476 research outputs found
Incremental, Inductive Coverability
We give an incremental, inductive (IC3) procedure to check coverability of
well-structured transition systems. Our procedure generalizes the IC3 procedure
for safety verification that has been successfully applied in finite-state
hardware verification to infinite-state well-structured transition systems. We
show that our procedure is sound, complete, and terminating for downward-finite
well-structured transition systems---where each state has a finite number of
states below it---a class that contains extensions of Petri nets, broadcast
protocols, and lossy channel systems.
We have implemented our algorithm for checking coverability of Petri nets. We
describe how the algorithm can be efficiently implemented without the use of
SMT solvers. Our experiments on standard Petri net benchmarks show that IC3 is
competitive with state-of-the-art implementations for coverability based on
symbolic backward analysis or expand-enlarge-and-check algorithms both in time
taken and space usage.Comment: Non-reviewed version, original version submitted to CAV 2013; this is
a revised version, containing more experimental results and some correction
Primordial black hole production due to preheating
During the preheating process at the end of inflation the amplification of
field fluctuations can lead to the amplification of curvature perturbations. If
the curvature perturbations on small scales are sufficiently large, primordial
black holes (PBHs) will be overproduced. In this paper we study PBH production
in the two-field preheating model with quadratic inflaton potential. We show
that for many values of the inflaton mass m, and coupling g, small scale
perturbations will be amplified sufficiently, before backreaction can shut off
preheating, so that PBHs will be overproduced during the subsequent radiation
dominated era.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps figures. Minor changes to match version to appear in
PRD as a rapid communicatio
Comparative analysis of viral shedding in pediatric and adult subjects with central nervous system-associated enterovirus infections from 2013 to 2015 in Switzerland.
Several enterovirus (EV) genotypes can result in aseptic meningitis, but their routes of access to the central nervous system remain to be elucidated and may differ between the pediatric and adult populations.
To assess the pattern of viral shedding in pediatric and adult subjects with acute EV meningitis and to generate EV surveillance data for Switzerland.
All pediatric and adult subjects admitted to the University Hospitals of Geneva with a diagnosis of EV meningitis between 2013 and 2015 were enrolled. A quantitative EV real-time reverse transcriptase (rRT)-PCR was performed on the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), blood, stool, urine and respiratory specimens to assess viral shedding and provide a comparative analysis of pediatric and adult populations. EV genotyping was systematically performed.
EV positivity rates differed significantly between pediatric and adult subjects; 62.5% of pediatric cases (no adult case) were EV-positive in stool and blood for subjects for whom these samples were all collected. Similarly, the EV viral load in blood was significantly higher in pediatric subjects. Blood C-reactive protein levels were lower and the number of leucocytes/mm3 in the CSF were higher in non-viremic than in viremic pediatric subjects, respectively. A greater diversity of EV genotypes was observed in pediatric cases, with a predominance of echovirus 30 in children ≥3 years old and adults.
In contrast to adults, EV-disseminated infections are predominant in pediatric subjects and show different patterns of EV viral shedding. This observation may be useful for clinicians and contribute to modify current practices of patient care
Constraining dark energy fluctuations with supernova correlations
We investigate constraints on dark energy fluctuations using type Ia
supernovae. If dark energy is not in the form of a cosmological constant, that
is if the equation of state is not equal to -1, we expect not only temporal,
but also spatial variations in the energy density. Such fluctuations would
cause local variations in the universal expansion rate and directional
dependences in the redshift-distance relation. We present a scheme for relating
a power spectrum of dark energy fluctuations to an angular covariance function
of standard candle magnitude fluctuations. The predictions for a
phenomenological model of dark energy fluctuations are compared to
observational data in the form of the measured angular covariance of Hubble
diagram magnitude residuals for type Ia supernovae in the Union2 compilation.
The observational result is consistent with zero dark energy fluctuations.
