Dilepton production by bremsstrahlung of meson fields in nuclear collisions

We study the bremsstrahlung of virtual omega mesons due to the collective deceleration of nuclei at the initial stage of an ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision. It is shown that electromagnetic decays of these mesons may give an important contribution to the observed yields of dileptons. Mass spectra of positron-electron and muon pairs produced in central Au+Au collisions are calculated under some simplifying assumptions on the space-time variation of the baryonic current in a nuclear collision process. Comparison with the CERES data for 160 AGev Pb+Au collisions shows that the proposed mechanism gives a noticeable fraction of the observed lepton pairs in the intermediate region of invariant masses. Sensitivity of the dilepton yield to the in-medium modification of masses and widths of vector mesons is demonstrated.Comment: 14 page

Salinity control on Na incorporation into calcite tests of the planktonic foraminifera Trilobatus sacculifer – Evidence from culture experiments and surface sediments

The quantitative reconstruction of past seawater salinity has yet to be achieved and the search for a direct and independent salinity proxy is ongoing. Recent culture and field studies show a significant positive correlation of Na/Ca with salinity in benthic and planktonic foraminiferal calcite. For accurate paleoceanographic reconstructions, consistent and reliable calibrations are necessary, which are still missing. In order to assess the reliability of foraminiferal Na/Ca as a direct proxy for seawater salinity, this study presents electron microprobe Na/Ca data, measured on cultured specimens of Trilobatus sacculifer. The culture experiments were conducted over a wide salinity range of 26 to 45, while temperature was kept constant. To further understand potential controlling factors of Na incorporation, measurements were also performed on foraminifera cultured at various temperatures in the range of 19.5 °C to 29.5 °C under constant salinity conditions. Foraminiferal Na/Ca ratios positively correlate with seawater salinity (Na/Caforam = 0.97 + 0.115 ⋅ Salinity, R = 0.97, p < 0.005). Temperature on the other hand exhibits no statistically significant relationship with Na/Ca ratios indicating salinity to be the dominant factor controlling Na incorporation. The culturing results are corroborated by measurements on T. sacculifer from Caribbean and Gulf of Guinea surface sediments. In conclusion, planktonic foraminiferal Na/Ca can be applied as a reliable proxy for reconstructing sea surface salinities, albeit species-specific calibrations might be necessary

Temperature Dependence of Spin and Bond Ordering in a Spin-Peierls System

We investigate thermodynamic properties of a one-dimensional S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model coupled to a lattice distortion by a quantum Monte Carlo method. In particular we study how spin and lattice dimerize as a function of the temperature, which gives a fundamental process of the spin-Peierls transition in higher dimensions. The degree of freedom of the lattice is taken into account adiabatically and the thermal distribution of the lattice distortion is obtained by the thermal bath algorithm. We find that the dimerization develops as the temperature decreases and it converges to the value of the dimerization of the ground state at T=0. Furthermore we find that the coupling constants of spins fluctuate quite largly at high temperature and there thermodynamic properties deviate from those of the uniform chain. Doping of non-magnetic impurities causes cut of the chain into short chains with open boundary. We investigate thermodynamic properties of open chains taking relaxation of the lattice into consideration. We find that strong bonds locate at the edges and a defect of the bond alternation appears in the chain with odd number of sites, which causes enhancement of the staggered magnetic order. We find a spreaded staggered structure which indicates that the defect moves diffusively in the chain even at very low temperature.Comment: 7 pages, 17 figures; added comments on section 2 and 3, corrected typo

Excitation Spectra of Structurally Dimerized and Spin-Peierls Chains in a Magnetic Field

The dynamical spin structure factor and the Raman response are calculated for structurally dimerized and spin-Peierls chains in a magnetic field, using exact diagonalization techniques. In both cases there is a spin liquid phase composed of interacting singlet dimers at small fields h < h_c1, an incommensurate regime (h_c1 < h < h_c2) in which the modulation of the triplet excitation spectra adapts to the applied field, and a fully spin polarized phase above an upper critical field h_c2. For structurally dimerized chains, the spin gap closes in the incommensurate phase, whereas spin-Peierls chains remain gapped. In the spin liquid regimes, the dominant feature of the triplet spectra is a one-magnon bound state, separated from a continuum of states at higher energies. There are also indications of a singlet bound state above the one-magnon triplet.Comment: RevTex, 10 pages with 8 eps figure

Hadron and hadron-cluster production in a hydrodynamical model including particle evaporation

