Mining the Local Volume

After recent systematic optical, IR, and HI surveys, the total number of known galaxies within 10 Mpc has increased from 179 to 550. About half this Local Volume (LV) sample is now been imaged with HST, yielding the galaxy distances with an accuracy of about 8%. For the majority of the LV galaxies we currently have H-alpha fluxes that allow us to reconstruct the star formation history of our neighbourhood. For the late-type LV galaxies their HI masses and angular momentum follow the linear relation in the range of 4 orders, which is expected for rotating gaseous disks being near the gravitational instability threshold. The data obtained on the LV galaxies imply important cosmological parameters, in particular, the mean local matter density and HI mass density, as well as SFR density. Surprisingly, the local Hubble flow around the LV groups is very quiet, with 1D rms deviations of 25 km/s,which is a signature of the Universe vacuum-dominated on small scales. The cold infall pattern around nearby groups provides us with a new method to determine the total mass of the groups independent from virial mass estimates.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, proceedings Symposium "Galaxies in the Local Volume", Sydney, 8 - 13 July 2007, B. Koribalski and H. Jerjen, ed

Bipartite Bell Inequality and Maximal Violation

We present new bell inequalities for arbitrary dimensional bipartite quantum systems. The maximal violation of the inequalities is computed. The Bell inequality is capable of detecting quantum entanglement of both pure and mixed quantum states more effectively.Comment: 6 pages,no figure

Single photoeffect on helium-like ions in the non-relativistic region

We present a generalization of the pioneering results obtained for single K-shell photoionization of H-like ions by M. Stobbe [Ann. Phys. 7 (1930) 661] to the case of the helium isoelectronic sequence. The total cross section of the process is calculated, taking into account the correlation corrections to first order of the perturbation theory with respect to the electron-electron interaction. Predictions are made for the entire non-relativistic energy domain. The phenomenon of dynamical suppression of correlation effects in the ionization cross section is discussed.Comment: to be published in Physics Letters

Dispersive analysis of the decay eta -> 3 pi

We demonstrate that the decay eta -> 3 pi represents a sensitive probe for the breaking of chiral symmetry by the quark masses. The transition amplitude is proportional to the mass ratio (m_d^2-m_u^2)/(m_s^2-m^2). The factor of proportionality is calculated by means of dispersion relations, using chiral perturbation theory to determine the subtraction constants. The theoretical uncertainties in the result are shown to be remarkably small, so that eta-decay may be used to accurately measure this ratio of quark masses.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Novel detection method for chemiluminescence derived from the Kinase-Glo luminescent kinase assay platform: Advantages over traditional microplate luminometers

The efficacy of cellular signal transduction is of paramount importance for the proper functioning of a cell and an organism as a whole. Protein kinases are responsible for much of this transmission and thus have been the focal point of extensive research. While there are numerous commercially available protein kinase assays, the Kinase-Glo luminescent kinase assay (Promega) provides an easy-to-use and high throughput platform for determining protein kinase activity. This assay is said to require the use of a microplate spectrophotometer capable of detecting a luminescent signal. This study shows that:The ChemiGenius Bioimaging system (Syngene), typically used for visualizing chemiluminescence from Western blots, provides an alternative detection system for Kinase-Glo luminescence.The novel detection system confers an advantage over traditional luminometers, in that it allows visualization of the luminescent wells, which allows for the real-time analysis and correction of experimental errors (i.e. bubble formation).Determining kinase kinetics using this detection system produced comparable results to previous studies on the same enzyme (i.e. glycogen synthase kinase 3)

Stability of π\pi junction configurations in ferromagnet-superconductor heterostructures

We investigate the stability of possible order parameter configurations in clean layered heterostructures of the $SFS...FS$ type, where $S$ is a superconductor and $F$ a ferromagnet. We find that for most reasonable values of the geometric parameters (layer thicknesses and number) and of the material parameters (such as magnetic polarization, wavevector mismatch, and oxide barrier strength) several solutions of the {\it self consistent} microscopic equations can coexist, which differ in the arrangement of the sequence of ``0'' and ``$\pi$'' junction types (that is, with either same or opposite sign of the pair potential in adjacent $S$ layers). The number of such coexisting self consistent solutions increases with the number of layers. Studying the relative stability of these configurations requires an accurate computation of the small difference in the condensation free energies of these inhomogeneous systems. We perform these calculations, starting with numerical self consistent solutions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. We present extensive results for the condensation free energies of the different possible configurations, obtained by using efficient and accurate numerical methods, and discuss their relative stabilities. Results for the experimentally measurable density of states are also given for different configurations and clear differences in the spectra are revealed. Comprehensive and systematic results as a function of the relevant parameters for systems consisting of three and seven layers (one or three junctions) are given, and the generalization to larger number of layers is discussed.Comment: 17 pages, including 14 Figures. Higher resolution figures available from the author

PT-Symmetry Quantum Electrodynamics--PTQED

The construction of $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric quantum electrodynamics is reviewed. In particular, the massless version of the theory in 1+1 dimensions (the Schwinger model) is solved. Difficulties with unitarity of the $S$-matrix are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, contributed to Proceedings of 6th International Workshop on Pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physic

On Properties of Vacuum Axial Symmetric Spacetime of Gravitomagnetic Monopole in Cylindrical Coordinates

We investigate general relativistic effects associated with the gravitomagnetic monopole moment of gravitational source through the analysis of the motion of test particles and electromagnetic fields distribution in the spacetime around nonrotating cylindrical NUT source. We consider the circular motion of test particles in NUT spacetime, their characteristics and the dependence of effective potential on the radial coordinate for the different values of NUT parameter and orbital momentum of test particles. It is shown that the bounds of stability for circular orbits are displaced toward the event horizon with the growth of monopole moment of the NUT object. In addition, we obtain exact analytical solutions of Maxwell equations for magnetized and charged cylindrical NUT stars.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Four Loop Massless Propagators: a Numerical Evaluation of All Master Integrals

We present numerical results which are needed to evaluate all non-trivial master integrals for four-loop massless propagators, confirming the recent analytic results of[1]and evaluating an extra order in \ep expansion for each master integral

Interferometric Bell-state preparation using femtosecond-pulse-pumped Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion

We present theoretical and experimental study of preparing maximally entangled two-photon polarization states, or Bell states, using femtosecond pulse pumped spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). First, we show how the inherent distinguishability in femtosecond pulse pumped type-II SPDC can be removed by using an interferometric technique without spectral and amplitude post-selection. We then analyze the recently introduced Bell state preparation scheme using type-I SPDC. Theoretically, both methods offer the same results, however, type-I SPDC provides experimentally superior methods of preparing Bell states in femtosecond pulse pumped SPDC. Such a pulsed source of highly entangled photon pairs is useful in quantum communications, quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, etc.Comment: 11 pages, two-column format, to appear in PR