5,009 research outputs found
The forward-backward asymmetry of top quark production at the Tevatron in warped extra dimensional models
The CDF and D0 experiments have reported on the measurement of the
forward-backward asymmetry of top quark pair production at the Tevatron and the
result is that it is more than 2 standard deviations above the predicted value
in the Standard Model. This has to be added to the longstanding anomaly in the
forward-backward asymmetry for bottom quark production at LEP which is 3
standard deviations different from the Standard Model value. The discrepancy in
the bottom asymmetry can be accounted for by the contributions of Kaluza-Klein
excitations of electroweak gauge bosons at LEP in warped extra dimensional
models in which the fermions are localized differently along the extra
dimension so that the gauge interactions of heavy third generation fermions are
naturally different from that of light fermions. In this paper, we show that it
is more difficult to elaborate a model generating a significant top asymmetry
in a similar way -- through exchanges of Kaluza-Klein gluons at the Tevatron --
due to the indirect constraints originating from precision electroweak data.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, published versio
Thermodynamics of the BCS-BEC crossover
We present a self-consistent theory for the thermodynamics of the BCS-BEC
crossover in the normal and superfluid phase which is both conserving and
gapless. It is based on the variational many-body formalism developed by
Luttinger and Ward and by DeDominicis and Martin. Truncating the exact
functional for the entropy to that obtained within a ladder approximation, the
resulting self-consistent integral equations for the normal and anomalous Green
functions are solved numerically for arbitrary coupling. The critical
temperature, the equation of state and the entropy are determined as a function
of the dimensionless parameter , which controls the crossover from the
BCS-regime of extended pairs to the BEC-regime of tightly bound molecules. The
tightly bound pairs turn out to be described by a Popov-type approximation for
a dilute, repulsive Bose gas. Even though our approximation does not capture
the critical behaviour near the continuous superfluid transition, our results
provide a consistent picture for the complete crossover thermodynamics which
compare well with recent numerical and field-theoretic approaches at the
unitarity point.Comment: published versio
Online Career Guidance Systems for PK-12 School Students: Compliments to a Comprehensive School Counseling Program
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) identifies three main domains that should be included in a developmental and comprehensive school counseling program. These domains include academic development, social/emotional development, and career development. This chapter will provide an overview of the career development needs of PK-12 students. It will also offer several online career guidance system suggestions that school counselors and educators may employ to meet both the needs of school-aged students and the demands of career guidance and planning during the formative years of elementary, middle, and high school. Research has shown that the area of career development is significantly lacking in school systems and less emphasis is placed on this domain in comparison to others. Therefore, online career guidance systems that may be accessed by students independently or with educator collaboration may help to bridge this gap
A detailed map of Higgs boson interactions by the ATLAS experiment ten years after the discovery
The standard model of particle physics1-4 describes the known fundamental particles and forces that make up our Universe, with the exception of gravity. One of the central features of the standard model is a field that permeates all of space and interacts with fundamental particles5-9. The quantum excitation of this field, known as the Higgs field, manifests itself as the Higgs boson, the only fundamental particle with no spin. In 2012, a particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson of the standard model was observed by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN10,11. Since then, more than 30 times as many Higgs bosons have been recorded by the ATLAS experiment, enabling much more precise measurements and new tests of the theory. Here, on the basis of this larger dataset, we combine an unprecedented number of production and decay processes of the Higgs boson to scrutinize its interactions with elementary particles. Interactions with gluons, photons, and W and Z bosons-the carriers of the strong, electromagnetic and weak forces-are studied in detail. Interactions with three third-generation matter particles (bottom (b) and top (t) quarks, and tau leptons (τ)) are well measured and indications of interactions with a second-generation particle (muons, μ) are emerging. These tests reveal that the Higgs boson discovered ten years ago is remarkably consistent with the predictions of the theory and provide stringent constraints on many models of new phenomena beyond the standard model
Scales of Fermion Mass Generation and Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
The scale of mass generation for fermions (including neutrinos) and the scale
for electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) can be bounded from above by the
unitarity of scattering involving longitudinal weak gauge bosons or their
corresponding would-be Goldstone bosons. Including the exact n-body phase space
we analyze the 2 --> n () processes for the fermion-(anti)fermion
scattering into multiple gauge boson final states. Contrary to naive energy
power counting, we demonstrate that as becomes large, the competition
between an increasing energy factor and a phase-space suppression leads to a
{\it strong new upper bound} on the scale of fermion mass generation at a
finite value , which is {\it independent of the EWSB scale,} . For quarks, leptons and Majorana neutrinos, the
strongest 2 --> n limits range from about 3TeV to 130-170TeV (with ), depending on the measured fermion masses. Strikingly, given
the tiny neutrino masses as constrained by the neutrino oscillations,
neutrinoless double-beta decays and astrophysical observations, the unitarity
violation of scattering actually occurs at a scale no
higher than ~170 TeV. Implications for various mechanisms of neutrino mass
generation are analyzed. On the other hand, for the 2 --> n pure
Goldstone-boson scattering, we find that the decreasing phase space factor
always dominates over the growing overall energy factor when becomes large,
so that the best unitarity bound on the scale of EWSB remains at n=2.Comment: 67pp, to match PRD (minor typos fixed
Automated Synthesis of Tableau Calculi
This paper presents a method for synthesising sound and complete tableau
calculi. Given a specification of the formal semantics of a logic, the method
generates a set of tableau inference rules that can then be used to reason
within the logic. The method guarantees that the generated rules form a
calculus which is sound and constructively complete. If the logic can be shown
to admit finite filtration with respect to a well-defined first-order semantics
then adding a general blocking mechanism provides a terminating tableau
calculus. The process of generating tableau rules can be completely automated
and produces, together with the blocking mechanism, an automated procedure for
generating tableau decision procedures. For illustration we show the
workability of the approach for a description logic with transitive roles and
propositional intuitionistic logic.Comment: 32 page
Hemodialysis: effects of preload reduction on novel echocardiographic parameters of left ventricular function
Abstract
Funding Acknowledgements
Type of funding sources: None.
