Probing Split Supersymmetry with Cosmic Rays

A striking aspect of the recently proposed split supersymmetry is the existence of heavy gluinos which are metastable because of the very heavy squarks which mediate their decay. In this paper we correlate the expected flux of these particles with the accompanying neutrino flux produced in inelastic $pp$ collisions in distant astrophysical sources. We show that an event rate at the Pierre Auger Observatory of approximately 1 yr$^{-1}$ for gluino masses of about 500 GeV is consistent with existing limits on neutrino fluxes. The extremely low inelasticity of the gluino-containing hadrons in their collisions with the air molecules makes possible a distinct characterization of the showers induced in the atmosphere. Should such anomalous events be observed, we show that their cosmogenic origin, in concert with the requirement that they reach the Earth before decay, leads to a lower bound on their proper lifetime of the order of 100 years, and consequently, to a lower bound on the scale of supersymmetry breaking, $\Lambda_{\rm SUSY} >2.6 \times 10^{11}$ GeV. Obtaining such a bound is not possible in collider experiments.Comment: Version to be published in Phys. Rev.

The Classification of Highly Supersymmetric Supergravity Solutions

The spinorial geometry method is an effective method for constructing systematic classifications of supersymmetric supergravity solutions. Recent work on analysing highly supersymmetric solutions in type IIB supergravity using this method is reviewed [arXiv:hep-th/0606049, arXiv:0710.1829]. It is shown that all supersymmetric solutions of IIB supergravity with more than 28 Killing spinors are locally maximally supersymmetric.Comment: 23 pages, latex. To appear in the proceedings of the Special Metrics and Supersymmetry conference at Universidad del Pais Vasco, May 2008. References correcte

Design of an analog/digital truly random number generator

An analog-digital system is presented for the generation of truly random (aperiodic) digital sequences. This model is based on a very simple piecewise-linear discrete map which is suitable for implementation using monolithic analog sampled-data techniques. Simulation results are given illustrating the optimum choice of the model parameters. Circuit implementations are reported for the discrete map using both switched-capacitor (SC) and switched-current (SI) techniques. The layout of a SI prototype in a 3-μm n-well double-polysilicon double-metal technology is included

Understanding possible electromagnetic counterparts to loud gravitational wave events: Binary black hole effects on electromagnetic fields

In addition to producing loud gravitational waves (GW), the dynamics of a binary black hole system could induce emission of electromagnetic (EM) radiation by affecting the behavior of plasmas and electromagnetic fields in their vicinity. We here study how the electromagnetic fields are affected by a pair of orbiting black holes through the merger. In particular, we show how the binary's dynamics induce a variability in possible electromagnetically induced emissions as well as an enhancement of electromagnetic fields during the late-merge and merger epochs. These time dependent features will likely leave their imprint in processes generating detectable emissions and can be exploited in the detection of electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves.Comment: 12 page

Plant response to solar ultraviolet-B radiation in a southern South American Sphagnum peatland

1. Plant growth and pigmentation of the moss Sphagnum magellanicum and the vascular plants Empetrum rubrum, Nothofagus antarctica and Tetroncium magellanicum were measured under near-ambient (90% of ambient) and reduced (20%) ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation for three growing seasons in a Sphagnum peatland in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (55°S). 2. Reduction of solar UV-B increased height growth but decreased volumetric density in S. magellanicum so that biomass production was not influenced during the 3 years. The morphology of vascular plants tended not to respond to UV-B reduction. 3. A 10-20% decrease in UV-B-absorbing compounds occurred in T. magellanicum under solar UV-B reduction. No effects were seen on chlorophyll or carotenoids in S. magellanicum, although, for UV-B-absorbing compounds, a significant interaction between UV-B and year suggests some response to solar UV-B reduction. 4. The climate-related growth of the dwarf shrub E. rubrum was assessed retrospectively by correlating an 8-year record of annual stem elongation with macroclimatic factors including solar UV-B and visible radiation, precipitation and temperature. 5. No significant negative correlations were found between annual E. rubrum stem elongation and ambient solar UV-B, the ratio of UV-B: visible radiation, or the 305-nm: 340-nm irradiance ratio for an 8-year record (1990-91 to 1997-98), nor was stem elongation affected by solar UV-B reduction in our experimental field plots after 3 years. 6. The role of solar UV-B radiation on plant growth in Sphagnum peatlands in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, is likely to depend on the severity of stratospheric ozone depletion over the next several decades. The increases in ambient solar UV-B associated with ozone depletion over the last 20 years are less than the difference between our radiation treatments. Therefore, providing that the ozone layer substantially recovers by the middle of this century, only modest effects of increased solar UV-B on plant growth may be expected.Fil: Searles, Peter Stoughton. State University of Utah; Estados UnidosFil: Flint, Stephan D.. State University of Utah; Estados UnidosFil: Diaz, Susana Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Rousseaux, Maria Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Ballare, Carlos Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Caldwell, Martyn M.. State University of Utah; Estados Unido

Linking phytochrome to plant immunity: low red : far-red ratios increase Arabidopsis susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea by reducing the biosynthesis of indolic glucosinolates and camalexin

