An active noise reduction system for aircrew helmets

An active noise reduction system was developed for use in aircrew flying helmets in which the acoustic noise field inside the ear defender is detected using a miniature microphone and an antiphase signal is fed back to a communications telephone within the ear defender. Performance of the active noise reduction system in a laboratory trial simulating flight conditions is shown to be satisfactory

D-brane orbiting NS5-branes

We study real time dynamics of a Dp-brane orbiting a stack of NS5-branes. It is generally known that a BPS D-brane moving in the vicinity of NS5-branes becomes unstable due to the presence of tachyonic degree of freedom induced on the D-brane. Indeed, the D-brane necessarily falls into the fivebranes due to gravitational attraction and eventually collapses into a pressureless fluid. Such a decay of the D-brane is known to be closely related to the rolling tachyon problem. In this paper we show that in special cases the decay of D-brane caused by gravitational attraction can be avoided. Namely for certain values of energy and angular momentum the D-brane orbits around the fivebranes, maintaining certain distance from the fivebranes all the time, and the process of tachyon condensation is suppressed. We show that the tachyonic degree of freedom induced on such a D-brane really disappears and the brane returns to a stable D-brane.Comment: 12 pages, latex, added referenc

Gathering in Dynamic Rings

The gathering problem requires a set of mobile agents, arbitrarily positioned at different nodes of a network to group within finite time at the same location, not fixed in advanced. The extensive existing literature on this problem shares the same fundamental assumption: the topological structure does not change during the rendezvous or the gathering; this is true also for those investigations that consider faulty nodes. In other words, they only consider static graphs. In this paper we start the investigation of gathering in dynamic graphs, that is networks where the topology changes continuously and at unpredictable locations. We study the feasibility of gathering mobile agents, identical and without explicit communication capabilities, in a dynamic ring of anonymous nodes; the class of dynamics we consider is the classic 1-interval-connectivity. We focus on the impact that factors such as chirality (i.e., a common sense of orientation) and cross detection (i.e., the ability to detect, when traversing an edge, whether some agent is traversing it in the other direction), have on the solvability of the problem. We provide a complete characterization of the classes of initial configurations from which the gathering problem is solvable in presence and in absence of cross detection and of chirality. The feasibility results of the characterization are all constructive: we provide distributed algorithms that allow the agents to gather. In particular, the protocols for gathering with cross detection are time optimal. We also show that cross detection is a powerful computational element. We prove that, without chirality, knowledge of the ring size is strictly more powerful than knowledge of the number of agents; on the other hand, with chirality, knowledge of n can be substituted by knowledge of k, yielding the same classes of feasible initial configurations

Proper acceleration, geometric tachyon and dynamics of a fundamental string near Dpp branes

We present a detailed analysis of our recent observation that the origin of the geometric tachyon, which arises when a D$p$-brane propagates in the vicinity of a stack of coincident NS5-branes, is due to the proper acceleration generated by the background dilaton field. We show that when a fundamental string (F-string), described by the Nambu-Goto action, is moving in the background of a stack of coincident D$p$-branes, the geometric tachyon mode can also appear since the overall conformal mode of the induced metric for the string can act as a source for proper acceleration. We also studied the detailed dynamics of the F-string as well as the instability by mapping the Nambu-Goto action of the F-string to the tachyon effective action of the non-BPS D-string. We qualitatively argue that the condensation of the geometric tachyon is responsible for the (F,D$p$) bound state formation.Comment: 26 pages, v2: added references, v3: one ref. updated, to appear in Class. and Quant. Gravit

From Euclidean Geometry to Knots and Nets

This document is the Accepted Manuscript of an article accepted for publication in Synthese. Under embargo until 19 September 2018. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-017-1558-x.This paper assumes the success of arguments against the view that informal mathematical proofs secure rational conviction in virtue of their relations with corresponding formal derivations. This assumption entails a need for an alternative account of the logic of informal mathematical proofs. Following examination of case studies by Manders, De Toffoli and Giardino, Leitgeb, Feferman and others, this paper proposes a framework for analysing those informal proofs that appeal to the perception or modification of diagrams or to the inspection or imaginative manipulation of mental models of mathematical phenomena. Proofs relying on diagrams can be rigorous if (a) it is easy to draw a diagram that shares or otherwise indicates the structure of the mathematical object, (b) the information thus displayed is not metrical and (c) it is possible to put the inferences into systematic mathematical relation with other mathematical inferential practices. Proofs that appeal to mental models can be rigorous if the mental models can be externalised as diagrammatic practice that satisfies these three conditions.Peer reviewe

