Contraints on Matter from Asymptotic Safety

Recent studies of the ultraviolet behaviour of pure gravity suggest that it admits a non-Gaussian attractive fixed point, and therefore that the theory is asymptotically safe. We consider the effect on this fixed point of massless minimally coupled matter fields. The existence of a UV attractive fixed point puts bounds on the type and number of such fields.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, revtex4; introduction expande

Interactions suppress Quasiparticle Tunneling at Hall Bar Constrictions

Tunneling of fractionally charged quasiparticles across a two-dimensional electron system on a fractional quantum Hall plateau is expected to be strongly enhanced at low temperatures. This theoretical prediction is at odds with recent experimental studies of samples with weakly-pinched quantum-point-contact constrictions, in which the opposite behavior is observed. We argue here that this unexpected finding is a consequence of electron-electron interactions near the point contact.Comment: 4 page

Electroweak phase transition: recent results

Recent results of four-dimensional (4d) lattice simulations on the finite temperature electroweak phase transition (EWPT) are discussed. The phase transition is of first order in the SU(2)-Higgs model below the end point Higgs mass 66.5$\pm$1.4 GeV. For larger masses a rapid cross-over appears. This result completely agrees with the results of the dimensional reduction approach. Including the full Standard Model (SM) perturbatively the end point is at 72.1$\pm$1.4 GeV. Combined with recent LEP Higgs mass lower bounds, this excludes any EWPT in the SM. A one-loop calculation of the static potential makes possible a precise comparison of the lattice and perturbative results. Recent 4d lattice studies of the Minimal Supersymmetric SM (MSSM) are also mentioned.Comment: Latex, 3 pages, 4 figures. Talk presented at the International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP99), Tampere, Finland, Jul y 15-21, 199

Integrable versus Non-Integrable Spin Chain Impurity Models

Recent renormalization group studies of impurities in spin-1/2 chains appear to be inconsistent with Bethe ansatz results for a special integrable model. We study this system in more detail around the integrable point in parameter space and argue that this integrable impurity model corresponds to a non-generic multi-critical point. Using previous results on impurities in half-integer spin chains, a consistent renormalization group flow and phase diagram is proposed.Comment: 20 pages 11 figures obtainable from authors, REVTEX 3.

Relatively Speaking: An Account of the Relationship between Language and Thought in the Color Domain

This chapter is divided into six sections. The first sets out the background of the debate about the relationship between language and cognition in the color domain. The second explains how recent studies of color recognition employing visual search tasks have clarified this relationship. This section also argues that these studies point to the existence of two separate systems that influence perception and categorization of color; one of which is linguistically based, and one of which is not affected by language. The third section critically evaluates recent claims that there are similarities between color terms in the world's languages that point to the existence of color universals. The fourth section examines children's color term acquisition in an attempt to trace the mechanisms bywhich color categories are acquired. It also discusses whether infants have an innate prepartitioned organization of color categories that is overridden during the learning process. The two final sections outline some outstanding questions, note some methodological constraints on the conclusions that can be drawn from the accumulated evidence, and argue that much more empirical investigation is still needed in this field

Relationship between antihypertensive medications and cognitive impairment: Part I. review of human studies and clinical trials

Purpose of review: There is an established association between hypertension and increased risk of poor cognitive performance and dementia including Alzheimer’s disease; however, associations between antihypertensive medications (AHMs) and dementia risk are less consistent. An increased interest in AHM has resulted in expanding publications; however, none of the recent reviews are comprehensive. Our extensive review includes 15 observational and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published over the last 5 years, assessing the relationship between AHM and cognitive impairment. Recent findings: All classes of AHM showed similar result patterns in human studies with the majority of study results reporting point estimates below one and only a small number of studies (N = 15) reporting statistically significant results in favor of a specific class. Summary: Only a small number of studies reported statistically significant results in favor of a specific class of AHM. Methodological limitations of the studies prevent definitive conclusions. Further work is now needed to evaluate the class of AHM and cognitive outcomes in future RCTs, with a particular focus on the drugs with the promising results in both animals and human observational studies