Inflationary Hubble Parameter from the Gravitational Wave Spectrum in the General Slow-roll Approximation

Improved general slow-roll formulae giving the primordial gravitational wave spectrum are derived in the present work. Also the first and second order general slow-roll inverse formulae giving the Hubble parameter $H$ in terms of the gravitational wave spectrum are derived. Moreover, the general slow-roll consistency condition relating the scalar and tensor spectra is obtained

Breaking scale invariance from a singular inflaton potential

In this paper we break the scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbations of inflation. Introducing a singular behaviour due to spontaneous symmetry breaking in the inflaton potential, we obtain fully analytic expressions of scale dependent oscillation and a modulation in power on small scale in the primordial spectrum. And we give the associated cosmic microwave background and matter power spectra which we can observe now and discuss the signature of the scale dependence. We also address the possibility of whether some inflationary model with featured potential might mimic the predictions of the scale invariant power spectrum. We present some examples which illustrate such degeneracies.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures; Discussion expanded and references added; Miscellaneous typos correcte

Strange meson-nucleon states in the quark potential model

The quark potential model and resonating group method are used to investigate the $\bar{K}N$ bound states and/or resonances. The model potential consists of the t-channel and s-channel one-gluon exchange potentials and the confining potential with incorporating the QCD renormalization correction and the spin-orbital suppression effect in it. It was shown in our previous work that by considering the color octet contribution, use of this model to investigate the $KN$ low energy elastic scattering leads to the results which are in pretty good agreement with the experimental data. In this paper, the same model and method are employed to calculate the masses of the $\bar{K}N$ bound systems. For this purpose, the resonating group equation is transformed into a standard Schr\"odinger equation in which a nonlocal effective $\bar{K}N$ interaction potential is included. Solving the Schr\"odinger equation by the variational method, we are able to reproduce the masses of some currently concerned $\bar{K}N$ states and get a view that these states possibly exist as $\bar{K}N$ molecular states. For the $KN$ system, the same calculation gives no support to the existence of the resonance $\Theta ^{+}(1540)$ which was announced recently.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

The variation of relative magnetic helicity around major flares

We have investigated the variation of magnetic helicity over a span of several days around the times of 11 X-class flares which occurred in seven active regions (NOAA 9672, 10030, 10314, 10486, 10564, 10696, and 10720) using the magnetograms taken by the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). As a major result we found that each of these major flares was preceded by a significant helicity accumulation over a long period (0.5 to a few days). Another finding is that the helicity accumulates at a nearly constant rate and then becomes nearly constant before the flares. This led us to distinguish the helicity variation into two phases: a phase of monotonically increasing helicity and the following phase of relatively constant helicity. As expected, the amount of helicity accumulated shows a modest correlation with time-integrated soft X-ray flux during flares. However, the average helicity change rate in the first phase shows even stronger correlation with the time-integrated soft X-ray flux. We discuss the physical implications of this result and the possibility that this characteristic helicity variation pattern can be used as an early warning sign for solar eruptions

Formation, Manipulation, and Elasticity Measurement of a Nanometric Column of Water Molecules

Nanometer-sized columns of condensed water molecules are created by an atomic-resolution force microscope operated in ambient conditions. Unusual stepwise decrease of the force gradient associated with the thin water bridge in the tip-substrate gap is observed during its stretch, exhibiting regularity in step heights (~0.5 N/m) and plateau lengths (~1 nm). Such "quantized" elasticity is indicative of the atomic-scale stick-slip at the tip-water interface. A thermodynamic-instability-induced rupture of the water meniscus (5-nm long and 2.6-nm wide) is also found. This work opens a high-resolution study of the structure and the interface dynamics of a nanometric aqueous column.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Quenched Charmed Meson Spectra using Tadpole Improved Quark Action on Anisotropic Lattices

Charmed meson charmonium spectra are studied with improved quark actions on anisotropic lattices. We measured the pseudo-scalar and vector meson dispersion relations for 4 lowest lattice momentum modes with quark mass values ranging from the strange quark to charm quark with 3 different values of gauge coupling $\beta$ and 4 different values of bare speed of light $\nu$. With the bare speed of light parameter $\nu$ tuned in a mass-dependent way, we study the mass spectra of $D$, $D_s$, $\eta_c$, $D^{\ast}$, $D_s^{\ast}$ and $J/\psi$ mesons. The results extrapolated to the continuum limit are compared with the experiment and qualitative agreement is found.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, latex fil

Essential nonlinearities in hearing

Our hearing organ, the cochlea, evidently poises itself at a Hopf bifurcation to maximize tuning and amplification. We show that in this condition several effects are expected to be generic: compression of the dynamic range, infinitely shrap tuning at zero input, and generation of combination tones. These effects are "essentially" nonlinear in that they become more marked the smaller the forcing: there is no audible sound soft enough not to evoke them. All the well-documented nonlinear aspects of hearing therefore appear to be consequences of the same underlying mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Smartphone-based pathogen diagnosis in urinary sepsis patients.

BackgroundThere is an urgent need for rapid, sensitive, and affordable diagnostics for microbial infections at the point-of-care. Although a number of innovative systems have been reported that transform mobile phones into potential diagnostic tools, the translational challenge to clinical diagnostics remains a significant hurdle to overcome.MethodsA smartphone-based real-time loop-mediated isothermal amplification (smaRT-LAMP) system was developed for pathogen ID in urinary sepsis patients. The free, custom-built mobile phone app allows the phone to serve as a stand-alone device for quantitative diagnostics, allowing the determination of genome copy-number of bacterial pathogens in real time.FindingsA head-to-head comparative bacterial analysis of urine from sepsis patients revealed that the performance of smaRT-LAMP matched that of clinical diagnostics at the admitting hospital in a fraction of the time (~1 h vs. 18-28 h). Among patients with bacteremic complications of their urinary sepsis, pathogen ID from the urine matched that from the blood - potentially allowing pathogen diagnosis shortly after hospital admission. Additionally, smaRT-LAMP did not exhibit false positives in sepsis patients with clinically negative urine cultures.InterpretationThe smaRT-LAMP system is effective against diverse Gram-negative and -positive pathogens and biological specimens, costs less than $100 US to fabricate (in addition to the smartphone), and is configurable for the simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens. SmaRT-LAMP thus offers the potential to deliver rapid diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections and urinary sepsis with a simple test that can be performed at low cost at the point-of-care. FUND: National Institutes of Health, Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Statistical Mechanics of Dilute Batch Minority Games with Random External Information

We study the dynamics and statics of a dilute batch minority game with random external information. We focus on the case in which the number of connections per agent is infinite in the thermodynamic limit. The dynamical scenario of ergodicity breaking in this model is different from the phase transition in the standard minority game and is characterised by the onset of long-term memory at finite integrated response. We demonstrate that finite memory appears at the AT-line obtained from the corresponding replica calculation, and compare the behaviour of the dilute model with the minority game with market impact correction, which is known to exhibit similar features.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, text modified, references updated and added, figure added, typos correcte