Schramm-Loewner Equations Driven by Symmetric Stable Processes

We consider shape, size and regularity of the hulls of the chordal Schramm-Loewner evolution driven by a symmetric alpha-stable process. We obtain derivative estimates, show that the complements of the hulls are Hoelder domains, prove that the hulls have Hausdorff dimension 1, and show that the trace is right-continuous with left limits almost surely.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Mott effect at the chiral phase transition and anomalous J/Psi suppression

We investigate the in-medium modification of the charmonium break-up processes due to the Mott effect for light (pi) and open-charm (D, D*) mesons at the chiral/deconfinement phase transition. A model calculation for the process J/Psi + pi -> D + \bar D* + h.c. is presented which demonstrates that the Mott effect for the D-mesons leads to a threshold effect in the thermal averaged break-up cross section. This effect is suggested as an explanation of the phenomenon of anomalous J/Psi suppression in the CERN NA50 experiment.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures; final version to appear in Phys. Lett.

Precision Measurement of the Radiative B\Beta Decay of the Free Neutron

The standard model predicts that, in addition to a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino, a continuous spectrum of photons is emitted in the $\beta$ decay of the free neutron. We report on the RDK II experiment which measured the photon spectrum using two different detector arrays. An annular array of bismuth germanium oxide scintillators detected photons from 14 to 782~keV. The spectral shape was consistent with theory, and we determined a branching ratio of 0.00335 $\pm$ 0.00005 [stat] $\pm$ 0.00015 [syst]. A second detector array of large area avalanche photodiodes directly detected photons from 0.4 to 14~keV. For this array, the spectral shape was consistent with theory, and the branching ratio was determined to be 0.00582 $\pm$ 0.00023 [stat] $\pm$ 0.00062 [syst]. We report the first precision test of the shape of the photon energy spectrum from neutron radiative decay and a substantially improved determination of the branching ratio over a broad range of photon energies

Excitation functions of hadronic observables from SIS to RHIC energies

We calculate excitation functions for various dynamical quantities as well as experimental observables from SIS to RHIC energies within the HSD transport approach which is based on string, quark, diquark ($q, \bar{q}, qq, \bar{q}\bar{q}$) and hadronic degrees of freedom without including any explicit phase transition to a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). It is argued that the failure of this more 'conventional' approach in comparison to experimental data should indicate the presence of a different phase which might be either attributed to space-time regions of vanishing scalar quark condensate ($$ = 0) or to the presence of a QGP phase with strongly interacting partons. We study the $K/\pi$ ratio, the low mass dilepton enhancement in the invariant mass regime from 0.2 -- 1.2 GeV as well as charmonium suppression for central Au + Au collisions as a function of the bombarding energy and present predictions for these observables as well as hadron rapiditiy distributions at RHIC energies. Whereas all observables studied within HSD show smooth increasing/decreasing excitation functions, the experimental $K^+/\pi^+$ ratio indicates a maximum at 11 A$\cdot$GeV (or above) which is interpreted as a signature for a chirally restored phase in the course of the reaction.Comment: 34 pages, LaTeX, including 14 postscript figures (high quality color versions of figs. 3,4 are available from http://theorie.physik.uni-giessen.de/~brat/own.html), Nucl. Phys.

Changes in Both Trans- and Cis-Regulatory Elements Mediate Insecticide Resistance in a Lepidopteron Pest, \u3ci\u3eSpodoptera exigua\u3c/i\u3e

