3,181 research outputs found
Dynamical locality of the nonminimally coupled scalar field and enlarged algebra of Wick polynomials
We discuss dynamical locality in two locally covariant quantum field
theories, the nonminimally coupled scalar field and the enlarged algebra of
Wick polynomials. We calculate the relative Cauchy evolution of the enlarged
algebra, before demonstrating that dynamical locality holds in the nonminimally
coupled scalar field theory. We also establish dynamical locality in the
enlarged algebra for the minimally coupled massive case and the conformally
coupled massive case.Comment: 39p
Thyroid hormones in donkey blood and milk: correlations with milk yield and environmental temperatures
Thyroid hormones (TH) are the primary endocrine stimulators of non-shivering thermogenesis and are known to stimulate lactation. Triiodothyronine (T3) is the bioactive form, mainly derived by deiodination of thyroxine (T4), and the free quote (unbound to plasma proteins) is immediately bioavailable. This study aimed to evaluate potential relationships among TH in the blood, triiodothyronine in the milk (T3M), milk yield and environmental temperature in March to July for 8 lactating donkeys. Milk yield and blood TH concentrations changed significantly over time, whereas T3M was rather stable among individuals and not affected by time of sampling. Free T3 was not correlated with free T4 or with total TH in the blood, but was weakly correlated with T3M. No relationship was found between blood TH and milk yield, which was negatively correlated with T3M, thus the absolute quantity of bioactive hormone in milk secretion is maintained. Milk yield was positively correlated with the free/total T3 and free T3/free T4 ratios and, thus, with the relative quote of the circulating bioactive hormone. Circulating T3/T4 ratios were negatively correlated with environmental temperature. It is concluded that environmental temperature, in the range of the present study (-2 to 35 °C), does not significantly entrain thyroid gland activity, which is affected more by other factors, such as inter-individual variations and physiological status (i.e., stage of lactation). However, increases in environmental temperature most likely induced decreases in deiodinase activity at the peripheral tissue level, as indicated by the decrease in the T3/T4 ratios in the blood
An integrated overview of physiological and biochemical responses of Celtis australis to drought stress
Trees in Mediterranean areas frequently face severe drought stress events, due to sudden decreases in soil water availability associated to intense heat waves. The knowledge of strategies adopted by plants to cope with the environmental pressures associated to Mediterranean climate is crucial for reforestation strategies and planning future urban greening. Here we investigated the physiological and biochemical adjustments activated by Celtis australis in response to drought stress during summer. Despite widely used for reforestation in Southern Mediterranean, how C. australis responds to the severe challenges imposed by Mediterranean climate has not investigated yet. In our study, we performed analyses of water relations, gas exchange and PSII performance, the concentration of photosynthetic pigments, the activity and the concentration of primary antioxidants in plants exposed to drought stress of increasing severity. Data of our study reveal that C. australis displays both conservative water use and isohydric behavior in response to drought, and diffusive resistance mostly limits photosynthesis even at severe drought. Our study also reveals an effective down-regulation rather than permanent impairment of PSII photochemistry in response to drought stress of increasing severity, since excess electron transport due to declines in photosynthesis (-61% at severe stress, compared to control) was matched by an increase in nonphotochemical quenching (+71% at severe stress, compared to control). However, our study highlights that under severe drought, zeaxanthin (and neoxanthin) increased by 75% (and 25%), likely served an important function as chloroplast antioxidant, other than sustaining nonphotochemical quenching. Antioxidant enzymes and ascorbate also increased (+132% on average for superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, and catalase) and contributed in countering oxidative stress in severely droughted plants. Large adjustments in the suite of physiological and biochemical traits may effectively enable C. australis to gain carbon at appreciable rates while avoiding irreversible damage to the photosynthetic apparatus even when challenged by severe drought stress, thereby making this species an excellent candidate for forest and urban plantings in sites experiencing extended periods of drought stress
High Energy Neutrinos from Cosmic Ray Interactions in Clusters of Galaxies
The spatial clustering of galaxies in galaxy clusters implies that the
background of infrared (IR) light in the intracluster medium (ICM) may exceed
the universal background. Cosmic rays injected within the ICM propagate
diffusively and at low enough energies are trapped there for cosmological
times. The photopion production interactions of cosmic rays with the IR photons
are responsible for the generation of neutrinos whose detection may shed some
light on the origin and propagation of high energy cosmic rays in the universe.
Here we discuss our calculations of the flux of neutrinos from single clusters
as well as the contribution of photopion production in clusters of galaxies to
the diffuse neutrino background.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, submitted to PR
Causal Perturbation Theory and Differential Renormalization
In Causal Perturbation Theory the process of renormalization is precisely
equivalent to the extension of time ordered distributions to coincident points.
