1,831 research outputs found
A universal nonlinear relation among boundary states in closed string field theory
We show that the boundary states satisfy a nonlinear relation (the
idempotency equation) with respect to the star product of closed string field
theory. This relation is universal in the sense that various D-branes,
including the infinitesimally deformed ones, satisfy the same equation,
including the coefficient. This paper generalizes our analysis (hep-th/0306189)
in the following senses. (1) We present a background-independent formulation
based on conformal field theory. It illuminates the geometric nature of the
relation and allows us to more systematically analyze the variations around the
D-brane background. (2) We show that the Witten-type star product satisfies a
similar relation but with a more divergent coefficient. (3) We determine the
coefficient of the relation analytically. The result shows that the alpha
parameter can be formally factored out, and the relation becomes universal. We
present a conjecture on vacuum theory based on this computation.Comment: 35 pages, 7 figures, references added, v3:PTPTeX, typos correcte
Driving a car with custom-designed fuzzy inferencing VLSI chips and boards
Vehicle control in a-priori unknown, unpredictable, and dynamic environments requires many calculational and reasoning schemes to operate on the basis of very imprecise, incomplete, or unreliable data. For such systems, in which all the uncertainties can not be engineered away, approximate reasoning may provide an alternative to the complexity and computational requirements of conventional uncertainty analysis and propagation techniques. Two types of computer boards including custom-designed VLSI chips were developed to add a fuzzy inferencing capability to real-time control systems. All inferencing rules on a chip are processed in parallel, allowing execution of the entire rule base in about 30 microseconds, and therefore, making control of 'reflex-type' of motions envisionable. The use of these boards and the approach using superposition of elemental sensor-based behaviors for the development of qualitative reasoning schemes emulating human-like navigation in a-priori unknown environments are first discussed. Then how the human-like navigation scheme implemented on one of the qualitative inferencing boards was installed on a test-bed platform to investigate two control modes for driving a car in a-priori unknown environments on the basis of sparse and imprecise sensor data is described. In the first mode, the car navigates fully autonomously, while in the second mode, the system acts as a driver's aid providing the driver with linguistic (fuzzy) commands to turn left or right and speed up or slow down depending on the obstacles perceived by the sensors. Experiments with both modes of control are described in which the system uses only three acoustic range (sonar) sensor channels to perceive the environment. Simulation results as well as indoors and outdoors experiments are presented and discussed to illustrate the feasibility and robustness of autonomous navigation and/or safety enhancing driver's aid using the new fuzzy inferencing hardware system and some human-like reasoning schemes which may include as little as six elemental behaviors embodied in fourteen qualitative rules
Oblique Ion Two-Stream Instability in the Foot Region of a Collisionless Shock
Electrostatic behavior of a collisionless plasma in the foot region of high
Mach number perpendicular shocks is investigated through the two-dimensional
linear analysis and electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. The
simulations are double periodic and taken as a proxy for the situation in the
foot. The linear analysis for relatively cold unmagnetized plasmas with a
reflected proton beam shows that obliquely propagating Buneman instability is
strongly excited. We also found that when the electron temperature is much
higher than the proton temperature, the most unstable mode is the highly
obliquely propagating ion two-stream instability excited through the resonance
between ion plasma oscillations of the background protons and of the beam
protons, rather than the ion acoustic instability that is dominant for parallel
propagation. To investigate nonlinear behavior of the ion two-stream
instability, we have made PIC simulations for the shock foot region in which
the initial state satisfies the Buneman instability condition. In the first
phase, electrostatic waves grow two-dimensionally by the Buneman instability to
heat electrons. In the second phase, highly oblique ion two-stream instability
grows to heat mainly ions. This result is in contrast to previous studies based
on one-dimensional simulations, for which ion acoustic instability further
heats electrons. The present result implies that overheating problem of
electrons for shocks in supernova remnants is resolved by considering ion
two-stream instability propagating highly obliquely to the shock normal and
that multi-dimensional analysis is crucial to understand the particle heating
and acceleration processes in shocks.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
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