5,992 research outputs found
The One Dimensional Damped Forced Harmonic Oscillator Revisited
In this paper we give a general solution to the problem of the damped
harmonic oscillator under the influence of an arbitrary time-dependent external
force. We employ simple methods accessible for beginners and useful for
undergraduate students and professors in an introductory course of mechanics.Comment: 4 Latex page
Universality class of fiber bundles with strong heterogeneities
We study the effect of strong heterogeneities on the fracture of disordered
materials using a fiber bundle model. The bundle is composed of two subsets of
fibers, i.e. a fraction 0<\alpha<1 of fibers is unbreakable, while the
remaining 1-\alpha fraction is characterized by a distribution of breaking
thresholds. Assuming global load sharing, we show analytically that there
exists a critical fraction of the components \alpha_c which separates two
qualitatively different regimes of the system: below \alpha_c the burst size
distribution is a power law with the usual exponent \tau=5/2, while above
\alpha_c the exponent switches to a lower value \tau=9/4 and a cutoff function
occurs with a diverging characteristic size. Analyzing the macroscopic response
of the system we demonstrate that the transition is conditioned to disorder
distributions where the constitutive curve has a single maximum and an
inflexion point defining a novel universality class of breakdown phenomena
Long-distance structure of the X(3872)
We investigate heavy quark symmetries for heavy meson hadronic molecules, and
explore the consequences of assuming the X(3872) and as an
isoscalar and an isovector hadronic molecules,
respectively. The symmetry allows to predict new hadronic molecules, in
particular we find an isoscalar bound state with a mass
about 10580 MeV and the isovector charmonium partners of the and
the states. Next, we study the
three body decay. This decay mode is more sensitive to the long-distance
structure of the X(3872) resonance than its and
decays, which are mainly controlled by the short distance part of the X(3872)
molecular wave function. We discuss the final state
interactions, which in some situations become quite important. Indeed in these
cases, a precise measurement of this partial decay width could provide precise
information on the interaction strength between the charm
mesons.Comment: Talk presented at the "XI International Conference on Hyperons, Charm
and Beauty Hadrons (BEACH 2014)", Birmingham (U.K.), July 201
DNA binding shifts the redox potential of the transcription factor SoxR
Electrochemistry measurements on DNA-modified electrodes are used to probe the effects of binding to DNA on the redox potential of SoxR, a transcription factor that contains a [2Fe-2S] cluster and is activated through oxidation. A DNA-bound potential of +200 mV versus NHE (normal hydrogen electrode) is found for SoxR isolated from Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This potential value corresponds to a dramatic shift of +490 mV versus values found in the absence of DNA. Using Redmond red as a covalently bound redox reporter affixed above the SoxR binding site, we also see, associated with SoxR binding, an attenuation in the Redmond red signal compared with that for Redmond red attached below the SoxR binding site. This observation is consistent with a SoxR-binding-induced structural distortion in the DNA base stack that inhibits DNA-mediated charge transport to the Redmond red probe. The dramatic shift in potential for DNA-bound SoxR compared with the free form is thus reconciled based on a high-energy conformational change in the SoxRâDNA complex. The substantial positive shift in potential for DNA-bound SoxR furthermore indicates that, in the reducing intracellular environment, DNA-bound SoxR is primarily in the reduced form; the activation of DNA-bound SoxR would then be limited to strong oxidants, making SoxR an effective sensor for oxidative stress. These results more generally underscore the importance of using DNA electrochemistry to determine DNA-bound potentials for redox-sensitive transcription factors because such binding can dramatically affect this key protein property
Discrete Fracture Model with Anisotropic Load Sharing
A two-dimensional fracture model where the interaction among elements is
modeled by an anisotropic stress-transfer function is presented. The influence
of anisotropy on the macroscopic properties of the samples is clarified, by
interpolating between several limiting cases of load sharing. Furthermore, the
critical stress and the distribution of failure avalanches are obtained
numerically for different values of the anisotropy parameter and as a
function of the interaction exponent . From numerical results, one can
certainly conclude that the anisotropy does not change the crossover point