This is achieved by a modified Taylor subtraction on the corresponding test
functions. I show that the pullback of this operation to the distributions
yields expressions known from Differential Renormalization. The subtraction is
equivalent to BPHZ subtraction in momentum space. Some examples from Euclidean
scalar field theory in flat and curved spacetime will be presented.Comment: 15 pages, AMS-LaTeX, feynm
On the origin of Mega Radiohalos
We present a first attempt to investigate the origin of radio emitting
electrons in the newly discovered class of Mega Radiohalos in clusters of
galaxies. We study the evolution of relativistic electrons accreted by the
external regions of a simulated cluster of galaxy at high resolution, including
the effect of radiative losses and turbulent re-acceleration acting on
relativistic electrons. We conclude that turbulent re-acceleration is enough
prolonged in time to produce a large reservoir of radio emitting electrons in
the large regions illuminated by Mega Radiohalos observed by LOFAR.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to A&A Letter
The two-component giant radio halo in the galaxy cluster Abell 2142
We report on a spectral study at radio frequencies of the giant radio halo in
A2142 (z=0.0909), which we performed to explore its nature and origin. A2142 is
not a major merger and the presence of a giant radio halo is somewhat
surprising. We performed deep radio observations with the GMRT at 608 MHz, 322
MHz, and 234 MHz and with the VLA in the 1-2 GHz band. We obtained high-quality
images at all frequencies in a wide range of resolutions. The radio halo is
well detected at all frequencies and extends out to the most distant cold front
in A2142. We studied the spectral index in two regions: the central part of the
halo and a second region in the direction of the most distant south-eastern
cold front, selected to follow the bright part of the halo and X-ray emission.
We complemented our observations with a preliminary LOFAR image at 118 MHz and
with the re-analysis of archival VLA data at 1.4 GHz. The two components of the
radio halo show different observational properties. The central brightest part
has higher surface brightess and a spectrum whose steepness is similar to those
of the known radio halos, i.e. . The ridge, which fades into the larger scale emission, is broader in
size and has considerably lower surface brightess and a moderately steeper
spectrum, i.e. . We propose that
the brightest part of the radio halo is powered by the central sloshing in
A2142, similar to what has been suggested for mini-halos, or by secondary
electrons generated by hadronic collisions in the ICM. On the other hand, the
steeper ridge may probe particle re-acceleration by turbulence generated either
by stirring the gas and magnetic fields on a larger scale or by less energetic
mechanisms, such as continuous infall of galaxy groups or an off-axis merger.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables - A&A, accepte
Bondi-Metzner-Sachs symmetry, holography on null-surfaces and area proportionality of "light-slice" entropy
It is shown that certain kinds of behavior, which hitherto were expected to
be characteristic for classical gravity and quantum field theory in curved
spacetime, as the infinite dimensional Bondi-Metzner-Sachs symmetry, holography
on event horizons and an area proportionality of entropy, have in fact an
unnoticed presence in Minkowski QFT. This casts new light on the fundamental
question whether the volume propotionality of heat bath entropy and the
(logarithmically corrected) dimensionless area law obeyed by
localization-induced thermal behavior are different geometric parametrizations
which share a common primordeal algebraic origin. Strong arguments are
presented that these two different thermal manifestations can be directly
related, this is in fact the main aim of this paper. It will be demonstrated
that QFT beyond the Lagrangian quantization setting receives crucial new
impulses from holography onto horizons. The present paper is part of a project
aimed at elucidating the enormous physical range of "modular localization". The
latter does not only extend from standard Hamitonian heat bath thermal states
to thermal aspects of causal- or event- horizons addressed in this paper. It
also includes the recent understanding of the crossing property of formfactors
whose intriguing similarity with thermal properties was, although sometimes
noticed, only sufficiently understood in the modular llocalization setting.Comment: 42 pages, changes, addition of new results and new references, in
this form the paper will appear in Foundations of Physic
Cluster magnetic fields through the study of polarized radio halos in the SKA era
Galaxy clusters are unique laboratories to investigate turbulent fluid
motions and large scale magnetic fields. Synchrotron radio halos at the center
of merging galaxy clusters provide the most spectacular and direct evidence of
the presence of relativistic particles and magnetic fields associated with the
intracluster medium. The study of polarized emission from radio halos is
extremely important to constrain the properties of intracluster magnetic fields
and the physics of the acceleration and transport of the relativistic
particles. However, detecting this polarized signal is a very hard task with
the current radio facilities.We use cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical
simulations to predict the expected polarized surface brightness of radio halos
at 1.4 GHz. We compare these expectations with the sensitivity and the
resolution reachable with the SKA1. This allows us to evaluate the potential
for studying intracluster magnetic fields in the surveys planned for SKA1.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; to appear as part of 'Cosmic Magnetism' in
Proceedings 'Advancing Astrophysics with the SKA (AASKA14)', PoS(AASKA14)10
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