The evolution of insect resistance to insecticides is frequently associated with overexpression of one or more cytochrome P450 enzyme genes. Although overexpression of CYP450 genes is a well-known mechanism of insecticide resistance, the underlying regulatory mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we uncovered the mechanisms of overexpression of the P450 gene, CYP321A8 in a major pest insect, Spodoptera exigua that is resistant to multiple insecticides. CYP321A8 confers resistance to organophosphate (chlorpyrifos) and pyrethroid (cypermethrin and deltamethrin) insecticides in this insect. Constitutive upregulation of transcription factors CncC/Maf are partially responsible for upregulated expression of CYP321A8 in the resistant strain. Reporter gene assays and site-directed mutagenesis analyses demonstrated that CncC/Maf enhanced the expression of CYP321A8 by binding to specific sites in the promoter. Additional cis-regulatory elements resulting from a mutation in the CYP321A8 promoter in the resistant strain facilitates the binding of the orphan nuclear receptor, Knirps, and enhances the promoter activity. These results demonstrate that two independent mechanisms; overexpression of transcription factors and mutations in the promoter region resulting in a new cis-regulatory element that facilitates binding of the orphan nuclear receptor are involved in overexpression of CYP321A8 in insecticide-resistant S. exigua

Empirical determination of charm quark energy loss and its consequences for azimuthal anisotropy

We propose an empirical model to determine the form of energy loss of charm quarks due to multiple scatterings in quark gluon plasma by demanding a good description of production of D mesons and non-photonic electrons in relativistic collision of heavy nuclei at RHIC and LHC energies. Best results are obtained when we approximate the momentum loss per collision $\Delta p_T \propto \alpha \, p_T$, where $\alpha$ is a constant depending on the centrality and the centre of mass energy. Comparing our results with those obtained earlier for drag coefficients estimated using Langevin equation for heavy quarks we find that up to half of the energy loss of charm quarks at top RHIC energy could be due to collisions while that at LHC energy at 2760 GeV/A the collisional energy loss could be about one third of the total. Estimates are obtained for azimuthal anisotropy in momentum spectra of heavy mesons, due to this energy loss. We further suggest that energy loss of charm quarks may lead to an enhanced production of D-mesons and single electrons at low $p_T$ in AA collisions.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, Typographical errors corrected, Key-words and PACS indices added, sequence of figures corrected, references added in section 3, discussions expande

Stability of strangelet at finite temperature

Using the quark mass density- and temperature dependent model, we have studied the thermodynamical properties and the stability of strangelet at finite temperature. The temperature, charge and strangeness dependences on the stability of strangelet are investigated. We find that the stable strangelets are only occured in the high strangeness and high negative charge region.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure

Investigation of flocculation dynamics under changing hydrodynamic forcing on an intertidal mudflat

© 2017 In situ floc size and turbulent shear stress were measured together with suspended sediment concentration to investigate the floc properties under changing hydrodynamic forcing over the intertidal mudflat. A tripod system was established in the field for a period of approximately one month, including ~ 6 days of stormy conditions in the middle of the investigation period. Mean floc size exhibited strong temporal variations within a tidal cycle, and inverse relationship was found between mean floc size and shear stress. Suspended sediment concentration (SSC) can modulate the flocculation dynamics when shear stress decreases down to enhancing flocculation. Asymmetrical behaviors of floc sizes between flood and ebb phases were identified, with overall larger floc sizes in flood than in ebb tide under the same shear stresses. Floc structure showed different properties under calm and stormy conditions, and the variable fractal dimension and variable primary particle size were more convincing in simulating the variation of floc effective density with mean floc size during the storm period, which was inferred to be related to the resuspension of bed sediment as well as organic matter. A total of 110 mm bed erosion was measured during the storm, and erosion events occurred only around low water, due to the high current-wave combined bed shear stress and off-shore current. After the storm, ~ 40% of the erosion recovered within one week, and the fast settling of large flocs around high water plays significant role in the deposition process, leading to ~ 60% of the recovery

Δ\Delta-scaling and Information Entropy in Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions

The $\Delta$-scaling method has been applied to ultra-relativistic p+p, C+C and Pb+Pb collision data simulated using a high energy Monte Carlo package, LUCIAE 3.0. The $\Delta$-scaling is found to be valid for some physical variables, such as charged particle multiplicity, strange particle multiplicity and number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions from these simulated nucleus-nucleus collisions over an extended energy ranging from $E_{lab}$ = 20 to 200 A GeV. In addition we derived information entropy from the multiplicity distribution as a function of beam energy for these collisions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; to appear in the July Issue of Chin. Phys. Lett.. Web Page: http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/CP