Energy flow observables in hadronic collisions

We present recent QCD calculations of energy flow distributions associated with the production of jets at wide rapidity separations in high-energy hadron collisions, and discuss the role of these observables to analyze contributions from parton showering and from multiple parton collisions.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Contribution at MPI@LHC201

Identification of novel subgroup a variants with enhanced receptor binding and replicative capacity in primary isolates of anaemogenic strains of feline leukaemia virus

<b>BACKGROUND:</b> The development of anaemia in feline leukaemia virus (FeLV)-infected cats is associated with the emergence of a novel viral subgroup, FeLV-C. FeLV-C arises from the subgroup that is transmitted, FeLV-A, through alterations in the amino acid sequence of the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the envelope glycoprotein that result in a shift in the receptor usage and the cell tropism of the virus. The factors that influence the transition from subgroup A to subgroup C remain unclear, one possibility is that a selective pressure in the host drives the acquisition of mutations in the RBD, creating A/C intermediates with enhanced abilities to interact with the FeLV-C receptor, FLVCR. In order to understand further the emergence of FeLV-C in the infected cat, we examined primary isolates of FeLV-C for evidence of FeLV-A variants that bore mutations consistent with a gradual evolution from FeLV-A to FeLV-C.<p></p> <b>RESULTS:</b> Within each isolate of FeLV-C, we identified variants that were ostensibly subgroup A by nucleic acid sequence comparisons, but which bore mutations in the RBD. One such mutation, N91D, was present in multiple isolates and when engineered into a molecular clone of the prototypic FeLV-A (Glasgow-1), enhanced replication was noted in feline cells. Expression of the N91D Env on murine leukaemia virus (MLV) pseudotypes enhanced viral entry mediated by the FeLV-A receptor THTR1 while soluble FeLV-A Env bearing the N91D mutation bound more efficiently to mouse or guinea pig cells bearing the FeLV-A and -C receptors. Long-term in vitro culture of variants bearing the N91D substitution in the presence of anti-FeLV gp70 antibodies did not result in the emergence of FeLV-C variants, suggesting that additional selective pressures in the infected cat may drive the subsequent evolution from subgroup A to subgroup C.<p></p> <b>CONCLUSIONS:</b> Our data support a model in which variants of FeLV-A, bearing subtle differences in the RBD of Env, may be predisposed towards enhanced replication in vivo and subsequent conversion to FeLV-C. The selection pressures in vivo that drive the emergence of FeLV-C in a proportion of infected cats remain to be established

Nonradial sign changing solutions to Lane Emden equation

In this paper we prove the existence of continua of nonradial solutions for the Lane-Emden equation. In a first result we show that there are infinitely many global continua detaching from the curve of radial solutions with any prescribed number of nodal zones. Next, using the fixed point index in cone, we produce nonradial solutions with a new type of symmetry. This result also applies to solutions with fixed signed, showing that the set of solutions to the Lane Emden problem has a very rich and complex structure.Comment: 13 p

Transverse Momentum Dependent Partonic Distribution and Fragmentation Functions

Our knowledge on the three-dimensional momentum structure of hadrons is encoded in the Transverse Momentum Dependent partonic distribution and fragmentation functions (TMDs). A brief and updated review of the TMDs and of the processes in which they might play a role is presented.Comment: 5 pages, two figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 19th Particles & Nuclei International Conference (PANIC 2011), July 24th--29th, 2011, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, US

U(1) symmetry and elimination of spin-0 gravitons in Horava-Lifshitz gravity without the projectability condition

In this paper, we show that the spin-0 gravitons appearing in Horava-Lifshitz gravity without the projectability condition can be eliminated by extending the gauge symmetries of the foliation-preserving diffeomorphisms to include a local U(1) symmetry. As a result, the problems of stability, ghost, strong coupling, and different speeds in the gravitational sector are automatically resolved. In addition, with the detailed balance condition softly breaking, the number of independent coupling constants can be significantly reduced (from more than 70 down to 15), while the theory is still UV complete and possesses a healthy IR limit, whereby the prediction powers of the theory are considerably improved. The strong coupling problem in the matter sector can be cured by introducing an energy scale $M_{*}$, so that $M_{*} < \Lambda_{\omega}$, where $M_{*}$ denotes the suppression energy of high order derivative terms, and $\Lambda_{\omega}$ the would-be strong coupling energy scale.Comment: Revtex4, no figures. Some typos are corrected. Phys. Rev. D84, 101502 (R) (2011

Graviton mass bounds from space-based gravitational-wave observations of massive black hole populations

Space-based gravitational-wave detectors, such as LISA or a similar ESA-led mission, will offer unique opportunities to test general relativity. We study the bounds that space-based detectors could place on the graviton Compton wavelength \lambda_g=h/(m_g c) by observing multiple inspiralling black hole binaries. We show that while observations of individual inspirals will yield mean bounds \lambda_g~3x10^15 km, the combined bound from observing ~50 events in a two-year mission is about ten times better: \lambda_g~3x10^16 km (m_g~4x10^-26 eV). The bound improves faster than the square root of the number of observed events, because typically a few sources provide constraints as much as three times better than the mean. This result is only mildly dependent on details of black hole formation and detector characteristics. The bound achievable in practice should be one order of magnitude better than this figure (and hence almost competitive with the static, model-dependent bounds from gravitational effects on cosmological scales), because our calculations ignore the merger/ringdown portion of the waveform. The observation that an ensemble of events can sensibly improve the bounds that individual binaries set on \lambda_g applies to any theory whose deviations from general relativity are parametrized by a set of global parameters.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables. Minor changes to address comments by the referee