Tariff reform: an imperial strategy, 1903-1913

Historians of the Edwardian tariff reform movement have disagreed about its aims. This article examines the motivations of the leadership of the Tariff Reform League, which was by far the most influential organization in the tariff lobby. It argues that the League's leaders were more empire-minded than often allowed, and that it was the preferential tariff which they were most determined to promulgate and defend. Indeed, attempts by the Balfourite wing of the Unionist party to twist tariff reform away from its imperial origins were strongly resisted by the League, and the forces of protection within the organization were also carefully controlled. When the Tariff Reform League finally gave way on the issue of imperial preference in January 1913, it was not because it had suddenly ceased to be concerned about the unity of the empire. Rather, the widespread public hostility to the imposition of food duties showed no sign of diminishing, thus making it difficult to persuade a critical mass within the Unionist party that tariff reform was a politically viable strategy of imperial federation

Mass Measurement of the W-boson using the ALEPH Detector at LEP

The W-boson mass has been measured using the ALEPH detector at LEP. Preliminary results from data taken in 1998 are added to previous measurements to give mW = 80.411 +- 0.064(stat.) +- 0.037(syst.) +- 0.022(BE-CR) +- 0.018(LEP) GeV/c2

Supernova Neutrinos, Neutrino Oscillations, and the Mass of the Progenitor Star

We investigate the initial progenitor mass dependence of the early-phase neutrino signal from supernovae taking neutrino oscillations into account. The early-phase analysis has advantages in that it is not affected by the time evolution of the density structure of the star due to shock propagation or whether the remnant is a neutron star or a black hole. The initial mass affects the evolution of the massive star and its presupernova structure, which is important for two reasons when considering the neutrino signal. First, the density profile of the mantle affects the dynamics of neutrino oscillation in supernova. Second, the final iron core structure determines the features of the neutrino burst, i.e., the luminosity and the average energy. We find that both effects are rather small. This is desirable when we try to extract information on neutrino parameters from future supernova-neutrino observations. Although the uncertainty due to the progenitor mass is not small for intermediate $\theta_{13}$ ($10^{-5} \lesssim \sin^{2}{2 \theta_{13}} \lesssim 10^{-3}$), we can, nevertheless, determine the character of the mass hierarchy and whether $\theta_{13}$ is very large or very small.Comment: 8 pages, 15 figure

Gaussian quantum marginal problem

The quantum marginal problem asks what local spectra are consistent with a given spectrum of a joint state of a composite quantum system. This setting, also referred to as the question of the compatibility of local spectra, has several applications in quantum information theory. Here, we introduce the analogue of this statement for Gaussian states for any number of modes, and solve it in generality, for pure and mixed states, both concerning necessary and sufficient conditions. Formally, our result can be viewed as an analogue of the Sing-Thompson Theorem (respectively Horn's Lemma), characterizing the relationship between main diagonal elements and singular values of a complex matrix: We find necessary and sufficient conditions for vectors (d1, ..., dn) and (c1, ..., cn) to be the symplectic eigenvalues and symplectic main diagonal elements of a strictly positive real matrix, respectively. More physically speaking, this result determines what local temperatures or entropies are consistent with a pure or mixed Gaussian state of several modes. We find that this result implies a solution to the problem of sharing of entanglement in pure Gaussian states and allows for estimating the global entropy of non-Gaussian states based on local measurements. Implications to the actual preparation of multi-mode continuous-variable entangled states are discussed. We compare the findings with the marginal problem for qubits, the solution of which for pure states has a strikingly similar and in fact simple form.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, material added, references updated, except from figure identical with version to appear in Commun. Math. Phy

GLAST Large Area Telescope Multiwavelength Planning

Gamma-ray astrophysics depends in many ways on multiwavelength studies. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration has started multiwavelength planning well before the scheduled 2007 launch of the observatory. Some of the high-priority multiwavelength needs include: (1) availability of contemporaneous radio and X-ray timing of pulsars; (2) expansion of blazar catalogs, including redshift measurements; (3) improved observations of molecular clouds, especially at high galactic latitudes; (4) simultaneous broad-spectrum blazar monitoring; (5) characterization of gamma-ray transients, including gamma ray bursts; (6) radio, optical, X-ray and TeV counterpart searches for reliable and effective sources identification and characterization. Several of these activities are needed to be in place before launch

