17,784 research outputs found
Re-parameterization Invariance in Fractional Flux Periodicity
We analyze a common feature of a nontrivial fractional flux periodicity in
two-dimensional systems. We demonstrate that an addition of fractional flux can
be absorbed into re-parameterization of quantum numbers. For an exact
fractional periodicity, all the electronic states undergo the
re-parameterization, whereas for an approximate periodicity valid in a large
system, only the states near the Fermi level are involved in the
re-parameterization.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, minor changes, final version to appear in J. Phys.
Soc. Jp
Are Asians comfortable with discussing death in health valuation studies? A study in multi-ethnic Singapore
BACKGROUND
To characterize ease in discussing death (EID) and its influence on health valuation in a multi-ethnic Asian population and to determine the acceptability of various descriptors of death and "pits"/"all-worst" in health valuation.
METHODS
In-depth interviews (English or mother-tongue) among adult Chinese, Malay and Indian Singaporeans selected to represent both genders and a wide range of ages/educational levels. Subjects rated using 0–10 visual analogue scales (VAS): (1) EID, (2) acceptability of 8 descriptors for death, and (3) appropriateness of "pits" and "all-worst" as descriptors for the worst possible health state. Subjects also valued 3 health states using VAS followed by time trade-off (TTO). The influence of sociocultural variables on EID and these descriptors was studied using univariable analyses and multiple linear regression (MLR). The influence of EID on VAS/TTO utilities with adjustment for sociocultural variables was assessed using MLR.
RESULTS
Subjects (n = 63, 35% Chinese, 32% Malay, median age 44 years) were generally comfortable with discussing death (median EID: 8.0). Only education significantly influenced EID (p = 0.045). EID correlated weakly with VAS/TTO scores (range: VAS: -0.23 to 0.07; TTO: -0.14 to 0.11). All subjects felt "passed away", "departed" and "deceased" were most acceptable (median acceptability: 8.0) while "sudden death" and "immediate death" were least acceptable (median acceptability: 5.0). Subjects clearly preferred "all-worst" to "pits" (63% vs. 19%, p < 0.001).
CONCLUSION
Singaporeans were generally comfortable with discussing death and had clear preferences for several descriptors of death and for "all-worst". EID is unlikely to influence health preference measurement in health valuation studies
Perturbative QCD Fragmentation Functions for Production of P-wave Mesons with Charm and Beauty
We calculate the leading order QCD fragmentation functions for the production
of -wave charmed beauty mesons. Long-distance effects are factored into two
nonperturbative parameters: the derivative of the radial wavefunction at the
origin and a second parameter related to the probability for a
heavy quark pair that is produced in a color-octet -wave state to form a
color-singlet -wave bound state. The four states and those states
which lie below the flavor threshold eventually all decay into the
ground state through hadronic cascades or by emitting photons. The total
fragmentation probabilities for production of the ground state from
the cascades of the and states are about and
respectively. Thus the direct production of the -wave
states via fragmentation may account for a significant fraction of the
inclusive production rate of the at large transverse momentum in high
energy colliders. Our analytic results for the -wave fragmentation functions
disagree with those obtained earlier in the literature.Comment: 31 pages, Latex file, 1 figure (postscript file appended at the end
Chaotic to ordered state transition of cathode-sheath instabilities in DC glow discharge plasmas
Transition from chaotic to ordered state has been observed during the initial
stage of a discharge in a cylindrical dc glow discharge plasma. Initially it
shows a chaotic behavior but increasing the discharge voltage changes the
characteristics of the discharge glow and shows a period substraction of order
7 period 5 period 3 period 1 period i.e. the system goes to
single mode through odd cycle subtraction. On further increasing the discharge
voltage, the system goes through period doubling, like 1 period 2 period
4 period. On further increasing the voltage, the system goes to stable
state without having any oscillations.Comment: chathode-sheath, instabilities, chaos, period-subtraction,
bifurcation, dc-discharg
Goldstini Can Give the Higgs a Boost
