We make an exploratory study of how well dark energy models can be constrained using lensed arcs at different redshifts behind cluster lenses. Arcs trace the critical curves of clusters, and the growth of critical curves with source redshift is sensitive to the dark-energy equation of state. Using analytical models and numerically simulated clusters, we explore the key factors involved in using...

The quasilinear bands in the topologically trivial skutterudite insulator CoSb(3) are studied under adiabatic, symmetry-conserving displacement of the Sb sublattice. In this cubic, time-reversal and inversion symmetric system, a transition from trivial insulator to topological point Fermi surface system occurs through a critical point in which massless (Dirac) bands appear, and moreover are deg...

In this paper we describe a systematic procedure to analyze the convergence of degenerate preconditioned proximal point algorithms. We establish weak results under mild assumptions that can be easily employed in context splitting methods for monotone inclusion and convex minimization problems. Moreover, show degeneracy preconditioner allows reduction variables involved iteration updates. streng...

We consider here the NOνA experiment configuration and propose to place a second off-axis detector, with a shorter baseline, such that the type of neutrino mass hierarchy could be determined, by exploiting matter effects, with only the neutrino run. We show that the determination of this parameter is free of degeneracies, provided the ratio L E, where L the baseline and E is the neutrino energy...

We propose "vector manifestation" (VM) of the Wigner realization of chiral symmetry in which the symmetry is restored at the critical point by the massless degenerate pion (and its flavor partners) and the rho meson (and its flavor partners) as the chiral partner, in sharp contrast to the traditional manifestation á la the linear sigma model where the symmetry is restored by the degenerate pion...

The evolution of the degenerate complex curve associated with the ensemble at a generic critical point is related to the finite time singularities of Laplacian Growth. It is shown that the scaling behavior at a critical point of singular geometry x ∼ y is described by the first Painlevé transcendent. The regularization of the curve resulting from discretization is discussed. PACS numbers: 05.30...

It is, of course, well known to students of calculus that the extremal nature of a function f at a critical point is decided if the so-called discriminant (or Hessian) given by the expression A = f 2 f x x f y y evaluated at the critical point is nonzero. It is also known through simple examples that, in the so-called degenerate case when A = 0 at the point, f may have either an extremum or a s...

X(5) is a paradigm for the structure at the critical point of a particular first-order phase transition for which the intrinsic energy surface has two degenerate minima separated by a low barrier. For a finite system, we show that the dynamics at such a critical point can be described by an effective deformation determined by minimizing the energy surface after projection onto angular momentum ...

The ground state and spectral properties of Bose gases in double-well potentials are studied in two different scenarios: (i) an interacting atomic Bose gas, and (ii) a mixture of an atomic gas interacting with diatomic molecules. A ground state second-order quantum phase transition is observed in both scenarios. For large attractive values of the atom-atom interaction, the ground state is degen...