Fusion rules and vortices in px+ipyp_x+ip_y superconductors

The "half-quantum" vortices ($\sigma$) and quasiparticles ($\psi$) in a two-dimensional $p_x+ip_y$ superconductor obey the Ising-like fusion rules $\psi\times \psi=1$, $\sigma\times \psi=\sigma$, and $\sigma\times \sigma= 1+\psi$. We explain how the physical fusion of vortex-antivortex pairs allows us to use these rules to read out the information encoded in the topologically protected space of degenerate ground states. We comment on the potential applicability of this fact to quantum computation. Modified 11/30/05 to reflect manuscript as accepted for publication. Includes corrected last section.Comment: 23 pages, REVTEX

Neural networks in geophysical applications

Neural networks are increasingly popular in geophysics. Because they are universal approximators, these tools can approximate any continuous function with an arbitrary precision. Hence, they may yield important contributions to finding solutions to a variety of geophysical applications. However, knowledge of many methods and techniques recently developed to increase the performance and to facilitate the use of neural networks does not seem to be widespread in the geophysical community. Therefore, the power of these tools has not yet been explored to their full extent. In this paper, techniques are described for faster training, better overall performance, i.e., generalization,and the automatic estimation of network size and architecture

Infinite Symmetry in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

We have generalized recent results of Cappelli, Trugenberger and Zemba on the integer quantum Hall effect constructing explicitly a ${\cal W}_{1+\infty}$ for the fractional quantum Hall effect such that the negative modes annihilate the Laughlin wave functions. This generalization has a nice interpretation in Jain's composite fermion theory. Furthermore, for these models we have calculated the wave functions of the edge excitations viewing them as area preserving deformations of an incompressible quantum droplet, and have shown that the ${\cal W}_{1+\infty}$ is the underlying symmetry of the edge excitations in the fractional quantum Hall effect. Finally, we have applied this method to more general wave functions.Comment: 15pp. LaTeX, BONN-HE-93-2

Flight test evaluation of a separate surface attitude command control system on a Beech 99 airplane

A joint NASA/university/industry program was conducted to flight evaluate a potentially low cost separate surface implementation of attitude command in a Beech 99 airplane. Saturation of the separate surfaces was the primary cause of many problems during development. Six experienced professional pilots who made simulated instrument flight evaluations experienced improvements in airplane handling qualities in the presence of turbulence and a reduction in pilot workload. For ride quality, quantitative data show that the attitude command control system results in all cases of airplane motion being removed from the uncomfortable ride region

The mixing of interplanetary magnetic field lines: A significant transport effect in studies of the energy spectra of impulsive flares

Using instrumentation on board the ACE spacecraft we describe short-time scale (~3 hour) variations observed in the arrival profiles of ~20 keV nucleon^(–1) to ~2 MeV nucleon^(–1) ions from impulsive solar flares. These variations occurred simultaneously across all energies and were generally not in coincidence with any local magnetic field or plasma signature. These features appear to be caused by the convection of magnetic flux tubes past the observer that are alternately filled and devoid of flare ions even though they had a common flare source at the Sun. In these particle events we therefore have a means to observe and measure the mixing of the interplanetary magnetic field due to random walk. In a survey of 25 impulsive flares observed at ACE between 1997 November and 1999 July these features had an average time scale of 3.2 hours, corresponding to a length of ~0.03 AU. The changing magnetic connection to the flare site sometimes lead to an incomplete observation of a flare at 1 AU; thus the field-line mixing is an important effect in studies of impulsive flare energy spectra

Intravascular Imaging Guidance of Left Main PCI: Nice to Have or Must Have?

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Advanced composite aileron for L-1011 transport aircraft, task 1

Structural design and maintainability criteria were established and used as a guideline for evaluating a variety of configurations and materials for each of the major subcomponents. From this array of subcomponent designs, several aileron assemblies were formulated and analyzed. The selected design is a multirib configuration with sheet skin covers mechanically fastened to channel section ribs and spars. Qualitative analysis of currently available composite material systems led to the selection of three candidate materials on which comparative structural tests were conducted to measure the effects of environment and impact damage on mechanical property retention. In addition, each system was evaluated for producibility characteristics. From these tests, Thornel 300/5208 unidirectional tape was selected for the front spar and covers, and Thornel 300 fabric/5208 was chosen for the ribs