6,068 research outputs found
Collective motion occurs inevitably in a class of populations of globally coupled chaotic elements
We discovered numerically a scaling law obeyed by the amplitude of collective
mo tion in large populations of chaotic elements. Our analysis strongly
suggests that such populations generically exhibit collective motion in the
presence of interaction, however weak it may be. A phase diagram for the
collective motion, which is characterized by peculiar structures similar to
Arnold tongues, is obtained.Comment: 6 pages, 9 Postscript figures, uses revtex.st
Non-Gaussianity from extragalactic point-sources
The population of compact extragalactic sources contribute to the
non-Gaussianity at Cosmic Microwave Background frequencies. We study their
non-Gaussianity using publicly available full-sky simulations. We introduce a
parametrisation to visualise efficiently the bispectrum and we describe the
scale and frequency dependences of the bispectrum of radio and IR
point-sources. We show that the bispectrum is well fitted by an analytical
prescription. We find that the clustering of IR sources enhances their
non-Gaussianity by several orders of magnitude, and that their bispectrum peaks
in the squeezed triangles. Examining the impact of these sources on primordial
non-Gaussianity estimation, we find that radio sources yield an important
positive bias to local fNL at low frequencies but this bias is efficiently
reduced by masking detectable sources. IR sources produce a negative bias at
high frequencies, which is not dimmed by the masking, as their clustering is
dominated by faint sources.Comment: 4pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. Contribution to the proceedings of the
International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, Goa, December 201
Scale-dependent bias of galaxies and mu-type distortion of the cosmic microwave background spectrum from single-field inflation with a modified initial state
We investigate the phenomenological consequences of a modification of the
initial state of a single inflationary field. While single-field inflation with
the standard Bunch-Davies initial vacuum state does not generally produce a
measurable three-point function (bispectrum) in the squeezed configuration,
allowing for a non-standard initial state produces an exception. Here, we
calculate the signature of an initial state modification in single-field
slow-roll inflation in both the scale-dependent bias of the large-scale
structure (LSS) and mu-type distortion in the black-body spectrum of the cosmic
microwave background (CMB). We parametrize the initial state modifications and
identify certain choices of parameters as natural, though we also note some
fine-tuned choices that can yield a larger bispectrum. In both cases, we
observe a distinctive k^-3 signature in LSS (as opposed to k^-2 for the
local-form). As a non-zero bispectrum in the squeezed configuration correlates
a long-wavelength mode with two short-wavelength modes, it induces a
correlation between the CMB temperature anisotropy on large scales with the
temperature-anisotropy-squared on very small scales; this correlation persists
as the small-scale anisotropy-squared is processed into mu-type distortions.
While the local-form mu-distortion turns out to be too small to detect in the
near future, a modified initial vacuum state enhances the signal by a large
factor owing to an extra factor of k_1/k. For example, a proposed
absolutely-calibrated experiment, PIXIE, is expected to detect this correlation
with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 10, for an occupation number of about
0.5 in the observable modes. Relatively calibrated experiments such as Planck
and LiteBIRD should also be able to measure this effect, provided that the
relative calibration between different frequencies meets the required
precision. (Abridged)Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Matches version in PRD. Improved explanation in
Sec. IV; added references and corrected typo
Non-Gaussianity from Inflation: Theory and Observations
This is a review of models of inflation and of their predictions for the
primordial non-Gaussianity in the density perturbations which are thought to be
at the origin of structures in the Universe. Non-Gaussianity emerges as a key
observable to discriminate among competing scenarios for the generation of
cosmological perturbations and is one of the primary targets of present and
future Cosmic Microwave Background satellite missions. We give a detailed
presentation of the state-of-the-art of the subject of non-Gaussianity, both
from the theoretical and the observational point of view, and provide all the
tools necessary to compute at second order in perturbation theory the level of
non-Gaussianity in any model of cosmological perturbations. We discuss the new
wave of models of inflation, which are firmly rooted in modern particle physics
theory and predict a significant amount of non-Gaussianity. The review is
addressed to both astrophysicists and particle physicists and contains useful
tables which summarize the theoretical and observational results regarding
non-Gaussianity.Comment: LaTeX file: 218 pages, 19 figures. Replaced to match the accepted
version in Physics Reports. A high-resolution version of Fig. 2 can be
downloaded from: http://www.pd.infn.it/~liguori/Non_Gaussianity
Analytical Approach for the Determination of the Luminosity Distance in a Flat Universe with Dark Energy
Recent cosmological observations indicate that the present universe is flat
and dark energy dominated. In such a universe, the calculation of the
luminosity distance, d_L, involve repeated numerical calculations. In this
paper, it is shown that a quite efficient approximate analytical expression,
having very small uncertainties, can be obtained for d_L. The analytical
calculation is shown to be exceedingly efficient, as compared to the
traditional numerical methods and is potentially useful for Monte-Carlo
simulations involving luminosity distances.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
Leaf area index and topographical effects on turburlent diffusion in a deciduous forest
In order to investigate turbulent diffusion in a deciduous forest canopy, wind velocity
measurements were conducted from late autumn of 2009 to early spring of 2010, using an observation tower
20 m in height located in the campus of Kanazawa University. Four sonic anemometers mounted on the
tower recorded the average wind velocities and temperatures, as well as their fluctuations, at four different
heights simultaneously. Two different types of data sets were selected, in which the wind velocities, wind
bearings and atmospheric stabilities were all similar, but the Leaf Area Indexes (LAI's) were different.
