1,172 research outputs found
Phase diagram of patchy colloids: towards empty liquids
We report theoretical and numerical evaluations of the phase diagram for
patchy colloidal particles of new generation. We show that the reduction of the
number of bonded nearest neighbours offers the possibility of generating liquid
states (i.e. states with temperature lower than the liquid-gas critical
temperature) with a vanishing occupied packing fraction (), a case which
can not be realized with spherically interacting particles. Theoretical results
suggest that such reduction is accompanied by an increase of the region of
stability of the liquid phase in the (-) plane, possibly favoring the
establishment of homogeneous disordered materials at small , i.e. stable
equilibrium gels.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, revised version, accepted in Phys. Rev. Let
Self-Assembly of Patchy Particles into Polymer Chains: A Parameter-Free Comparison between Wertheim Theory and Monte Carlo Simulation
We numerically study a simple fluid composed of particles having a hard-core
repulsion, complemented by two short-ranged attractive (sticky) spots at the
particle poles, which provides a simple model for equilibrium polymerization of
linear chains. The simplicity of the model allows for a close comparison, with
no fitting parameters, between simulations and theoretical predictions based on
the Wertheim perturbation theory, a unique framework for the analytic
prediction of the properties of self-assembling particle systems in terms of
molecular parameter and liquid state correlation functions. This theory has not
been subjected to stringent tests against simulation data for ordering across
the polymerization transition. We numerically determine many of the
thermodynamic properties governing this basic form of self-assembly (energy per
particle, order parameter or average fraction of particles in the associated
state, average chain length, chain length distribution, average end-to-end
distance of the chains, and the static structure factor) and find that
predictions of the Wertheim theory accord remarkably well with the simulation
results
Non—Organ-Specific Autoantibodies in Children with Chronic Hepatitis C: Clinical Significance and Impact on Interferon Treatment
We evaluated the prevalence and clinical significance of non-organ-specific autoantibodies (NOSAs) in 47 hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive children with abnormal alanine transaminase levels and analyzed the association between NOSAs and virus level, genotype, human leukocyte antigen status, and interferon (IFN) response. Forty-two hepatitis B virus (HBV)-positive children and 25 age- and sex-matched healthy children served as control subjects. NOSAs were found in 34% of the HCV-positive children, 12% of the HBV-positive controls, and none of the healthy control subjects. Liver-kidney microsomal antibody type 1 (LKM1) was detected in 11% of the HCV-positive children but in none of the controls. The HCV load was significantly higher in NOSA-negative than in NOSA-positive children. HCV genotype distribution and human leukocyte antigen alleles were similar, irrespective of NOSA status. Long-term response to IFN therapy was achieved by 18% of the NOSA-positive and 55% of the NOSA-negative subjects. Two LKM1-positive children developed acute, self-limited hepatocellular necrosis while receiving IFN therapy. NOSAs are frequently present in children with hepatitis C, who are less likely to benefit from IFN therapy
D-brane Instantons on the T^6/Z_3 orientifold
We give a detailed microscopic derivation of gauge and stringy instanton
generated superpotentials for gauge theories living on D3-branes at
Z_3-orientifold singularities. Gauge instantons are generated by D(-1)-branes
and lead to Affleck, Dine and Seiberg (ADS) like superpotentials in the
effective N=1 gauge theories with three generations of bifundamental and
anti/symmetric matter. Stringy instanton effects are generated by Euclidean
ED3-branes wrapping four-cycles on T^6/\Z_3. They give rise to Majorana masses
in one case and non-renormalizable superpotentials for the other cases. Finally
we determine the conditions under which ADS like superpotentials are generated
in N=1 gauge theories with adjoints, fundamentals, symmetric and antisymmetric
chiral matter.Comment: 31 pages, no figure
Dynamical supersymmetry breaking from unoriented D-brane instantons
We study the non-perturbative dynamics of an unoriented Z_5-quiver theory of
GUT kind with gauge group U(5) and chiral matter. At strong coupling the
non-perturbative dynamics is described in terms of set of baryon/meson
variables satisfying a quantum deformed constraint. We compute the effective
superpotential of the theory and show that it admits a line of supersymmetric
vacua and a phase where supersymmetry is dynamically broken via gaugino
condensation.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figur
