A study of non-extensivity in the Earth’s magnetosphere

Magnetic storms are undoubtedly among the most important phenomena in space physics and also a central subject of space weather. The non-extensive Tsallis entropy has been recently introduced, as an effective complexity measure for the analysis of the geomagnetic activity D _st index. Tsallis entropy has been shown to sensitively detect the complexity dissimilarity between pre-storm activity and intense magnetic storms in the Earth’s magnetosphere. Here, we show that the D _st time series obey a modified form of the Gutenberg-Richter law for the case of non-extensive statistics, thus providing evidence for universality in magnetic storm and earthquake occurrence.     

Influence of ocular dominance in the variability of the eye’s anterior segment measurements

The visual system tends to favour one eye over the other in perceptual or motor tasks. This effect, called ocular dominance, makes those small movements in one eye be smaller and more precise than in the other eye. These dynamic effects are usually small and static devices are not capable of detecting differences between both eyes. In the last years ophthalmic devices are becoming more and more precise, thus they can be sensible to such variability. The hypothesis posed here is that variability of measures acquired this way is affected by ocular dominance. With a Pentacam system we have measured several parameters of the anterior segment of the eye. Our findings show that variables measured for the dominant eye are less dispersive than for the non-dominant eye although the limited accuracy of the device can mask this effect. The trend is confirmed by a contrast experiment and by a previous work, so we accept the validity of our hypothesis. Our main conclusion is that systematic election of the right eye in analysis of reliability or reproducibility can bias the variability of results and consequently we suggest considering dominance effects.     

Solution of A. Einstein’s Problem on the Density of Matter in the Universe

Russian Physics Journal - On the basis of the special theory of relativity and a solution of the Schwarzschild equations of general relativity, a generalized equation of...     

A theoretical study of BrCN in the Π electronic ground state: Large amplitude bending motion

We have calculated the three-dimensional potential energy surfaces for the 1 ²A′ and 1 ²A″ states of BrCN⁺ at the MR-SDCI_DK+Q/[QZP-ANO-RCC (Br, C, N)] level of theory, where MR-SDCI_DK means ‘multi-reference single and double excitation configuration interaction calculation with Douglas-Kroll Hamiltonian.’ These ab initio potential energy surfaces have a common minimum (corresponding to the state) at a linear equilibrium structure with r_e(Br-C) = 1.735 Å and r_e(C-N) = 1.199 Å. Variational RENNER calculations yield a zero-point averaged structure (with the structural parameters calculated as expectation values over rovibrational wavefunctions) with 〈r(Br-C)〉₀ = 1.739 Å, 〈r(C-N)〉₀ = 1.204 Å, and 〈∠(Br-C-N)〉₀ = 172(4)°. A severe Fermi resonance between 2ν₂ and ν₃ has been found theoretically for the ²A″ potential energy surface. Comparing the ab initio zero-point averaged structure with a recent, experimentally derived r₀ structure, it is concluded that the effects of large-amplitude bending motion should be taken into account explicitly in the process of deriving the r₀ structure from the experimental values of the rotational constants. The electronic structure of BrCN⁺ has also been discussed.     

A study of π states of H2 + in the one centre approach

The statistical theory of the elastic constants of nematic liquid crystals is applied to detailed calculations based on well-defined approximations for the direct correlation function of Ornstein and Zernike and for the singlet orientational distribution. The model of hard spherocylinders with superimposed r ^-6 attraction modulated by a Maier-Saupe P ₂(cos ?_{1 2}) term, is used. The dependence on temperature, on the order parameter and on the length to breadth ratio, of the reduced elastic constants K* _i (i=1, 2, 3), is discussed in some detail and comparison with experiment is included.     

Effects of information asymmetry on cooperation in the prisoners’ dilemma game

Effects of information asymmetry on cooperation in the prisoners’ dilemma game are investigated. The amplitude A is introduced to describe the degree of information asymmetry. It is found that there exists an optimal value of amplitude Aopt at which the fraction of cooperation reaches its maximal value. The reason lies in that cooperators on the two-dimensional grid form large clusters at Aopt . In addition, the theoretical analysis in terms of the meanfield theory is used to understand this kind of phenomenon. It is confirmed that the information asymmetry plays an important role in the dynamics of the dilemma games of spatial prisoners.     