The Pauli principle in a three-body cluster model and the momentum distributions after fragmentation of 6He and 11Li

We investigate two simple prescriptions to account for the Pauli principle in a three-body cluster model employing a new method based on an adiabatic hyperspherical expansion to solve the Faddeev equations in coordinate space. The resulting wave functions are computed and compared. They are furthermore tested on halo nuclei by calculations of momentum distributions and invariant mass spectra arising after fragmentation of fast $^6$He and $^{11}$Li in collisions with light targets. The prescriptions are very accurate and the available measured quantities are remarkably well reproduced when final state interactions are included.Comment: 18 pages, LaTex file, 15 postscript figures included using epsf.st

Observation of KS0K_S^0 semileptonic decays with CMD-2 detector

The decay $K_S^0 \to \pi e \nu$ has been observed by the CMD-2 detector at the e^+e^- collider VEPP-2M at Novosibirsk. Of 6 million produced $K_L^0K_S^0$ pairs, $75 \pm 13$ events of the $K_S^0 \to \pi e \nu$ decay were selected. The corresponding branching ratio is $B(K_S^0 \to \pi e \nu)=(7.2 \pm 1.4)\times10^{-4}$. This result is consistent with the evaluation of $B(K_S^0 \to \pi e \nu)$ from the $K_L^0$ semileptonic rate and $K_S^0$ lifetime assuming $\Delta S=\Delta Q$ .Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, LaTex2e. Submitted to Phys.Lett.

Phosphate steering by Flap Endonuclease 1 promotes 5´-flap specificity and incision to prevent genome instability

DNA replication and repair enzyme Flap Endonuclease 1 (FEN1) is vital for genome integrity, and FEN1 mutations arise in multiple cancers. FEN1 precisely cleaves single-stranded (ss) 50-flaps one nucleotide into duplex (ds) DNA. Yet, how FEN1 selects for but does not incise the ss 50-flap was enigmatic. Here we combine crystallographic, biochemical and genetic analyses to show that two dsDNA binding sites set the 50polarity and to reveal unexpected control of the DNA phosphodiester backbone by electrostatic interactions. Via ‘phosphate steering’, basic residues energetically steer an inverted ss 50-flap through a gateway over FEN1’s active site and shift dsDNA for catalysis. Mutations of these residues cause an 18,000-fold reduction in catalytic rate in vitro and large-scale trinucleotide (GAA)n repeat expansions in vivo, implying failed phosphate-steering promotes an unanticipated lagging-strand template-switch mechanism during replication. Thus, phosphate steering is an unappreciated FEN1 function that enforces 50-flap specificity and catalysis, preventing genomic instability

The McKean-Vlasov Equation in Finite Volume

We study the McKean--Vlasov equation on the finite tori of length scale $L$ in $d$--dimensions. We derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a phase transition, which are based on the criteria first uncovered in \cite{GP} and \cite{KM}. Therein and in subsequent works, one finds indications pointing to critical transitions at a particular model dependent value, $\theta^{\sharp}$ of the interaction parameter. We show that the uniform density (which may be interpreted as the liquid phase) is dynamically stable for $\theta < \theta^{\sharp}$ and prove, abstractly, that a {\it critical} transition must occur at $\theta = \theta^{\sharp}$. However for this system we show that under generic conditions -- $L$ large, $d \geq 2$ and isotropic interactions -- the phase transition is in fact discontinuous and occurs at some \theta\t < \theta^{\sharp}. Finally, for H--stable, bounded interactions with discontinuous transitions we show that, with suitable scaling, the \theta\t(L) tend to a definitive non--trivial limit as $L\to\infty$

Observation of the conversion decay ϕ→π0e+e−\phi\to\pi^0e^+e^- at CMD-2

Using 15.1^{-1} of data collected by CMD-2 in the $\phi$-meson energy range, the branching ratio of the conversion decay $\phi\to\pi^0e^+e^-$ has been measured for the first time: B(\phi\to\pi^0e^+e^-) = (1.22 \pm 0.34 \pm 0.21) \cdot 10 ^{-5}.Comment: 13 pages, 6 PostScript figures, uses refmerge.sty. To be published in Phys. Lett.