Fabrication and Characterization of Metal Carbide-graphite Composites

Hot press fabrication effects on phase equilibrium and physical properties of refractory metal carbide-graphite composite

A Parametric Study of the Acoustic Mechanism for Core-Collapse Supernovae

We investigate the criterion for the acoustic mechanism to work successfully in core-collapse supernovae. The acoustic mechanism is an alternative to the neutrino-heating mechanism. It was proposed by Burrows et al., who claimed that acoustic waves emitted by $g$-mode oscillations in proto-neutron stars (PNS) energize a stalled shock wave and eventually induce an explosion. Previous works mainly studied to which extent the $g$-modes are excited in the PNS. In this paper, on the other hand, we investigate how strong the acoustic wave needs to be if it were to revive a stalled shock wave. By adding the acoustic power as a new axis, we draw a critical surface, an extension of the critical curve commonly employed in the context of neutrino heating. We perform both 1D and 2D parametrized simulations, in which we inject acoustic waves from the inner boundary. In order to quantify the power of acoustic waves, we use the extended Myers theory to take neutrino reactions into proper account. We find for the 1D simulations that rather large acoustic powers are required to relaunch the shock wave, since the additional heating provided by the secondary shocks developed from acoustic waves is partially canceled by the neutrino cooling that is also enhanced. In 2D, the required acoustic powers are consistent with those of Burrows et al. Our results seem to imply, however, that it is the sum of neutrino heating and acoustic powers that matters for shock revival.Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures, accepted by Ap

Charmed hadron physics in quenched anisotropic lattice QCD

We investigate the anisotropic lattice with $O(a)$ improved quark action as a candidate of framework in which we can treat both the heavy and light quark region in the same manner and systematically reduce the systematic uncertainties. To examine applicability of anisotropic lattice, we calculate the charmed meson spectrum and decay constants in quenched approximation. We find consistent result with most advanced results on isotropic lattices.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, contribution to Fifth KEK Topical Conference - Frontiers in Flavor Physics -, Tsukuba, Japan, November 20-22, 200

Heavy-light meson in anisotropic lattice QCD

We examine whether the $O(a)$ improved quark action on anisotropic lattices can be used as a framework for the heavy quark, which enables precision computation of matrix elements of heavy-light mesons. To this end, it is crucial to verify that a mass independent and nonperturbative tuning of the parameters is possible. As a first step, we observe the dispersion relation of heavy-light mesons on a quenched lattice using the action which is nonperturbatively tuned only for the leading terms. On a lattice with the spatial cutoff $a_\sigma^{-1} \simeq$ 1.6 GeV and the anisotropy $\xi=4$, the relativity relation holds within 2% accuracy in the quark mass region $a_\sigma m_Q \leq 1.2$ with the bare anisotropy parameter tuned for the massless quark. We also apply the action to a calculation of heavy-light decay constants in the charm quark mass region.Comment: Lattice2002(heavyquark), 3 pages, 2 figure

Conformal Phase Transition and Fate of the Hidden Local Symmetry in Large N_f QCD

It is observed that the Hidden Local Symmetry (HLS) for the vector mesons in the ordinary QCD with smaller N_f plays the role of the "Higgsed magnetic gauge symmetry" for the Seiberg duality in the SUSY QCD. For large N_f where the conformal phase transition with chiral restoration and deconfinement is expected to take place, we find that the HLS model also exhibits the chiral restoration by the loop corrections (including the quadratic divergence) in a manner similar to that in the CP^{N-1} model, provided that the bare HLS Lagrangian respects the Georgi's vector limit at a certain N_f (\approx 7).Comment: 4 Pages (RevTeX), 3 PS figures are included Minor corrections are made for the introductory part. This is the version to appear in Physical Review Letter

Rab8a and Rab8b are essential for several apical transport pathways but insufficient for ciliogenesis

The small GTP-binding protein Rab8 is known to play an essential role in intracellular transport and cilia formation. We have previously demonstrated that Rab8a is required for localising apical markers in various organisms. Rab8a has a closely related isoform, Rab8b. To determine whether Rab8b can compensate for Rab8a, we generated Rab8b-knockout mice. Although the Rab8b-knockout mice did not display an overt phenotype, Rab8a and Rab8b double-knockout mice exhibited mislocalisation of apical markers and died earlier than Rab8a-knockout mice. The apical markers accumulated in three intracellular patterns in the double-knockout mice. However, the localisation of basolateral and/or dendritic markers of the double-knockout mice seemed normal. The morphology and the length of various primary and/or motile cilia, and the frequency of ciliated cells appeared to be identical in control and double-knockout mice. However, an additional knockdown of Rab10 in double-knockout cells greatly reduced the percentage of ciliated cells. Our results highlight the compensatory effect of Rab8a and Rab8b in apical transport, and the complexity of the apical transport process. In addition, neither Rab8a nor Rab8b are required for basolateral and/or dendritic transport. However, simultaneous loss of Rab8a and Rab8b has little effect on ciliogenesis, whereas additional loss of Rab10 greatly affects ciliogenesis

Critical phenomena in Newtonian gravity

We investigate the stability of self-similar solutions for a gravitationally collapsing isothermal sphere in Newtonian gravity by means of a normal mode analysis. It is found that the Hunter series of solutions are highly unstable, while neither the Larson-Penston solution nor the homogeneous collapse one have an analytic unstable mode. Since the homogeneous collapse solution is known to suffer the kink instability, the present result and recent numerical simulations strongly support a proposition that the Larson-Penston solution will be realized in astrophysical situations. It is also found that the Hunter (A) solution has a single unstable mode, which implies that it is a critical solution associated with some critical phenomena which are analogous to those in general relativity. The critical exponent $\gamma$ is calculated as $\gamma\simeq 0.10567$. In contrast to the general relativistic case, the order parameter will be the collapsed mass. In order to obtain a complete picture of the Newtonian critical phenomena, full numerical simulations will be needed.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

No Go Theorem for Kinematic Self-Similarity with A Polytropic Equation of State

We have investigated spherically symmetric spacetimes which contain a perfect fluid obeying the polytropic equation of state and admit a kinematic self-similar vector of the second kind which is neither parallel nor orthogonal to the fluid flow. We have assumed two kinds of polytropic equations of state and shown in general relativity that such spacetimes must be vacuum.Comment: 5 pages, no figures. Revtex. One word added to the title. Final version to appear in Physical Review D as a Brief Repor