Resonant dislocation motion in NaCl crystals in the EPR scheme in the Earth’s magnetic field with pulsed pumping

Resonant dislocation motions in NaCl(Ca) crystals under the simultaneous action of the Earth’s magnetic field B _Earth (～66 μT) and a pulsed pump field $\tilde B$ of sufficient amplitude $\tilde B_m $ and certain duration τ have been detected and studied. The measured dislocation path peaks l(τ) have a maximum at τ = τ _r ≈ 0.53 μs. The resonance criterion has been found to be the ordinary EPR condition in which the g-factor is close to 2 and the optimum inverse pulse duration τ _r ^?1 is used instead of the harmonic pump field frequency ν _r . The largest peak l(τ) height is reached at mutually orthogonal dislocation (L) and magnetic field (B _Earth and $\tilde B$ ) orientations. Pulsed field rotation to the position $\tilde B$ ‖ B _Earth significantly decreases but does not “kill” the effect. For dislocations parallel to the Earth’s field (L ‖ B _Earth), the resonance almost disappears even at $\tilde B$ ⊥ B _Earth. In the optimum geometry of experiments, as the pump field amplitude $\tilde B_m $ decreases from 17.6 to 10 μT, the path peak height l _r = l(τ _r ) decreases only by 7.5%, remaining at the level of l _r ～ 10² μm, and at a $\tilde B_m $ further fall-off to 4 μT, it rapidly decreases to background values. In this case, the relative density of mobile dislocations similarly decreases from ～90 to 40%. Possible physical mechanisms of the observed effect have been discussed.     

A Note on the Geometric Interpretation of Bell’s Inequalities

Using results of Pitowsky and Gupta, we show in a direct, elementary fashion that, in the case of three spins, Bell’s inequalities indeed provide a representation of the tetrahedron of all spin correlation matrices as intersection of half-spaces.     

A percepual study on the domain of tones in Standard Chinese

I.IntroductionAsforthedomainoftonesinStandardChinese,Ho.ie[llc1aimedthatthebasiccontoursofStandardChinesetoneswerecocxtcnsiveon1ywiththesyllabicvowe1andanyvoicedsegmentthatmayfollowit.Thisclaimwasbascdontheacousticana1ysisoftheF,curvesinthecita-hontones.Howevcr,ShenandLin[']inapcrceptua1studyontona1coarticu1ationfoundthatinconnectedspeech,fundamentalfrequencyatintertonemiconsetwasperturbed----thisin-cludedinitialvoicedconsonantSandvowels(sy11abicvowe1andnon-sy11abicvowelwerealike)andconclu…     

ESR in the Earth’s magnetic field as a cause of dislocation motion in NaCl crystals

The resonance displacements of the dislocations, l ∼ 100 μm, in NaCl crystals placed in the crossed Earth’s magnetic field B _Earth and the ac field $ \tilde B $ \tilde B ≈ 3 μT of the variable frequency ν ∼ 10⁶ Hz have been discovered in the absence of any other impact on the crystals. Two peaks of the mean dislocation path l(ν) with the maxima at ν₁ = 1.3 MHz and ν₂ = 3 MHz have been observed for the field $ \tilde B $ \tilde B oriented along the vertical and horizontal components of B _Earth, respectively. The effect is explained by the depinning of the dislocations from the impurity centers after their structural transformation due to the ESR in the dislocation-impurity system in the crossed fields. The subsequent motion of the dislocations proceeds under the action of internal stress in the crystals. A physical model has been proposed to explain the strong anisotropy of the effect with respect to the mutual orientation of the dislocation lines and magnetic fields.     

Comparative study on electroosmosis modulated flow of MHD viscoelastic fluid in the presence of modified Darcy’s law

Magnetic field plays an important role in numerous fields such as biological, chemical, mechanical and medical research. In clinical and medical research the high field magnets are extremely important to create 3D images of anatomical and diagnostic importance from nuclear magnetic resonance signals. In view of these applications, the purpose of present work is to explore the impact of an external magnetic field on the viscoelastic fluid flow in the existence of electroosmosis, porous medium and slip boundary conditions. The governing equation is modified under the suitable dimensionless quantities. The resulting non-dimensional differential equation is evaluated by analytical as well as numerical (finite difference and cubic B-spline) methods. The convergence analysis is also presented for the numerical methods. The variations of sundry parameters on velocity, volume flow rate and skin friction are presented through graphical representations. The current analysis depicts that, the higher velocities are noticed in viscoelastic fluid as compared with Newtonian fluid. The velocity enhances with rising of slip and Darcy parameters. Volume flow rate rises with the slip and viscoelastic parameters. Skin friction is a decreasing function of zeta potential, Darcy number and Hall current parameter. The limiting solutions can be captured for the Newtonian fluid model by setting the viscoelastic parameter to zero.     

