309 research outputs found
Leptogenesis, neutrino masses and gauge unification
Leptogenesis is considered in its natural context where Majorana neutrinos
fit in a gauge unification scheme and therefore couple to some extra gauge
bosons. The masses of some of these gauge bosons are expected to be similar to
those of the heavy Majorana particles, and this can have important consequences
for leptogenesis. In fact, the effect can go both ways. Stricter bounds are
obtained on one hand due to the dilution of the CP-violating effect by new
decay and scattering channels, while, in a re-heating scheme, the presence of
gauge couplings facilitates the re-population of the Majorana states. The
latter effect allows in particular for smaller Dirac couplings.Comment: 11pages, 7 figures. v2: definition of the lepton asymmetry corrected,
small numerical changes for the baryon number, conclusion does not change;
typos corrected and references adde
Initial in vitro evaluations of antibacterial activities of glucosinolate enzymatic hydrolysis products against plant pathogenic bacteria
Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial effects of
glucosinolate hydrolysis products (GHP) against plant pathogenic micro-organisms
namely Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Erwinia chrysanthemi, Pseudomonas
cichorii, Pseudomonas tomato, Xanthomonas campestris and Xanthomonas
juglandis.
Methods and Results: Using a disc diffusion assay, seven different doses of 10
GHP were tested against each bacteria. The results showed that the isothiocyanates
were potent antibacterials, whilst the other GHP were much less efficient.
Moreover, the antibacterial effects were dose-dependent, increasing with the
dose applied; 2-phenylethylisothiocyanate and sulforaphane showed the strongest
inhibitory effects. The overall results show a great potential for using the
isothiocyanates as an alternative tool to control undesired bacterial growth in
plants.
Conclusions: Glucosinolate hydrolysis products and more specifically the
isothiocyanates: benzylisothiocyanate, 2-phenylethylisothiocyanate, the isothiocyanate
Mix and sulforaphane, were effective phytochemicals against the in vitro
growth of the phytopathogenic bacteria. The antibacterial activity exhibited by
these phytochemicals reinforces their potential as alternatives to the traditional
chemical control of phytopathogenic bacteria.
Significance and Impact of the Study: This current in vitro study is the first
providing comparative data on GHP as potential control agents for plant
pathogenic bacteria. However, more studies are needed to determine their
possible allelopathic impacts e.g. inhibition of plant growth and negative effects
on beneficial soil bacteria and fungi (mycorrhizae
Sources of Klebsiella and Raoultella species on dairy farms: Be careful where you walk
Klebsiella spp. are a common cause of mastitis, milk loss, and culling on dairy farms. Control of Klebsiella mastitis is largely based on prevention of exposure of the udder to the pathogen. To identify critical control points for mastitis prevention, potential Klebsiella sources and transmission cycles in the farm environment were investigated, including oro-fecal transmission, transmission via the indoor environment, and transmission via the outdoor environment. A total of 305 samples was collected from 3 dairy farms in upstate New York in the summer of 2007, and included soil, feed crops, feed, water, rumen content, feces, bedding, and manure from alleyways and holding pens. Klebsiella spp. were detected in 100% of rumen samples, 89% of water samples, and approximately 64% of soil, feces, bedding, alleyway, and holding pen samples. Detection of Klebsiella spp. in feed crops and feed was less common. Genotypic identification of species using rpoB sequence data showed that Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most common species in rumen content, feces, and alleyways, whereas Klebsiella oxytoca, Klebsiella variicola, and Raoultella planticola were the most frequent species among isolates from soil and feed crops. Random amplified polymorphic DNA-based strain typing showed heterogeneity of Klebsiella spp. in rumen content and feces, with a median of 4 strains per 5 isolates. Observational and bacteriological data support the existence of an oro-fecal transmission cycle, which is primarily maintained through direct contact with fecal contamination or through ingestion of contaminated drinking water. Fecal shedding of Klebsiella spp. contributes to pathogen loads in the environment, including bedding, alleyways, and holding pens. Hygiene of alleyways and holding pens is an important component of Klebsiella control on dairy farms
Neutrino Masses and Mixings in a Predictive SO(10) Model with CKM CP Violation
It has recently been shown that a minimal SO(10) model with a single {\bf 10}
and single {\bf 126} Higgs field breaking B-L symmetry predicts large solar and
atmospheric mixings in agreement with observations if it is assumed that the
neutrino mass obeys the type II seesaw formula. No additional symmetries need
to be assumed for this purpose. Understanding CP violation in the
renormalizable version of the model however requires a significant non-CKM
source. In this paper we show that if we extend the model by the inclusion of a
heavy {\bf 120} dimensional Higgs field, then it can accomodate CKM CP
violation while remaining predictive in the neutrino sector. Among the
predictions are:(i) solar mixing angle in the observed range; (ii)\theta_{13}
in the range of 0.1 to 0.26; (iii) the Dirac phase close to maximal for the
central value of the solar mixing angle.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, Comments are added, Typos are corrected, An
erroneous sentence on discrete symmetry is modified, Results are unchange
Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment and mu -> e gamma in B-L Model with Inverse Seesaw
We study the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, a_\mu, and lepton flavor
violating decay \mu -> e \gamma in TeV scale B-L extension of the Standard
Model (SM) with inverse seesaw mechanism. We show that the B-L contributions to
a_\mu are severely constrained, therefore the SM contribution remains intact.
