Initial conditions of the universe: how much isocurvature is allowed?

We investigate the constraints imposed by current data on correlated mixtures of adiabatic and nonadiabatic primordial perturbations. We discover subtle flat directions in parameter space that tolerate large (approximately 60%) fractions of nonadiabatic fluctuations. In particular, larger values of the baryon density and a spectral tilt are allowed. The cancellations in the degenerate directions are explored and the role of priors is elucidated.     

What is 'unfreezable water', how unfreezable is it,and how much is there?

Water that remains unfrozen at temperatures below the equilibrium bulk freezing temperature, in the presence of ice, is sometimes called unfreezable or bound. This paper analyses the phenomenon in terms of quantitative measurements of the hydration interaction among membranes or macromolecules at freezing temperatures. These results are related to analogous measurements in which osmotic stress or mechanical compression is used to equilibrate water of hydration with a bulk phase. The analysis provides formulas to estimate, at a given sub-freezing temperature, the amount of unfrozen water due to equilibrium hydration effects. Even at tens of degrees below freezing, this hydration effect alone can explain an unfrozen water volume that considerably exceeds that of a single 'hydration shell' surrounding the hydrophilic surfaces. The formulas provided give a lower bound to the amount of unfrozen water for two reasons. First, the well-known freezing point depression due to small solutes is, to zeroth order, independent of the membrane or macromolecular hydration effect. Further, the unfrozen solution found between membranes or macromolecules at freezing temperatures has high viscosity and small dimensions. This means that dehydration of such systems, especially at freezing temperatures, takes so long that equilibrium is rarely achieved over normal experimental time scales. So, in many cases, the amount of unfrozen water exceeds that expected at equilibrium, which in turn usually exceeds that calculated for a single hydration shell.     

Translational entanglement via collisions: how much quantum information is obtainable?

We study collisions mediated by finite-range potentials as a tool for generating translational entanglement between unbound particles or multipartite systems. The general analysis is applied to one-dimensional scattering, where resonances and the initial phase-space distribution are shown to determine the degree of postcollisional entanglement.     

Viscosity information from relativistic nuclear collisions: how perfect is the fluid observed at RHIC?

Relativistic viscous hydrodynamic fits to Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider data on the centrality dependence of multiplicity, transverse, and elliptic flow for square root s = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions are presented. For standard (Glauber-type) initial conditions, while data on the integrated elliptic flow coefficient v(2) are consistent with a ratio of viscosity over entropy density up to eta/s approximately 0.16, data on minimum bias v(2) seem to favor a much smaller viscosity over entropy ratio, below the bound from the anti-de Sitter conformal field theory conjecture. Some caveats on this result are discussed.     

Locally accessible information: how much can the parties gain by cooperating?

We investigate measurements of bipartite ensembles restricted to local operations and classical communication and find a universal Holevo-like upper bound on the locally accessible information. We analyze our bound and exhibit a class of states which saturate it. Finally, we link the bound to the problem of quantification of the nonlocality of the operations necessary to extract locally inaccessible information.     

Photoconductivity derived from an exact modelling of the uncompensated one-donor model. II—computer simulation of the steady-state exact model

Abstract

Stationary photoconductivity is treated with the model of Part I, free from any of the usual simplifying approximations of the related equations. This simulation leads to set forth a new concept of characteristic temperature T ₀, at which the donor population is independent of the illumination intensity G. T ₀ separates two intervals of temperature over which G either partially empties (T< T ₀) or fills (T > T ₀) the level. Also T ₀ has, in particular, an influence on the ratio n/p of free electrons and holes. The effective isothermal behaviour of n(G) shows that n(G) ∞ G ^1/2 on the lower side of the G range, and n(G) ∞ G at higher G. Variations of n(T) at constant G also display original, T ₀ dependent, characteristics. Finally, a qualitative comparison is made of the 1D model with the two 1D_ai approximate models described in I, in order to distinguish their most prominent behaviour differences.     

Simultaneous EEG-fMRI acquisition: how far is it from being a standardized technique?

Simultaneous EEG–fMRI is a powerful tool to study spontaneous and evoked brain activity because of the complementary advantages of the two techniques in terms of temporal and spatial resolution. In recent years, a significant number of scientific works have been published on this subject. However, many technical problems related to the intrinsic incompatibility of EEG and MRI methods are still not fully solved. Furthermore, simultaneous acquisition of EEG and event-related fMRI requires precise synchronization of all devices involved in the experimental setup. Thus, timing issue must be carefully considered in order to avoid significant methodological errors.

The aim of the present work is to highlight and discuss some of technical and methodological open issues associated with the combined use of EEG and fMRI. These issues are presented in the context of preliminary data regarding simultaneous acquisition of event-related evoked potentials and BOLD images during a visual odd-ball paradigm.     

What is the effective stress energy of particles created from the vacuum?

When spontaneous particle creation occurs in a strong gravitational field, it seems clear on physical grounds that the particle creation must back-react on the gravitation field. It is generally believed that in the semiclassical approximation this effect can be described by assigning an effective stress energy to the created particles, which acts as a source of the gravitational field via Einstein's equation. In this essay, I discuss an axiomatic approach for determining the renormalized value of this effective stress energy.This essay was awarded the third prize for 1977 by the Gravity Research Foundation.     

Unusual directional dependence of exchange energies in GaAs diluted with Mn: is the RKKY description relevant?

