Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of oscillatory shape evolution for electromigration-driven islands

The shape evolution of two-dimensional islands under electromigration-driven periphery diffusion is studied by kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations and continuum theory. The energetics of the KMC model is adapted to the Cu(100) surface, and the continuum model is matched to the KMC model by a suitably parametrized choice of the orientation-dependent step stiffness and step atom mobility. At 700 K shape oscillations predicted by continuum theory are quantitatively verified by the KMC simulations, while at 500 K qualitative differences between the two modeling approaches are found.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

On Statistical Aspects of Qjets

The process by which jet algorithms construct jets and subjets is inherently ambiguous and equally well motivated algorithms often return very different answers. The Qjets procedure was introduced by the authors to account for this ambiguity by considering many reconstructions of a jet at once, allowing one to assign a weight to each interpretation of the jet. Employing these weighted interpretations leads to an improvement in the statistical stability of many measurements. Here we explore in detail the statistical properties of these sets of weighted measurements and demonstrate how they can be used to improve the reach of jet-based studies.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures. References added, minor modification of the text. This version to appear in JHE

Lagrange-Poincare field equations

The Lagrange-Poincare equations of classical mechanics are cast into a field theoretic context together with their associated constrained variational principle. An integrability/reconstruction condition is established that relates solutions of the original problem with those of the reduced problem. The Kelvin-Noether theorem is formulated in this context. Applications to the isoperimetric problem, the Skyrme model for meson interaction, metamorphosis image dynamics, and molecular strands illustrate various aspects of the theory.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Geometry and Physics, 45 pages, 1 figur

Qjets: A Non-Deterministic Approach to Tree-Based Jet Substructure

Jet substructure is typically studied using clustering algorithms, such as kT, which arrange the jets' constituents into trees. Instead of considering a single tree per jet, we propose that multiple trees should be considered, weighted by an appropriate metric. Then each jet in each event produces a distribution for an observable, rather than a single value. Advantages of this approach include: 1) observables have significantly increased statistical stability; and, 2) new observables, such as the variance of the distribution, provide new handles for signal and background discrimination. For example, we find that employing a set of trees substantially reduces the observed fluctuations in the pruned mass distribution, enhancing the likelihood of new particle discovery for a given integrated luminosity. Furthermore, the resulting pruned mass distributions for (background) QCD jets are found to be substantially wider than that for (signal) jets with intrinsic mass scales, e.g. jets containing a W decay. A cut on this width yields a substantial enhancement in significance relative to a cut on the standard pruned jet mass alone. In particular the luminosity needed for a given significance requirement decreases by a factor of two relative to standard pruning.Comment: Minor changes to match journal versio

Jet Investigations Using the Radial Moment

We define the radial moment, , for jets produced in hadron-hadron collisions. It can be used as a tool for studying, as a function of the jet transverse energy and pseudorapidity, radiation within the jet and the quality of a perturbative description of the jet shape. We also discuss how non-perturbative corrections to the jet transverse energy affect .Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, 6 figure

The oxygen-II luminosity density of the Universe

Equivalent widths of [OII] 3727 A lines are measured in 375 faint galaxy spectra taken as part of the Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey centered on the Hubble Deep Field. The sensitivity of the survey spectra to the [OII] line is computed as a function of magnitude, color and redshift. The luminosity function of galaxies in the [OII] line and the integrated luminosity density of the Universe in the [OII] line are computed as a function of redshift. It is found that the luminosity density in the [OII] line was a factor of ~10 higher at redshifts z~1 than it is at the present day. The simplest interpretation is that the star formation rate density of the Universe has declined dramatically since z~1.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap

The faint-galaxy hosts of gamma-ray bursts

The observed redshifts and magnitudes of the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are compared with the predictions of three basic GRB models, in which the comoving rate density of GRBs is (1) proportional to the cosmic star formation rate density, (2) proportional to the total integrated stellar density and (3) constant. All three models make the assumption that at every epoch the probability of a GRB occuring in a galaxy is proportional to that galaxy's broad-band luminosity. No assumption is made that GRBs are standard candles or even that their luminosity function is narrow. All three rate density models are consistent with the observed GRB host galaxies to date, although model (2) is slightly disfavored relative to the others. Models (1) and (3) make very similar predictions for host galaxy magnitude and redshift distributions; these models will be probably not be distinguished without measurements of host-galaxy star-formation rates. The fraction of host galaxies fainter than 28 mag may constrain the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function at high redshift, or, if the fraction is observed to be low, may suggest that the bursters are expelled from low-luminosity hosts. In all models, the probability of finding a z<0.008 GRB among a sample of 11 GRBs is less than 10^(-4), strongly suggesting that GRB 980425, if associated with supernova 1998bw, represents a distinct class of GRBs.Comment: 7 pages, ApJ in press, revised to incorporate yet more new and revised observational result