Physics Results From Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 1998 Shuttle Flight

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a particle detector designed to detect antimatter. During the 10-day test flight on the space shuttle in June 1998, AMS detected $10^8$ events. Upon analysis, no antimatter was found and the antimatter limit was reduced to $1.1\times10^{-6}$. The proton spectrum shows some differences with the cosmic ray flux used in atmospheric neutrino simulation. A large amount of protons, positrons, and electrons were found below the geomagnetic rigidity cutoff. The energy of these particles are as high as several GeV, one order of magnitude higher than any previously measured energy in radiation belts. These particles also exhibit many interesting features. This paper reviews the results in the four published papers of the AMS collaboration and provides explanation for some features of the albedo particles.Comment: 14 pages, 20 figures, The 7-th Taiwan Astrophysics Worksho

Atmospheric Secondary Particles In Near Earth Space

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer detects a large amount of particles below rigidity cutoff. Those high energy particles create questions related to radiation belts and atmospheric neutrinos. To understand the origin of these particles, we use a trajectory tracing program to simulate particle trajectories in realistic geomagnetic field. The complex behaviors and large e^+/e^- are explained here.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; Submit to the 8th Asia Pacific Physics Conferenc

Hybrid moments of the Riemann zeta-function

The "hybrid" moments $$\int_T^{2T}|\zeta(1/2+it)|^k{(\int_{t-G}^{t+G}|\zeta(1/2+ix)|^\ell dx)}^m dt$$ of the Riemann zeta-function $\zeta(s)$ on the critical line $\Re s = 1/2$ are studied. The expected upper bound for the above expression is $O_\epsilon(T^{1+\epsilon}G^m)$. This is shown to be true for certain specific values of the natural numbers $k,\ell,m$, and the explicitly determined range of $G = G(T;k,\ell,m)$. The application to a mean square bound for the Mellin transform function of $|\zeta(1/2+ix)|^4$ is given.Comment: 27 page

Heavy baryon spectroscopy in QCD

We perform a systematic study of the masses of charmed and bottom baryons in the framework of the QCD sum rule approach. Contributions of the operators up to dimension six are included in operator product expansion. The resulting heavy baryon masses from the calculations are well consistent with the experimental values, and predictions to the spectroscopy of the unobserved bottom baryons are also presented.Comment: 14 pages,38 figure

Doubly heavy baryons in QCD sum rules

The mass spectra of doubly heavy baryons are systematically calculated in the framework of QCD sum rules. With a tentative heavy-diquark--light-quark configuration, the interpolating currents representing the doubly heavy baryons are proposed. Contributions of the operators up to dimension six are included in operator product expansion. The numerical results are compatible with other theoretical predictions, which may support the $(QQ)-(q)$ structure of doubly heavy baryons.Comment: RevTeX 4, 11 pages with 14 eps figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The mPEG-PCL Copolymer for Selective Fermentation of Staphylococcus lugdunensis Against Candida parapsilosis in the Human Microbiome.

Many human skin diseases, such as seborrheic dermatitis, potentially occur due to the over-growth of fungi. It remains a challenge to develop fungicides with a lower risk of generating resistant fungi and non-specifically killing commensal microbes. Our probiotic approaches using a selective fermentation initiator of skin commensal bacteria, fermentation metabolites or their derivatives provide novel therapeutics to rein in the over-growth of fungi. Staphylococcus lugdunensis (S. lugdunensis) bacteria and Candida parapsilosis (C. parapsilosis) fungi coexist in the scalp microbiome. S. lugdunensis interfered with the growth of C. parapsilosis via fermentation. A methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(ε-caprolactone) (mPEG-PCL) copolymer functioned as a selective fermentation initiator of S. lugdunensis, selectively triggering the S. lugdunensis fermentation to produce acetic and isovaleric acids. The acetic acid and its pro-drug diethyleneglycol diacetate (Ac-DEG-Ac) effectively suppressed the growth of C. parapsilosis in vitro and impeded the fungal expansion in the human dandruff. We demonstrate for the first time that S. lugdunensis is a skin probiotic bacterium that can exploit mPEG-PCL to yield fungicidal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). The concept of bacterial fermentation as a part of skin immunity to re-balance the dysbiotic microbiome warrants a novel avenue for studying the probiotic function of the skin microbiome in promoting health