486 research outputs found
Quantum Superposition of Massive Objects and Collapse Models
We analyze the requirements to test some of the most paradigmatic collapse
models with a protocol that prepares quantum superpositions of massive objects.
This consists of coherently expanding the wave function of a
ground-state-cooled mechanical resonator, performing a squared position
measurement that acts as a double slit, and observing interference after
further evolution. The analysis is performed in a general framework and takes
into account only unavoidable sources of decoherence: blackbody radiation and
scattering of environmental particles. We also discuss the limitations imposed
by the experimental implementation of this protocol using cavity quantum
optomechanics with levitating dielectric nanospheres.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figure
Influence of Syntectonic sedimentation and décollement rheology on the geometry and evolution of orogenic wedges: analog modelling of the Kuqa Fold-and-thrust belt (NW China)
Contractional deformation in the outer parts of foldâandâthrust belts is in part controlled by the presence of syntectonic sediments and multiple dĂ©collements (e.g., the Apennines, the Appalachians, the Pyrenees, the Zagros, or the SubâAndean and Kuqa foldâandâthrust belts). To better understand the influence of these parameters in the kinematic evolution of foldâandâthrust systems, we carried out an experimental study including four 3âD sandbox models inspired by one of the previously mentioned prototypes, the Kuqa foldâandâthrust belt. This belt contains two dĂ©collements: a weak synorogenic salt layer and a deeper, preorogenic, and frictionless dĂ©collement (i.e., organicârich shales) showing along strike variations of rheology. The experimental results show that increasing synkinematic sedimentation rate (i) generates a progressive change from distributed to localized deformation and (ii) delays the development of frontal contractional structures detached on the salt, favoring the formation and reactivation of more hinterland thrusts and backthrusts. With respect to the rheology, our study reveals that as the viscosity of the prekinematic dĂ©collement increases, (i) the deformation propagates more slowly toward the foreland, and (ii) the underlying thrust stack becomes broader and lower and has a gentler thrust taper angle. The rheology of the prekinematic dĂ©collement defines the distribution and geometry of the structures detached on it that in turn influence the development of overlying, saltâdetached structures. Subsalt structures can (i) determine the areal extent of the salt and therefore of any foldâandâthrust system detached on it and (ii) hamper or even prevent the progressive foreland propagation of deformation above the salt
High levels of standardized ileal digestible amino acids improve feed efficiency in slow-growing pigs at late grower-finisher stage
Slow-growing pigs negatively affect production efficiency in conventional pig farms by increasing the occupation time of the facilities and being a limiting factor for the All-In/All-Out swine production systems. This subset of pigs is usually managed with the rest of the pigs, and their nutrient requirements may not be fulfilled. The purpose of the present study was to compare the productive performance of slow- and fast-growing pigs to different standardized ileal digestible (SID) amino acids (AA) dietary levels at late grower-finisher stage. A total of 84 pigs were weighed, tagged, and classified as slow-growing (SG; n = 48; 24.1 ± 1.38 kg) or fast-growing pigs (FG; n = 36; 42.7 ± 1.63 kg) at 11 weeks of age. Pigs were housed in mixed sex pens (n = 8 SG+6 FG/pen) equipped with feeding stations to record daily feed intake per individual pig. Pigs were assigned to three dietary treatments resulting in a 2 à 3 factorial arrangement at 15 weeks of age. Isoenergetic diets were formulated by increasing the ideal protein profile based on the following SID lysine (Lys) levels: 0.92%, 1.18% and 1.45%. Pigs were weighed bi-weekly until 21 weeks of age. Fast-growing pigs were 33.7 kg heavier, gained 255 g/day and consumed 625.5 g/day more than SG pigs (p 0.05). However, feed conversion ratio was 0.3 lower for SG pigs fed 1.45% SID Lys/AA compared to SG pigs fed 0.92% SID Lys/AA (p = 0.002). Feed conversion ratio was not different within the FG pigs' dietary treatments (p > 0.05). The efficiency of SG pigs may be improved when dietary SID AA levels are increased from 0.92 up to 1.45% SID Lys/AA. Thus, nutrient requirements may vary depending on growth rate at the same age, and SG pigs may require higher dietary SID AA levels than FG pigs to achieve similar productive performance
The Crowd in Requirements Engineering: The Landscape and Challenges
