688 research outputs found
Worldlines on Orbifolds and the Fayet-Iliopoulos Term
We adapt ``string-inspired'' worldline techniques to one-loop calculations on
orbifolds, in particular on the orbifold. Our method also allows for
the treatment of brane-localized terms, or bulk-brane couplings. For
demonstration, we reproduce the well-known result for the one-loop induced
Fayet-Iliopoulos term in rigidly supersymmetric Abelian gauge theory, and
generalize it to the case where soft supersymmetry breaking mass terms for the
bulk scalar fields are present on the branes.Comment: Typos corrected, clarifying remarks adde
Diversity and abundance of photosynthetic sponges in temperate Western Australia
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Photosynthetic sponges are important components of reef ecosystems around the world, but are poorly understood. It is often assumed that temperate regions have low diversity and abundance of photosynthetic sponges, but to date no studies have investigated this question. The aim of this study was to compare the percentages of photosynthetic sponges in temperate Western Australia (WA) with previously published data on tropical regions, and to determine the abundance and diversity of these associations in a range of temperate environments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We sampled sponges on 5 m belt transects to determine the percentage of photosynthetic sponges and identified at least one representative of each group of symbionts using 16S rDNA sequencing together with microscopy techniques. Our results demonstrate that photosynthetic sponges are abundant in temperate WA, with an average of 63% of sponge individuals hosting high levels of photosynthetic symbionts and 11% with low to medium levels. These percentages of photosynthetic sponges are comparable to those found on tropical reefs and may have important implications for ecosystem function on temperate reefs in other areas of the world. A diverse range of symbionts sometimes occurred within a small geographic area, including the three "big" cyanobacterial clades, <it>Oscillatoria spongeliae</it>, "<it>Candidatus </it>Synechococcus spongiarum" and <it>Synechocystis </it>species, and it appears that these clades all occur in a wide range of sponges. Additionally, spongin-permeating red algae occurred in at least 7 sponge species. This study provides the first investigation of the molecular phylogeny of rhodophyte symbionts in sponges.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Photosynthetic sponges are abundant and diverse in temperate WA, with comparable percentages of photosynthetic to non-photosynthetic sponges to tropical zones. It appears that there are three common generalist clades of cyanobacterial symbionts of sponges which occur in a wide range of sponges in a wide range of environmental conditions.</p
Does smile intensity in photographs really predict longevity?:A replication and extension of Abel and Kruger (2010)
Abel and Kruger (2010) found that the smile intensity of professional baseball players who were active in 1952, as coded from photographs, predicted these players' longevity. In the current investigation, we sought to replicate this result and to extend the initial analyses. We analyzed (a) a sample that was almost identical to the one from Abel and Kruger's study using the same database and inclusion criteria (N = 224), (b) a considerably larger nonoverlapping sample consisting of other players from the same cohort (N = 527), and (c) all players in the database (N = 13,530 valid cases). Like Abel and Kruger, we relied on categorical smile codings as indicators of positive affectivity, yet we supplemented these codings with subjective ratings of joy intensity and automatic codings of positive affectivity made by computer programs. In both samples and for all three indicators, we found that positive affectivity did not predict mortality once birth year was controlled as a covariate
How people know their risk preference
People differ in their willingness to take risks. Recent work found that revealed preference tasks (e.g., laboratory lotteries)—a dominant class of measures—are outperformed by survey-based stated preferences, which are more stable and predict real-world risk taking across different domains. How can stated preferences, often criticised as inconsequential “cheap talk,” be more valid and predictive than controlled, incentivized lotteries? In our multimethod study, over 3,000 respondents from population samples answered a single widely used and predictive risk-preference question. Respondents then explained the reasoning behind their answer. They tended to recount diagnostic behaviours and experiences, focusing on voluntary, consequential acts and experiences from which they seemed to infer their risk preference. We found that third-party readers of respondents’ brief memories and explanations reached similar inferences about respondents’ preferences, indicating the intersubjective validity of this information. Our results help unpack the self perception behind stated risk preferences that permits people to draw upon their own understanding of what constitutes diagnostic behaviours and experiences, as revealed in high-stakes situations in the real world
A natural renormalizable model of metastable SUSY breaking