Vertical profiles of average wind velocities were found to have an approximately exponential profile in each
case. The characteristic length scales of turbulence were evaluated by both von Karman's method and the
integral time scale deduced from the autocorrelation from time-series analyses. Both methods produced
comparable values of eddy diffusivity for the cases with some foliage during late autumn, but some
discrepancy in the upper canopy layer was observed when the trees did not have their leaves in early spring.
It was also found that the eddy diffusivities generally take greater values at higher positions, where the wind
speeds are large. Anisotropy of eddy diffusivities between the vertical and horizontal components was also
observed, particularly in the cases when the canopy does not have leaves, when the horizontal eddy
diffusivities are generally larger than the vertical ones. On the other hand, the anisotropy is less visible when
the trees have some foliage during autumn. The effects of topography on the turbulent diffusion were also
investigated, including evaluation of the non-zero time-averaged vertical wind velocities. The results show
that the effects are marginal for both cases, and can be neglected as far as diffusion in the canopy is
concerned
An expression for stationary distribution in nonequilibrium steady state
We study the nonequilibrium steady state realized in a general stochastic
system attached to multiple heat baths and/or driven by an external force.
Starting from the detailed fluctuation theorem we derive concise and suggestive
expressions for the corresponding stationary distribution which are correct up
to the second order in thermodynamic forces. The probability of a microstate
is proportional to where
is the excess entropy change.
Here is the difference between two kinds of conditioned
path ensemble averages of excess heat transfer from the -th heat bath whose
inverse temperature is . Our expression may be verified experimentally
in nonequilibrium states realized, for example, in mesoscopic systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
CMB anisotropy from spatial correlations of clusters of galaxies
The SZ effect from clusters of galaxies is a dominant source of secondary CMB
anisotropy in the low-redshift universe. We present analytic predictions for
the CMB power spectrum from massive halos arising from the SZ effect. Since
halos are discrete, the power spectrum consists of a Poisson and a correlation
term. The latter is always smaller than the former, which is dominated by
nearby bright rich clusters. In practice however, those bright clusters are
easy to indentify and can thus be subtracted from the map. After this
subtraction, the correlation term dominates degree-scale fluctuations over the
Poisson term, as the main contribution to the correlation term comes from
distant clusters. We find that the correlation term is detectable by Planck
experiment. Since the degree scale spectrum is quite insensitive to the highly
uncertain core structures of halos, our predictions are robust on these scales.
Measuring the correlation term on degree scales thus cleanly probes the
clustering of distant halos. This has not been measured yet, mainly because
optical and X-ray surveys are not sufficiently sensitive to include such
distant clusters and groups. Our analytic predictions are also compared to
adiabatic hydrodynamic simulations. The agreement is remarkably good, down to
ten arcminutes scales, indicating that our predictions are robust for the
Planck experiment. Below ten arcminute scales, where the details of the core
structure dominates the power spectrum, our analytic and simulated predictions
might fail. In the near future, interferometer and bolometer array experiments
will measure the SZ power spectrum down to arcminutes scales, and yield new
insight into the physics of the intrahalo medium.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. submitted to Proceedings of the 9th Marcel
Grossmann meetin
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