Information system support in construction industry with semantic web technologies and/or autonomous reasoning agents

Information technology support is hard to find for the early design phases of the architectural design process. Many of the existing issues in such design decision support tools appear to be caused by a mismatch between the ways in which designers think and the ways in which information systems aim to give support. We therefore started an investigation of existing theories of design thinking, compared to the way in which design decision support systems provide information to the designer. We identify two main strategies towards information system support in the early design phase: (1) applications for making design try-outs, and (2) applications as autonomous reasoning agents. We outline preview implementations for both approaches and indicate to what extent these strategies can be used to improve information system support for the architectural designer

Strain-Dependence of Surface Diffusion: Ag on Ag(111) and Pt(111)

Using density-functional theory with the local-density approximation and the generalized gradient approximation we compute the energy barriers for surface diffusion for Ag on Pt(111), Ag on one monolayer of Ag on Pt(111), and Ag on Ag(111). The diffusion barrier for Ag on Ag(111) is found to increase linearly with increasing lattice constant. We also discuss the reconstruction that has been found experimentally when two Ag layers are deposited on Pt(111). Our calculations explain why this strain driven reconstruction occurs only after two Ag layers have been deposited.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Phys. Rev. B 55 (1997), in pres

Unitary Quantum Physics with Time-Space Noncommutativity

In this work quantum physics in noncommutative spacetime is developed. It is based on the work of Doplicher et al. which allows for time-space noncommutativity. The Moyal plane is treated in detail. In the context of noncommutative quantum mechanics, some important points are explored, such as the formal construction of the theory, symmetries, causality, simultaneity and observables. The dynamics generated by a noncommutative Schrodinger equation is studied. We prove in particular the following: suppose the Hamiltonian of a quantum mechanical particle on spacetime has no explicit time dependence, and the spatial coordinates commute in its noncommutative form (the only noncommutativity being between time and a space coordinate). Then the commutative and noncommutative versions of the Hamiltonian have identical spectra.Comment: 18 pages, published versio

Global solutions of a free boundary problem for selfgravitating scalar fields

The weak cosmic censorship hypothesis can be understood as a statement that there exists a global Cauchy evolution of a selfgravitating system outside an event horizon. The resulting Cauchy problem has a free null-like inner boundary. We study a selfgravitating spherically symmetric nonlinear scalar field. We show the global existence of a spacetime with a null inner boundary that initially is located outside the Schwarzschild radius or, more generally, outside an apparent horizon. The global existence of a patch of a spacetime that is exterior to an event horizon is obtained as a limiting case.Comment: 31 pages, revtex, to appear in the Classical and Quantum Gravit

Noncommutative Inspired Black Holes in Extra Dimensions

In a recent string theory motivated paper, Nicolini, Smailagic and Spallucci (NSS) presented an interesting model for a noncommutative inspired, Schwarzschild-like black hole solution in 4-dimensions. The essential effect of having noncommutative co-ordinates in this approach is to smear out matter distributions on a scale associated with the turn-on of noncommutativity which was taken to be near the 4-d Planck mass. In particular, NSS took this smearing to be essentially Gaussian. This energy scale is sufficiently large that in 4-d such effects may remain invisible indefinitely. Extra dimensional models which attempt to address the gauge hierarchy problem, however, allow for the possibility that the effective fundamental scale may not be far from $\sim$ 1 TeV, an energy regime that will soon be probed by experiments at both the LHC and ILC. In this paper we generalize the NSS model to the case where flat, toroidally compactified extra dimensions are accessible at the Terascale and examine the resulting modifications in black hole properties due to the existence of noncommutativity. We show that while many of the noncommutativity-induced black hole features found in 4-d by NSS persist, in some cases there can be significant modifications due the presence of extra dimensions. We also demonstrate that the essential features of this approach are not particularly sensitive to the Gaussian nature of the smearing employed by NSS.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures; slight text modifications and references adde

Quantum States of Topologically Massive Electrodynamics and Gravity

The free quantum states of topologically massive electrodynamics and gravity in 2+1 dimensions, are explicitly found. It is shown that in both theories the states are described by infrared-regular polarization tensors containing a regularization phase which depends on the spin. This is done by explicitly realizing the quantum algebra on a functional Hilbert space and by finding the Wightman function to define the scalar product on such a Hilbert space. The physical properties of the states are analyzed defining creation and annihilation operators. For both theories, a canonical and covariant quantization procedure is developed. The higher order derivatives in the gravitational lagrangian are treated by means of a preliminary Dirac procedure. The closure of the Poincar\'e algebra is guaranteed by the infrared-finiteness of the states which is related to the spin of the excitations through the regularization phase. Such a phase may have interesting physical consequences.Comment: 21 page, latex, no figure

Localization in Strongly Chaotic Systems

We show that, in the semiclassical limit and whenever the elements of the Hamiltonian matrix are random enough, the eigenvectors of strongly chaotic time-independent systems in ordered bases can on average be exponentially localized across the energy shell and decay faster than exponentially outside the energy shell. Typically however, matrix elements are strongly correlated leading to deviations from such behavior.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages + 3 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Flavor SU(3) analysis of charmless B meson decays to two pseudoscalar mesons

Global fits to charmless B --> PP decays in the framework of flavor SU(3) symmetry are updated and improved without reference to the \sin2\beta measured from the charmonium decay modes. Fit results directly constrain the (\bar\rho,\bar\eta) vertex of the unitarity triangle, and are used to predict the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of all decay modes, including those of the B_s system. Different schemes of SU(3) breaking in decay amplitude sizes are analyzed. The major breaking effect between strangeness-conserving and strangeness-changing decays can be accounted for by including a ratio of decay constants in tree and color-suppressed amplitudes. The possibility of having a new physics contribution to K \pi decays is also examined from the data fitting point of view.Comment: 22 pages and 2 figures; some comments and references added; more references added, version to appear in journa

Phase space geometry and slow dynamics

We describe a non-Arrhenius mechanism for slowing down of dynamics that is inherent to the high dimensionality of the phase space. We show that such a mechanism is at work both in a family of mean-field spin-glass models without any domain structure and in the case of ferromagnetic domain growth. The marginality of spin-glass dynamics, as well as the existence of a `quasi equilibrium regime' can be understood within this scenario. We discuss the question of ergodicity in an out-of equilibrium situation.Comment: 23 pages, ReVTeX3.0, 6 uuencoded postscript figures appende