Effective descriptions of branes on non-geometric tori

We investigate the low-energy effective description of non-geometric compactifications constructed by T-dualizing two or three of the directions of a T^3 with non-vanishing H-flux. Our approach is to introduce a D3-brane in these geometries and to take an appropriate decoupling limit. In the case of two T-dualities, we find at low energies a non-commutative T^2 fibered non-trivially over an S^1. In the UV this theory is still decoupled from gravity, but is dual to a little string theory with flavor. For the case of three T-dualities, we do not find a sensible decoupling limit, casting doubt on this geometry as a low-energy effective notion in critical string theory. However, by studying a topological toy model in this background, we find a non-associative geometry similar to one found by Bouwknegt, Hannabuss, and Mathai.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, references adde

Positive energy unitary irreducible representations of D=6 conformal supersymmetry

We give a constructive classification of the positive energy (lowest weight) unitary irreducible representations of the D=6 superconformal algebras osp(8*/2N). Our results confirm all but one of the conjectures of Minwalla (for N=1,2) on this classification. Our main tool is the explicit construction of the norms of the states that has to be checked for positivity. We give also the reduction of the exceptional UIRs.Comment: 27 pages, TeX with harvmac, amssym.def, amssym.tex; v.2: minor corrections and references added; v.3: minor corrections; v.4: to appear in J. Phys.

Spectral compression of single photons

Photons are critical to quantum technologies since they can be used for virtually all quantum information tasks: in quantum metrology, as the information carrier in photonic quantum computation, as a mediator in hybrid systems, and to establish long distance networks. The physical characteristics of photons in these applications differ drastically; spectral bandwidths span 12 orders of magnitude from 50 THz for quantum-optical coherence tomography to 50 Hz for certain quantum memories. Combining these technologies requires coherent interfaces that reversibly map centre frequencies and bandwidths of photons to avoid excessive loss. Here we demonstrate bandwidth compression of single photons by a factor 40 and tunability over a range 70 times that bandwidth via sum-frequency generation with chirped laser pulses. This constitutes a time-to-frequency interface for light capable of converting time-bin to colour entanglement and enables ultrafast timing measurements. It is a step toward arbitrary waveform generation for single and entangled photons.Comment: 6 pages (4 figures) + 6 pages (3 figures

Model-based prediction of human hair color using DNA variants

Predicting complex human phenotypes from genotypes is the central concept of widely advocated personalized medicine, but so far has rarely led to high accuracies limiting practical applications. One notable exception, although less relevant for medical but important for forensic purposes, is human eye color, for which it has been recently demonstrated that highly accurate prediction is feasible from a small number of DNA variants. Here, we demonstrate that human hair color is predictable from DNA variants with similarly high accuracies. We analyzed in Polish Europeans with single-observer hair color grading 45 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 12 genes previously associated with human hair color variation. We found that a model based on a subset of 13 single or compound genetic markers from 11 genes predicted red hair color with over 0.9, black hair color with almost 0.9, as well as blond, and brown hair color with over 0.8 prevalence-adjusted accuracy expressed by the area under the receiver characteristic operating curves (AUC). The identified genetic predictors also differentiate reasonably well between similar hair colors, such as between red and blond-red, as well as between blond and dark-blond, highlighting the value of the identified DNA variants for accurate hair color prediction

Open String Attractors

We present a simple example of a supersymmetric attractor mechanism in the purely open string context of D-branes embedded in curved space-time. Our example involves a class of D3-branes embedded in the 2-charge D1-D5 background of type IIB whose worldvolume contains a 2-sphere. Turning on worldvolume fluxes, these branes carry induced (p,q) string charges. Supersymmetric configurations display a flow of the open string moduli towards an attractor solution independent of their asymptotics. The equations governing this mechanism closely resemble the attractor flow equations for supersymmetric black holes in closed string theory. The BPS equations take the form of a gradient flow and describe worldvolume solitons interpolating between an AdS_2 geometry where the two-sphere has collapsed, and an attractor solution with AdS_2 x S^2 geometry. In these limiting solutions, the preserved supersymmetry is enhanced from 4 to 8 supercharges. We also discuss the interpretation of our solutions as intersecting brane configurations placed in the D1-D5 background, as well as the S-duality transformation to the F1-NS5 background.Comment: 37 pages, 6 figures. v2: small corrections, figure and references adde