Complete Analysis of Baryon Magnetic Moments in 1/N_c

We generate a complete basis of magnetic moment operators for the N_c = 3 ground-state baryons in the 1/N_c expansion, and compute and tabulate all associated matrix elements. We then compare to previous results derived in the literature and predict additional relations among baryon magnetic moments holding to subleading order in 1/N_c and flavor SU(3) breaking. Finally, we predict all unknown diagonal and transition magnetic moments to <= 0.15 mu_N accuracy, and suggest possible experimental measurements to improve the analysis even further.Comment: 28 pages (including 11 tables), ReVTeX. One reference and grant acknowledgment adde

Cortisol levels are positively associated with pup-feeding rates in male meerkats

In societies of cooperative vertebrates, individual differences in contributions to offspring care are commonly substantial. Recent attempts to explain the causes of this variation have focused on correlations between contributions to care and the protein hormone prolactin, or the steroid hormone testosterone. However, such studies have seldom considered the importance of other hormones or controlled for non-hormonal factors that are correlative with both individual hormone levels and contributions to care. Using multivariate statistics, we show that hormone levels explain significant variation in contributions to pup-feeding by male meerkats, even after controlling for non-hormonal effects. However, long-term contributions to pup provisioning were significantly and positively correlated with plasma levels of cortisol rather than prolactin, while plasma levels of testosterone were not related to individual patterns of pup-feeding. Furthermore, a playback experiment that used pup begging calls to increase the feeding rates of male helpers gave rise to parallel increases in plasma cortisol levels, whilst prolactin and testosterone levels remained unchanged. Our findings confirm that hormones can explain significant amounts of variation in contributions to offspring feeding, and that cortisol, not prolactin, is the hormone most strongly associated with pup-feeding in cooperative male meerkats

Excited Baryon Decay Widths in Large N_c QCD

We study excited baryon decay widths in large N_c QCD. It was suggested previously that some spin-flavor mixed-symmetric baryon states have strong couplings of O(N_c^{-1/2}) to nucleons [implying narrow widths of O(1/N_c)], as opposed to the generic expectation based on Witten's counting rules of an O(N_c^0) coupling. The calculation obtaining these narrow widths was performed in the context of a simple quark-shell model. This paper addresses the question of whether the existence of such narrow states is a general property of large N_c QCD. We show that a general large N_c QCD analysis does not predict such narrow states; rather they are a consequence of the extreme simplicity of the quark model.Comment: 9 page

Large N_c, Constituent Quarks, and N, Delta Charge Radii

We show how one may define baryon constituent quarks in a rigorous manner, given physical assumptions that hold in the large-N_c limit of QCD. This constituent picture gives rise to an operator expansion that has been used to study large-N_c baryon observables; here we apply it to the case of charge radii of the N and Delta states, using minimal dynamical assumptions. For example, one finds the relation r_p^2 - r_{Delta^+}^2 = r_n^2 - r_{Delta^0}^2 to be broken only by three-body, O(1/N_c^2) effects for any N_c.Comment: 15 pages, 1 eps figure. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Excited Baryons in Large N_c QCD Revisited: The Resonance Picture Versus Single-Quark Excitations

We analyze excited baryon properties via a 1/N_c expansion from two perspectives: as resonances in meson-nucleon scattering, and as single-quark excitations in the context of a simple quark model. For both types of analysis one can derive novel patterns of degeneracy that emerge as N_c --> \infty, and that are shown to be compatible with one another. This helps justify the single-quark excitation picture and may give some insight into its successes. We also find that in the large N_c limit one of the S_{11} baryons does not couple to the pi-N channel but couples to the eta-N channel. This is empirically observed in the N(1535), which couples very weakly to the pi-N channel and quite strongly to the eta-N channel. The comparatively strong coupling of the N(1650) to the pi-N channel and weak coupling to eta-N channel is also predicted. In the context of the simple quark model picture we reproduce expressions for mixing angles that are accurate up to O(1/N_c) corrections and are in good agreement with mixing angles extracted phenomenologically.Comment: 13 pages, ReVTeX

Graphical surface-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT) model as a pedagogical and research tool

This paper considers, by example, the use of a Surface-Atmosphere-Vegetation-Transfer (SVAT), Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) model designed as a pedagogical tool. The goal of the computer software and the approach is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of communicating often complex and mathematical based disciplines (e.g., micrometeorology, land surface processes) to the non-specialist interested in studying problems involving interactions between vegetation and the atmosphere and, in the nature of interactions rather than a description of the components. Topics are addressed within a Socratic framework using a scenario system based approach: As an example of this, the interactions between a vegetation canopy and a carbon dioxide rich (2 times ambient CO2) atmosphere, are presented. This will illustrate obvious to the student or, would be to complicated to be insightful. This type of approach is another careful, critical way of thinking fostered by interactions with a computer model. The student instead of taking things apart, is looking at them as wholes and is encouraged to make new and important distinctions

The sign of the day-night asymmetry for solar neutrinos

A qualitative understanding of the day-night asymmetry for solar neutrinos is provided. The greater night flux in nu_e is seen to be a consequence of the fact that the matter effect in the sun and that in the earth have the same sign. It is shown in the adiabatic approximation for the sun that for all values of the mixing angle theta_V between 0 and pi/2, the night flux of neutrinos is greater than the day flux. Only for small values of theta_V where the adiabatic approximation badly fails does the sign of the day-night asymmetry reverse.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, typos corrected and references adde

Fermi liquid interactions and the superfluid density in d-wave superconductors

We construct a phenomenological superfluid Fermi liquid theory for a two-dimensional d-wave superconductor on a square lattice, and study the effect of quasiparticle interactions on the superfluid density. Using simple models for the dispersion and the Landau interaction function, we illustrate the deviation of these results from those for the isotropic superfluid. This allows us to reconcile the value and doping dependence of the superfluid density slope at low temperature obtained from penetration depth measurements, with photoemission data on nodal quasiparticles.Comment: 5 latex pages, 1 eps-figure. submitted to PR

Negative Parity 70-plet Baryon Masses in the 1/Nc Expansion

The masses of the negative parity SU(6) 70-plet baryons are analyzed in the 1/Nc expansion to order 1/Nc and to first order in SU(3) breaking. At this level of precision there are twenty predictions. Among them there are the well known Gell-Mann Okubo and equal spacing relations, and four new relations involving SU(3) breaking splittings in different SU(3) multiplets. Although the breaking of SU(6) symmetry occurs at zeroth order in 1/Nc, it turns out to be small. The dominant source of the breaking is the hyperfine interaction which is of order 1/Nc. The spin-orbit interaction, of zeroth order in 1/Nc, is entirely fixed by the splitting between the singlet states Lambda(1405) and Lambda(1520), and the spin-orbit puzzle is solved by the presence of other zeroth order operators involving flavor exchange.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figure

Sea-level rise due to polar ice-sheet mass loss during past warm periods

Interdisciplinary studies of geologic archives have ushered in a new era of deciphering magnitudes, rates, and sources of sea-level rise from polar ice-sheet loss during past warm periods. Accounting for glacial isostatic processes helps to reconcile spatial variability in peak sea level during marine isotope stages 5e and 11, when the global mean reached 6 to 9 meters and 6 to 13 meters higher than present, respectively. Dynamic topography introduces large uncertainties on longer time scales, precluding robust sea-level estimates for intervals such as the Pliocene. Present climate is warming to a level associated with significant polar ice-sheet loss in the past. Here, we outline advances and challenges involved in constraining ice-sheet sensitivity to climate change with use of paleo–sea level records