However, due to the limitations in statistics, current data still allow for
quite general dark energy fluctuations as long as they are in the linear
regime.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, matches the published versio
Quasi-Periodic Releases of Streamer Blobs and Velocity Variability of the Slow Solar Wind near the Sun
We search for persistent and quasi-periodic release events of streamer blobs
during 2007 with the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph on the \textit{Solar
and Heliospheric Observatory} and assess the velocity of the slow solar wind
along the plasma sheet above the corresponding streamer by measuring the
dynamic parameters of blobs. We find 10 quasi-periodic release events of
streamer blobs lasting for three to four days. In each day of these events, we
observe three-five blobs. The results are in line with previous studies using
data observed near the last solar minimum. Using the measured blob velocity as
a proxy for that of the mean flow, we suggest that the velocity of the
background slow solar wind near the Sun can vary significantly within a few
hours. This provides an observational manifestation of the large velocity
variability of the slow solar wind near the Sun.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Soalr Physic
Parity Violation in Proton-Proton Scattering
Measurements of parity-violating longitudinal analyzing powers (normalized
asymmetries) in polarized proton-proton scattering provide a unique window on
the interplay between the weak and strong interactions between and within
hadrons. Several new proton-proton parity violation experiments are presently
either being performed or are being prepared for execution in the near future:
at TRIUMF at 221 MeV and 450 MeV and at COSY (Kernforschungsanlage Juelich) at
230 MeV and near 1.3 GeV. These experiments are intended to provide stringent
constraints on the set of six effective weak meson-nucleon coupling constants,
which characterize the weak interaction between hadrons in the energy domain
where meson exchange models provide an appropriate description. The 221 MeV is
unique in that it selects a single transition amplitude (3P2-1D2) and
consequently constrains the weak meson-nucleon coupling constant h_rho{pp}. The
TRIUMF 221 MeV proton-proton parity violation experiment is described in some
detail. A preliminary result for the longitudinal analyzing power is Az = (1.1
+/-0.4 +/-0.4) x 10^-7. Further proton-proton parity violation experiments are
commented on. The anomaly at 6 GeV/c requires that a new multi-GeV
proton-proton parity violation experiment be performed.Comment: 13 Pages LaTeX, 5 PostScript figures, uses espcrc1.sty. Invited talk
at QULEN97, International Conference on Quark Lepton Nuclear Physics --
Nonperturbative QCD Hadron Physics & Electroweak Nuclear Processes --, Osaka,
Japan May 20--23, 199
A circular polarimeter for the Cosmic Microwave Background
A primordial degree of circular polarization of the Cosmic Microwave
Background is not observationally excluded. The hypothesis of primordial
dichroism can be quantitatively falsified if the plasma is magnetized prior to
photon decoupling since the initial V-mode polarization affects the evolution
of the temperature fluctuations as well as the equations for the linear
polarization. The observed values of the temperature and polarization angular
power spectra are used to infer constraints on the amplitude and on the
spectral slope of the primordial V-mode. Prior to photon decoupling magnetic
fields play the role of polarimeters insofar as they unveil the circular
dichroism by coupling the V-mode power spectrum to the remaining brightness
perturbations. Conversely, for angular scales ranging between 4 deg and 10 deg
the joined bounds on the magnitude of circular polarization and on the magnetic
field intensity suggest that direct limits on the V-mode power spectrum in the
range of 0.01 mK could directly rule out pre-decoupling magnetic fields in the
range of 10-100 nG. The frequency dependence of the signal is located, for the
present purposes, in the GHz range.Comment: 28 pages, 12 included figures
Parity Violation in Proton-Proton Scattering at 221 MeV
TRIUMF experiment 497 has measured the parity violating longitudinal
analyzing power, A_z, in pp elastic scattering at 221.3 MeV incident proton
energy. This paper includes details of the corrections, some of magnitude
comparable to A_z itself, required to arrive at the final result. The largest
correction was for the effects of first moments of transverse polarization. The
addition of the result, A_z=(0.84 \pm 0.29 (stat.) \pm 0.17 (syst.)) \times
10^{-7}, to the pp parity violation experimental data base greatly improves the
experimental constraints on the weak meson-nucleon coupling constants
h^{pp}_\rho and h^{pp}_\omega, and has implications for the interpretation of
electron parity violation experiments.Comment: 17 pages RevTeX, 14 PostScript figures. Revised version with
additions suggested by Phys. Rev.
Cosmic microwave background and parametric resonance in reheating
The variation of the perturbative 3-curvature parameter, \zeta, is
investigated in the period of reheating after inflation. The two-field model
used has the inflaton, with an extra scalar field coupled to it, and non-linear
effects of both fields are included as well as a slow decay mechanism into the
hydrodynamic fluid of the radiation era. Changes in \zeta occur and persist
into the succeeding cosmic eras to influence the generation of the cosmic
microwave background fluctuations.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures.Corrects misprinted formula and 2 number
Turbulent Thermalization
We study, analytically and with lattice simulations, the decay of coherent
field oscillations and the subsequent thermalization of the resulting
stochastic classical wave-field. The problem of reheating of the Universe after
inflation constitutes our prime motivation and application of the results. We
identify three different stages of these processes. During the initial stage of
``parametric resonance'', only a small fraction of the initial inflaton energy
is transferred to fluctuations in the physically relevant case of sufficiently
large couplings. A major fraction is transfered in the prompt regime of driven
turbulence. The subsequent long stage of thermalization classifies as free
turbulence. During the turbulent stages, the evolution of particle distribution
functions is self-similar. We show that wave kinetic theory successfully
describes the late stages of our lattice calculation. Our analytical results
are general and give estimates of reheating time and temperature in terms of
coupling constants and initial inflaton amplitude.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figure
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