Steve Harvey & Carlos II

Foot patrols through Baghdad were slow. Nothing but time to think about sniper sightlines and IEDs hidden in the trash. We gridded the streets in our AO and sidestepped sewage-puddling ditches. Three months in, one block became our favorite. There were fewer adobe-like farmhouses, and beyond them lay the rural red-sanded expanse of the desert. The stagnant heat reminded me of running the firebreak roads at Camp Mackall during SFAS Team Week. I had twelve months to go, a full year to imagine a violent death on a repeating loop. I wanted to make it to my twenty-first birthday so I could walk into a liquor store back home in Fort Worth and buy my old man a nice bottle of Scotch, thank him for loving me, for sending me letters every week

AA dependence of the γ\gamma- and pp-induced production of the Λ(1520)\Lambda(1520) from nuclei

Using results of a recent calculation of the $\Lambda(1520)$ in the nuclear medium, which show that the medium width is about five times the free width, we study the A dependence of the $\Lambda(1520)$ production cross section in the reactions $\gamma ~A \to K^+ \Lambda(1520) A^\prime$ and $p~ A \to p~ K^+ \Lambda(1520) A^\prime$. We find a sizable A dependence in the ratio of the nuclear cross sections for heavy nuclei with respect to a light one due to the large value of the $\Lambda(1520)$ width in the medium, showing that devoted experiments, easily within reach in present facilities, can provide good information on that magnitude by measuring the cross sections studied here.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Behavior of the giant-dipole resonance in 120^{120}Sn and 208^{208}Pb at high excitation energ

The properties of the giant-dipole resonance (GDR) are calculated as a function of excitation energy, angular momentum, and the compound nucleus particle decay width in the nuclei $^{120}$Sn and $^{208}$Pb, and are compared with recent experimental data. Differences observed in the behavior of the full-width-at-half-maximum of the GDR for $^{120}$Sn and $^{208}$Pb are attributed to the fact that shell corrections in $^{208}$Pb are stronger than in $^{120}$Sn, and favor the spherical shape at low temperatures. The effects shell corrections have on both the free energy and the moments of inertia are discussed in detail. At high temperature, the FWHM in $^{120}$Sn exhibits effects due to the evaporation width of the compound nucleus, while these effects are predicted for $^{208}$Pb.Comment: 28 pages in RevTeX plus eight postscript figures. Submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Near-infrared photoluminescence from molecular crystals containing tellurium

We report the observation of near-infrared photoluminescence from Te4(Ga2Cl7)2 and Te4(Al2Cl7)2 molecular crystals containing Te42+ polycations. The experimental and theoretical results clearly revealed that Te42+ polycation is one smart near-infrared emitter with characteristic emission peaks at 1252 and 1258 nm for Te4(Ga2Cl7)2 and Te4(Al2Cl7)2 crystals, respectively, resulting from the intrinsic electronic transitions of Te42+. Furthermore, it was also found that the emissions strongly depend on the excitation wavelengths for both Te4(Ga2Cl7)2 and Te4(Al2Cl7)2 samples, most possibly owing to the co-existence of other Te-related optically active centers. This research not only enriches the species of luminescent charged p-block element polyhedra and deepens the understanding of Te-related photophysical behaviors, but also may stimulate efforts for designing novel material systems using such active centers. It is also greatly expected that these sub-nanometer optically active species could exist in other systems such as glasses, polymers, and bulk optical crystals, and the stabilization of these centers in widely used hosts will pave the way for their practical applications

The Solar Twin Planet Search. V. Close-in, low-mass planet candidates and evidence of planet accretion in the solar twin HIP 68468

[Methods]. We obtained high-precision radial velocities with HARPS on the ESO 3.6 m telescope and determined precise stellar elemental abundances (~0.01 dex) using MIKE spectra on the Magellan 6.5m telescope. [Results]. Our data indicate the presence of a planet with a minimum mass of 26 Earth masses around the solar twin HIP 68468. The planet is a super-Neptune, but unlike the distant Neptune in our solar system (30 AU), HIP 68468c is close-in, with a semi-major axis of 0.66 AU, similar to that of Venus. The data also suggest the presence of a super-Earth with a minimum mass of 2.9 Earth masses at 0.03 AU; if the planet is confirmed, it will be the fifth least massive radial velocity planet discovery to date and the first super-Earth around a solar twin. Both isochrones (5.9 Gyr) and the abundance ratio [Y/Mg] (6.4 Gyr) indicate an age of about 6 billion years. The star is enhanced in refractory elements when compared to the Sun, and the refractory enrichment is even stronger after corrections for Galactic chemical evolution. We determined a NLTE Li abundance of 1.52 dex, which is four times higher than what would be expected for the age of HIP 68468. The older age is also supported by the low log(R'HK) (-5.05) and low jitter. Engulfment of a rocky planet of 6 Earth masses can explain the enhancement in both lithium and the refractory elements. [Conclusions]. The super-Neptune planet candidate is too massive for in situ formation, and therefore its current location is most likely the result of planet migration that could also have driven other planets towards its host star, enhancing thus the abundance of lithium and refractory elements in HIP 68468. The intriguing evidence of planet accretion warrants further observations to verify the existence of the planets that are indicated by our data and to better constrain the nature of the planetary system around this unique star.Comment: A&A, in pres

Duality Anomaly Cancellation, Minimal String Unification and the Effective Low-Energy Lagrangian of 4-D Strings

We present a systematic study of the constraints coming from target-space duality and the associated duality anomaly cancellations on orbifold-like 4-D strings. A prominent role is played by the modular weights of the massless fields. We present a general classification of all possible modular weights of massless fields in Abelian orbifolds. We show that the cancellation of modular anomalies strongly constrains the massless fermion content of the theory, in close analogy with the standard ABJ anomalies. We emphasize the validity of this approach not only for (2,2) orbifolds but for (0,2) models with and without Wilson lines. As an application one can show that one cannot build a ${\bf Z}_3$ or ${\bf Z}_7$ orbifold whose massless charged sector with respect to the (level one) gauge group $SU(3)\times SU(2) \times U(1)$ is that of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, since any such model would necessarily have duality anomalies. A general study of those constraints for Abelian orbifolds is presented. Duality anomalies are also related to the computation of string threshold corrections to gauge coupling constants. We present an analysis of the possible relevance of those threshold corrections to the computation of $\sin^2\theta_W$ and $\alpha_3$ for all Abelian orbifolds. Some particular {\it minimal} scenarios, namely those based on all ${\bf Z}_N$ orbifolds except ${\bf Z}_6$Comment: 69 page

Unification Scale in String Theory

We study the unification scale and gauge coupling constant in 4D string theory. We show that the fine structure constant is determined by the dimension of the hidden gauge group and only $SU(6)$ and $SO(9)$ are consistent with minimal string unification while the unification scale can be of order of $10^{16}\,GeV$.Comment: 12 pages (LaTeX