We calculate the leading order BFKL amplitude for the exclusive diffractive process {gamma}*{sub L}(Q{sub 1}{sup 2}) {gamma}*{sub L}(Q{sub 2}{sup 2}) {yields} {rho}{sub L}{sup 0}{rho}{sub L}{sup 0} in the forward direction, which can be studied in future high energy e{sup +}e{sup -} linear colliders. The resummation effects are very large compared to the fixed-order calculation. We also estimate the next-to-leading logarithmic corrections to the amplitude by using a specific resummation of higher order effects and find a substantial growth with energy, but smaller than in the leading logarithmic approximation.

Current data on CP violation in B_d -> eta' K_S and B_d -> phi K_S, taken literally, suggest new physics contributions in b -> s transitions. Despite a claim to the contrary, we point out that right-handed operators with a single weak phase can account for both deviations thanks to the two-fold ambiguity in the extraction of the weak phase from the corresponding CP-asymmetry. This observation is welcome since large mixing in the right-handed sector is favored by many GUT models and frameworks which address the flavor puzzle. There are also interesting correlations with the B_s system which provide a way to test this scenario in the near future.

The month-to-month variability of tropical temperatures is larger in the troposphere than at the Earth's surface. This amplification behavior is similar in a range of observations and climate model simulations, and is consistent with basic theory. On multi-decadal timescales, tropospheric amplification of surface warming is a robust feature of model simulations, but occurs in only one observational dataset. Other observations show weak or even negative amplification. These results suggest that either different physical mechanisms control amplification processes on monthly and decadal timescales, and models fail to capture such behavior, or (more plausibly) that residual errors in several observational datasets used here affect their representation of long-term trends.

The study of materials properties under extreme conditions has made considerable progress over the past decade due to both improvements in experimental techniques and advanced modeling methods. The availability of accurate models is crucial in order to analyze experimental results obtained in extreme conditions of pressure and temperature where experimental data can be scarce. Among theoretical models, ab initio simulations are playing an increasingly important role due to their ability to predict materials properties without the need for any experimental input. Ab initio simulations also allow for an exploration of materials properties in conditions that are unachievable using controlled experiments--such as e.g. the conditions prevailing in the core of large planets. In that limit, they constitute the only quantitative model of condensed matter available today. In this article, we review the current status of ab initio simulations and discuss examples of recent applications in which numerical simulations have provided an essential complement to experimental data.

The U-6 wt.% Nb (U6Nb) alloy in water-quenched (WQ) state has been in service for a number of years. Its long-term reliability is affected by the changes of the alloy microstructure and mechanical properties during service. In this communication, the water quenched U-6 wt.% Nb (WQ-U6Nb) alloy in service for 15 years at ambient temperatures was studied using an analytical TEM analysis. We found that the long-term natural aging resulted in a disorder-order phase transformation, leading to the formation of anti-phase boundaries (APBs). The newly-found ordered phase was then identified by proposing two phase transform schemes, which were also discussed with regards to the potential subsequence of the microstructural evolution for the alloy in further service. The initial study also provides convincing evidence for the disorder-order transformation, which has been predicted by numerous studies to be a transient thermodynamic event before spinodal decomposition. This suggests that the long-term naturally aged WQ-U6Nb is a good model alloy to study thermodynamic and kinetic phenomena requiring chronic processes.

Many applications of scientific computing rely on computations on sparse matrices. The design of efficient implementations of sparse matrix kernels is crucial for the overall efficiency of these applications. Due to the high compute-to-memory ratio and irregular memory access patterns, the performance of sparse matrix kernels is often far away from the peak performance on a modern processor. Alternative data structures have been proposed, which split the original matrix A into A{sub d} and A{sub s}, so that A{sub d} contains all dense blocks of a specified size in the matrix, and A{sub s} contains the remaining entries. This enables the use of dense matrix kernels on the entries of A{sub d} producing better memory performance. In this work, we study the problem of finding a maximum number of nonoverlapping dense blocks in a sparse matrix, which is previously not studied in the sparse matrix community. We show that the maximum nonoverlapping dense blocks problem is NP-complete by using a reduction from the maximum independent set problem on cubic planar graphs. We also propose a 2/3-approximation algorithm that runs in linear time in the number of nonzeros in the matrix. This extended abstract focuses on our results for 2x2 dense …

In Asia and North America research and development on a linear collider detector has followed complementary paths to that in Europe. Among the developments in the US has been the conception of a detector built around silicon tracking, which relies heavily on a pixel (CCD) vertex detector, and employs a silicon tungsten calorimeter. Since this detector is quite different from the TESLA detector, we describe it here, along with some of the sub-system specific R&D in these regions.

Article about the Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom stores at the Shops at La Cantera in San Antonio, Texas.