Dyson’s Constants in the Asymptotics of the Determinants of Wiener-Hopf-Hankel Operators with the Sine Kernel

Let stand for the integral operators with the sine kernels acting on L ²[0,α]. Dyson conjectured that the asymptotics of the Fredholm determinants of are given by

A note on the integral formulation of Einstein’s equations induced on a braneworld

We revisit the integral formulation (or Greens function approach) of Einsteins equations in the context of braneworlds. The integral formulation has been proposed independently by several authors in the past, based on the assumption that it possible to give a reinterpretation of the local metric field in curved spacetimes as an integral expression involving sources and boundary conditions. This allows one to separate source-generated and source-free contributions to the metric field. As a consequence, an exact meaning to Machs Principle can be achieved in the sense that only source-generated (matter fields) contributions to the metric are allowed for; universes which do not obey this condition would be non-Machian. In this paper, we revisit this idea concentrating on a Randall–Sundrum-type model with a non-trivial cosmology on the brane. We argue that the role of the surface term (the source-free contribution) in the braneworld scenario may be quite subtler than in the 4D formulation. This may pose, for instance, an interesting issue to the cosmological constant problem.     

A comparison of the effect of the ellipticity on the small and large solid-core PCF’s characteristics

In this paper we study small and large solid-core PCFs with elliptical shaped air-holes for the hexagonal lattice, which were constructed by omitting one air-hole (small core) and seven air-holes (large core), respectively, and we compare their characteristics with those with circular holes. We use two types of ellipticity: vertical and horizontal. Birefringence, dispersion, and the numerical apertures of the fundamental modes are analyzed using commercial simulation software. Also, the confinement loss is obtained. The effect of ellipticity on these characteristics is investigated in detail. It is found that the type of ellipticity of the air holes affects the numerical aperture and hence confinement loss significantly, but it has no crucial effect on either the dispersion or the birefringence for the small and large core PCFs.     

A study of ultraviolet renormalon ambiguities in the determination of α s from τ decay

The divergent large-order behaviour of the perturbative series relevant for the determination of _s from decay is controlled by the leading ultraviolet (UV) renormalon. Even in the absence of the first infrared (IR) renormalon, an ambiguity of order ²/m ² is introduced. We make a quantitative study of the practical implications of this ambiguity. We discuss the magnitude of UV renormalon corrections obtained in the large-N _f limit, which, although unrealistic, is nevertheless interesting to some extent. We then study a number of improved approximants for the perturbative series, based on a change of variable in the Borel representation, such as to displace the leading UV renormalon singularity at a larger distance from the origin than the first IR renormalon. The spread of the resulting values of _s (m ²) obtained by different approximants, at different renormalization scales, is exhibited as a measure of the underlying ambiguities. Finally, on the basis of mathematical models, we discuss the prospects of an actual improvement, given the signs and magnitudes of the computed coefficients, the size of _s (m ²) and what is known of the asymptotic properties of the series. Our conclusion is that a realistic estimate of the theoretical error cannot go below _s (m ²)±0.060, or _s (m _Z ²)±0.006.On leave of absence from INFN, Sezione di Milano, Milan, Italy     

Drug–DNA interaction: A theoretical study on the binding of thionine with DNAs of varying base composition

The recent studies carried out on the binding of small molecule to deoxyribonucleic acids suggested that the intercalation of a tricyclic heteroaromatic molecule, thionine, with natural DNAs provided thermal stabilization to the DNA complex. In the present study, we reported theoretical analysis of thionine binding with natural DNAs of varying base composition by using an amended Zimm and Bragg theory, to explain the melting behaviour and heat capacity of DNAs with and without thionine binding. We used experimental models of Paul et al. for implementing this study (Paul et al., 2010). The sharpness of transition has been examined in terms of half width and sensitivity parameter (ΔH/σ). The results of theoretical analysis concluded that the various parameters such as heat capacity curve, transition profile, half widths and sharpness of the transition are in good agreement with the experimental measurements for binding of thionine determined through DSC. The theoretical analysis proposed in this study, therefore, may be useful to understand interaction of small molecules with deoxyribonucleic acids. This approach may also be applied to design DNA binding therapeutic molecules and in the process of drug formulation and development.     

Entanglement in Hooke’s Law Atoms: an Effect of the Dimensionality of the Space

We study a singlet ground-state of the D-dimensional Hooke’s law model for D?=?1, 2, 3. We explore an effect of the dimensionality of the space D on the entanglement in the whole range of the repulsive interaction. Among other features, it is found that there exists a critical interaction strength above which for D?=?3 the amount of entanglement contained in the singlet ground-state becomes larger than that for D?=?2.