768 research outputs found

    Dynamics of ions in the selectivity filter of the KcsA channel

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    The statistical and dynamical properties of ions in the selectivity filter of the KcsA ion channel are considered on the basis of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the KcsA protein embedded in a lipid membrane surrounded by an ionic solution. A new approach to the derivation of a Brownian dynamics (BD) model of ion permeation through the filter is discussed, based on unbiased MD simulations. It is shown that depending on additional assumptions, ion’s dynamics can be described either by under-damped Langevin equation with constant damping and white noise or by Langevin equation with a fractional memory kernel. A comparison of the potential of the mean force derived from unbiased MD simulations with the potential produced by the umbrella sampling method demonstrates significant differences in these potentials. The origin of these differences is an open question that requires further clarifications

    For richer, for poorer: marriage and casualized sex in East African artisanal mining settlements

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    Migrants to Tanzania's artisanal gold mining sites seek mineral wealth, which is accompanied by high risks of occupational hazards, economic failure, AIDS and social censure from their home communities. Male miners in these settlements compete to attract newly arrived young women who are perceived to be diverting male material support from older women and children's economic survival. This article explores the dynamics of monogamy, polygamy and promiscuity in the context of rapid occupational change. It shows how a wide spectrum of productive and welfare outcomes is generated through sexual experimentation, which calls into question conventional concepts of prostitution, marriage and gender power relations

    Atmospheric Heating and Wind Acceleration: Results for Cool Evolved Stars based on Proposed Processes

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    A chromosphere is a universal attribute of stars of spectral type later than ~F5. Evolved (K and M) giants and supergiants (including the zeta Aurigae binaries) show extended and highly turbulent chromospheres, which develop into slow massive winds. The associated continuous mass loss has a significant impact on stellar evolution, and thence on the chemical evolution of galaxies. Yet despite the fundamental importance of those winds in astrophysics, the question of their origin(s) remains unsolved. What sources heat a chromosphere? What is the role of the chromosphere in the formation of stellar winds? This chapter provides a review of the observational requirements and theoretical approaches for modeling chromospheric heating and the acceleration of winds in single cool, evolved stars and in eclipsing binary stars, including physical models that have recently been proposed. It describes the successes that have been achieved so far by invoking acoustic and MHD waves to provide a physical description of plasma heating and wind acceleration, and discusses the challenges that still remain.Comment: 46 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; modified and unedited manuscript; accepted version to appear in: Giants of Eclipse, eds. E. Griffin and T. Ake (Berlin: Springer

    Search for lepton-flavor violation at HERA

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    A search for lepton-flavor-violating interactions epμXe p \to \mu X and epτXe p\to \tau X has been performed with the ZEUS detector using the entire HERA I data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 130 pb^{-1}. The data were taken at center-of-mass energies, s\sqrt{s}, of 300 and 318 GeV. No evidence of lepton-flavor violation was found, and constraints were derived on leptoquarks (LQs) that could mediate such interactions. For LQ masses below s\sqrt{s}, limits were set on λeq1βq\lambda_{eq_1} \sqrt{\beta_{\ell q}}, where λeq1\lambda_{eq_1} is the coupling of the LQ to an electron and a first-generation quark q1q_1, and βq\beta_{\ell q} is the branching ratio of the LQ to the final-state lepton \ell (μ\mu or τ\tau) and a quark qq. For LQ masses much larger than s\sqrt{s}, limits were set on the four-fermion interaction term λeqαλqβ/MLQ2\lambda_{e q_\alpha} \lambda_{\ell q_\beta} / M_{\mathrm{LQ}}^2 for LQs that couple to an electron and a quark qαq_\alpha and to a lepton \ell and a quark qβq_\beta, where α\alpha and β\beta are quark generation indices. Some of the limits are also applicable to lepton-flavor-violating processes mediated by squarks in RR-Parity-violating supersymmetric models. In some cases, especially when a higher-generation quark is involved and for the process epτXe p\to \tau X , the ZEUS limits are the most stringent to date.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by EPJC. References and 1 figure (Fig. 6) adde

    Multijet production in neutral current deep inelastic scattering at HERA and determination of alpha_s

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    Multijet production rates in neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured in the range of exchanged boson virtualities 10 < Q2 < 5000 GeV2. The data were taken at the ep collider HERA with centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 318 GeV using the ZEUS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 82.2 pb-1. Jets were identified in the Breit frame using the k_T cluster algorithm in the longitudinally invariant inclusive mode. Measurements of differential dijet and trijet cross sections are presented as functions of jet transverse energy E_{T,B}{jet}, pseudorapidity eta_{LAB}{jet} and Q2 with E_{T,B}{jet} > 5 GeV and -1 < eta_{LAB}{jet} < 2.5. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations describe the data well. The value of the strong coupling constant alpha_s(M_Z), determined from the ratio of the trijet to dijet cross sections, is alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1179 pm 0.0013(stat.) {+0.0028}_{-0.0046}(exp.) {+0.0064}_{-0.0046}(th.)Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

