QCD Supersymmetry and Low Energy Gravity

In this contributed paper we discuss some aspects of scenarios with Extra Dimensions at the LHC and in cosmic rays.Comment: Contributed paper to the Conference "Quark confinement ant the Hadron Spectrum VI 2004". Latex, 3 page

An electron jet pump: The Venturi effect of a Fermi liquid

A three-terminal device based on a two-dimensional electron system is investigated in the regime of non-equilibrium transport. Excited electrons scatter with the cold Fermi sea and transfer energy and momentum to other electrons. A geometry analogous to a water jet pump is used to create a jet pump for electrons. Because of its phenomenological similarity we name the observed behavior "electronic Venturi effect".Comment: Journal of Applied Physics Special Topic: Plenary and Invited Papers from the 30th International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors, Seoul, Korea, 2010; http://link.aip.org/link/?JAP/109/10241

Gravitating defects of codimension-two

Thin gravitating defects with conical singularities in higher codimensions and with generalized Israel matching conditions are known to be inconsistent for generic energy-momentum. A way to remove this inconsistency is proposed and is realized for an axially symmetric gravitating codimension-two defect in six dimensional Einstein gravity. By varying with respect to the brane embedding fields, alternative matching conditions are derived, which are generalizations of the Nambu-Goto equations of motion of the defect, consistent with bulk gravity. For a maximally symmetric defect the standard picture is recovered. The four-dimensional perfect fluid cosmology coincides with conventional FRW in the case of radiation, but for dust it has rho^{4/3} instead of rho. A four-dimensional black hole solution is presented having the Schwarzschild form with a short-distance correction r^{-2}.Comment: Minor changes, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Some properties of the Alday-Maldacena minimum

The Alday-Maldacena solution, relevant to the n=4 gluon amplitude in N=4 SYM at strong coupling, was recently identified as a minimum of the regularized action in the moduli space of solutions of the AdS_5 sigma-model equations of motion. Analogous solutions of the Nambu-Goto equations for the n=4 case are presented and shown to form (modulo the reparametrization group) an equally large but different moduli space, with the Alday-Maldacena solution at the intersection of the sigma-model and Nambu-Goto moduli spaces. We comment upon the possible form of the regularized action for n=5. A function of moduli parameters z_a is written, whose minimum reproduces the BDDK one-loop five-gluon amplitude. This function may thus be considered as some kind of Legendre transform of the BDDK formula and has its own value independently of the Alday-Maldacena approach.Comment: 10 page

Towards a covariant model for cosmic self-acceleration

An explicitly covariant formulation is presented of a modified DGP scenario proposed recently [1], to avoid the instability of the self-accelerating branch. It is based on the introduction of a bulk scalar field with appropriate non-minimal coupling to the bulk Einstein-Hilbert term. The method is general and may be applied to other models as well.Comment: 10 pages, no figures; v2: version published in JHE

Induced Gravity on RS Branes

It is shown that a localized four-dimensional Einstein term, induced by quantum corrections, modifies significantly the law of gravity in a Randall-Sundrum brane world. In particular, the short-distance behavior of gravity changes from five- to four-dimensional, while, depending on the values of parameters, there can be an intermediate range where gravity behaves as in five dimensions. The spectrum of graviton fluctuations around the brane, their relative importance for the gravitational force, and the relevance of their emission in the bulk for the brane cosmology are analysed. Finally, constraints on parameters are derived from energy loss in astrophysical and particle physics processes.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure, JHEP.cl

Tat-SF1 Is Not Required for Tat Transactivation but Does Regulate the Relative Levels of Unspliced and Spliced HIV-1 RNAs

.To directly address the involvement of Tat-SF1 in HIV-1 gene expression, we depleted Tat-SF1 in HeLa cells by conventional expression of shRNAs and in T- Rex -293 cells containing tetracycline-inducible shRNAs targeting Tat-SF1. We achieved efficient depletion of Tat-SF1 and demonstrated that this did not affect cell viability. HIV-1 infectivity decreased in Tat-SF1-depleted cells, but only when multiple rounds of infection occurred. Neither Tat-dependent nor basal transcription from the HIV-1 LTR was affected by Tat-SF1 depletion, suggesting that the decrease in infectivity was due to a deficiency at a later step in the viral lifecycle. Finally, Tat-SF1 depletion resulted in an increase in the ratio of unspliced to spliced viral transcripts.Tat-SF1 is not required for regulating HIV-1 transcription, but is required for maintaining the ratios of different classes of HIV-1 transcripts. These new findings highlight a novel, post-transcriptional role for Tat-SF1 in the HIV-1 life cycle