Magnetospheric convection electric field dynamics and stormtime particle energization: Case study of the magnetic storm of 4 May 1998

It is shown that narrow channels of high electric field are an effective mechanism for injecting plasma into the inner magnetosphere. Analytical expressions for the electric field cannot produce these channels of intense plasma flow, and thus, result in less entry and adiabatic energization of the plasma sheet into near-Earth space. For the ions, omission of these channels leads to an underprediction of the strength of the stormtime ring current and therefore, an underestimation of the geoeffectiveness of the storm event. For the electrons, omission of these channels leads to the inability to create a seed population of 10-100 keV electrons deep in the inner magnetosphere. These electrons can eventually be accelerated into MeV radiation belt particles. To examine this, the 1-7 May 1998 magnetic storm is studied with a plasma transport model by using three different convection electric field models: Volland-Stern, Weimer, and AMIE. It is found that the AMIE model can produce particle fluxes that are several orders of magnitude higher in the <i>L</i> = 2 – 4 range of the inner magnetosphere, even for a similar total cross-tail potential difference. <br><br><b>Key words.</b> Space plasma physics (charged particle motion and acceleration) – Magnetospheric physics (electric fields, storms and substorms

On the Lovasz O-number of Almost Regular Graphs With Application to Erdos-Renyi Graphs

AMS classifications: 05C69; 90C35; 90C22;Erdos-Renyi graph;stability number;Lovasz O-number;Schrijver O-number;C*-algebra;semidefinite programming

Gravitation Physics at BGPL

We report progress on a program of gravitational physics experiments using cryogenic torsion pendula undergoing large-amplitude torsion oscillation. This program includes tests of the gravitational inverse square law and of the weak equivalence principle. Here we describe our ongoing search for inverse-square-law violation at a strength down to $10^{-5}$ of standard gravity. The low-vibration environment provided by the Battelle Gravitation Physics Laboratory (BGPL) is uniquely suited to this study.Comment: To be published in The Proceedings of the Francesco Melchiorri Memorial Conference as a special issue of New Astronomy Review

On the Lovasz O-number of Almost Regular Graphs With Application to Erdos-Renyi Graphs

AMS classifications: 05C69; 90C35; 90C22;

Clusters in weighted macroeconomic networks : the EU case. Introducing the overlapping index of GDP/capita fluctuation correlations

GDP/capita correlations are investigated in various time windows (TW), for the time interval 1990-2005. The target group of countries is the set of 25 EU members, 15 till 2004 plus the 10 countries which joined EU later on. The TW-means of the statistical correlation coefficients are taken as the weights (links) of a fully connected network having the countries as nodes. Thereafter we define and introduce the overlapping index of weighted network nodes. A cluster structure of EU countries is derived from the statistically relevant eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the adjacency matrix. This may be considered to yield some information about the structure, stability and evolution of the EU country clusters in a macroeconomic sense.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, 17 references, submitted to Physica A; proceedings of APFA

From Network Structure to Dynamics and Back Again: Relating dynamical stability and connection topology in biological complex systems

The recent discovery of universal principles underlying many complex networks occurring across a wide range of length scales in the biological world has spurred physicists in trying to understand such features using techniques from statistical physics and non-linear dynamics. In this paper, we look at a few examples of biological networks to see how similar questions can come up in very different contexts. We review some of our recent work that looks at how network structure (e.g., its connection topology) can dictate the nature of its dynamics, and conversely, how dynamical considerations constrain the network structure. We also see how networks occurring in nature can evolve to modular configurations as a result of simultaneously trying to satisfy multiple structural and dynamical constraints. The resulting optimal networks possess hubs and have heterogeneous degree distribution similar to those seen in biological systems.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Proceedings of "Dynamics On and Of Complex Networks", ECSS'07 Satellite Workshop, Dresden, Oct 1-5, 200

Self-Similar Scalar Field Collapse: Naked Singularities and Critical Behaviour

Homothetic scalar field collapse is considered in this article. By making a suitable choice of variables the equations are reduced to an autonomous system. Then using a combination of numerical and analytic techniques it is shown that there are two classes of solutions. The first consists of solutions with a non-singular origin in which the scalar field collapses and disperses again. There is a singularity at one point of these solutions, however it is not visible to observers at finite radius. The second class of solutions includes both black holes and naked singularities with a critical evolution (which is neither) interpolating between these two extremes. The properties of these solutions are discussed in detail. The paper also contains some speculation about the significance of self-similarity in recent numerical studies.Comment: 27 pages including 5 encapsulated postcript figures in separate compressed file, report NCL94-TP1

Hawking Radiation of Dirac Particles in an Arbitrarily Accelerating Kinnersley Black Hole

Quantum thermal effect of Dirac particles in an arbitrarily accelerating Kinnersley black hole is investigated by using the method of generalized tortoise coordinate transformation. Both the location and the temperature of the event horizon depend on the advanced time and the angles. The Hawking thermal radiation spectrum of Dirac particles contains a new term which represents the interaction between particles with spin and black holes with acceleration. This spin-acceleration coupling effect is absent from the thermal radiation spectrum of scalar particles.Comment: Revtex, 12pt, 16 pages, no figure, to appear in Gen. Rel. Grav. 34 (2002) N0.

Tracking Black Holes in Numerical Relativity

This work addresses and solves the problem of generically tracking black hole event horizons in computational simulation of black hole interactions. Solutions of the hyperbolic eikonal equation, solved on a curved spacetime manifold containing black hole sources, are employed in development of a robust tracking method capable of continuously monitoring arbitrary changes of topology in the event horizon, as well as arbitrary numbers of gravitational sources. The method makes use of continuous families of level set viscosity solutions of the eikonal equation with identification of the black hole event horizon obtained by the signature feature of discontinuity formation in the eikonal's solution. The method is employed in the analysis of the event horizon for the asymmetric merger in a binary black hole system. In this first such three dimensional analysis, we establish both qualitative and quantitative physics for the asymmetric collision; including: 1. Bounds on the topology of the throat connecting the holes following merger, 2. Time of merger, and 3. Continuous accounting for the surface of section areas of the black hole sources.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figure

Persistence in a Stationary Time-series

We study the persistence in a class of continuous stochastic processes that are stationary only under integer shifts of time. We show that under certain conditions, the persistence of such a continuous process reduces to the persistence of a corresponding discrete sequence obtained from the measurement of the process only at integer times. We then construct a specific sequence for which the persistence can be computed even though the sequence is non-Markovian. We show that this may be considered as a limiting case of persistence in the diffusion process on a hierarchical lattice.Comment: 8 pages revte