Crowd-based requirements engineering (CrowdRE) could significantly change RE. Performing RE activities such as elicitation with the crowd of stakeholders turns RE into a participatory effort, leads to more accurate requirements, and ultimately boosts software quality. Although any stakeholder in the crowd can contribute, CrowdRE emphasizes one stakeholder group whose role is often trivialized: users. CrowdRE empowers the management of requirements, such as their prioritization and segmentation, in a dynamic, evolved style through collecting and harnessing a continuous flow of user feedback and monitoring data on the usage context. To analyze the large amount of data obtained from the crowd, automated approaches are key. This article presents current research topics in CrowdRE; discusses the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from projects and experiments; and assesses how to apply the methods and tools in industrial contexts. This article is part of a special issue on Crowdsourcing for Software Engineering
Vacuum destabilization from Kaluza-Klein modes in an inflating brane
We discuss the effects from the Kaluza-Klein modes in the brane world
scenario when an interaction between bulk and brane fields is included. We
focus on the bulk inflaton model, where a bulk field drives inflation in
an almost bulk bounded by an inflating brane. We couple to a
brane scalar field representing matter on the brane. The bulk field
is assumed to have a light mode, whose mass depends on the expectation
value of . To estimate the effects from the KK modes, we compute the
1-loop effective potential V_\eff(\phi). With no tuning of the parameters of
the model, the vacuum becomes (meta)stable -- V_\eff(\phi) develops a true
vacuum at a nonzero . In the true vacuum, the light mode of
becomes heavy, degenerates with the KK modes and decays. We comment on some
implications for the bulk inflaton model. Also, we clarify some aspects of the
renormalization procedure in the thin wall approximation, and show that the
fluctuations in the bulk and on the brane are closely related.Comment: 15 pages, 2 eps figures. Notation improved, references adde
Massless scalar fields and infrared divergences in the inflationary brane world
We study the quantum effects induced by bulk scalar fields in a model with a
de Sitter (dS) brane in a flat bulk (the Vilenkin-Ipser-Sikivie model) in more
than four dimensions. In ordinary dS space, it is well known that the stress
tensor in the dS invariant vacuum for an effectively massless scalar
(m_\eff^2=m^2+\xi {\cal R}=0 with the Ricci scalar) is infrared
divergent except for the minimally coupled case. The usual procedure to tame
this divergence is to replace the dS invariant vacuum by the Allen Follaci (AF)
vacuum. The resulting stress tensor breaks dS symmetry but is regular.
Similarly, in the brane world context, we find that the dS invariant vacuum
generates \tmn divergent everywhere when the lowest lying mode becomes
massless except for massless minimal coupling case. A simple extension of the
AF vacuum to the present case avoids this global divergence, but \tmn remains
to be divergent along a timelike axis in the bulk. In this case, singularities
also appear along the light cone emanating from the origin in the bulk,
although they are so mild that \tmn stays finite except for non-minimal
coupling cases in four or six dimensions. We discuss implications of these
results for bulk inflaton models. We also study the evolution of the field
perturbations in dS brane world. We find that perturbations grow linearly with
time on the brane, as in the case of ordinary dS space. In the bulk, they are
asymptotically bounded.Comment: 20 pages. References adde
3D Lowest Landau Level Theory Applied to YBCO Magnetization and Specific Heat Data: Implications for the Critical Behavior in the H-T Plane
We study the applicability of magnetization and specific heat equations
derived from a lowest-Landau-level (LLL) calculation, to the high-temperature
superconducting (HTSC) materials of the YBaCuO (YBCO)
family. We find that significant information about these materials can be
obtained from this analysis, even though the three-dimensional LLL functions
are not quite as successful in describing them as the corresponding
two-dimensional functions are in describing data for the more anisotropic HTSC
Bi- and Tl-based materials. The results discussed include scaling fits, an
alternative explanation for data claimed as evidence for a second order flux
lattice melting transition, and reasons why 3DXY scaling may have less
significance than previously believed. We also demonstrate how 3DXY scaling
does not describe the specific heat data of YBCO samples in the critical
region. Throughout the paper, the importance of checking the actual scaling
functions, not merely scaling behavior, is stressed.Comment: RevTeX; 10 double-columned pages with 7 figures embedded. (A total of
10 postscript files for the figures.) Submitted to Physical Review
Imperfect Dark Energy from Kinetic Gravity Braiding
We introduce a large class of scalar-tensor models with interactions
containing the second derivatives of the scalar field but not leading to
additional degrees of freedom. These models exhibit peculiar features, such as
an essential mixing of scalar and tensor kinetic terms, which we have named
kinetic braiding. This braiding causes the scalar stress tensor to deviate from
the perfect-fluid form. Cosmology in these models possesses a rich
phenomenology, even in the limit where the scalar is an exact Goldstone boson.