We also emphasize that the current experimental limit of BR(\mu -> e \gamma)
can be satisfied for a wide range of parameter space and it can be within the
reach of MEG experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 4 Figure
Hadronic effects in leptonic systems: muonium hyperfine structure and anomalous magnetic moment of muon
Contributions of hadronic effects to the muonium physics and anomalous
magnetic moment of muon are considered. Special attention is paid to
higher-order effects and the uncertainty related to the hadronic contribution
to the hyperfine structure interval in the ground state of muonium.Comment: Presented at PSAS 2002 (St. Petersburg
Primordial Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Z' Properties
In models involving new TeV-scale Z' gauge bosons, the new U(1)' symmetry
often prevents the generation of Majorana masses needed for a conventional
neutrino seesaw, leading to three superweakly interacting ``right-handed''
neutrinos nu_R, the Dirac partners of the ordinary neutrinos. These can be
produced prior to big bang nucleosynthesis by the Z' interactions, leading to a
faster expansion rate and too much ^4He. We quantify the constraints on the Z'
properties from nucleosynthesis for Z' couplings motivated by a class of E_6
models parametrized by an angle theta_E6. The rate for the annihilation of
three approximately massless right-handed neutrinos into other particle pairs
through the Z' channel is calculated. The decoupling temperature, which is
higher than that of ordinary left-handed neutrinos due to the large Z' mass, is
evaluated, and the equivalent number of new doublet neutrinos Delta N_nu is
obtained numerically as a function of the Z' mass and couplings for a variety
of assumptions concerning the Z-Z' mixing angle and the quark-hadron transition
temperature T_c. Except near the values of theta_E6 for which the Z' decouples
from the right-handed neutrinos, the Z' mass and mixing constraints from
nucleosynthesis are much more stringent than the existing laboratory limits
from searches for direct production or from precision electroweak data, and are
comparable to the ranges that may ultimately be probed at proposed colliders.
For the case T_c = 150 MeV with the theoretically favored range of Z-Z'
mixings, Delta N_nu 4.3 TeV for any value of theta_E6. Larger
mixing or larger T_c often lead to unacceptably large Delta N_nu except near
the nu_R decoupling limit.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures; two additional references adde
Cosmic microwave background and large scale structure limits on the interaction between dark matter and baryons
We study the effect on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy and
large scale structure (LSS) power spectrum of a scattering interaction between
cold dark matter and baryons. This scattering alters the CMB anisotropy and LSS
spectrum through momentum transfer between the cold dark matter particles and
the baryons. We find that current CMB observations can put an upper limit on
the scattering cross section which is comparable with or slightly stronger than
previous disk heating constraints at masses greater than 1 GeV, and much
stronger at smaller masses. When large-scale structure constraints are added to
the CMB limits, our constraint is more stringent than this previous limit at
all masses. In particular, a dark matter-baryon scattering cross section
comparable to the ``Spergel-Steinhardt'' cross section is ruled out for dark
matter mass greater than 1 GeV.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, use RevTeX4, submitted to PRD replaced with
revised versio
Leptogenesis through direct inflaton decay to light particles
We present a scenario of nonthermal leptogenesis following supersymmetric
hybrid inflation, in the case where inflaton decay to both heavy right handed
neutrino and SU(2)_L triplet superfields is kinematically disallowed. Lepton
asymmetry is generated through the decay of the inflaton into light particles
by the interference of one-loop diagrams with right handed neutrino and SU(2)_L
triplet exchange respectively. We require superpotential couplings explicitly
violating a U(1) R-symmetry and R-parity. However, the broken R-parity need not
have currently observable low-energy signatures. Also, the lightest sparticle
can be stable. Some R-parity violating slepton decays may, though, be
detectable in the future colliders. We take into account the constraints from
neutrino masses and mixing and the preservation of the primordial lepton
asymmetry.Comment: 11 pages including 3 figures, uses Revtex, minor corrections,
references adde
Lepton Flavor Violating Processes and Muon g-2 in Minimal Supersymmetric SO(10) Model
In the recently proposed minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model, the neutrino
Dirac Yukawa coupling matrix, together with all the other fermion mass
matrices, is completely determined once free parameters in the model are
appropriately fixed so as to accommodate the recent neutrino oscillation data.
Using this unambiguous neutrino Dirac Yukawa couplings, we calculate the lepton
flavor violating (LFV) processes and the muon g-2 assuming the minimal
supergravity scenario. The resultant rates of the LFV processes are found to be
large enough to well exceed the proposed future experimental bound, while the
magnitude of the muon g-2 can be within the recent result by Brookhaven E821
experiment. Furthermore, we find that there exists a parameter region which can
simultaneously realize the neutralino cold dark matter abundance consistent
with the recent WMAP data.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. The version to be published in Phys. Rev.
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