Background
Echocardiography has been widely used to study cardiac function in patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis (HD), but cardiac function assessment by measuring cardiac dimensions and their rate of change is load dependent, therefore it is influenced by volume depletion. Effects of acute volume reduction on left (LV) and right ventricular (RV) function are still not well understood. Some studies investigated myocardial mechanics after dialysis using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) but their relative load-dependency makes STE indices unable to account for changes in pre- and afterload. Myocardial work (MW) incorporates both deformation and load into its analysis and is an emerging tool to study LV myocardial function. There are no data about the effects of hemodialysis on LV MW.
Purpose
This study aimed to evaluate acute changes of novel echocardiographic indices of both LV and RV function after a HD session.
Methods
Patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing HD were prospectively enrolled. A transthoracic echo, including STE calculation of LV global longitudinal strain (GLS) and free wall RV strain, was performed before and after hemodialysis. Parameters of MW such as global work index (GWI), global constructive work (GCW), global work efficiency (GWE) and global wasted work (GWW) were quantified using a commercially available software package.
Results
27 patients were enrolled, mean baseline parameters were: LV end-diastolic volume 136 ± 38 mL, LV ejection fraction (LVEF) 56.9 ± 7.5%, LV GLS -17.1 ± 4.1%, RV free wall strain -26.9 ± 5.6%, GWI 2117 ± 602 mmHg%, GCW 2299 ± 633 mmHg%, GWW 137 ± 88 mmHg, GWE 93 ± 3.6%, systolic arterial pressure 145 ± 26 mmHg and diastolic pressure 80 ± 16mmHg. After hemodialysis we observed a significative reduction in LV GLS (p = 0.04), RV strain (p = 0.002), GWI (p = 0.002, Figure I) and GCW (p = 0.004). No significative changes in LVEF and blood pressure were observed. Comparing patients using a LVEF cut-off of 55% (19 patients with LVEF≥55%, 8 patients <55%) we observed a significative reduction of LV GLS (p = 0.004), GWI (p < 0.001), GCW (p < 0.001) only in patients with LVEF ≥55% while RV strain and LV volume showed a reduction in both groups. We observed no significative differences in extracted volumes between the groups (2.6 vs 2.1 liters,p = 0.3). Patients with normal LVEF showed a significative negative variation (D) of LVEF (-1 vs 3%), GWI (-551 vs 38 mmHg%) and GCW (-522 vs 11 mmHg%). Correlations were found between DGWI and extracted volume (r= 0.46, p = 0.01), basal GWI and both DLVEF (r= 0.39, p = 0.04) and DLV GLS (r= 0,42, p = 0.02), basal LV GLS and DLVEF (r= 0.5, p < 0.01).
Conclusions
Our preliminary data show that, immediately after the HD session, there is a reduction in biventricular STE-derived systolic parameters. Patients with normal LV systolic function are more sensitive to acute volume changes and entity of volume depletion seems to be correlated with MW reduction.
Abstract Figure
Evidence for t\bar{t}\gamma Production and Measurement of \sigma_t\bar{t}\gamma / \sigma_t\bar{t}
Using data corresponding to 6.0/fb of ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
collected by the CDF II detector, we present a cross section measurement of
top-quark pair production with an additional radiated photon. The events are
selected by looking for a lepton, a photon, significant transverse momentum
imbalance, large total transverse energy, and three or more jets, with at least
one identified as containing a b quark. The ttbar+photon sample requires the
photon to have 10 GeV or more of transverse energy, and to be in the central
region. Using an event selection optimized for the ttbar+photon candidate
sample we measure the production cross section of, and the ratio of cross
sections of the two samples. Control samples in the dilepton+photon and
lepton+photon+\met, channels are constructed to aid in decay product
identification and background measurements. We observe 30 ttbar+photon
candidate events compared to the standard model expectation of 26.9 +/- 3.4
events. We measure the ttbar+photon cross section to be 0.18+0.08 pb, and the
ratio of the cross section of ttbar+photon to ttbar to be 0.024 +/- 0.009.
Assuming no ttbar+photon production, we observe a probability of 0.0015 of the
background events alone producing 30 events or more, corresponding to 3.0
standard deviations.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Precision Top-Quark Mass Measurements at CDF
We present a precision measurement of the top-quark mass using the full
sample of Tevatron TeV proton-antiproton collisions collected
by the CDF II detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7
. Using a sample of candidate events decaying into the
lepton+jets channel, we obtain distributions of the top-quark masses and the
invariant mass of two jets from the boson decays from data. We then compare
these distributions to templates derived from signal and background samples to
extract the top-quark mass and the energy scale of the calorimeter jets with
{\it in situ} calibration. The likelihood fit of the templates from signal and
background events to the data yields the single most-precise measurement of the
top-quark mass, \mtop = 172.85 \pm\pmComment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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