Roper Excitation in Alpha-Proton Scattering

We study the Roper excitation in the $(\alpha,\alpha')$ reaction. We consider all processes which may be relevant in the Roper excitation region, namely, Roper excitation in the target, Roper excitation in the projectile, and double $\Delta$ excitation processes. The theoretical investigation shows that the Roper excitation in the proton target mediated by an isoscalar exchange is the dominant mechanism in the process. We determine an effective isoscalar interaction by means of which the experimental cross section is well reproduced. This should be useful to make predictions in related reactions and is a first step to construct eventually a microscopic $NN \rightarrow NN^*$ transition potential, for which the present reaction does not offer enough information.Comment: Latex 17 pages; figures available by request; Phys. Rev. C in prin

Neutrino masses and mixing parameters in a left-right model with mirror fermions

In this work we consider a left-right model containing mirror fermions with gauge group SU(3)$_{C} \otimes SU(2)_{L} \otimes SU(2)_{R} \otimes U(1)_{Y^\prime}$. The model has several free parameters which here we have calculated by using the recent values for the squared-neutrino mass differences. Lower bound for the mirror vacuum expectation value helped us to obtain crude estimations for some of these parameters. Also we estimate the order of magnitude of the masses of the standard and mirror neutrinos.Comment: 13 pages, version submitted to European Physical Journal

Ground states and formal duality relations in the Gaussian core model

We study dimensional trends in ground states for soft-matter systems. Specifically, using a high-dimensional version of Parrinello-Rahman dynamics, we investigate the behavior of the Gaussian core model in up to eight dimensions. The results include unexpected geometric structures, with surprising anisotropy as well as formal duality relations. These duality relations suggest that the Gaussian core model possesses unexplored symmetries, and they have implications for a broad range of soft-core potentials.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, appeared in Physical Review E (http://pre.aps.org

Projectile Δ\Delta and target-Roper excitation in the p (d, d')X reaction

In this paper we compare a model that contains the mechanisms of $\Delta$ excitation in the projectile and Roper excitation in the target with experimental data from two (d, d') experiments on a proton target. The agreement of the theory with the experiment is fair for the data taken at T_d = 2.3 GeV. The $\Delta$ excitation in the projectile is predicted close to the observed energy with the correct width. The theory, however, underpredicts by about 40% the cross sections measured at T_d = 1.6 GeV at angles where the cross section has fallen by about two orders of magnitude. The analysis done here allows to extract an approximate strength for the excitation of the Roper [N^*(1440)] excitation and a qualitative agreement with the theoretical predictions is also found.Comment: 8 ps figure

Roper excitation in p⃗+α→p⃗+α+X\vec{p}+\alpha \to \vec{p}+\alpha+X reactions

We calculate differential cross sections and the spin transfer coefficient $D_{nn}$ in the $\vec{p}+\alpha \to \vec{p}+\alpha+\pi^0$ reaction for proton bombarding energies from 1 to 10 GeV and $\pi^0 - p$ invariant masses spanning the region of the N$^*$(1440) Roper resonance. Two processes -- $\Delta$ excitation in the $\alpha$-particle and Roper excitation in the proton -- are included in an effective reaction model which was shown previously to reproduce existing inclusive spectra. The present calculations demonstrate that these two contributions can be clearly distinguished via $D_{nn}$, even under kinematic conditions where cross sections alone exhibit no clear peak structure due to the excitation of the Roper.Comment: 12 pages, 11 ps figures, Late

Superconducting density of states at the border of an amorphous thin film grown by focused-ion-beam

We present very low temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy (STM/S) measurements of a W based amorphous thin film grown with focused-ion-beam. In particular, we address the superconducting properties close to the border, where the thickness of the superconducting film decreases, and the Au substrate emerges. When approaching the Au substrate, the superconducting tunneling conductance strongly increases around the Fermi level, and the quasiparticle peaks do not significantly change its position. Under magnetic fields, the vortex lattice is observed, with vortices positioned very close to the Au substrate.Comment: To appear in Journal of Physics: Conference serie

Artificial termite-fishing tasks as enrichment for sanctuary-housed chimpanzees: Behavioral effects and impact on welfare

The welfare of captive animals is nowadays a topic of major concern. In order to express their natural behavioral repertoires, however, animals require complex environments and stimuli which are difficult to reproduce in captivity. To overcome this, environmental enrichment is considered one of the most successful tools to increase behavioral opportunities and enhance animal welfare. In this study, we explored whether providing an artificial termite-fishing task, and whether participation in this task, predicted changes in the solitary and social behavior of sanctuary-housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). We compared chimpanzee behavior when the enrichment was presented to different periods without enrichment. We found that the presence of the enrichment predicted an increase in tool use and feeding behavior and a decrease in inactivity, especially for those chimpanzees with higher participation. However, we did not detect significant changes in abnormal or self-directed behaviors. Furthermore, we found no variation in affiliation- or aggression-related behaviors, but social proximity increased in chimpanzees that participated more. Our results support previous studies demonstrating that artificial termite-fishing promotes species-typical behaviors in captive chimpanzees with no major effects on social activities

Incompressible flow in porous media with fractional diffusion

In this paper we study the heat transfer with a general fractional diffusion term of an incompressible fluid in a porous medium governed by Darcy's law. We show formation of singularities with infinite energy and for finite energy we obtain existence and uniqueness results of strong solutions for the sub-critical and critical cases. We prove global existence of weak solutions for different cases. Moreover, we obtain the decay of the solution in $L^p$, for any $p\geq2$, and the asymptotic behavior is shown. Finally, we prove the existence of an attractor in a weak sense and, for the sub-critical dissipative case with $\alpha\in (1,2]$, we obtain the existence of the global attractor for the solutions in the space $H^s$ for any $s > (N/2)+1-\alpha$