Revisiting Feminism: Who’s Afraid of the F Word?

While preparing for today I discovered that I had already used the \u27F\u27 word in a panel presentation at Sarah Lawrence College almost 15 years ago. This was something I had completely forgotten. But that time I was questioning feminism itself: what’s wrong with the \u27F\u27 word

Incremental Art: A Neural Network System for Recognition by Incremental Feature Extraction

Abstract Incremental ART extends adaptive resonance theory (ART) by incorporating mechanisms for efficient recognition through incremental feature extraction. The system achieves efficient confident prediction through the controlled acquisition of only those features necessary to discriminate an input pattern. These capabilities are achieved through three modifications to the fuzzy ART system: (1) A partial feature vector complement coding rule extends fuzzy ART logic to allow recognition based on partial feature vectors. (2) The addition of a F2 decision criterion to measure ART predictive confidence. (3) An incremental feature extraction layer computes the next feature to extract based on a measure of predictive value. Our system is demonstrated on a face recognition problem but has general applicability as a machine vision solution and as model for studying scanning patterns.Office of Naval Research (N00014-92-J-4015, N00014-92-J-1309, N00014-91-4100); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0083); National Science Foundation (IRI 90-00530

Improving Fixed-Point Implementation of QR Decomposition by Rounding-to-Nearest

QR decomposition is a key operation in many current communication systems. This paper shows how to reduce the area of a fixed-point QR decomposition implementation based on Givens rotations by using a new number representation system. This new representation allows performing round-tonearest at the same cost of truncation. Consequently, the rounding errors of the results are halved, which allows it to reduce the word-length by one bit. This reduction positively impacts on the area, delay and power consumption of the design.Ministry of Education and Science of Spain and Junta of Andalucía under contracts TIN2013-42253-P and TIC-1692, respectively, and Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Nonperturbative gluon and ghost propagators for d=3 Yang-Mills

We study a manifestly gauge invariant set of Schwinger-Dyson equations to determine the nonperturbative dynamics of the gluon and ghost propagators in $d=3$ Yang-Mills. The use of the well-known Schwinger mechanism, in the Landau gauge, leads to the dynamical generation of a mass for the gauge boson (gluon in $d=3$), which, in turn, gives rise to an infrared finite gluon propagator and ghost dressing function. The propagators obtained from the numerical solution of these nonperturbative equations are in very good agreement with the results of $SU(2)$ lattice simulations.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure

The gluon mass generation mechanism: a concise primer

We present a pedagogical overview of the nonperturbative mechanism that endows gluons with a dynamical mass. This analysis is performed based on pure Yang-Mills theories in the Landau gauge, within the theoretical framework that emerges from the combination of the pinch technique with the background field method. In particular, we concentrate on the Schwinger-Dyson equation satisfied by the gluon propagator and examine the necessary conditions for obtaining finite solutions within the infrared region. The role of seagull diagrams receives particular attention, as do the identities that enforce the cancellation of all potential quadratic divergences. We stress the necessity of introducing nonperturbative massless poles in the fully dressed vertices of the theory in order to trigger the Schwinger mechanism, and explain in detail the instrumental role of these poles in maintaining the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin symmetry at every step of the mass-generating procedure. The dynamical equation governing the evolution of the gluon mass is derived, and its solutions are determined numerically following implementation of a set of simplifying assumptions. The obtained mass function is positive definite, and exhibits a power law running that is consistent with general arguments based on the operator product expansion in the ultraviolet region. A possible connection between confinement and the presence of an inflection point in the gluon propagator is briefly discussed.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figures. Based on the talk given at the Workshop Dyson-Schwinger equations in modern mathematics and physics, ECT* (Trento) 22-26 September 2014. Review article contribution to the special issue of Frontiers of Physics (Eds. M. Pitschmann and C. D. Roberts

QCD effective charges from lattice data

We use recent lattice data on the gluon and ghost propagators, as well as the Kugo-Ojima function, in order to extract the non-perturbative behavior of two particular definitions of the QCD effective charge, one based on the pinch technique construction, and one obtained from the standard ghost-gluon vertex. The construction relies crucially on the definition of two dimensionful quantities, which are invariant under the renormalization group, and are built out of very particular combinations of the aforementioned Green's functions. The main non-perturbative feature of both effective charges, encoded in the infrared finiteness of the gluon propagator and ghost dressing function used in their definition, is the freezing at a common finite (non-vanishing) value, in agreement with a plethora of theoretical and phenomenological expectations. We discuss the sizable discrepancy between the freezing values obtained from the present lattice analysis and the corresponding estimates derived from several phenomenological studies, and attribute its origin to the difference in the gauges employed. A particular toy calculation suggests that the modifications induced to the non-perturbative gluon propagator by the gauge choice may indeed account for the observed deviation of the freezing values.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure

On the massive gluon propagator, the PT-BFM scheme and the low-momentum behaviour of decoupling and scaling DSE solutions

We study the low-momentum behaviour of Yang-Mills propagators obtained from Landau-gauge Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSE) in the PT-BFM scheme. We compare the ghost propagator numerical results with the analytical ones obtained by analyzing the low-momentum behaviour of the ghost propagator DSE in Landau gauge, assuming for the truncation a constant ghost-gluon vertex and a simple model for a massive gluon propagator. The asymptotic expression obtained for the regular or decoupling ghost dressing function up to the order ${\cal O}(q^2)$ is proven to fit pretty well the numerical PT-BFM results. Furthermore, when the size of the coupling renormalized at some scale approaches some critical value, the numerical PT-BFM propagators tend to behave as the scaling ones. We also show that the scaling solution, implying a diverging ghost dressing function, cannot be a DSE solution in the PT-BFM scheme but an unattainable limiting case.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figs., 2 tabs (updated version to be published in JHEP

Indirect determination of the Kugo-Ojima function from lattice data

We study the structure and non-perturbative properties of a special Green's function, u(q), whose infrared behavior has traditionally served as the standard criterion for the realization of the Kugo-Ojima confinement mechanism. It turns out that, in the Landau gauge, u(q) can be determined from a dynamical equation, whose main ingredients are the gluon propagator and the ghost dressing function, integrated over all physical momenta. Using as input for these two (infrared finite) quantities recent lattice data, we obtain an indirect determination of u(q). The results of this mixed procedure are in excellent agreement with those found previously on the lattice, through a direct simulation of this function. Most importantly, in the deep infrared the function deviates considerably from the value associated with the realization of the aforementioned confinement scenario. In addition, the dependence of u(q), and especially of its value at the origin, on the renormalization point is clearly established. Some of the possible implications of these results are briefly discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures; v2: typos corrected, expanded version that matches the published articl