An alternative formulation for guided electromagnetic fields in grounded chiral slabs - Summary

An alternative formulation for guided electromagnetic fields in grounded chiral slabs is presented. This formulation is formally equivalent to the double Fourier transform method used by the authors to calculate the spectral fields in open chirostrip structures. In this paper, we have addressed the behavior of the electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of the ground plane and at the interface between the chiral substrate and the free space region. It was found that the boundary conditions for the magnetic field, valid for achiral media, are not completely satisfied when we deal with chiral material. Effects of chirality on electromagnetic field distributions and on surface wave dispersion curves were also analyzed.

Extra dimensions in superstring theory

It was earlier shown that an SO(9,1) θα spinor variable can be constructed from RNS matter and ghost fields. θα has a bosonic world-sheet super-partner λα which plays the role of a twistor variable, satisfying λΓμ λ = ∂xμ + iθΓμ ∂θ. For Type IIA superstrings, the left-moving [θL α, λL α] and right-moving [θRα, λRα] can be combined into 32-component SO(10,1) spinors [θA, λA]. This suggests that λAΓAB 11 λB = 2λL αλRα can be interpreted as momentum in the eleventh direction. Evidence for this interpretation comes from the zero-momentum vertex operators of the Type IIA superstring and from consideration of DD-branes. As in the work of Bars, one finds an SO(10,2) structure for the Type IIA superstring and an SO(9, 1) × SO(2, 1) structure for the Type IIB superstring. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

Vortex lattice and matching fields for a long superconducting wire

We investigate the flux penetration patterns and matching fields of a long cylindrical wire of circular cross section in the presence of an external magnetic field. For this study we write the London theory for a long cylinder both for the mixed and Meissner states, with boundary conditions appropriate for this geometry. Using the Monte Carlo simulated annealing method, the free energy of the mixed state is minimized with respect to the vortex position and we obtain the ground state of the vortex lattice for N=3 up to 18 vortices. The free energy of the Meissner and mixed states provides expressions for the matching fields. We find that, as in the case of samples of different geometry, the finite-size effect provokes a delay on the vortex penetration and a vortex accumulation in the center of the sample. The vortex patterns obtained are in good agreement with experimental results.

Matching fields of a long superconducting film

We obtain the vortex configurations, the matching fields, and the magnetization of a superconducting film with a finite cross section. The applied magnetic field is normal to this cross section, and we use the London theory to calculate many of its properties, such as the local magnetic field, the free energy, and the induction for the mixed state. Thus previous similar theoretical works, done for an infinitely long superconducting film, are recovered here, in the special limit of a very long cross section. ©1999 The American Physical Society.

Cohomology in the pure spinor formalism for the superstring

A manifestly super-Poincaré covariant formalism for the superstring has recently been constructed using a pure spinor variable. Unlike the covariant Green-Schwarz formalism, this new formalism is easily quantized with a BRST operator and tree-level scattering amplitudes have been evaluated in a manifestly covariant manner. In this paper, the cohomology of the BRST operator in the pure spinor formalism is shown to give the usual light-cone Green-Schwarz spectrum. Although the BRST operator does not directly involve the Virasoro constraint, this constraint emerges after expressing the pure spinor variable in terms of SO(8) variables.

Lattice constellations and codes from quadratic number fields

We propose new classes of linear codes over integer rings of quadratic extensions of Q, the field of rational numbers. The codes are considered with respect to a Mannheim metric, which is a Manhattan metric modulo a two-dimensional (2-D) grid. In particular, codes over Gaussian integers and Eisenstein-Jacobi integers are extensively studied. Decoding algorithms are proposed for these codes when up to two coordinates of a transmitted code vector are affected by errors of arbitrary Mannheim weight. Moreover, we show that the proposed codes are maximum-distance separable (MDS), with respect to the Hamming distance. The practical interest in such Mannheim-metric codes is their use in coded modulation schemes based on quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)-type constellations, for which neither the Hamming nor the Lee metric is appropriate.

