2,073 research outputs found
Around 200 new X-ray binary IDs from 13 years of Chandra observations of the M31 center
We have created 0.3--10 keV, 13 year, unabsorbed luminosity lightcurves for
528 X-ray sources in the central 20' of M31. We have 174 Chandra observations
spaced at ~1 month intervals thanks to our transient monitoring program, deeper
observations of the M31 nucleus, and some public data from other surveys. We
created 0.5--4.5 keV structure functions (SFs) for each source, for comparison
with the ensemble structure function of AGN. We find 220 X-ray sources with
luminosities > ~1E+35 erg/s that have SFs with significantly more variability
than the ensemble AGN SF, and are likely X-ray binaries (XBs). A further 30
X-ray sources were identified as XBs using other methods. We therefore have 250
probable XBs in total, including ~200 new identifications. This result
represents great progress over the ~50 XBs and ~40 XB candidates previously
identified out of the ~2000 X-ray sources within the D_25 region of M31; it
also demonstrates the power of SF analysis for identifying XBs in external
galaxies. We also identify a new transient black hole candidate, associated
with the M31 globular cluster B128.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 20 pages, 7 figures; Tables 1 and 2
continue after the references (8 pages
Four new black hole candidates identified in M31 globular clusters with Chandra and XMM-Newton
We have identified four new black hole candidates in M31 globular clusters
using 123 Chandra, and 4 XMM-Newton observations of the M31 central region. The
X-ray source associated with Bo 163 (XB163) is a recurrent transient, with the
highest luminosity ~1.4E+38 erg/s, considerably brighter than any outbursts
from the neutron star transients Aql X-1 or 4U 1608-452; the outburst
apparently started ~45 days earlier than the observed peak, hence the
luminosity could have been considerably higher. We identified XB082, XB153 and
XB185 as BHCs by observing "low state" emission spectra at luminosities that
exceed the threshold for neutron star binaries. The probability that these are
neutron star systems with anisotropic emission beamed toward us is <4E-4, and
their variability suggests emission from a single source. We therefore conclude
that these systems likely contain black holes rather than neutron stars. We
have now identified 4 persistently bright BHCs in the region; the probability
that these are all background AGN is <1E-20. According to theory, the donors
could be tidally captured main sequence stars, or white dwarves in
ultra-compact binaries. We find that GCs that are particularly massive (XB082)
or metal rich (XB144) can host bright X-ray sources in addition to those that
are both (XB163). Our method may reveal BHCs in other bright X-ray sources.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 pages, 5 figure
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Inhibition of adenovirus serotype 14 infection by octadecyloxyethyl esters of (S)-[(3-hydroxy-2-phosphonomethoxy)propyl]- nucleosides in vitro.
On September 22, 2008, a physician on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, notified the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (ADHSS) of an unusually high number of adult patients with recently diagnosed pneumonia (n = 10), including three persons who required hospitalization and one who died. ADHSS and CDC conducted an investigation to determine the cause and distribution of the outbreak, identify risk factors for hospitalization, and implement control measures. This report summarizes the results of that investigation, which found that the outbreak was caused by adenovirus 14 (Ad14), an emerging adenovirus serotype in the United States that is associated with a higher rate of severe illness compared with other adenoviruses. Among the 46 cases identified in the outbreak from September 1 through October 27, 2008, the most frequently observed characteristics included the following: male (70%), Alaska Native (61%), underlying pulmonary disease (44%), aged > or = 65 years (26%), and current smoker (48%). Patients aged > or = 65 years had a fivefold increased risk for hospitalization. The most commonly reported symptoms were cough (100%), shortness of breath (87%), and fever (74%). Of the 11 hospitalized patients, three required intensive care, and one required mechanical ventilation. One death was reported. Ad14 isolates obtained during the outbreak were identical genetically to those in recent community-acquired outbreaks in the United States which suggests the emergence of a new, and possibly more virulent Ad14 variant. Clinicians should consider Ad14 infection in the differential diagnosis for patients with community-acquired pneumonia, particularly when unexplained clusters of severe respiratory infections are detected
Identication-robust moment-based tests for Markov switching in autoregressive models
This paper develops tests of the null hypothesis of linearity in the context of autoregressive models with Markov-switching means and variances. These tests are robust to the identification failures that plague conventional likelihood-based inference methods. The approach exploits the moments of normal mixtures implied by the regime-switching process and uses Monte Carlo test techniques to deal with the presence of an autoregressive component in the model specification. The proposed tests have very respectable power in comparison with the optimal tests for Markov-switching parameters of Carrasco et al. (2014), and they are also quite attractive owing to their computational simplicity. The new tests are illustrated with an empirical application to an autoregressive model of USA output growth
Solitonic supersymmetry restoration
Q-balls are a possible feature of any model with a conserved, global U(1)
symmetry and no massless, charged scalars. It is shown that for a broad class
of models of metastable supersymmetry breaking they are extremely influential
on the vacuum lifetime and make seemingly viable vacua catastrophically short
lived. A net charge asymmetry is not required as there is often a significant
range of parameter space where statistical fluctuations alone are sufficient.