in 2D. Hence, in the limit of infinite system size, the crossover
value between local and global load sharing is the same as the one
obtained in the isotropic case. In the case of finite systems, however, for
, the global load sharing behavior is approached very slowly
Diffuse Ionized Gas in the Dwarf Irregular Galaxy DDO 53
The spectral characteristics throughout the dwarf irregular galaxy DDO 53 are
studied. The results are very similar to those for other irregular galaxies:
high excitation and low values of the [SII]/Halpha ratio. The most likely
ionization source is photon leakage from the classical HII regions, without any
other source, although the interstellar medium of the galaxy is quite
perturbed. Moreover, the physical conditions throughout the galaxy do not
change very much because both the photon leakage percentage and the ionization
temperature are very similar. In addition, the determined metal content for two
HII regions indicates that DDO 53 is a low-metallicity galaxy.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables. AJ, in pres
Deconstructing a galaxy: Colour distributions of point sources in Messier 83
What do we see when we look at a nearby, well-resolved galaxy? Thousands of individual sources are detected in multiband imaging observations of even a fraction of a nearby galaxy, and characterizing those sources is a complex process. This work analyses a ten-band photometric catalogue of nearly 70 000 point sources in a 7.3 square arcmin region of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 83, made as part of the Early Release Science programme with the Hubble Space Telescope\u27sWide Field Camera 3. Colour distributions were measured for both broad-band and broad-and-narrow-band colours; colours made from broad-bands with large wavelength differences generally had broader distributions although B - V was an exception. Two- and three-dimensional colour spaces were generated using various combinations of four bands and clustered with the K-Means and Mean Shift algorithms. Neither algorithm was able to consistently segment the colour distributions: while some distinct features in colour space were apparent in visual examinations, these features were not compact or isolated enough to be recognized as clusters in colour space. K-Means clustering of the UBVI colour space was able to identify a group of objects more likely to be star clusters. Mean Shift was successful in identifying outlying groups at the edges of colour distributions. For identifying objects whose emission is dominated by spectral lines, there was no clear benefit from combining narrow-band photometry in multiple bands compared to a simple continuum subtraction. The clustering analysis results are used to inform recommendations for future surveys of nearby galaxies
Heavy boson production through the collision of an ultrahigh-energy neutrino on a target nucleon
We discuss W and Z production through the deep inelastic neutrino-nucleon
scattering in the context of the standard model SU(3)x SU(2)x U(1) of the
strong and electroweak interactions. We find the cross section rates for the
process neutrino + nucleon --> lepton(-) + W(+) + X for the case of
ultrahigh-energy neutrinos colliding on a target nucleon.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure
Brittle to ductile transition in a fiber bundle with strong heterogeneity
We analyze the failure process of a two-component system with widely different fracture strength in the framework of a fiber bundle model with localized load sharing. A fraction 0â€Î±â€1 of the bundle is strong and it is represented by unbreakable fibers, while fibers of the weak component have randomly distributed failure strength. Computer simulations revealed that there exists a critical composition αc which separates two qualitatively different behaviors: Below the critical point, the failure of the bundle is brittle, characterized by an abrupt damage growth within the breakable part of the system. Above αc, however, the macroscopic response becomes ductile, providing stability during the entire breaking process. The transition occurs at an astonishingly low fraction of strong fibers which can have importance for applications. We show that in the ductile phase, the size distribution of breaking bursts has a power law functional form with an exponent ÎŒ=2 followed by an exponential cutoff. In the brittle phase, the power law also prevails but with a higher exponent ÎŒ=92. The transition between the two phases shows analogies to continuous phase transitions. Analyzing the microstructure of the damage, it was found that at the beginning of the fracture process cracks nucleate randomly, while later on growth and coalescence of cracks dominate, which give rise to power law distributed crack sizes
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