Relating the RNS and pure spinor formalisms for the superstring

Recently, the superstring was covariantly quantized using the BRST-like operator Q = ∮ λαdα where λα is a pure spinor and dα are the fermionic Green-Schwarz constraints. By performing a field redefinition and a similarity transformation, this BRST-like operator is mapped to the sum of the Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz BRST operator and η0 ghost. This map is then used to relate physical vertex operators and tree amplitudes in the two formalisms. Furthermore, the map implies the existence of a b ghost in the pure spinor formalism which might be useful for loop amplitude computations.

Flat currents in the classical AdS5 × S5 pure spinor superstring

It is proven that the classical pure spinor superstring in an AdS 5 × S5 back-ground has a flat current depending on a continuous parameter. This generalizes the recent result of Bena, et al. for the classical Green-Schwarz superstring. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.

Conformal invariance of the pure spinor superstring in a curved background

It is shown that the pure spinor formulation of the heterotic superstring in a generic gravitational and super Yang-Mills background has vanishing one-loop beta functions. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.

Spatial pattern of parasitism in Diatraea saccharalis Fab. (Lep., Crambidae) populations at two different spatial scales in sugarcane fields in Brazil

The biological control of Diatraea saccharalis is regarded as one of the best examples of successful classical biological control in Brazil. Since the introduction of the exotic parasitoid, Cotesia flavipes, the decrease in D. saccharalis infestation in sugarcane fields has been attributed to the effectiveness of this agent. Native Tachinidae fly parasitoids (Lydella minense and Paratheresia claripalpis) have also been implicated in the success. Quantitative data confirming the actual contribution of these agents to the control of D. saccharalis are, however, rather scant. The purpose of this study was to investigate the spatial pattern of parasitism of these parasitoids in D. saccharalis populations at two large spatial scales (fields and zones). To investigate this subject, a large data set comprising information collected from a sugarcane mill located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil (São João sugarcane mill) was analysed. When regressions between the proportion parasitism against host density were computed, the percentage of significant regressions with either a positive or a negative slope was very small at both spatial scales for both parasitoid species. Regressing the densities of tachinid-parasitized hosts against host densities per field showed that these parasitoids presented a 'moderate aggregative' response to host densities, as 53.33% of the regressions were positively significant. Cotesia flavipes was 'weakly aggregated' on host densities at the field level, because only 33.33% of the regressions were positively significant. At the zone level, neither aggregative nor spatial proportion parasitism responses were evident for either parasitoid species due to the small percentage of significant regressions computed.

Multiloop amplitudes and vanishing theorems using the pure spinor formalism for the superstring

A ten-dimensional super-Poincaré covariant formalism for the superstring was recently developed which involves a BRST operator constructed from superspace matter variables and a pure spinor ghost variable. A super-Poincaré covariant prescription was defined for computing tree amplitudes and was shown to coincide with the standard RNS prescription. In this paper, picture-changing operators are used to define functional integration over the pure spinor ghosts and and to construct a suitable b ghost. A super-Poincaré covariant prescription is then given for the computation of N-point multiloop amplitudes. One can easily prove that massless N-point multiloop amplitudes vanish for N < 4, confirming the perturbative finiteness of superstring theory. One can also prove the Type IIB S-duality conjecture that R4 terms in the effective action receive no perturbative contributions above one loop. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.

Relating the Green-Schwarz and pure spinor formalisms for the superstring

Although it is not known how to covariantly quantize the Green-Schwarz (GS) superstring, there exists a semi-light-cone gauge choice in which the GS superstring can be quantized in a conformally invariant manner. In this paper, we prove that BRST quantization of the GS superstring in semi-light-cone gauge is equivalent to BRST quantization using the pure spinor formalism for the superstring © SISSA/ISAS 2005.

Steel bars identification in reinforced concrete structures by using ANN and magnetic fields

This work proposes a methodology for non destructive testing (NDT) of reinforced concrete structures, using superficial magnetic fields and artificial neural networks, in order to identify the size and position of steel bars, embedded into the concrete. For the purposes of this paper, magnetic induction curves were obtained by using a finite element program. Perceptron Multilayered (PML) ANNs, with Levemberg-Marquardt training algorithm were used. The results presented very good agreement with the expect ones, encouraging the development of real systems based upon the proposed methodology.