8,123 research outputs found
Chiral fermion mass and dispersion relations at finite temperature in the presence of hypermagnetic fields
We study the modifications to the real part of the thermal self-energy for
chiral fermions in the presence of a constant external hypermagnetic field. We
compute the dispersion relation for fermions occupying a given Landau level to
first order in g'^2, g^2 and g_phi^2 and to all orders in g'B, where g' and g
are the U(1)_Y and SU(2)_L couplings of the standard model, respectively, g_phi
is the fermion Yukawa coupling, and B is the hypermagnetic field strength. We
show that in the limit where the temperature is large compared to sqrt{g'B},
left- and right-handed modes acquire finite and different B-dependent masses
due to the chiral nature of their coupling with the external field. Given the
current bounds on the strength of primordial magnetic fields, we argue that the
above is the relevant scenario to study the effects of magnetic fields on the
propagation of fermions prior and during the electroweak phase transition.Comment: 11 pages 4 figures, published versio
Boundary and expansion effects on two-pion correlation functions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
We examine the effects that a confining boundary together with hydrodynamical
expansion play on two-pion distributions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
We show that the effects arise from the introduction of further correlations
due both to collective motion and the system's finite size. As is well known,
the former leads to a reduction in the apparent source radius with increasing
average pair momentum K. However, for small K, the presence of the boundary
leads to a decrease of the apparent source radius with decreasing K. These two
competing effects produce a maximum for the effective source radius as a
function of K.Comment: 6 pages, 5 Eps figures, uses RevTeX and epsfi
Density and expansion effects on pion spectra in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
We compute the pion inclusive momentum distribution in heavy-ion collisions
at AGS energies, assuming thermal equilibrium and accounting for density and
expansion effects at the time of decoupling. We compare to data on mid rapidity
charged pions produced in central Au + Au collisions and find a very good
agreement. The shape of the distribution at low is explained in part as
an effect arising from the high mean pion density achieved in these reactions.
The difference between the positive and negative pion distributions in the same
region is attributed in part to the different average yields of each kind of
charged pions.Comment: Minor changes, typo in Fig. 2b corrected, version to appear in Phys.
Rev.
Direct Detection of a (Proto)Binary-Disk System in IRAS 20126+4104
We report the direct detection of a binary/disk system towards the high-mass
(proto)stellar object IRAS20126+4104 at infrared wavengths. The presence of a
multiple system had been indicated by the precession of the outflow and the
double jet system detected earlier at cm-wavelengths. Our new K, L' & M' band
infrared images obtained with the UKIRT under exceptional seeing conditions on
Mauna Kea are able to resolve the central source for the first time, and we
identify two objects separated by ~ 0.5'' (850 AU). The K and L' images also
uncover features characteristic of a nearly edge-on disk, similar to many low
mass protostars with disks: two emission regions oriented along an outflow axis
and separated by a dark lane. The peaks of the L' & M' band and mm-wavelength
emission are on the dark lane, presumably locating the primary young star. The
thickness of the disk is measured to be ~ 850 AU for radii < 1000 AU.
Approximate limits on the NIR magnitudes of the two young stars indicate a
high-mass system, although with much uncertainty. These results are a
demonstration of the high-mass nature of the system, and the similarities of
the star-formation process in the low-mass and high-mass regimes viz. the
presence of a disk-accretion stage. The companion is located along the dark
lane, consistent with it being in the equatorial/disk plane, indicating a
disk-accretion setting for massive, multiple, star-formation.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures (1 pseudo colour), 1 table; colour figure
replaced with jpg file; to be published in ApJL; (back after temoprary
withdrawal due to non-scientific reasons.
Shadowing of gluons in perturbative QCD: A comparison of different models
We investigate the different perturbative QCD-based models for nuclear
shadowing of gluons. We show that in the kinematic region appropriate to RHIC
experiment, all models give similar estimates for the magnitude of gluon
shadowing. At scales relevant to LHC, there is a sizable difference between
predictions of the different models.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Assessing the performance of urban water utilities in Mozambique using a water utility performance index
Benchmarking analysis has become a strategic tool through which water regulators around the world measure the performance of water utilities. Since 2008, the Water Regulatory Council of Mozambique has been implementing a benchmarking framework to analyse the performance of urban water utilities. This paper develops a water utility performance index (WUPI) to analyse the performance of the regulated urban water supply utilities in Mozambique during 2010 and 2012. The WUPI is based on 12 key performance indicators grouped into 3 components (economic sustainability, operational sustainability and quality of the services). The WUPI was built in 6 different ways, using 2 weighting systems (equal weights and non-equal weights), and 3 different functional forms to aggregate the indicators (additive aggregation, hybrid aggregation and TOPSIS aggregation). The results obtained show that the performance of the water supply utilities in the analysed period has evolved positively. They also indicate that the performance level between the analysed water supply utilities is heterogeneous, with water supply utilities earning both high and low scores of the WUPI. Water utilities that were working through water operator partnership mechanics obtained higher performances in terms of the WUPI. This information should enable water supply utility managers and decision makers to prioritise activities and implement working models that allow for improvement of the performance of water supply utilities.Keywords: Benchmarking; composite indicators; performance indicators; Mozambiqu
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