Heat kernel estimates and spectral properties of a pseudorelativistic operator with magnetic field

Based on the Mehler heat kernel of the Schroedinger operator for a free electron in a constant magnetic field an estimate for the kernel of E_A is derived, where E_A represents the kinetic energy of a Dirac electron within the pseudorelativistic no-pair Brown-Ravenhall model. This estimate is used to provide the bottom of the essential spectrum for the two-particle Brown-Ravenhall operator, describing the motion of the electrons in a central Coulomb field and a constant magnetic field, if the central charge is restricted to Z below or equal 86

Minimal Cooling of Neutron Stars: A New Paradigm

A new classification of neutron star cooling scenarios, involving either ``minimal'' cooling or ``enhanced'' cooling is proposed. The minimal cooling scenario replaces and extends the so-called standard cooling scenario to include neutrino emission from the Cooper pair breaking and formation process. This emission dominates that due to the modified Urca process for temperatures close to the critical temperature for superfluid pairing. Minimal cooling is distinguished from enhanced cooling by the absence of neutrino emission from any direct Urca process, due either to nucleons or to exotica. Within the minimal cooling scenario, theoretical cooling models can be considered to be a four parameter family involving the equation of state of dense matter, superfluid properties of dense matter, the composition of the neutron star envelope, and the mass of the neutron star. Consequences of minimal cooling are explored through extensive variations of these parameters. Results are compared with the inferred properties of thermally-emitting neutron stars in order to ascertain if enhanced cooling occurs in any of them. All stars for which thermal emissions have been clearly detected are at least marginally consistent with the lack of enhanced cooling. The two pulsars PSR 0833-45 (Vela) and PSR 1706-44 would require enhanced cooling in case their ages and/or temperatures are on the lower side of their estimated values whereas the four stars PSR 0656+14, PSR 1055-52, Geminga, and RX J0720.4-3125 may require some source of internal heating in case their age and/or luminosity are on the upper side of their estimated values. The new upper limits on the thermal luminosity of PSR J0205+6449 and RX J0007.0+7302 are indicative of the occurrence of some enhanced neutrino emission beyond the minimal scenario.Comment: Version to appear in ApJ Supplements. Minor modifications in text and discussion of updated data with new figure

Evolved Gas Analysis of Mars Analog Samples from the Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition: Implications for Analyses by the Mars Science Laboratory

The 2011 Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) investigated several geologic settings on Svalbard, using methodologies and techniques being developed or considered for future Mars missions, such as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on MSL consists of a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS), a gas chromatograph (GC), and a tunable laser spectrometer (TLS), which analyze gases created by pyrolysis of samples. During AMASE, a Hiden Evolved Gas Analysis-Mass Spectrometer (EGA-MS) system represented the EGA-QMS capability of SAM. Another MSL instrument, CheMin, will use x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) to perform quantitative mineralogical characterization of samples. Field-portable versions of CheMin were used during AMASE. AMASE 2011 sites spanned a range of environments relevant to understanding martian surface materials, processes and habitability. They included the basaltic Sverrefjell volcano, which hosts carbonate globules, cements and coatings, carbonate and sulfate units at Colletth0gda, Devonian sandstone redbeds in Bockfjorden, altered basaltic lava delta deposits at Mt. Scott Keltie, and altered dolerites and volcanics at Botniahalvoya. Here we focus on SAM-like EGA-MS of a subset of the samples, with mineralogy comparisons to CheMin team results. The results allow insight into sample organic content as well as some constraints on sample mineralogy

Heavy Quark Solitons

We investigate the heavy baryons which arise as solitonic excitations in a ``heavy meson" chiral Lagrangian which includes the light vector particles. It is found that the effect of the light vectors may be substantial. We also present a simple derivation which clearly shows the connection to the Callan-Klebanov approach.Comment: 13 pages; LaTex; SU-4240-532; UR 1306/ER-40685-755 (Minor typos corrected

Helicase on DNA: A Phase coexistence based mechanism

We propose a phase coexistence based mechanism for activity of helicases, ubiquitous enzymes that unwind double stranded DNA. The helicase-DNA complex constitutes a fixed-stretch ensemble that entails a coexistence of domains of zipped and unzipped phases of DNA, separated by a domain wall. The motor action of the helicase leads to a change in the position of the fixed constraint thereby shifting the domain wall on dsDNA. We associate this off-equilibrium domain wall motion with the unzipping activity of helicase. We show that this proposal gives a clear and consistent explanation of the main observed features of helicases.Comment: Revtex4. 5 pages. 4 figures. Published versio

S-wave Pairing of Λ\Lambda Hyperons in Dense Matter

In this work we calculate the $^1S_0$ gap energies of $\Lambda$ hyperons in neutron star matter. The calculation is based on a solution of the BCS gap equation for an effective G-matrix parameterization of the $\Lambda-\Lambda$ interaction with a nuclear matter background, presented recently by Lanskoy and Yamamoto. We find that a gap energy of a few tenths of MeV is expected for $\Lambda$ Fermi momenta up to about 1.3 fm$^{-1}$. Implications for neutron star matter are examined, and suggest the existence of a $\Lambda$ $^1S_0$ superfluid between the threshold baryon density for $\Lambda$ formation and the baryon density where the $\Lambda$ fraction reaches $15-20$.Comment: 16 pages, Revtex, 9 figures, 33 reference

Constraining dense-matter superfluidity through thermal emission from millisecond pulsars

As a neutron star spins down, the gradual decrease of the centrifugal force produces a progressive increase of the density of any given fluid element in its interior. Since the ``chemical'' (or ``beta'') equilibrium state is determined by the local density, this process leads to a chemical imbalance quantified by a chemical potential difference, e.g., \delta\mu=\mu_n-\mu_p-\mu_e, where n, p, and e denote neutrons, protons, and electrons. In the presence of superfluid energy gaps, in this case \Delta_n and \Delta_p, reactions are strongly inhibited as long as both \delta\mu and kT are much smaller than the gaps. Thus, no restoring mechanism is available, and the imbalance will grow unimpeded until \delta\mu=\delta\mu_{thr}=\Delta_n+\Delta_p. At this threshold, the reaction rate increases dramatically, preventing further growth of \delta\mu, and converting the excess chemical energy into heat. The thermal luminosity resulting from this ``rotochemical heating'' process is L\sim 2\times 10^{-4}(\delta\mu_{thr}/0.1\MeV)\dot E_{rot}, similar to the typical x-ray luminosity of pulsars with spin-down power \dot E_{rot}. The threshold imbalance, and therefore the luminous stage, are only reached by millisecond pulsars. A preliminary study of eleven millisecond pulsars with reported ROSAT observations shows that the latter can already be used to start constraining superfluid energy gaps in the theoretically interesting range, ~ 0.1 - 1 MeV.Comment: 10 pages, including 2 figures, LaTeX, submitted to Ap