13,791 research outputs found
The anthropic principle and the mass scale of the Standard Model
In theories in which different regions of the universe can have different
values of the the physical parameters, we would naturally find ourselves in a
region which has parameters favorable for life. We explore the range of
anthropically allowed values of the mass parameter in the Higgs potential,
. For , the requirement that complex elements be formed
suggests that the Higgs vacuum expectation value must have a magnitude less
than 5 times its observed value. For , baryon stability requires that
, the Planck Mass. Smaller values of may or may not be
allowed depending on issues of element synthesis and stellar evolution. We
conclude that the observed value of is reasonably typical of the
anthropically allowed range, and that anthropic arguments provide a plausible
explanation for the closeness of the QCD scale and the weak scale.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX. No changes from version originally submitted to
archive, except that problem with figure file has been correcte
Can we improve the prediction of hip fracture by assessing bone structure using shape and appearance modelling?
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPreprin
Summertime Influences of Tidal Energy Advection on the Surface Energy Balance in a Mangrove Forest
Mangrove forests are ecosystems susceptible to changing water levels and temperatures due to climate change as well as perturbations resulting from tropical storms. Numerical models can be used to project mangrove forest responses to regional and global environmental changes, and the reliability of these models depends on surface energy balance closure. However, for tidal ecosystems, the surface energy balance is complex because the energy transport associated with tidal activity remains poorly understood. This study aimed to quantify impacts of tidal flows on energy dynamics within a mangrove ecosystem. To address the research objective, an intensive 10-day study was conducted in a mangrove forest located along the Shark River in the Everglades National Park, FL, USA. Forestâatmosphere turbulent exchanges of energy were quantified with an eddy covariance system installed on a 30-m-tall flux tower. Energy transport associated with tidal activity was calculated based on a coupled mass and energy balance approach. The mass balance included tidal flows and accumulation of water on the forest floor. The energy balance included temporal changes in enthalpy, resulting from tidal flows and temperature changes in the water column. By serving as a net sink or a source of available energy, flood waters reduced the impact of high radiational loads on the mangrove forest. Also, the regression slope of available energy versus sink terms increased from 0.730 to 0.754 and from 0.798 to 0.857, including total enthalpy change in the water column in the surface energy balance for 30-min periods and daily daytime sums, respectively. Results indicated that tidal inundation provides an important mechanism for heat removal and that tidal exchange should be considered in surface energy budgets of coastal ecosystems. Results also demonstrated the importance of including tidal energy advection in mangrove biophysical models that are used for predicting ecosystem response to changing climate and regional freshwater management practices
Visualisation Tools for Multi-Perspective, Cross-Sector, Long-Term Infrastructure Performance Evaluation
Across different infrastructure sectors there are systems that help to monitor the current and near-future operation
and performance of a particular system. Whilst Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are critical
to maintaining acceptable levels of functionality, they do not provide insights over the longer timescales across which
strategic investment decisions play out. To understand how individual or multiple, interdependent, infrastructure
sectors perform over longer timescales, capacity/demand modelling is required. However, the outputs of such
models are often a complex high-dimensionality result-set, and this complexity is further compounded when crosssector
evaluation is required. To maximise utility of such models, tools are required that can process and present
key outputs. In this paper we describe the development of prototype tools for infrastructure performance evaluation
in relation to different strategic decisions and the complex outputs generated from capacity and demand models of
five infrastructure sectors (energy, water, waste water, solid waste, transport) investigated within the UK Infrastructure
Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC). By constructing tools that expose various dimensions of the model outputs,
a user is able to take greater control over the knowledge discovery process
Role of oxygen in the electron-doped superconducting cuprates
We report on resistivity and Hall measurements in thin films of the
electron-doped superconducting cuprate PrCeCuO.
Comparisons between x = 0.17 samples subjected to either ion-irradiation or
oxygenation demonstrate that changing the oxygen content has two separable
effects: 1) a doping effect similar to that of cerium, and 2) a disorder
effect. These results are consistent with prior speculations that apical oxygen
removal is necessary to achieve superconductivity in this compound.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Nonstandard order parameters and the origin of CP violation
The consideration of chirality-preserving 2-fermion order parameters may shed
new light on the strong CP problem and the breakdown of flavor symmetries. We
describe two situations, one having the standard KM picture for weak CP
violation and another having new sources of weak CP violation.Comment: 12 pages, no figure
Fermion Doubling and a Natural Solution of the Strong CP Problem
We suggest the fermion doubling for all quarks and leptons. It is a
generalization of the neutrino doubling of the seesaw mechanism. The new quarks
and leptons are singlets and carry the electromagnetic charges of their
lighter counterparts. An {\it anomaly free global symmetry} or a
discrete symmetry can be introduced to restrict the Yukawa couplings. The form
of mass matrix is belonging to that of Nelson and Barr even though our model
does not belong to Barr's criterion. The weak CP violation of the
Kobayashi-Maskawa form is obtained through the spontaneous breaking of CP
symmetry at high energy scale. The strong CP solution is through a specific
form of the mass matrix. At low energy, the particle content is the same as in
the standard model. For a model with a global symmetry, in addition there
exists a massless majoron.Comment: SNUTP 93-68, 19 pages 1 TeX figure, ReVTeX 3.
Simple supersymmetric solution to the strong CP problem
It is shown that the minimal supersymmetric left-right model can provide a
natural solution to the strong {\it CP} problem without the need for an axion,
nor any additional symmetries beyond supersymmetry and parity.Comment: Plain Latex. 10 pages, including two figures which are part of the
Latex file. Shortened version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. 7
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