Shade-intolerant plants respond to low red : far-red (R : FR) ratios, which signal the proximity of potential competitors, by down-regulating immune responses. Here we investigated the mechanisms underlying this immune suppression in Arabidopsis. We used genetic, transcriptomic and metabolomic approaches to examine the functional connections between R : FR ratio and Arabidopsis resistance to the fungus Botrytis cinerea. Low R : FR ratios reduced the concentration of indol-3-ylmethyl glucosinolate (I3M) (an indolic glucosinolate, iGS) and camalexin in plants inoculated with B. cinerea, and attenuated the I3M response triggered by jasmonate elicitation. These effects on metabolite abundance correlated with reduced expression of iGS and camalexin biosynthetic genes. Furthermore, the effect of low R : FR increasing Arabidopsis susceptibility to B. cinerea was not present in mutants deficient in the biosynthesis of camalexin (pad3) or metabolism of iGS (pen2). Finally, in a mutant deficient in the JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN-10 (JAZ10) protein, which does not respond to low R : FR with increased susceptibility to B. cinerea, supplemental FR failed to down-regulate iGS production. These results indicate that suppression of Arabidopsis immunity against B. cinerea by low R : FR ratios is mediated by reduced levels of Trp-derived defenses, and provide further evidence for a functional role of JAZ10 in the link between phytochrome and jasmonate signaling.Fil: Cargnel, Miriam D.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Demkura, Patricia Verónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Ballare, Carlos Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas - Instituto Tecnológico Chascomús. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas (sede Chascomús); Argentin

Composition operators on the algebra of Dirichlet series

The algebra of Dirichlet series $\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{C}_{+})$ consists on those Dirichlet series convergent in the right half-plane $\mathcal{C}_{+}$ and which are also uniformly continuous there. This algebra was recently introduced by Aron, Bayart, Gauthier, Maestre, and Nestoridis. We describe the symbols $\Phi:\mathcal{C}_{+}\to\mathcal{C}_{+}$ giving rise to bounded composition operators $\mathit{C}_{\Phi}$ in $\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{C}_{+})$ and denote this class by $\mathcal{G}_{\mathcal{A}}$. We also characterise when the operator $\mathit{C}_{\Phi}$ is compact in $\mathcal{A}(\mathit{C}_{+})$. As a byproduct, we show that the weak compactness is equivalent to the compactness for $\mathit{C}_{\Phi}$. Next, the closure under the local uniform convergence of several classes of symbols of composition operators in Banach spaces of Dirichlet series is discussed. We also establish a one-to-one correspondence between continuous semigroups of analytic functions $\{\Phi_{t}\}$ in the class $\mathcal{G}_{\mathcal{A}}$ and strongly continuous semigroups of composition operators $\{T_{t}\}$, $T_{t}f=f\circ\Phi_{t}$, $f\in\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{C}_{+})$. We conclude providing examples showing the differences between the symbols of bounded composition operators in $\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{C}_{+})$ and the Hardy spaces of Dirichlet series $\mathcal{H}^{p}$ and $\mathcal{H}^{\infty}$

On the uniform convergence of continuous semigroups

Let $\Omega$ be a region in the complex plane $\mathbb C$ and let $\{\Phi_t \}_{t\ge 0}$ be a continuous semigroup of functions on $\Omega$; that is, $\Phi_t\colon \Omega\to\Omega$ is holomorphic for every $t\ge 0$, $\Phi_0(z)=z$, for every $z\in\Omega$, $\Phi_t\circ\Phi_s=\Phi_{s+t}$, for every $s$, $t\ge 0$, and \begin{equation*}\label{eso} \Phi_t(z)\to z\,,\quad\hbox{ as $t$ goes to $0^+$,} \end{equation*} uniformly on compact subsets of $\Omega$. Despite this definition only requires the uniform convergence on compact subsets, P. Gumenyuk proved in 2014 that, when $\Omega$ is the unit disc, the convergence is uniform on the whole $\mathbb D$. When $\Omega$ is a half-plane, it is not difficult to show that the result is no longer true. In this paper, we enhance Gumenyuk's result by proving that for every continuous semigroup $\{\Phi_t \}_{t\ge 0}$ on $\mathbb D$ we have $$\sup_{z\in\mathbb D} |\Phi_t(z)-z|= O(\sqrt t), \quad t\to 0^+.$$ In addition, we provide an example showing that $O(\sqrt t)$ is the best possible rate of uniform convergence valid for all semigroups on $\mathbb D$. When $\Omega$ is a half-plane we prove that there is uniform convergence to the identity under certain boundedness conditions on the infinitesimal generator of the semigroup. These boundedness conditions are fulfilled when the semigroup $\{\Phi_t \}_{t\ge 0}$ is included in the Gordon-Hedenmalm class (the one which produces bounded composition operators on Hardy spaces of Dirichlet series). An important ingredient in the proofs of these results is the use of harmonic measures, which we have done through a classic result of M. Lavrentiev.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur

Matrix Assisted Formation of Ferrihydrite Nanoparticles in a Siloxane/Poly(Oxyethylene) Nanohybrid

Matrix-assisted formation of ferrihydrite, an iron oxide hydroxide analogue of the protein ferritin-core, in a sol-gel derived organic-inorganic hybrid is reported. The hybrid network (named di-ureasil) is composed of poly(oxyethylene) chains of different average polymer molecular weights grafted to siloxane domains by means of urea cross-linkages and accommodates ferrihydrite nanoparticles. Magnetic measurements, Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy reveal that the controlled modification of the polymer molecular weight allows the fine-tuning of the ability of the hybrid matrix to assist and promote iron coordination at the organic-inorganic interface and subsequent nucleation and growth of the ferrihydrite nanoparticles whose core size (2-4 nm) is tuned by the amount of iron incorporated. The polymer chain length, its arrangement and crystallinity, are key factors on the anchoring and formation of the ferrihydrite particles.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. To be published in J. Mater. Che