    Measurement of (anti)deuteron and (anti)proton production in DIS at HERA

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    The first observation of (anti)deuterons in deep inelastic scattering at HERA has been made with the ZEUS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 300--318 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb-1. The measurement was performed in the central rapidity region for transverse momentum per unit of mass in the range 0.3<p_T/M<0.7. The particle rates have been extracted and interpreted in terms of the coalescence model. The (anti)deuteron production yield is smaller than the (anti)proton yield by approximately three orders of magnitude, consistent with the world measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phys.

    Photoproduction of D±D^{*\pm} mesons associated with a leading neutron

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    The photoproduction of D±(2010)D^{*\pm} (2010) mesons associated with a leading neutron has been observed with the ZEUS detector in epep collisions at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 80 pb1^{-1}. The neutron carries a large fraction, {xL>0.2x_L>0.2}, of the incoming proton beam energy and is detected at very small production angles, {θn<0.8\theta_n<0.8 mrad}, an indication of peripheral scattering. The DD^* meson is centrally produced with pseudorapidity {η1.9|\eta| 1.9 GeV}, which is large compared to the average transverse momentum of the neutron of 0.22 GeV. The ratio of neutron-tagged to inclusive DD^* production is 8.85±0.93(stat.)0.61+0.48(syst.)%8.85\pm 0.93({\rm stat.})^{+0.48}_{-0.61}({\rm syst.})\% in the photon-proton center-of-mass energy range {130<W<280130 <W<280 GeV}. The data suggest that the presence of a hard scale enhances the fraction of events with a leading neutron in the final state.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

    Measurement of the open-charm contribution to the diffractive proton structure function

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    Production of D*+/-(2010) mesons in diffractive deep inelastic scattering has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 82 pb^{-1}. Diffractive events were identified by the presence of a large rapidity gap in the final state. Differential cross sections have been measured in the kinematic region 1.5 < Q^2 < 200 GeV^2, 0.02 < y < 0.7, x_{IP} < 0.035, beta 1.5 GeV and |\eta(D*+/-)| < 1.5. The measured cross sections are compared to theoretical predictions. The results are presented in terms of the open-charm contribution to the diffractive proton structure function. The data demonstrate a strong sensitivity to the diffractive parton densities.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, 6 table

    Measurement of beauty production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

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    The beauty production cross section for deep inelastic scattering events with at least one hard jet in the Breit frame together with a muon has been measured, for photon virtualities Q^2 > 2 GeV^2, with the ZEUS detector at HERA using integrated luminosity of 72 pb^-1. The total visible cross section is sigma_b-bbar (ep -> e jet mu X) = 40.9 +- 5.7 (stat.) +6.0 -4.4 (syst.) pb. The next-to-leading order QCD prediction lies about 2.5 standard deviations below the data. The differential cross sections are in general consistent with the NLO QCD predictions; however at low values of Q^2, Bjorken x, and muon transverse momentum, and high values of jet transverse energy and muon pseudorapidity, the prediction is about two standard deviations below the data.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

    Measurement of charm fragmentation ratios and fractions in photoproduction at HERA

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    The production of D^*+, D^0, D^+, D_s^+ and Lambda_c^+ charm hadrons and their antiparticles in ep scattering at HERA was measured with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 79 pb^-1. The measurement has been performed in the photoproduction regime with the exchanged-photon virtuality Q^2 < 1 GeV^2 and for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 300 GeV. The charm hadrons were reconstructed in the range of transverse momentum p_T(D, Lambda_c) > 3.8 GeV and pseudorapidity |eta(D, Lambda_c)| < 1.6. The production cross sections were used to determine the ratio of neutral and charged D-meson production rates, R_u/d, the strangeness-suppression factor, gamma_s, and the fraction of charged D mesons produced in a vector state, P_v^d. The measured R_u/d and gamma_s values agree with those obtained in deep inelastic scattering and in e^+e^- annihilations. The measured P_v^d value is smaller than, but consistent with, the previous measurements. The fractions of c quarks hadronising as a particular charm hadron, f(c -> D, Lambda_c), were derived in the given kinematic range. The measured open-charm fragmentation fractions are consistent with previous results, although the measured f(c -> D^*+) is smaller and f(c -> Lambda_c^+) is larger than those obtained in e^+e^- annihilations. These results generally support the hypothesis that fragmentation proceeds independently of the hard sub-process.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables; minor text revision
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