Comparisons of monthly mean cosmic ray counting rates observes from worldwide network of neutron monitors

In order to examine the stability of neutron monitor observation, each of the monthly average counting rates of a neutron monitors is correlated to those of Kiel neutron monitor. The regression coefficients thus obtained are compared with the coupling coefficients of isotropic intensity radiation. The results of the comparisons for five year periods during 1963 to 1982, and for whole period are given. The variation spectrum with a single power law with an exponent of -0.75 up to 50 GV is not so unsatisfactory one. More than one half of the stations show correlations with the coefficient greater than 0.9. Some stations have shifted the level of mean counting rates by changing the instrumental characteristics which can be adjusted

Cosmological Shock Waves in the Large Scale Structure of the Universe: Non-gravitational Effects

Cosmological shock waves result from supersonic flow motions induced by hierarchical clustering of nonlinear structures in the universe. These shocks govern the nature of cosmic plasma through thermalization of gas and acceleration of nonthermal, cosmic-ray (CR) particles. We study the statistics and energetics of shocks formed in cosmological simulations of a concordance $\Lambda$CDM universe, with a special emphasis on the effects of non-gravitational processes such as radiative cooling, photoionization/heating, and galactic superwind feedbacks. Adopting an improved model for gas thermalization and CR acceleration efficiencies based on nonlinear diffusive shock acceleration calculations, we then estimate the gas thermal energy and the CR energy dissipated at shocks through the history of the universe. Since shocks can serve as sites for generation of vorticity, we also examine the vorticity that should have been generated mostly at curved shocks in cosmological simulations. We find that the dynamics and energetics of shocks are governed primarily by the gravity of matter, so other non-gravitational processes do not affect significantly the global energy dissipation and vorticity generation at cosmological shocks. Our results reinforce scenarios in which the intracluster medium and warm-hot intergalactic medium contain energetically significant populations of nonthermal particles and turbulent flow motions.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Pdf with full resolution figures can be downloaded from http://canopus.cnu.ac.kr/ryu/krco.pd

Growth of Magnetic Fields Induced by Turbulent Motions

We present numerical simulations of driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence with weak/moderate imposed magnetic fields. The main goal is to clarify dynamics of magnetic field growth. We also investigate the effects of the imposed magnetic fields on the MHD turbulence, including, as a limit, the case of zero external field. Our findings are as follows. First, when we start off simulations with weak mean magnetic field only (or with small scale random field with zero imposed field), we observe that there is a stage at which magnetic energy density grows linearly with time. Runs with different numerical resolutions and/or different simulation parameters show consistent results for the growth rate at the linear stage. Second, we find that, when the strength of the external field increases, the equilibrium kinetic energy density drops by roughly the product of the rms velocity and the strength of the external field. The equilibrium magnetic energy density rises by roughly the same amount. Third, when the external magnetic field is not very strong (say, less than ~0.2 times the rms velocity when measured in the units of Alfven speed), the turbulence at large scales remains statistically isotropic, i.e. there is no apparent global anisotropy of order B_0/v. We discuss implications of our results on astrophysical fluids.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures; ApJ, accepte

Topological Insulators and Superconductors from String Theory

Topological insulators and superconductors in different spatial dimensions and with different discrete symmetries have been fully classified recently, revealing a periodic structure for the pattern of possible types of topological insulators and supercondutors, both in terms of spatial dimensions and in terms of symmetry classes. It was proposed that K-theory is behind the periodicity. On the other hand, D-branes, a solitonic object in string theory, are also known to be classified by K-theory. In this paper, by inspecting low-energy effective field theories realized by two parallel D-branes, we establish a one-to-one correspondence between the K-theory classification of topological insulators/superconductors and D-brane charges. In addition, the string theory realization of topological insulators and superconductors comes naturally with gauge interactions, and the Wess-Zumino term of the D-branes gives rise to a gauge field theory of topological nature, such as ones with the Chern-Simons term or the $\theta$-term in various dimensions. This sheds light on topological insulators and superconductors beyond non-interacting systems, and the underlying topological field theory description thereof. In particular, our string theory realization includes the honeycomb lattice Kitaev model in two spatial dimensions, and its higher-dimensional extensions. Increasing the number of D-branes naturally leads to a realization of topological insulators and superconductors in terms of holography (AdS/CFT).Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures;references update

From modes to movement in the behavior of C. elegans

Organisms move through the world by changing their shape, and here we explore the mapping from shape space to movements in the nematode C. elegans as it crawls on a planar agar surface. We characterize the statistics of the trajectories through the correlation functions of the orientation angular velocity, orientation angle and the mean-squared displacement, and we find that the loss of orientational memory has significant contributions from both abrupt, large amplitude turning events and the continuous dynamics between these events. Further, we demonstrate long-time persistence of orientational memory in the intervals between abrupt turns. Building on recent work demonstrating that C. elegans movements are restricted to a low-dimensional shape space, we construct a map from the dynamics in this shape space to the trajectory of the worm along the agar. We use this connection to illustrate that changes in the continuous dynamics reveal subtle differences in movement strategy that occur among mutants defective in two classes of dopamine receptors

Holographic Derivation of Entanglement Entropy from AdS/CFT

A holographic derivation of the entanglement entropy in quantum (conformal) field theories is proposed from AdS/CFT correspondence. We argue that the entanglement entropy in d+1 dimensional conformal field theories can be obtained from the area of d dimensional minimal surfaces in AdS_{d+2}, analogous to the Bekenstein-Hawking formula for black hole entropy. We show that our proposal perfectly reproduces the correct entanglement entropy in 2D CFT when applied to AdS_3. We also compare the entropy computed in AdS_5 \times S^5 with that of the free N=4 super Yang-Mills.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Revtex, references adde

Boundary criticality at the Anderson transition between a metal and a quantum spin Hall insulator in two dimensions

Static disorder in a noninteracting gas of electrons confined to two dimensions can drive a continuous quantum (Anderson) transition between a metallic and an insulating state when time-reversal symmetry is preserved but spin-rotation symmetry is broken. The critical exponent $\nu$ that characterizes the diverging localization length and the bulk multifractal scaling exponents that characterize the amplitudes of the critical wave functions at the metal-insulator transition do not depend on the topological nature of the insulating state, i.e., whether it is topologically trivial (ordinary insulator) or nontrivial (a $Z_2$ insulator supporting a quantum spin Hall effect). This is not true of the boundary multifractal scaling exponents which we show (numerically) to depend on whether the insulating state is topologically trivial or not.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, selected for an Editors' Suggestion in PR