The Role of Color Neutrality in Nuclear Physics--Modifications of Nucleonic Wave Functions

The influence of the nuclear medium upon the internal structure of a composite nucleon is examined. The interaction with the medium is assumed to depend on the relative distances between the quarks in the nucleon consistent with the notion of color neutrality, and to be proportional to the nucleon density. In the resulting description the nucleon in matter is a superposition of the ground state (free nucleon) and radial excitations. The effects of the nuclear medium on the electromagnetic and weak nucleon form factors, and the nucleon structure function are computed using a light-front constituent quark model. Further experimental consequences are examined by considering the electromagnetic nuclear response functions. The effects of color neutrality supply small but significant corrections to predictions of observables.Comment: 37 pages, postscript figures available on request to [email protected]

Neutron structure function and inclusive DIS from H-3 and He-3 at large Bjorken-x

A detailed study of inclusive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) from mirror A = 3 nuclei at large values of the Bjorken variable x is presented. The main purpose is to estimate the theoretical uncertainties on the extraction of the neutron DIS structure function from such nuclear measurements. On one hand, within models in which no modification of the bound nucleon structure functions is taken into account, we have investigated the possible uncertainties arising from: i) charge symmetry breaking terms in the nucleon-nucleon interaction, ii) finite Q**2 effects neglected in the Bjorken limit, iii) the role of different prescriptions for the nucleon Spectral Function normalization providing baryon number conservation, and iv) the differences between the virtual nucleon and light cone formalisms. Although these effects have been not yet considered in existing analyses, our conclusion is that all these effects cancel at the level of ~ 1% for x < 0.75 in overall agreement with previous findings. On the other hand we have considered several models in which the modification of the bound nucleon structure functions is accounted for to describe the EMC effect in DIS scattering from nuclei. It turns out that within these models the cancellation of nuclear effects is expected to occur only at a level of ~ 3%, leading to an accuracy of ~ 12 % in the extraction of the neutron to proton structure function ratio at x ~ 0.7 -0.8$. Another consequence of considering a broad range of models of the EMC effect is that the previously suggested iteration procedure does not improve the accuracy of the extraction of the neutron to proton structure function ratio.Comment: revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. C; main modifications in Section 4; no change in the conclusion

Pegasus IV: Discovery and Spectroscopic Confirmation of an Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxy in the Constellation Pegasus

We report the discovery of Pegasus IV, an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy found in archival data from the Dark Energy Camera processed by the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey. Pegasus IV is a compact, ultra-faint stellar system (r1 2 = 41-+68 pc; MV = −4.25 ± 0.2 mag) located at a heliocentric distance of 90-+64 kpc. Based on spectra of seven nonvariable member stars observed with Magellan/IMACS, we confidently resolve Pegasus IV’s velocity dispersion, measuring sv = 3.3-+1.11.7 km s−1 (after excluding three velocity outliers); this implies a mass-to-light ratio of M1 2 LV,1 2 = 167-+99224M☉ L☉ for the system. From the five stars with the highest signal-to-noise spectra, we also measure a systemic metallicity of [Fe/H] =-2.63-+0.300.26 dex, making Pegasus IV one of the most metal-poor ultra-faint dwarfs. We tentatively resolve a nonzero metallicity dispersion for the system. These measurements provide strong evidence that Pegasus IV is a dark-matter-dominated dwarf galaxy, rather than a star cluster. We measure Pegasus IV’s proper motion using data from Gaia Early Data Release 3, finding (μα*, μδ) = (0.33 ± 0.07, −0.21 ± 0.08) mas yr−1. When combined with our measured systemic velocity, this proper motion suggests that Pegasus IV is on an elliptical, retrograde orbit, and is currently near its orbital apocenter. Lastly, we identify three potential RR Lyrae variable stars within Pegasus IV, including one candidate member located more than 10 half-light radii away from the system’s centroid. The discovery of yet another ultra-faint dwarf galaxy strongly suggests that the census of Milky Way satellites is still incomplete, even within 100 kpc

Statistical Mechanics of Horizontal Gene Transfer in Evolutionary Ecology

The biological world, especially its majority microbial component, is strongly interacting and may be dominated by collective effects. In this review, we provide a brief introduction for statistical physicists of the way in which living cells communicate genetically through transferred genes, as well as the ways in which they can reorganize their genomes in response to environmental pressure. We discuss how genome evolution can be thought of as related to the physical phenomenon of annealing, and describe the sense in which genomes can be said to exhibit an analogue of information entropy. As a direct application of these ideas, we analyze the variation with ocean depth of transposons in marine microbial genomes, predicting trends that are consistent with recent observations using metagenomic surveys.Comment: Accepted by Journal of Statistical Physic

