Commentary on the Portfolio of Compositions submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Composition

John Goodenough Doctor of Philosophy by Composition Durham University Department of Music 2014 Portfolio Contents 1. Ubi Caritas 2009 - for Violin & Piano 4.36 2. String Quartet 2010 - for String Quartet 5.15 3. Echoes of Poems & Prose 2010 - for small ensemble 32.45 4. Fountains 2011 - for String Quartet 4.45 5. Stato di Cambiamento 2012 - for large ensemble 5.10 6. Triptych 2012 - for small ensemble 5.20 7. Divergenza 2013 - for large orchestra 33.12 Total time 91.03 Other musical examples (not part of the portfolio) Sette archi spezzati 2013 - for small ensemble 5.28 This portfolio has three principal themes. The first, explored with the discussion of Ubi Caritas and the (2010) String Quartet, concerns the interpretation of harmony; that is harmony, plainly being the vertical component in music but having an inbuilt propensity for horizontal movement, including line and counterpoint. In echoes of Poems & Prose, there is a disregard for any horizontal reasoning, harmony is constrained to the point of isolation and focus fundamentally shifts to the chord as 'object'. I consider this 'objective' sense in detail, in subsequent music in this portfolio. A second theme hinges on a discussion of 'musical material' (the term devised by Theodor Adorno); this considered alongside Samuel Beckett's description of a relationship, between 'mess and confusion' (Beckett's terms for material) and the 'form' that contains it. In Echoes of Poems & Prose, I consider material explicitly, in particular the singular sound. With Fountains and Stato di Cambiamento control of the sounds and their overall architecture become increasingly obscure, with issues around form, substantively re-defining the compositional process. A third theme is the consideration of aspects of structure, which become of particular significance in the final pieces Triptych and Divergenza (the term 'structure' being as defined by John Cage). In Triptych, exploration is made of a confining form into which structural material grows; material that yields intensely colourful musical moments. In the final piece Divergenza, the Fibonacci sequence applies a vice-like grip on the material, but as I remove the conceptual dependence on this sequence, the music's intrinsic characteristics of rhythm and character grow to become of central importance

Cultural Replication Theory and Law

Does law itself evolve? It has been widely suggested that culturally transmitted behavioral information exhibits a Darwinian evolutionary dynamic. The argument is straightforward. Darwinian evolution has three basic elements: (i) replicative descent with (ii) variation, subject to (iii) a form of selection. Bundles of cultural information as diverse as language, religious practices, and how to bake bread pass with imperfect fidelity from generation to generation. Some of the variants created by these imperfections are passed, non-randomly, to the next generation with greater frequency.

Overview of the Heisenberg--Weyl Algebra and Subsets of Riordan Subgroups

In a first part, we are concerned with the relationships between polynomials in the two generators of the algebra of Heisenberg--Weyl, its Bargmann--Fock representation with differential operators and the associated one-parameter group.Upon this basis, the paper is then devoted to the groups of Riordan matrices associated to the related transformations of matrices (i.e. substitutions with prefunctions). Thereby, various properties are studied arising in Riordan arrays, in the Riordan group and, more specifically, in the `striped' Riordan subgroups; further, a striped quasigroup and a semigroup are also examined. A few applications to combinatorial structures are also briefly addressed in the Appendix.Comment: Version 3 of the paper entitled `On subsets of Riordan subgroups and Heisenberg--Weyl algebra' in [hal-00974929v2]The present article is published in The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, Volume 22, Issue 4, 40 pages (Oct. 2015), pp.Id: 1

Charge Asymmetric Cosmic Ray Signals From Dark Matter Decay

The PAMELA and Fermi measurements of the cosmic-ray electron and positron spectra have generated much interest over the past two years, because they are consistent with a significant component of the electron and positron fluxes between 20 GeV and 1 TeV being produced through dark matter annihilation or decay. However, since the measurements are also consistent with astrophysical interpretations, the message is unclear. In this paper, we point out that dark matter can have a more distinct signal in cosmic rays, that of a charge asymmetry. Such charge asymmetry can result if the dark matter's abundance is due to a relic asymmetry, allowing its decay to generate an asymmetry in positrons and electrons. This is analogous to the baryon asymmetry, where decaying neutrons produce electrons and not positrons. We explore benchmark scenarios where the dark matter decays into a leptophilic charged Higgs boson or electroweak gauge bosons. These models have observable signals in gamma rays and neutrinos, which can be tested by Fermi and IceCube. The most powerful test will be at AMS-02, given its ability to distinguish electron and positron charge above 100 GeV. Specifically, an asymmetry favoring positrons typically predicts a larger positron ratio and a harder (softer) high energy spectrum for positrons (electrons) than charge symmetric sources. We end with a brief discussion on how such scenarios differ from the leading astrophysical explanations.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, revtex; v2, additional references adde

Magnetic interaction at an interface between manganite and other transition metal oxides

A general consideration is presented for the magnetic interaction at an interface between a perovskite manganite and other transition metal oxides. The latter is specified by the electron number $n$ in the $d_{3z^2-r^2}$ level as $(d_{3z^2-r^2})^n$. Based on the molecular orbitals formed at the interface and the generalized Hund's rule, the sign of the magnetic interaction is rather uniquely determined. The exception is when the $d_{3z^2-r^2}$ orbital is stabilized in the interfacial manganite layer neighboring to a $(d_{3z^2-r^2})^1$ or $(d_{3z^2-r^2})^2$ system. In this case, the magnetic interaction is sensitive to the occupancy of the Mn $d_{3z^2-r2}$ orbital. It is also shown that the magnetic interaction between the interfacial Mn layer and the bulk region can be changed. Manganite-based heterostructures thus show a rich magnetic behavior. We also present how to generalize the argument including $t_{2g}$ orbitals.Comment: 7pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

User oriented ERTS-1 images

Photographic reproduction of ERTS-1 images are capable of displaying only a portion of the total information available from the multispectral scanner. Methods are being developed to generate ERTS-1 images oriented towards special users such as agriculturists, foresters, and hydrologists by applying image enhancement techniques and interactive statistical classification schemes. Spatial boundaries and linear features can be emphasized and delineated using simple filters. Linear and nonlinear transformations can be applied to the spectral data to emphasize certain ground information. An automatic classification scheme was developed to identify particular ground cover classes such as fallow, grain, rape seed or various vegetation covers. The scheme applies the maximum likelihood decision rule to the spectral information and classifies the ERTS-1 image on a pixel by pixel basis. Preliminary results indicate that the classifier has limited success in distinguishing crops, but is well adapted for identifying different types of vegetation