Interacting branching process as a simple model of innovation

We describe innovation in terms of a generalized branching process. Each new invention pairs with any existing one to produce a number of offspring, which is Poisson distributed with mean p. Existing inventions die with probability p/τ at each generation. In contrast with mean field results, no phase transition occurs; the chance for survival is finite for all p > 0. For τ = ∞, surviving processes exhibit a bottleneck before exploding superexponentially-a growth consistent with a law of accelerating returns. This behavior persists for finite τ. We analyze, in detail, the asymptotic behavior as p→0.     

Über die Erzeugung der 2. harmonischen Frequenz der Strahlung eines Nd-Lasers in KDP

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Controlling the generation of high frequency electromagnetic pulses with relativistic flying mirrors using an inhomogeneous plasma

A method for the controlled generation of intense high frequency electromagnetic fields by a breaking Langmuir wave (relativistic flying mirrors) in a gradually inhomogeneous plasma is proposed. The wave breaking threshold depends on the local plasma density gradient. Compression, chirping and frequency multiplication of an electromagnetic wave reflected from relativistic mirrors is demonstrated using Particle-In-Cell simulations. Adjusting the shape of the density profile enables control of the reflected light properties.     

Effect of headphone position on absolute threshold measurements

Pure-tone audiometry (measurement of absolute thresholds using pure tones) is the main test for the diagnosis of hearing loss. The aim of the present study is to determine whether the headphone placement over a listener’s ears has an influence on pure-tone audiometric tests, for a large frequency range, for Sennheiser HD600 and Telephonics TDH39 headphones. Audiograms (with 1 dB step, and including 10 frequencies up to 14 kHz) were performed several times on normal-hearing subjects, for different – or not different – headphone positions (allowing to dissociate between effects of headphone position and cognitive factors). Globally, the results seem to indicate that the reliability without headphone removing was quite close to the one observed with removing. The influence of removing did not appear more crucial for high frequencies. The rare frequencies for which a removing effect was seen seem to be function of the headphone model. Finally the results were quite different among the subjects.     

Contact angle hysteresis at the nanometer scale

Using atomic force microscopy with nonconventional carbon tips, the pinning of a liquid contact line on individual nanometric defects was studied. This mechanism is responsible for the occurrence of the contact angle hysteresis. The presence of weak defects which do not contribute to the hysteresis is evidenced for the first time. The dissipated energy associated with strong defects is also measured down to values in the range of kT, which correspond to defect sizes in the order of 1 nm.     

Graded parafermions: standard and quasiparticle bases

Two bases of states are presented for modules of the graded parafermionic conformal field theory associated to the coset . The first one is formulated in terms of the two fundamental (i.e., lowest-dimensional) parafermionic modes. In that basis, one can identify the completely reducible representations, i.e., those whose modules contain an infinite number of singular vectors; the explicit form of these vectors is also given. The second basis is a quasiparticle basis, determined in terms of a modified version of the exclusion principle. A novel feature of this model is that none of its bases are fully ordered and this reflects a hidden structural exclusion principle.