Plane-wave impulse approximation extraction of the neutron magnetic form factor from quasielastic 3He(e,e′) at Q2=0.3 to 0.6 (GeV/c)2

A high precision measurement of the transverse spin-dependent asymmetry AT′ in 3He(e,e′) quasielastic scattering was performed in Hall A at Jefferson Lab at values of the squared four-momentum transfer, Q2, between 0.1 and 0.6 (GeV/c)2. AT′ is sensitive to the neutron magnetic form factor, GMn. Values of GMn at Q2=0.1 and 0.2 (GeV/c)2, extracted using Faddeev calculations, were reported previously. Here, we report the extraction of GMn for the remaining Q2 values in the range from 0.3 to 0.6 (GeV/c)2 using a plane-wave impulse approximation calculation. The results are in good agreement with recent precision data from experiments using a deuterium target

Plane-wave impulse approximation extraction of the neutron magnetic form factor from quasielastic 3He(e,e′) at Q2=0.3 to 0.6 (GeV/c)2

A high precision measurement of the transverse spin-dependent asymmetry AT′ in 3He(e,e′) quasielastic scattering was performed in Hall A at Jefferson Lab at values of the squared four-momentum transfer, Q2, between 0.1 and 0.6 (GeV/c)2. AT′ is sensitive to the neutron magnetic form factor, GMn. Values of GMn at Q2=0.1 and 0.2 (GeV/c)2, extracted using Faddeev calculations, were reported previously. Here, we report the extraction of GMn for the remaining Q2 values in the range from 0.3 to 0.6 (GeV/c)2 using a plane-wave impulse approximation calculation. The results are in good agreement with recent precision data from experiments using a deuterium target

Extraction of the Neutron Magnetic Form Factor from Quasi-Elastic 3He(pol)(e(pol),e') at Q^2 = 0.1 - 0.6 (GeV/c)^2

We have measured the spin-dependent transverse asymmetry, A_T', in quasi-elastic inclusive electron scattering from polarized 3He with high precision at Q^2 = 0.1 to 0.6 (GeV/c)^2. The neutron magnetic form factor, GMn, was extracted at Q^2 = 0.1 and 0.2 (GeV/c)^2 using a non-relativistic Faddeev calculation that includes both final-state interactions (FSI) and meson-exchange currents (MEC). In addition, GMn was extracted at Q^2 = 0.3 to 0.6 (GeV/c)^2 using a Plane Wave Impulse Approximation calculation. The accuracy of the modeling of FSI and MEC effects was tested and confirmed with a precision measurement of the spin-dependent asymmetry in the breakup threshold region of the 3He(pol)(e(pol),e') reaction. The total relative uncertainty of the extracted GMn data is approximately 3%. Close agreement was found with other recent high-precision GMn data in this Q^2 range.Comment: Archival paper, 17 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Physical Review C. v2: shortened considerably, updated comparison to theor

Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology

notes: As the primary author, O’Malley drafted the paper, and gathered and analysed data (scientific papers and talks). Conceptual analysis was conducted by both authors.publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePhilosophers of biology, along with everyone else, generally perceive life to fall into two broad categories, the microbes and macrobes, and then pay most of their attention to the latter. ‘Macrobe’ is the word we propose for larger life forms, and we use it as part of an argument for microbial equality. We suggest that taking more notice of microbes – the dominant life form on the planet, both now and throughout evolutionary history – will transform some of the philosophy of biology’s standard ideas on ontology, evolution, taxonomy and biodiversity. We set out a number of recent developments in microbiology – including biofilm formation, chemotaxis, quorum sensing and gene transfer – that highlight microbial capacities for cooperation and communication and break down conventional thinking that microbes are solely or primarily single-celled organisms. These insights also bring new perspectives to the levels of selection debate, as well as to discussions of the evolution and nature of multicellularity, and to neo-Darwinian understandings of evolutionary mechanisms. We show how these revisions lead to further complications for microbial classification and the philosophies of systematics and biodiversity. Incorporating microbial insights into the philosophy of biology will challenge many of its assumptions, but also give greater scope and depth to its investigations

Psychology and aggression

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68264/2/10.1177_002200275900300301.pd

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR