Ground-state clusters of two-, three- and four-dimensional +-J Ising spin glasses

A huge number of independent true ground-state configurations is calculated for two-, three- and four-dimensional +- J spin-glass models. Using the genetic cluster-exact approximation method, system sizes up to N=20^2,8^3,6^4 spins are treated. A ``ballistic-search'' algorithm is applied which allows even for large system sizes to identify clusters of ground states which are connected by chains of zero-energy flips of spins. The number of clusters n_C diverges with N going to infinity. For all dimensions considered here, an exponential increase of n_C appears to be more likely than a growth with a power of N. The number of different ground states is found to grow clearly exponentially with N. A zero-temperature entropy per spin of s_0=0.078(5)k_B (2d), s_0=0.051(3)k_B (3d) respectively s_0=0.027(5)k_B (4d) is obtained.Comment: large extensions, now 12 pages, 9 figures, 27 reference

Photonic production of B_c-mesons

The cross section of the $\gamma \gamma \rightarrow B_c(B_c^*) \bar b c$ process is calculated. It is shown that near threshold the pseudoscalar state production is much suppressed with respect to the vector one. At large energies their ratio becaims $\sigma(B_c^*)/sigma(B_c)\sim 4$. The process of heavy quark recombination dominates in the production of $B_c(B_c^*)$ states. The fragmentation process $b\to B_c$ comes to play at high $p_t$ values only, while its contribution will remain nondominant.Comment: Preprint IHEP 94-8

Breathing Metal–Organic Framework Based on Flexible Inorganic Building Units

Five novel bismuth carboxylate coordination polymers were synthesized from biphenyl-3,4\u2032,5-tricarboxylic acid (H3BPT) and [1,1\u2032:4\u2032,1\u2032\u2032]terphenyl-3,3\u2032\u2032,5,5\u2032\u2032-tetracarboxylic acid (H4TPTC). One of the phases, [Bi(BPT)]\ub72MeOH (denoted SU-100, as synthesized), is the first example, to the best of our knowledge, of a reversibly flexible bismuth-based metal\u2013organic framework. The material exhibits continuous changes to its unit cell parameters and pore shape depending on the solvent it is immersed in and the dryness of the sample. Typically, in breathing carboxylate-based MOFs, flexibility occurs through tilting of the organic linkers without significantly altering the coordination environment around the cation. In contrast to this, the continuous breathing mechanism in SU-100 involves significant changes to bond angles within the Bi2O12 inorganic building unit (IBU). The flexibility of the IBU of SU-100 reflects the nondiscrete coordination geometry of the bismuth cation. A disproportionate increase in the solvent accessible void volume was observed when compared to the expansion of the unit cell volume of SU-100. Additionally, activated SU-100 (SU-100-HT) exhibits a large increase in unit cell volume, yet has the smallest void volume of all the studied samples

Blood pressure in chronic kidney disease: conclusions from a Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) controversies conference

In September 2017, KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) convened a Controversies Conference titled Blood Pressure in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The purpose of the meeting was to consider which recommendations from the 2012 KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Blood Pressure in CKD should be reevaluated based on new evidence from clinical trials. Participants included a multidisciplinary panel of clinical and scientific experts. Discussions focused on the optimal means for measuring blood pressure (BP) as well as managing BP in CKD patients. Consistent with the 2012 Guideline, the conference did not address BP management in patients on maintenance dialysis

Resumming the color-octet contribution to e+ e- -> J/psi + X

Recent observations of the spectrum of J/psi produced in e+ e- collisions at the Upsilon(4S) resonance are in conflict with fixed-order calculations using the Non-Relativistic QCD (NRQCD) effective field theory. One problem is that leading order color-octet mechanisms predict an enhancement of the cross section for J/psi with maximal energy that is not observed in the data. However, in this region of phase space large perturbative corrections (Sudakov logarithms) as well as enhanced nonperturbative effects are important. In this paper we use the newly developed Soft-Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) to systematically include these effects. We find that these corrections significantly broaden the color-octet contribution to the J/psi spectrum. Our calculation employs a one-stage renormalization group evolution rather than the two-stage evolution used in previous SCET calculations. We give a simple argument for why the two methods yield identical results to lowest order in the SCET power counting.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure

