganic salts (i.e. ferric chloride and aluminium sulphate) and chitosan individually resulted in low flocculation efficiency (80% flocculation efficiency, significantly higher than the sum of each individual flocculation. The improvement in flocculation efficiency was 57 and 24% respectively for ferric chloride/chitosan and aluminium sulphate/chitosan. Charge neutralisation of microalgal cells by ferric chloride or aluminium sulphate combined with bridging by chitosan produced the synergy

Form-factors computation of Friedel oscillations in Luttinger liquids

We show how to analytically determine for $g\leq 1/2$ the "Friedel oscillations" of charge density by a single impurity in a 1D Luttinger liquid of spinless electrons.Comment: Revtex, epsf, 4pgs, 2fig

Boundary interactions changing operators and dynamical correlations in quantum impurity problems

Recent developments have made possible the computation of equilibrium dynamical correlators in quantum impurity problems. In many situations however, one is rather interested in correlators subject to a non equilibrium initial preparation; this is the case for instance for the occupation probability $P(t)$ in the double well problem of dissipative quantum mechanics (DQM). We show in this paper how to handle this situation in the framework of integrable quantum field theories by introducing ``boundary interactions changing operators''. We determine the properties of these operators by using an axiomatic approach similar in spirit to what is done for form-factors. This allows us to obtain new exact results for $P(t)$; for instance, we find that that at large times (or small $g$), the leading behaviour for g < 1/2} is $P(t)\propto e^{-\Gamma t}\cos\Omega t$, with the universal ratio. $\Omega/\Gamma = \cot {\pi g}/{2(1-g)}$.Comment: 4 pages, revte

Flow equation analysis of the anisotropic Kondo model

We use the new method of infinitesimal unitary transformations to calculate zero temperature correlation functions in the strong-coupling phase of the anisotropic Kondo model. We find the dynamics on all energy scales including the crossover behaviour from weak to strong coupling. The integrable structure of the Hamiltonian is not used in our approach. Our method should also be useful in other strong-coupling models since few other analytical methods allow the evaluation of their correlation functions on all energy scales.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 2 eps figures include

Exact Friedel oscillations in the g=1/2 Luttinger liquid

A single impurity in the 1D Luttinger model creates a local modification of the charge density analogous to the Friedel oscillations. In this paper, we present an exact solution of the case $g={1\over 2}$ (the equivalent of the Toulouse point) at any temperature $T$ and impurity coupling, expressing the charge density in terms of a hypergeometric function. We find in particular that at $T=0$, the oscillatory part of the density goes as $\ln x$ at small distance and $x^{-1/2}$ at large distance.Comment: 1 reference added. 13 pages, harvma