Cells migrating to sites of tissue damage in response to the danger signal HMGB1 require NF-ÎşB activation
Tissue damage is usually followed by healing, as both differentiated and stem cells migrate to replace dead or damaged cells. Mesoangioblasts (vessel-associated stem cells that can repair muscles) and fibroblasts migrate toward soluble factors released by damaged tissue. Two such factors are high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), a nuclear protein that is released by cells undergoing unscheduled death (necrosis) but not by apoptotic cells, and stromal derived factor (SDF)–1/CXCL12. We find that HMGB1 activates the canonical nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) pathway via extracellular signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation. NF-κB signaling is necessary for chemotaxis toward HMGB1 and SDF-1/CXCL12, but not toward growth factor platelet-derived growth factor, formyl-met-leu-phe (a peptide that mimics bacterial invasion), or the archetypal NF-κB–activating signal tumor necrosis factor α. In dystrophic mice, mesoangioblasts injected into the general circulation ingress inefficiently into muscles if their NF-κB signaling pathway is disabled. These findings suggest that NF-κB signaling controls tissue regeneration in addition to early events in inflammation
Stringy instanton corrections to N=2 gauge couplings
We discuss a string model where a conformal four-dimensional N=2 gauge theory
receives corrections to its gauge kinetic functions from "stringy" instantons.
These contributions are explicitly evaluated by exploiting the localization
properties of the integral over the stringy instanton moduli space. The model
we consider corresponds to a setup with D7/D3-branes in type I' theory
compactified on T4/Z2 x T2, and possesses a perturbatively computable heterotic
dual. In the heteoric side the corrections to the quadratic gauge couplings are
provided by a 1-loop threshold computation and, under the duality map, match
precisely the first few stringy instanton effects in the type I' setup. This
agreement represents a very non-trivial test of our approach to the exotic
instanton calculus.Comment: 63 pages, 5 figures. V2: final version with minor corrections
published on JHEP05(2010)10
Spinning Loop Black Holes
In this paper we construct four Kerr-like spacetimes starting from the loop
black hole Schwarzschild solutions (LBH) and applying the Newman-Janis
transformation. In previous papers the Schwarzschild LBH was obtained replacing
the Ashtekar connection with holonomies on a particular graph in a
minisuperspace approximation which describes the black hole interior. Starting
from this solution, we use a Newman-Janis transformation and we specialize to
two different and natural complexifications inspired from the complexifications
of the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom metrics. We show explicitly that
the space-times obtained in this way are singularity free and thus there are no
naked singularities. We show that the transformation move, if any, the
causality violating regions of the Kerr metric far from r=0. We study the
space-time structure with particular attention to the horizons shape. We
conclude the paper with a discussion on a regular Reissner-Nordstrom black hole
derived from the Schwarzschild LBH and then applying again the Newmann-Janis
transformation.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figure
Non-perturbative effective interactions from fluxes
Motivated by possible implications on the problem of moduli stabilization and
other phenomenological aspects, we study D-brane instanton effects in flux
compactifications. We focus on a local model and compute non-perturbative
interactions generated by gauge and stringy instantons in a N = 1 quiver theory
with gauge group U(N_0) x U(N_1) and matter in the bifundamentals. This model
is engineered with fractional D3-branes at a C^3/(Z_2 x Z_2) singularity, and
its non-perturbative sectors are described by introducing fractional
D-instantons. We find a rich variety of instanton-generated F- and D-term
interactions, ranging from superpotentials and Beasley-Witten like
multi-fermion terms to non-supersymmetric flux-induced instanton interactions.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures. Final version published on JHEP. Section 4
modified in several points regarding string corrections in absence of fluxes;
in particular, section 4.3 is removed. Some other minor changes and two
references adde
On the Detection of a Scalar Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves
In the near future we will witness the coming to a full operational regime of
laser interferometers and resonant mass detectors of spherical shape. In this
work we study the sensitivity of pairs of such gravitational wave detectors to
a scalar stochastic background of gravitational waves. Our computations are
carried out both for minimal and non minimal coupling of the scalar fields.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure
- …