The Next Round of Hadronic Generator Tuning Heavily Based on Identified Particle Data

Event shape and charged particle inclusive distributions determined from 750 000 hadronic Z events measured with the DELPHI detector at LEP are presented. The statistical and systematic precision of this data allows for a decisive confrontation with Monte Carlo models of the hadronization process and a better understanding of the structure of the Z hadronic final state. Improved tunings of the JETSET, ARIADNE and HERWIG parton shower models and the JETSET matrix element model are obtained by fitting the models to identified particle distributions from all LEP experiments and the DELPHI data presented. The description of the data distributions by the models is critically reviewed with special importance attributed to identified particles.Comment: 73+2 pages, latex, 39 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Ground-state properties of two-dimensional dimerized Heisenberg models

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ground-state properties of two-dimensional Heisenberg models on a square lattice with a given dimerization. Our aim is threefold: First, we want to investigate the dimensional transition from two to one dimension for three models consisting of weakly coupled chains for large dimerizations. Simple scaling arguments show that the interchain coupling is always relevant. The ground states of two of these models therefore have one-dimensional nature only at the decoupling point. The third considered model is more complicated, because it contains additional relevant intrachain couplings leading to a gap as shown by scaling arguments and numerical investigations. Second, we investigate at which point the dimerization destroys the N\'eel ordered ground state of the isotropic model. Within a mapping to a nonlinear sigma-model and linear spinwave theory (LSWT) we conclude that the stability of the N\'eel ordered state depends on the microscopic details of the model. Third, the considered models also can be regarded as effective models for a spin system with spin-phonon coupling. This leads to the question if a spin-Peierls transition, i.e. a gain of total energy due to lattice distortion, is possible. LSWT shows that such a transition is possible under certain conditions leading to a coexistence of long-range order and spin-Peierls dimerization. We also find that the gain of magnetic energy is largest for a stair-like distortion of the lattice.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, revte

The Scaling Behaviour of Stochastic Minimization Algorithms in a Perfect Funnel Landscape

We determined scaling laws for the numerical effort to find the optimal configurations of a simple model potential energy surface (PES) with a perfect funnel structure that reflects key characteristics of the protein interactions. Generalized Monte-Carlo methods(MCM, STUN) avoid an enumerative search of the PES and thus provide a natural resolution of the Levinthal paradox. We find that the computational effort grows with approximately the eighth power of the system size for MCM and STUN, while a genetic algorithm was found to scale exponentially. The scaling behaviour of a derived lattice model is also rationalized

Observations of red-giant variable stars by Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians carefully observe the properties and positions of stars, including both overt and subtle changes in their brightness, for subsistence and social application. These observations are encoded in oral tradition. I examine two Aboriginal oral traditions from South Australia that describe the periodic changing brightness in three pulsating, red-giant variable stars: Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), and Antares (Alpha Scorpii). The Australian Aboriginal accounts stand as the only known descriptions of pulsating variable stars in any Indigenous oral tradition in the world. Researchers examining these oral traditions over the last century, including anthropologists and astronomers, missed the description of these stars as being variable in nature as the ethnographic record contained several misidentifications of stars and celestial objects. Arguably, ethnographers working on Indigenous Knowledge Systems should have academic training in both the natural and social sciences.Comment: The Australian Journal of Anthropology (2018

The first high-amplitude delta Scuti star in an eclipsing binary system

We report the discovery of the first high-amplitude delta Scuti star in an eclipsing binary, which we have designated UNSW-V-500. The system is an Algol-type semi-detached eclipsing binary of maximum brightness V = 12.52 mag. A best-fitting solution to the binary light curve and two radial velocity curves is derived using the Wilson-Devinney code. We identify a late A spectral type primary component of mass 1.49+/-0.02 M_sun and a late K spectral type secondary of mass 0.33+/-0.02 M_sun, with an inclination of 86.5+/-1.0 degrees, and a period of 5.3504751+/-0.0000006 d. A Fourier analysis of the residuals from this solution is performed using PERIOD04 to investigate the delta Scuti pulsations. We detect a single pulsation frequency of f_1 = 13.621+/-0.015 c/d, and it appears this is the first overtone radial mode frequency. This system provides the first opportunity to measure the dynamical mass for a star of this variable type; previously, masses have been derived from stellar evolution and pulsation models.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, for submission to MNRAS, v2: paper size change, small typographical changes to abstrac