Generically, there are attractor solutions where the scalar monitors the
behaviour of external matter. Because of the kinetic braiding, the position of
the attractor depends both on the form of the Lagrangian and on the external
energy density. The late-time asymptotic of these cosmologies is a de Sitter
state. The scalar can exhibit phantom behaviour and is able to cross the
phantom divide with neither ghosts nor gradient instabilities. These features
provide a new class of models for Dark Energy. As an example, we study in
detail a simple one-parameter model. The possible observational signatures of
this model include a sizeable Early Dark Energy and a specific equation of
state evolving into the final de-Sitter state from a healthy phantom regime.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures. References and some clarifying language added.
This version was accepted for publication in JCA
Emergent Gauge Fields in Holographic Superconductors
Holographic superconductors have been studied so far in the absence of
dynamical electromagnetic fields, namely in the limit in which they coincide
with holographic superfluids. It is possible, however, to introduce dynamical
gauge fields if a Neumann-type boundary condition is imposed on the
AdS-boundary. In 3+1 dimensions, the dual theory is a 2+1 dimensional CFT whose
spectrum contains a massless gauge field, signaling the emergence of a gauge
symmetry. We study the impact of a dynamical gauge field in vortex
configurations where it is known to significantly affect the energetics and
phase transitions. We calculate the critical magnetic fields H_c1 and H_c2,
obtaining that holographic superconductors are of Type II (H_c1 < H_c2). We
extend the study to 4+1 dimensions where the gauge field does not appear as an
emergent phenomena, but can be introduced, by a proper renormalization, as an
external dynamical field. We also compare our predictions with those arising
from a Ginzburg-Landau theory and identify the generic properties of Abrikosov
vortices in holographic models.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, few comments added, version published in JHE
The Imperfect Fluid behind Kinetic Gravity Braiding
We present a standard hydrodynamical description for non-canonical scalar
field theories with kinetic gravity braiding. In particular, this picture
applies to the simplest galileons and k-essence. The fluid variables not only
have a clear physical meaning but also drastically simplify the analysis of the
system. The fluid carries charges corresponding to shifts in field space. This
shift-charge current contains a spatial part responsible for diffusion of the
charges. Moreover, in the incompressible limit, the equation of motion becomes
the standard diffusion equation. The fluid is indeed imperfect because the
energy flows neither along the field gradient nor along the shift current. The
fluid has zero vorticity and is not dissipative: there is no entropy
production, the energy-momentum is exactly conserved, the temperature vanishes
and there is no shear viscosity. Still, in an expansion around a perfect fluid
one can identify terms which correct the pressure in the manner of bulk
viscosity. We close by formulating the non-trivial conditions for the
thermodynamic equilibrium of this imperfect fluid.Comment: 23 pages plus appendices. New version includes extended discussion on
diffusion and dynamics in alternative frames, as well as additional
references. v3 reflects version accepted for publication in JHEP: minor
comments added regarding suitability to numerical approache
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