We propose a model of metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking in which
all scales are generated dynamically. Our construction is a simple variant of
the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih model, with quark masses induced by
renormalizable couplings to an auxiliary supersymmetric QCD sector. Since all
scales arise from dimensional transmutation, the model has no fundamental
dimensionful parameters. It also does not rely on higher-dimensional operators.Comment: 9 pages; v2: typos correcte
SUSY breaking mediation by throat fields
We investigate, in the general framework of KKLT, the mediation of
supersymmetry breaking by fields propagating in the strongly warped region of
the compactification manifold ('throat fields'). Such fields can couple both to
the supersymmetry breaking sector at the IR end of the throat and to the
visible sector at the UV end. We model the supersymmetry breaking sector by a
chiral superfield which develops an F-term vacuum expectation value. It turns
out that the mediation effect of vector multiplets propagating in the throat
can compete with modulus-anomaly mediation. Moreover, such vector fields are
naturally present as the gauge fields arising from isometries of the throat
(most notably the SO(4) isometry of the Klebanov-Strassler solution). Their
mediation effect is important in spite of their large 4d mass. The latter is
due to the breaking of the throat isometry by the compact manifold at the UV
end of the throat. The contribution from heavy chiral superfields is found to
be subdominant.Comment: 15 pages; v2: typos corrected, references added; v3: comments adde
On SUSY GUTs with a degenerate Higgs mass matrix
Certain supersymmetric grand unified models predict that the coefficients of
the quadratic terms in the MSSM Higgs potential should be degenerate at the GUT
scale. We discuss some examples for such models, and we analyse the
implications of this peculiar condition of a GUT-scale degenerate Higgs mass
matrix for low-scale MSSM phenomenology. To this end we explore the parameter
space which is consistent with existing experimental constraints by means of a
Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis.Comment: 31 pages, 27 figures; v2: typos correcte
Holographic metastability
We show how supersymmetric QCD in a slice of AdS can naturally acquire
metastable vacua. The formulation closely follows that of Intriligator, Seiberg
and Shih (ISS), with an "electric" sector on the UV brane and a "magnetic"
sector on the IR brane. However the 't Hooft anomaly matching that constrains
the Seiberg duality central to ISS is replaced by anomaly inflow and
cancellation, and the source of strong coupling is the CFT to which the theory
couples rather than the gauge groups. The theory contains an anomaly free
R-symmetry that, when broken by UV effects, leads to an O'Raifeartaigh model on
the IR brane. In contrast to ISS, the R-symmetry breaking in the UV can be
maximal, and yet the R-symmetry breaking in the IR theory remains under strict
control: there is no need for retrofitting of small parameters.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure
Structural and functional implications of the QUA2 domain on RNA recognition by GLD-1
The STAR family comprises ribonucleic acid (RNA)-binding proteins that play key roles in RNA-regulatory processes. RNA recognition is achieved by a KH domain with an additional α-helix (QUA2) that seems to extend the RNA-binding surface to six nucleotides for SF1 (Homo sapiens) and seven nucleotides for GLD-1 (Caenorhabditis elegans). To understand the structural basis of this probable difference in specificity, we determined the solution structure of GLD-1 KH-QUA2 with the complete consensus sequence identified in the tra-2 gene. Compared to SF1, the GLD-1 KH-QUA2 interface adopts a different conformation resulting indeed in an additional sequence-specific binding pocket for a uracil at the 5′end. The functional relevance of this binding pocket is emphasized by our bioinformatics analysis showing that GLD-1 binding sites with this 5′end uracil are more predictive for the functional response of the messenger RNAs to gld-1 knockout. We further reveal the importance of the KH-QUA2 interface in vitro and that its alteration in vivo affects the level of translational repression dependent on the sequence of the GLD-1 binding motif. In conclusion, we demonstrate that the QUA2 domain distinguishes GLD-1 from other members of the STAR family and contributes more generally to the modulation of RNA-binding affinity and specificity of KH domain containing protein
Second T = 3/2 state in B and the isobaric multiplet mass equation
Recent high-precision mass measurements and shell model calculations~[Phys.
Rev. Lett. {\bf 108}, 212501 (2012)] have challenged a longstanding explanation
for the requirement of a cubic isobaric multiplet mass equation for the lowest
isospin quartet. The conclusions relied upon the choice of the
excitation energy for the second state in B, which had two
conflicting measurements prior to this work. We remeasured the energy of the
state using the reaction and significantly disagree
with the most recent measurement. Our result supports the contention that
continuum coupling in the most proton-rich member of the quartet is not the
predominant reason for the large cubic term required for nuclei
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