10,124 research outputs found
Multiple scattering of classical waves: from microscopy to mesoscopy and diffusion
A tutorial discussion of the propagation of waves in random media is
presented. In first approximation the transport of the multiple scattered waves
is given by diffusion theory, but important corrections are present. These
corrections are calculated with the radiative transfer or Schwarzschild-Milne
equation, which describes intensity transport at the ``mesoscopic'' level and
is derived from the ``microscopic'' wave equation. A precise treatment of the
diffuse intensity is derived which automatically includes the effects of
boundary layers. Effects such as the enhanced backscatter cone and imaging of
objects in opaque media are also discussed within this framework. In the second
part the approach is extended to mesoscopic correlations between multiple
scattered intensities which arise when scattering is strong. These correlations
arise from the underlying wave character. The derivation of correlation
functions and intensity distribution functions is given and experimental data
are discussed. Although the focus is on light scattering, the theory is also
applicable to micro waves, sound waves and non-interacting electrons.Comment: Review. 86 pages Latex, 32 eps-figures included. To appear in Rev.
Mod. Phy
Optimal learning rules for discrete synapses
There is evidence that biological synapses have a limited number of discrete weight states. Memory storage with such synapses behaves quite differently from synapses with unbounded, continuous weights, as old memories are automatically overwritten by new memories. Consequently, there has been substantial discussion about how this affects learning and storage capacity. In this paper, we calculate the storage capacity of discrete, bounded synapses in terms of Shannon information. We use this to optimize the learning rules and investigate how the maximum information capacity depends on the number of synapses, the number of synaptic states, and the coding sparseness. Below a certain critical number of synapses per neuron (comparable to numbers found in biology), we find that storage is similar to unbounded, continuous synapses. Hence, discrete synapses do not necessarily have lower storage capacity
Magnetic properties of amorphous thin films produced by ion mixing
We have produced several magnetic amorphous alloys by ion mixing of thin multilayer films. Our results show that the ion mixing technique is able to produce amorphous films of the various categories (transition metal-metalloid, transition metal pairs) at the composition appropriate for the appearance of magnetic ordering. A comparison of their saturation magnetization with that of related vapor quenched films suggests similar nearest-neighbor coordination in both kinds of samples
- …