13,601 research outputs found
Casimir scaling of domain wall tensions in the deconfined phase of D=3+1 SU(N) gauge theories
We perform lattice calculations of the spatial 't Hooft k-string tensions in
the deconfined phase of SU(N) gauge theories for N=2,3,4,6. These equal (up to
a factor of T) the surface tensions of the domain walls between the
corresponding (Euclidean) deconfined phases. For T much larger than Tc our
results match on to the known perturbative result, which exhibits Casimir
Scaling, being proportional to k(N-k). At lower T the coupling becomes stronger
and, not surprisingly, our calculations show large deviations from the
perturbative T-dependence. Despite this we find that the behaviour proportional
to k(N-k) persists very accurately down to temperatures very close to Tc. Thus
the Casimir Scaling of the 't Hooft tension appears to be a `universal' feature
that is more general than its appearance in the low order high-T perturbative
calculation. We observe the `wetting' of these k-walls at T around Tc and the
(almost inevitable) `perfect wetting' of the k=N/2 domain wall. Our
calculations show that as T tends to Tc the magnitude of the spatial `t Hooft
string tension decreases rapidly. This suggests the existence of a (would-be)
't Hooft string condensation transition at some temperature which is close to
but below Tc. We speculate on the `dual' relationship between this and the
(would-be) confining string condensation at the Hagedorn temperature that is
close to but above Tc.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figure
Monopoles, vortices and confinement in SU(3) gauge theory
We compute, in SU(3) pure gauge theory, the vacuum expectation value (vev) of
the operator which creates a vortex wrapping the lattice through periodic
boundary conditions (dual Polyakov line). The technique used is the same
already tested in the SU(2) case. The dual Polyakov line proves to be a good
disorder parameter for confinement, and has a similar behaviour to the monopole
condensate. The new features which characterise the construction of the
disorder operator in SU(3) are emphasised.Comment: 8 pages, 4 eps figures, typed with elsart.cl
The monopole mass in the three-dimensional Georgi-Glashow model
We study the three-dimensional Georgi-Glashow model to demonstrate how
magnetic monopoles can be studied fully non-perturbatively in lattice Monte
Carlo simulations, without any assumptions about the smoothness of the field
configurations. We examine the apparent contradiction between the conjectured
analytic connection of the `broken' and `symmetric' phases, and the
interpretation of the mass (i.e., the free energy) of the fully quantised 't
Hooft-Polyakov monopole as an order parameter to distinguish the phases. We use
Monte Carlo simulations to measure the monopole free energy and its first
derivative with respect to the scalar mass. On small volumes we compare this to
semi-classical predictions for the monopole. On large volumes we show that the
free energy is screened to zero, signalling the formation of a confining
monopole condensate. This screening does not allow the monopole mass to be
interpreted as an order parameter, resolving the paradox.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, uses revtex. Minor changes made to the text to
match with the published version at
http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v65/e12500
On the glueball spectrum in O(a)-improved lattice QCD
We calculate the light `glueball' mass spectrum in N_f=2 lattice QCD using a
fermion action that is non-perturbatively O(a) improved. We work at lattice
spacings a ~0.1 fm and with quark masses that range down to about half the
strange quark mass. We find the statistical errors to be moderate and under
control on relatively small ensembles. We compare our mass spectrum to that of
quenched QCD at the same value of a. Whilst the tensor mass is the same (within
errors), the scalar mass is significantly smaller in the dynamical lattice
theory, by a factor of ~(0.84 +/- 0.03). We discuss what the observed m_q
dependence of this suppression tells us about the dynamics of glueballs in QCD.
We also calculate the masses of flux tubes that wind around the spatial torus,
and extract the string tension from these. As we decrease the quark mass we see
a small but growing vacuum expectation value for the corresponding flux tube
operators. This provides clear evidence for `string breaking' and for the
(expected) breaking of the associated gauge centre symmetry by sea quarks.Comment: 33pp LaTeX. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Topological Charge Evolution in the Markov-Chain of QCD
The topological charge is studied on lattices of large physical volume and
fine lattice spacing. We illustrate how a parity transformation on the SU(3)
link-variables of lattice gauge configurations reverses the sign of the
topological charge and leaves the action invariant. Random applications of the
parity transformation are proposed to traverse from one topological charge sign
to the other. The transformation provides an improved unbiased estimator of the
ensemble average and is essential in improving the ergodicity of the Markov
chain process.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Mortality in Diesel-Exposed Railroad Workers
Diesel exhaust is a mixture of combustion gases and ultrafine particles coated with organic compounds. There is concern whether exposure can result in or worsen obstructive airway diseases, but there is only limited information to assess this risk. U.S. railroad workers have been exposed to diesel exhaust since diesel locomotives were introduced after World War II, and by 1959, 95% of the locomotives were diesel. We conducted a case–control study of railroad worker deaths between 1981 and 1982 using U.S. Railroad Retirement Board job records and next-of-kin smoking, residential, and vitamin use histories. There were 536 cases with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 1,525 controls with causes of death not related to diesel exhaust or fine particle exposure. After adjustment for age, race, smoking, U.S. Census region of death, vitamin use, and total years off work, engineers and conductors with diesel-exhaust exposure from operating trains had an increased risk of COPD mortality. The odds of COPD mortality increased with years of work in these jobs, and those who had worked ≥ 16 years as an engineer or conductor after 1959 had an odds ratio of 1.61 (95% confidence interval, 1.12–2.30). These results suggest that diesel-exhaust exposure contributed to COPD mortality in these workers. Further study is needed to assess whether this risk is observed after exposure to exhaust from later-generation diesel engines with modern emission controls
Effect of heuristics on serendipity in path-based storytelling with linked data
Path-based storytelling with Linked Data on the Web provides users the ability to discover concepts in an entertaining and educational way. Given a query context, many state-of-the-art pathfinding approaches aim at telling a story that coincides with the user's expectations by investigating paths over Linked Data on the Web. By taking into account serendipity in storytelling, we aim at improving and tailoring existing approaches towards better fitting user expectations so that users are able to discover interesting knowledge without feeling unsure or even lost in the story facts. To this end, we propose to optimize the link estimation between - and the selection of facts in a story by increasing the consistency and relevancy of links between facts through additional domain delineation and refinement steps. In order to address multiple aspects of serendipity, we propose and investigate combinations of weights and heuristics in paths forming the essential building blocks for each story. Our experimental findings with stories based on DBpedia indicate the improvements when applying the optimized algorithm
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