Supersymmetric collider phenomenology depends crucially on whether the
lightest observable-sector supersymmetric particle (LOSP) decays, and if so,
what the LOSP decay products are. For instance, in SUSY models where the
gravitino is lighter than the LOSP, the LOSP decays to its superpartner and a
longitudinal gravitino via supercurrent couplings. In this paper, we show that
LOSP decays can be substantially modified when there are multiple sectors that
break supersymmetry, where in addition to the gravitino there are light uneaten
goldstini. As a particularly striking example, a bino-like LOSP can have a near
100% branching fraction to a higgs boson and an uneaten goldstino, even if the
LOSP has negligible higgsino fraction. This occurs because the uneaten
goldstino is unconstrained by the supercurrent, allowing additional operators
to mediate LOSP decay. These operators can be enhanced in the presence of an R
symmetry, leading to copious boosted higgs production in SUSY cascade decays.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures; v2: title change, clarifications added, version
to appear in JHE
Fermi LAT Gamma-ray Detections of Classical Novae V1369 Centauri 2013 and V5668 Sagittarii 2015
We report the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) detections of high-energy
(>100 MeV) gamma-ray emission from two recent optically bright classical novae,
V1369 Centauri 2013 and V5668 Sagittarii 2015. At early times, Fermi
target-of-opportunity observations prompted by their optical discoveries
provided enhanced LAT exposure that enabled the detections of gamma-ray onsets
beginning ~2 days after their first optical peaks. Significant gamma-ray
emission was found extending to 39-55 days after their initial LAT detections,
with systematically fainter and longer duration emission compared to previous
gamma-ray detected classical novae. These novae were distinguished by multiple
bright optical peaks that encompassed the timespans of the observed gamma rays.
The gamma-ray light curves and spectra of the two novae are presented along
with representative hadronic and leptonic models, and comparisons to other
novae detected by the LAT are discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, ApJ accepte
A Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) model of the Self-Compassion Scale Youth (SCS-Y) and investigation of differential item functioning in China, Hong Kong and UK adolescents
Classification of High Intensity Zones of the Lumbar Spine and Their Association with Other Spinal MRI Phenotypes: The Wakayama Spine Study
published_or_final_versio
Torsion Constraints in the Randall--Sundrum Scenario
Torsion appears due to fermions coupled to gravity and leads to the strongest
particle physics bounds on flat extra dimensions. In this work, we consider
torsion constraints in the case of a warped extra dimension with brane and bulk
fermions. From current data we obtain a 3-sigma bound on the TeV--brane mass
scale scale \Lambda_\pi > 2.2 (10) TeV for the AdS curvature k=1 (0.01) in
(reduced) Planck units. If Dirac or light sterile neutrinos reside on the
brane, the bound increases to 17 (78) TeV.Comment: typos corrected, matches the Phys. Rev. D versio
Radion Dynamics and Phenomenology in the Linear Dilaton Model
We investigate the properties of the radion in the 5D linear dilaton model
arising from Little String Theory. A Goldberger-Wise type mechanism is used to
stabilise a large interbrane distance, with the dilaton now playing the role of
the stabilising field. We consider the coupled fluctuations of the metric and
dilaton fields and identify the physical scalar modes of the system. The
wavefunctions and masses of the radion and Kaluza-Klein modes are calculated,
giving a radion mass of order the curvature scale. As a result of the direct
coupling between the dilaton and Standard Model fields, the radion couples to
the SM Lagrangian, in addition to the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. The
effect of these additional interaction terms on the radion decay modes is
investigated, with a notable increase in the branching fraction to photons. We
also consider the effects of a non-minimal Higgs coupling to gravity, which
introduces a mixing between the Higgs and radion modes. Finally, we calculate
the production cross section of the radion at the LHC and use the current Higgs
searches to place constraints on the parameter space.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures; v2: error in radion-gauge boson Feynman rules
corrected, version published in JHE
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