This effect is examined for two supersymmetry breaking scenarios. It is found
that models of minimal gauge mediation (which necessarily have a messenger
number U(1)) undergo a rapid, supersymmetry restoring phase transition unless
the messenger mass is greater than 10^8 GeV. Similarly the ISS model, in the
context of direct mediation, quickly decays unless the perturbative
superpotential coupling is greater than the Standard Model gauge couplings.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, minor comments added, accepted for publication
in JHE
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Thin liquid water clouds: their importance and our challenge
Many clouds important to the Earth’s energy balance contain small amounts of liquid water, yet despite many improvements, large differences in retrievals of their liquid water amount and particle size still must be resolved
Dynamical completions of generalized O'Raifeartaigh models
We present gauge theory completions of Wess-Zumino models admitting
supersymmetry breaking vacua with spontaneously broken R-symmetry. Our models
are simple deformations of generalized ITIY models, a supersymmetric theory
with gauge group Sp(N), N+1 flavors plus singlets, with a modified tree level
superpotential which explicitly breaks (part of) the global symmetry. Depending
on the nature of the deformation, we obtain effective O'Raifeartaigh-like
models whose pseudomoduli space is locally stable in a neighborhood of the
origin of field space, or in a region not including it. Hence, once embedded in
direct gauge mediation scenarios, our models can give low energy spectra with
either suppressed or unsuppressed gaugino mass.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure; v3: reference adde
Goldstones in Diphotons
We study the conditions for a new scalar resonance to be observed first in
diphotons at the LHC Run-2. We focus on scenarios where the scalar arises
either from an internal or spacetime symmetry broken spontaneously, for which
the mass is naturally below the cutoff and the low-energy interactions are
fixed by the couplings to the broken currents, UV anomalies, and selection
rules. We discuss the recent excess in diphoton resonance searches observed by
ATLAS and CMS at 750 GeV, and explore its compatibility with other searches at
Run-1 and its interpretation as Goldstone bosons in supersymmetry and composite
Higgs models. We show that two candidates naturally emerge: a Goldstone boson
from an internal symmetry with electromagnetic anomalies, and the scalar
partner of the Goldstone of supersymmetry breaking: the sgoldstino. The dilaton
from conformal symmetry breaking is instead disfavoured by present data, in its
minimal natural realization.Comment: 18 pages + refs, 2 figures. v2: typos corrected, references added,
discussions extended and three new plots. Conclusion unchanged. v3: published
versio
‘O sibling, where art thou?’ – a review of avian sibling recognition with respect to the mammalian literature
Avian literature on sibling recognition is rare compared to that developed by mammalian researchers. We compare avian and mammalian research on sibling recognition to identify why avian work is rare, how approaches differ and what avian and mammalian researchers can learn from each other. Three factors: (1) biological differences between birds and mammals, (2) conceptual biases and (3) practical constraints, appear to influence our current understanding. Avian research focuses on colonial species because sibling recognition is considered adaptive where ‘mixing potential’ of dependent young is high; research on a wider range of species, breeding systems and ecological conditions is now needed. Studies of acoustic recognition cues dominate avian literature; other types of cues (e.g. visual, olfactory) deserve further attention. The effect of gender on avian sibling recognition has yet to be investigated; mammalian work shows that gender can have important influences. Most importantly, many researchers assume that birds recognise siblings through ‘direct familiarisation’ (commonly known as associative learning or familiarity); future experiments should also incorporate tests for ‘indirect familiarisation’ (commonly known as phenotype matching). If direct familiarisation proves crucial, avian research should investigate how periods of separation influence sibling discrimination. Mammalian researchers typically interpret sibling recognition in broad functional terms (nepotism, optimal outbreeding); some avian researchers more successfully identify specific and testable adaptive explanations, with greater relevance to natural contexts. We end by reporting exciting discoveries from recent studies of avian sibling recognition that inspire further interest in this topic
A Light Stop with Flavor in Natural SUSY
The discovery of a SM-like Higgs boson near 125 GeV and the flavor texture of
the Standard Model motivate the investigation of supersymmetric quiver-like BSM
extensions. We study the properties of such a minimal class of models which
deals naturally with the SM parameters. Considering experimental bounds as well
as constraints from flavor physics and Electro-Weak Precision Data, we find the
following. In a self-contained minimal model - including the full dynamics of
the Higgs sector - top squarks below a TeV are in tension with b->s{\gamma}
constraints. Relaxing the assumption concerning the mass generation of the
heavy Higgses, we find that a stop not far from half a TeV is allowed. The
models have some unique properties, e.g. an enhancement of the h->
b\bar{b},\tau\bar{{\tau}} decays relative to the h->\gamma{\gamma} one, a
gluino about 3 times heavier than the stop, an inverted hierarchy of about 3-20
between the squarks of the first two generations and the stop, relatively light
Higgsino neutralino or stau NLSP, as well as heavy Higgses and a W' which may
be within reach of the LHC.Comment: LaTeX, 22 pages, 4 figures; V2: references adde
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