Probing the unparticle signal in b→db \to d penguin processes

We investigate the effect of unparticles in the pure $b \to d$ penguin processes $B^0 \to K^0 \bar K^0$ and $B^{+,0} \to \phi \pi^{+,0}$. Since these processes receive dominant contributions due to the {\it top} quark in the loop, direct and mixing-induced CP asymmetry parameters in these processes are expected to be vanishingly small in the standard model. We find that due to the unparticle effect sizable nonzero CP violation could be possible in these channels.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, version to appear in Phys. Lett.

Secure Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks. Homomorphism versus Watermarking Approach

International audienceWireless sensor networks are now in widespread use to monitor regions, detect events and acquire information. Since the deployed nodes are separated, they need to cooperatively communicate sensed data to the base station. Hence, transmissions are a very energy consuming operation. To reduce the amount of sending data, an aggregation approach can be applied along the path from sensors to the sink. However, usually the carried information contains confidential data. Therefore, an end-to-end secure aggregation approach is required to ensure a healthy data reception. End-to-end encryption schemes that support operations over cypher-text have been proved important for private party sensor network implementations. These schemes offer two main advantages: end-to-end concealment of data and ability to operate on cipher text, then no more decryption is required for aggregation. Unfortunately, nowadays these methods are very complex and not suitable for sensor nodes having limited resources. In this paper, we propose a secure end-to-end encrypted-data aggregation scheme. It is based on elliptic curve cryptography that exploits a smaller key size. Additionally, it allows the use of higher number of operations on cypher-texts and prevents the distinction between two identical texts from their cryptograms. These properties permit to our approach to achieve higher security levels than existing cryptosystems in sensor networks. Our experiments show that our proposed secure aggregation method significantly reduces computation and communication overhead and can be practically implemented in on-the-shelf sensor platforms. By using homomorphic encryption on elliptic curves, we thus have realized an efficient and secure data aggregation in sensor networks. Lastly, to enlarge the aggregation functions that can be used in a secure wireless sensor network, a watermarking-based authentication scheme is finally proposed

Magnetic Response in a Zigzag Carbon Nanotube

Magnetic response of interacting electrons in a zigzag carbon nanotube threaded by a magnetic flux is investigated within a Hartree-Fock mean field approach. Following the description of energy spectra for both non-interacting and interacting cases we analyze the behavior of persistent current in individual branches of a nanotube. Our present investigation leads to a possibility of getting a filling-dependent metal-insulator transition in a zigzag carbon nanotube.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figure

Semileptonic B_c-meson decays in sum rules of QCD and NRQCD

The semileptonic B_c-meson decays into the heavy quarkonia J/\psi (\eta_c) and a pair of leptons are investigated in the framework of three-point sum rules of QCD and NRQCD. Calculations of analytical expressions for the spectral densities of QCD and NRQCD correlators with account for the Coulomb-like \alpha_s/v terms are presented. The generalized relations due to the spin symmetry of NRQCD for the form factors of B_c\to J/\psi (\eta_c)l\nu_l transitions with l denoting one of the leptons e, \mu or \tau, are derived at the recoil momentum close to zero. This allows one to express all NRQCD form factors through a single universal quantity, an analogue of Isgur-Wise function at the maximal invariant mass of lepton pair. The gluon condensate corrections to three-point functions are calculated both in full QCD in the Borel transform scheme and in NRQCD in the moment scheme. This enlarges the parameteric stability region of sum rule method, that makes the results of the approach to be more reliable. Numerical estimates of widths for the transitions of B_c\to J/\psi (\eta_c)l\nu_l are presented.Comment: 37 pages, Latex file, 10 figures, 15 epsf-insertions, revised version to appear in Nucl.Phys.