335 research outputs found
Scenario of Accelerating Universe from the Phenomenological \Lambda- Models
Dark matter, the major component of the matter content of the Universe,
played a significant role at early stages during structure formation. But at
present the Universe is dark energy dominated as well as accelerating. Here,
the presence of dark energy has been established by including a time-dependent
term in the Einstein's field equations. This model is compatible with
the idea of an accelerating Universe so far as the value of the deceleration
parameter is concerned. Possibility of a change in sign of the deceleration
parameter is also discussed. The impact of considering the speed of light as
variable in the field equations has also been investigated by using a well
known time-dependent model.Comment: Latex, 9 pages, Major change
Close encounters of a rotating star with planets in parabolic orbits of varying inclination and the formation of Hot Jupiters
(abbreviated) We extend the theory of close encounters of a planet on a
parabolic orbit with a star to include the effects of tides induced on the
central rotating star. Orbits with arbitrary inclination to the stellar
rotation axis are considered. We obtain results both from an analytic treatment
and numerical one that are in satisfactory agreement. These results are applied
to the initial phase of the tidal circularisation problem. We find that both
tides induced in the star and planet can lead to a significant decrease of the
orbital semi-major axis for orbits having periastron distances smaller than 5-6
stellar radii (corresponding to periods days after the
circularisation has been completed) with tides in the star being much stronger
for retrograde orbits compared to prograde orbits. We use the simple Skumanich
law for the stellar rotation with its rotational period equal to one month at
the age of 5Gyr. The strength of tidal interactions is characterised by
circularisation time scale, defined as a time scale of evolution of
the planet's semi-major axis due to tides considered as a function of orbital
period after the process of tidal circularisation has been completed.
We find that the ratio of the initial circularisation time scales corresponding
to prograde and retrograde orbits is of order 1.5-2 for a planet of one Jupiter
mass and four days. It grows with the mass of the planet, being
of order five for a five Jupiter mass planet with the same . Thus, the
effect of stellar rotation may provide a bias in the formation of planetary
systems having planets on close orbits around their host stars, as a
consequence of planet-planet scattering, favouring systems with retrograde
orbits. The results may also be applied to the problem of tidal capture of
stars in young stellar clusters.Comment: to be published in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronom
Electromagnetic radiation from collisions at almost the speed of light: an extremely relativistic charged particle falling into a Schwarzschild black hole
We investigate the electromagnetic radiation released during the high energy
collision of a charged point particle with a four-dimensional Schwarzschild
black hole. We show that the spectra is flat, and well described by a classical
calculation. We also compare the total electromagnetic and gravitational
energies emitted, and find that the former is supressed in relation to the
latter for very high energies. These results could apply to the astrophysical
world in the case charged stars and small charged black holes are out there
colliding into large black holes, and to a very high energy collision
experiment in a four-dimensional world. In this latter scenario the calculation
is to be used for the moments just after the black hole formation, when the
collision of charged debris with the newly formed black hole is certainly
expected. Since the calculation is four-dimensional, it does not directly apply
to Tev-scale gravity black holes, as these inhabit a world of six to eleven
dimensions, although our results should qualitatively hold when extrapolated
with some care to higher dimensions.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure
Parity Violating Measurements of Neutron Densities
Parity violating electron nucleus scattering is a clean and powerful tool for
measuring the spatial distributions of neutrons in nuclei with unprecedented
accuracy. Parity violation arises from the interference of electromagnetic and
weak neutral amplitudes, and the of the Standard Model couples primarily
to neutrons at low . The data can be interpreted with as much confidence
as electromagnetic scattering. After briefly reviewing the present theoretical
and experimental knowledge of neutron densities, we discuss possible parity
violation measurements, their theoretical interpretation, and applications. The
experiments are feasible at existing facilities. We show that theoretical
corrections are either small or well understood, which makes the interpretation
clean. The quantitative relationship to atomic parity nonconservation
observables is examined, and we show that the electron scattering asymmetries
can be directly applied to atomic PNC because the observables have
approximately the same dependence on nuclear shape.Comment: 38 pages, 7 ps figures, very minor changes, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Processing of aluminum-graphite particulate metal matrix composites by advanced shear technology
Copyright @ 2009 ASM International. This paper was published in Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance 18(9) and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of ASM International. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplications of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of this paper are prohibited.To extend the possibilities of using aluminum/graphite composites as structural materials, a novel process is developed. The conventional methods often produce agglomerated structures exhibiting lower strength and ductility. To overcome the cohesive force of the agglomerates, a melt conditioned high-pressure die casting
(MC-HPDC) process innovatively adapts the well-established, high-shear dispersive mixing action of a twin screw mechanism. The distribution of particles and properties of composites are quantitatively evaluated.
