Non-Supersymmetric Attractors in BI black holes

We study attractor mechanism in extremal black holes of Einstein-Born-Infeld theories in four dimensions. We look for solutions which are regular near the horizon and show that they exist and enjoy the attractor behavior. The attractor point is determined by extremization of the effective potential at the horizon. This analysis includes the backreaction and supports the validity of non-supersymmetric attractors in the presence of higher derivative interactions in the gauge field part.Comment: 15 pages, minor corrections, references adde

On a Conjecture of Givental

These brief notes record our puzzles and findings surrounding Givental's recent conjecture which expresses higher genus Gromov-Witten invariants in terms of the genus-0 data. We limit our considerations to the case of a projective line, whose Gromov-Witten invariants are well-known and easy to compute. We make some simple checks supporting his conjecture.Comment: 13 pages, no figures; v.2: new title, minor change

Cluster Formation in Protostellar Outflow-Driven Turbulence

Most, perhaps all, stars go through a phase of vigorous outflow during formation. We examine, through 3D MHD simulation, the effects of protostellar outflows on cluster formation. We find that the initial turbulence in the cluster-forming region is quickly replaced by motions generated by outflows. The protostellar outflow-driven turbulence (``protostellar turbulence'' for short) can keep the region close to a virial equilibrium long after the initial turbulence has decayed away. We argue that there exist two types of turbulence in star-forming clouds: a primordial (or ``interstellar'') turbulence and a protostellar turbulence, with the former transformed into the latter mostly in embedded clusters such as NGC 1333. Since the majority of stars are thought to form in clusters, an implication is that the stellar initial mass function is determined to a large extent by the stars themselves, through outflows which individually limit the mass accretion onto forming stars and collectively shape the environments (density structure and velocity field) in which most cluster members form. We speculate that massive cluster-forming clumps supported by protostellar turbulence gradually evolve towards a highly centrally condensed ``pivotal'' state, culminating in rapid formation of massive stars in the densest part through accretion.Comment: 11 pages (aastex format), 2 figures submitted to ApJ

Spectral dimensions of hierarchical scale-free networks with shortcuts

The spectral dimension has been widely used to understand transport properties on regular and fractal lattices. Nevertheless, it has been little studied for complex networks such as scale-free and small world networks. Here we study the spectral dimension and the return-to-origin probability of random walks on hierarchical scale-free networks, which can be either fractals or non-fractals depending on the weight of shortcuts. Applying the renormalization group (RG) approach to the Gaussian model, we obtain the spectral dimension exactly. While the spectral dimension varies between $1$ and $2$ for the fractal case, it remains at $2$, independent of the variation of network structure for the non-fractal case. The crossover behavior between the two cases is studied through the RG flow analysis. The analytic results are confirmed by simulation results and their implications for the architecture of complex systems are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Gravitational Wave Background from Phantom Superinflation

Recently, the early superinflation driven by phantom field has been proposed and studied. The detection of primordial gravitational wave is an important means to know the state of very early universe. In this brief report we discuss in detail the gravitational wave background excited during the phantom superinflation.Comment: 3 pages, 2 eps figures, to be published in PRD, revised with published version, refs. adde

High Density Molecular Gas in the IR-bright Galaxy System VV114

New high resolution CO(3-2) interferometric map of the IR-bright interacting galaxy system VV114 observed with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) reveal a substantial amount of warm and dense gas in the IR-bright but optically obscured galaxy, VV114E, and the overlap region connecting the two nuclei. A 1.8 x 1.4 kpc concentration of CO(3-2) emitting gas with a total mass of 4 x 10^9 Msun coincides with the peaks of NIR, MIR, and radio continuum emission found previously by others, identifying the dense fuel for the AGN and/or the starburst activity there. Extensive CO(2-1) emission is also detected, revealing detailed distribution and kinematics that are consistent with the earlier CO(1-0) results. The widely distributed molecular gas traced in CO(2-1) and the distributed discrete peaks of CO(3-2) emission suggest that a spatially extended intense starbursts may contribute significantly to its large IR luminosity. These new observations further support the notion that VV114 is approaching its final stage of merger, when violent central inflow of gas triggers intense starburst activity possibly boosting the IR luminosity above the ultraluminous threshold.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Improving Production of Malonyl Coenzyme A-Derived Metabolites by Abolishing Snf1-Dependent Regulation of Acc1

Acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) carboxylase (ACCase) plays a central role in carbon metabolism and has been the site of action for the development of therapeutics or herbicides, as its product, malonyl-CoA, is a precursor for production of fatty acids and other compounds. Control of Acc1 activity in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae occurs mainly at two levels, i.e., regulation of transcription and repression by Snf1 protein kinase at the protein level. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for improving the activity of ACCase in S. cerevisiae by abolishing posttranslational regulation of Acc1 via site-directed mutagenesis. It was found that introduction of two site mutations in Acc1, Ser659 and Ser1157, resulted in an enhanced activity of Acc1 and increased total fatty acid content. As Snf1 regulation of Acc1 is particularly active under glucose-limited conditions, we evaluated the effect of the two site mutations in chemostat cultures. Finally, we showed that our modifications of Acc1 could enhance the supply of malonyl-CoA and therefore successfully increase the production of two industrially important products derived from malonyl-CoA, fatty acid ethyl esters and 3-hydroxypropionic acid. IMPORTANCE ACCase is responsible for carboxylation of acetyl-CoA to produce malonyl-CoA, which is a crucial step in the control of fatty acid metabolism. ACCase opened the door for pharmaceutical treatments of obesity and diabetes as well as the development of new herbicides. ACCase is also recognized as a promising target for developing cell factories, as its malonyl-CoA product serves as a universal precursor for a variety of high-value compounds in white biotechnology. Yeast ACCase is a good model in understanding the enzyme's catalysis, regulation, and inhibition. The present study describes the importance of protein phosphorylation in regulation of yeast ACCase and identifies potential regulation sites. This study led to the generation of a more efficient ACCase, which was applied in the production of two high-value compounds derived from malonyl-CoA, i.e., fatty acid ethyl esters that can be used as biodiesel and 3-hydroxypropionic acid that is considered an important platform chemical

Selective Jamming of LoRaWAN using Commodity Hardware

Long range, low power networks are rapidly gaining acceptance in the Internet of Things (IoT) due to their ability to economically support long-range sensing and control applications while providing multi-year battery life. LoRa is a key example of this new class of network and is being deployed at large scale in several countries worldwide. As these networks move out of the lab and into the real world, they expose a large cyber-physical attack surface. Securing these networks is therefore both critical and urgent. This paper highlights security issues in LoRa and LoRaWAN that arise due to the choice of a robust but slow modulation type in the protocol. We exploit these issues to develop a suite of practical attacks based around selective jamming. These attacks are conducted and evaluated using commodity hardware. The paper concludes by suggesting a range of countermeasures that can be used to mitigate the attacks.Comment: Mobiquitous 2017, November 7-10, 2017, Melbourne, VIC, Australi