We discuss the evolution of the mixed phase at RHIC and SPS within boostinvariant hydrodynamics. In addition to the hydrodynamical expansion, we also consider evaporation of particles off the surface of the fluid. The back-reaction of the evaporation process on the dynamics of the fluid shortens the lifetime of the mixed phase. In our model this lifetime of the mixed phase is <12 fm/c in Au+Au at RHIC and <6.5 fm/c in Pb+Pb at SPS, even in the limit of vanishing transverse expansion velocity. Strangeness separation occurs, especially in events (or at rapidities) with relatively high initial net baryon and strangeness number, enhancing the multiplicity of MEMOs (multiply strange nuclear clusters). If antiquarks and antibaryons reach saturation in the course of the pure QGP or mixed phase, we find that at RHIC the ratio of antideuterons to deuterons may exceed 0.3 and even anti-helium to helium>0.1. Due to fluctuations, at RHIC even negative baryon number at midrapidity is possible in individual events, so that the antibaryon and antibaryon-cluster yields exceed those of the corresponding baryons and clusters.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, epsfig stylefil

Using electronic structure changes to map the H-T phase diagram of alpha'-NaV2O5

We report polarized optical reflectance studies of \alpha'-NaV2O5 as a function of temperature (4-45 K) and magnetic field (0-60 T). Rung directed electronic structure changes, as measured by near-infrared reflectance ratios \Delta R(H)=R(H)/R(H=0 T), are especially sensitive to the phase boundaries. We employ these changes to map out an H-T phase diagram. Topological highlights include the observation of two phase boundaries slightly below T_{SG}, enhanced curvature of the 34 K phase boundary above 35 T, and, surprisingly, strong hysteresis effects of both transitions with applied field.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, PRB accepte

Dynamics of Hot Bulk QCD Matter: from the Quark-Gluon Plasma to Hadronic Freeze-Out

We introduce a combined macroscopic/microscopic transport approach employing relativistic hydrodynamics for the early, dense, deconfined stage of the reaction and a microscopic non-equilibrium model for the later hadronic stage where the equilibrium assumptions are not valid anymore. Within this approach we study the dynamics of hot, bulk QCD matter, which is expected to be created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at the SPS, the RHIC and the LHC. Our approach is capable of self-consistently calculating the freeze-out of the hadronic system, while accounting for the collective flow on the hadronization hypersurface generated by the QGP expansion. In particular, we perform a detailed analysis of the reaction dynamics, hadronic freeze-out, and transverse flow.Comment: 55 pages, 15 figure

High Precision Measurement of the Superallowed 0^+ to 0^+ Beta Decay of ^{22}Mg

The half-life, 3.8755(12) s, and superallowed branching ratio, 0.5315(12), for ^{22}Mg beta-decay have been measured with high precision. The latter depended on gamma-ray intensities being measured with an HPGe detector calibrated for relative efficiencies to an unprecedented 0.15%. Previous precise measurements of 0^+ to 0^+ transitions have been restricted to the nine that populate stable daughter nuclei. No more such cases exist, and any improvement in a critical CKM unitarity test must depend on precise measurements of more exotic nuclei. With this branching-ratio measurement, we show those to be possible for T_z = -1 parents. We obtain a corrected Ft-value of 3071(9) s, in good agreement with expectations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revtex

Isolation and fine mapping of Rps6: An intermediate host resistance gene in barley to wheat stripe rust

A plant may be considered a nonhost of a pathogen if all known genotypes of a plant species are resistant to all known isolates of a pathogen species. However, if a small number of genotypes are susceptible to some known isolates of a pathogen species this plant maybe considered an intermediate host. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an intermediate host for Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), the causal agent of wheat stripe rust. We wanted to understand the genetic architecture underlying resistance to Pst and to determine whether any overlap exists with resistance to the host pathogen, Puccinia striiformis f. sp. hordei (Psh). We mapped Pst resistance to chromosome 7H and show that host and intermediate host resistance is genetically uncoupled. Therefore, we designate this resistance locus Rps6. We used phenotypic and genotypic selection on F2:3 families to isolate Rps6 and fine mapped the locus to a 0.1 cM region. Anchoring of the Rps6 locus to the barley physical map placed the region on two adjacent fingerprinted contigs. Efforts are now underway to sequence the minimal tiling path and to delimit the physical region harbouring Rps6. This will facilitate additional marker development and permit identification of candidate genes in the region