The adopted rheo process significantly improved the distribution of the reinforcement in the matrix with a strong interfacial bond between the two. A good combination of improved ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and tensile elongation (e) is obtained compared with composites produced by conventional processes.EPSR
An improved general kinetic analysis of non-linear irreversible polymerisations
A method to predict average molecular weights before and after gelation for general irreversible non-linear polymerisations forming tree-like molecules is described. Recently developed numerical methods for solving two point boundary value problems are essential for the success of these calculations after gelation and open the way to eventually be able to efficiently predicting chain length distributions. Anionic and free-radical polymerisation of vinyl monomers in the presence of divinyl monomers or with transfer to polymer are taken as case studies. Comparison to experimental data and with simulation results obtained through “numerical fractionation” confirms the usefulness of current approach.FCT
European Communit
Effective interaction between helical bio-molecules
The effective interaction between two parallel strands of helical
bio-molecules, such as deoxyribose nucleic acids (DNA), is calculated using
computer simulations of the "primitive" model of electrolytes. In particular we
study a simple model for B-DNA incorporating explicitly its charge pattern as a
double-helix structure. The effective force and the effective torque exerted
onto the molecules depend on the central distance and on the relative
orientation. The contributions of nonlinear screening by monovalent counterions
to these forces and torques are analyzed and calculated for different salt
concentrations. As a result, we find that the sign of the force depends
sensitively on the relative orientation. For intermolecular distances smaller
than it can be both attractive and repulsive. Furthermore we report a
nonmonotonic behaviour of the effective force for increasing salt
concentration. Both features cannot be described within linear screening
theories. For large distances, on the other hand, the results agree with linear
screening theories provided the charge of the bio-molecules is suitably
renormalized.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures included in text, 100 bibliog
α-intercalated cells defend the urinary system from bacterial infection
{alpha}–Intercalated cells (A-ICs) within the collecting duct of the kidney are critical for acid-base homeostasis. Here, we have shown that A-ICs also serve as both sentinels and effectors in the defense against urinary infections. In a murine urinary tract infection model, A-ICs bound uropathogenic E. coli and responded by acidifying the urine and secreting the bacteriostatic protein lipocalin 2 (LCN2; also known as NGAL). A-IC–dependent LCN2 secretion required TLR4, as mice expressing an LPS-insensitive form of TLR4 expressed reduced levels of LCN2. The presence of LCN2 in urine was both necessary and sufficient to control the urinary tract infection through iron sequestration, even in the harsh condition of urine acidification. In mice lacking A-ICs, both urinary LCN2 and urinary acidification were reduced, and consequently bacterial clearance was limited. Together these results indicate that A-ICs, which are known to regulate acid-base metabolism, are also critical for urinary defense against pathogenic bacteria. They respond to both cystitis and pyelonephritis by delivering bacteriostatic chemical agents to the lower urinary system
Electrophysiological correlates of reinforcement learning in young people with Tourette syndrome with and without co-occurring ADHD symptoms
Altered reinforcement learning is implicated in the causes of Tourette syndrome (TS) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). TS and ADHD frequently co-occur but how this affects reinforcement learning has not been investigated. We examined the ability of young people with TS (n = 18), TS+ADHD (N = 17), ADHD (n = 13) and typically developing controls (n = 20) to learn and reverse stimulus-response (S-R) associations based on positive and negative reinforcement feedback. We used a 2 (TS-yes, TS-no) x 2 (ADHD-yes, ADHD-no) factorial design to assess the effects of TS, ADHD, and their interaction on behavioural (accuracy, RT) and event-related potential (stimulus-locked P3, feedback-locked P2, feedback-related negativity, FRN) indices of learning and reversing the S-R associations. TS was associated with intact learning and reversal performance and largely typical ERP amplitudes. ADHD was associated with lower accuracy during S-R learning and impaired reversal learning (significantly reduced accuracy and a trend for smaller P3 amplitude). The results indicate that co-occurring ADHD symptoms impair reversal learning in TS+ADHD. The implications of these findings for behavioural tic therapies are discussed
Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set
We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s
using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays
in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at
production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton
collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment
at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity.
We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the
B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2,
-1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in
agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model
value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by
other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012
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