Ferromagnetism in Mn-doped GaAs, the prototypical dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS), has so far been attributed to hole mediated RKKY-type interactions. First-principles calculations reveal a strong direction dependence of the ferromagnetic (FM) stabilization energy for Mn pairs, a dependence that cannot be explained within RKKY. In the limit of a hostlike hole engineered here where the RKKY model is applicable, the exchange energies are strongly reduced, suggesting that this limit cannot explain the observed ferromagnetism. The dominant contribution stabilizing the FM state is found to be maximal for 110-oriented Mn pairs and minimal for 100-oriented Mn pairs, providing an alternate explanation for magnetism in such materials in terms of energy lowering due to p-d hopping interactions, and offering a new design degree of freedom to enhance FM.     

Photoconductivity derived from an exact modelling of the uncompensated one-donor model. III—problem of fitting the exact model with approximate models

Abstract

The paper is essentially devoted to a quantitative comparison of the exact (1D) model developed in Part I, with two approximate models indicated by Kittel (1D_a1) and by Van der Ziel (1D_a2). And this is made for identical values of their common parameters. This allows to show that models 1D and 1D_a1 generally present no suitable intervals for fitting. The model of Van der Ziel is more suited, for, a good fitting with the 1D model can be obtained, for relatively reduced G values, and for temperatures bounded upward by the characteristic temperature T ₀ defined previously. The role played by the sub-models, obtained after simplifying the 1D_ai model equations, is studied also.     

Photoconductivity derived from an exact modelling of the uncompensated one-donor model. I—simplified models revisited; and description of the method of solving the exact model equations

Abstract

Photoconductivity associated with a simple photoconductor model, containing one localised (donor) level, is taken up carefully through different approaches. Two simplified approaches are analysed, that are based on the assumption that some transitions between this level and the allowed bands can be neglected. The respective roles played by these hypotheses are specified through a hierarchical classification, and the limits of validity of the combined approximations are carefully stated. In a parallel direction, the related complete model is presented, which excludes no transitions and is based on Fermi—Dirac statistics. The resolution procedure of the resulting non-linear system of equations is then described, with the purpose of comparing the respective behaviours of all those models.     

What is the Cause of Inertia?

The question of the cause of inertial reaction forces and the validity of Mach's principle are investigated. A recent claim that the cause of inertial reaction forces can be attributed to an interaction of the electrical charge of elementary particles with the hypothetical quantum mechanical zero-point fluctuation electromagnetic field is shown to be untenable. It fails to correspond to reality because the coupling of electric charge to the electromagnetic field cannot be made to mimic plausibly the universal coupling of gravity and inertia to the stress-energy-momentum (i.e., matter) tensor. The gravitational explanation of the origin of inertial forces is then briefly laid out, and various important features of it explored in the last half-century are addressed.     

How much information is needed to be the majority during the binary-state opinion formation?

In this paper, we try to propose a toy model, which follows the majority rule with the Fermi function, to uncover the role of the heterogeneous interaction between individuals in opinion formation. In order to do this, we define the impact factor I_Fi$I{F}_i$, says individual i$i$, as the exponential function of its connectivity _ki$k_i$ with the tunable parameter β$\beta$. β$\beta$ also shows the public information that can be collected by individuals in the system. We realize our model in scale-free networks with mean connectivity 〈k〉$〈k〉$. We find that much more public information (β>_β2$\beta >{\beta }_2$) and less public information (β<_β1$\beta <{\beta }_1$) cannot let either of the two opinions be the majority during the opinion formation. Furthermore, _β1${\beta }_1$ is a constant and equal to −0.76(±0.04)$-0.76(\pm 0.04)$, and _β2${\beta }_2$ decreases as a power-law function of the mean connectivity 〈k〉$〈k〉$ of the network. Our work can provide some perspectives and tools to understand the diversity of opinion in social networks.     

What is the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model from F-theory?

We construct gauge theory of SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1)$\mathit{SU}(3)\times \mathit{SU}(2)\times U(1)$ by spectral cover from F-theory and ask how the Standard Model is extended under minimal assumptions on Higgs sector. For the requirement on different numbers between Higgs pairs and matter generations (respectively one and three) distinguished by R-parity, we choose a universal G  -flux obeying SO(10)$\mathit{SO}(10)$ but slightly breaking _E6$E_6$ unification relation. This condition forces distinction between up and down Higgs fields, suppression of proton decay operators up to dimension five, and existence and dynamics of a singlet related to μ-parameter.     

What is modified gravity and how to differentiate it from particle dark matter?

An obvious criterion to classify theories of modified gravity is to identify their gravitational degrees of freedom and their coupling to the metric and the matter sector. Using this simple idea, we show that any theory which depends on the curvature invariants is equivalent to general relativity in the presence of new fields that are gravitationally coupled to the energy-momentum tensor. We show that they can be shifted into a new energy-momentum tensor. There is no a priori reason to identify these new fields as gravitational degrees of freedom or matter fields. This leads to an equivalence between dark matter particles gravitationally coupled to the standard model fields and modified gravity theories designed to account for the dark matter phenomenon. Due to this ambiguity, it is impossible to differentiate experimentally between these theories and any attempt of doing so should be classified as a mere interpretation of the same phenomenon.     

Physicists probing active media: What is the measure of success?

I present a critical review of this issue integrating the aims of continuous and agent-based theories and experiment.