Causality in 3D Massive Gravity Theories

We study the constraints coming from local causality requirement in various $2+1$ dimensional dynamical theories of gravity. In topologically massive gravity, with a single parity non-invariant massive degree of freedom, and in new massive gravity, with two massive spin-$2$ degrees of freedom, causality and unitarity are compatible with each other and both require the Newton's constant to be negative. In their extensions, such as the Born-Infeld gravity and the minimal massive gravity the situation is similar and quite different from their higher dimensional counterparts, such as quadratic (e.g., Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet) or cubic theories, where causality and unitarity are in conflict. We study the problem both in asymptotically flat and asymptotically anti-de Sitter spaces.Comment: This version has significant improvements: causality discussion of all the well-known gravity theories in flat space is extended to the AdS space, references added, 29 pages, latest version matches the published on

Inverse Spectral Problems for Spectral Data and Two Spectra of N by N Tridiagonal Almost-Symmetric Matrices

One way to study the spectral properties of Sturm-Liouville operators is difference equations. The coefficients of the second order difference equation which is equivalent Sturm-Liouville equation can be written as a tridiagonal matrix. One investigation area for tridiagonal matrix is finding eigenvalues, eigenvectors and normalized numbers. To determine these datas, we use the solutions of the second order difference equation and this investigation is called direct spectral problem. Furthermore, reconstruction of matrix according to some arguments is called inverse spectral problem. There are many methods to solve inverse spectral problems according to selecting the datas which are generalized spectral function, spectral data of the matrix and two spectra of the matrix. In this article, we study discrete form the Sturm-Liouville equation with generalized function potential and we will focus on the inverse spectral problems of second order difference equation for spectral data and two spectra. The examined difference equation is equivalent Sturm-Liouville equation which has a discontinuity in an interior point. First, we have written the investigated Sturm-Liouville equation in difference equation form and then constructed N by N tridiagonal matrix from the coefficients of this difference equation system. The inverse spectral problems for spectral data and two-spectra of N by N tridiagonal matrices which are need not to be symmetric are studied. Here, the matrix comes from the investigated discrete Sturm-Liouville equation is not symmetric, but almost symmetric. Almost symmetric means that the entries above and below the main diagonal are the same except two entries

Optimum Power Allocation for Average Power Constrained Jammers in the Presense of Non-Gaussian Noise

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We study the problem of determining the optimum power allocation policy for an average power constrained jammer operating over an arbitrary additive noise channel, where the aim is to minimize the detection probability of an instantaneously and fully adaptive receiver employing the Neyman-Pearson (NP) criterion. We show that the optimum jamming performance can be achieved via power randomization between at most two different power levels. We also provide sufficient conditions for the improvability and nonimprovability of the jamming performance via power randomization in comparison to a fixed power jamming scheme. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate theoretical results

Precision study of 6p 2Pj - 8s 2S1/2 relative transition matrix elements in atomic Cs

A combined experimental and theoretical study of transition matrix elements of the 6p 2Pj - 8s 2S1/2 transition in atomic Cs is reported. Measurements of the polarization-dependent two-photon excitation spectrum associated with the transition were made in an approximately 200 cm-1 range on the low frequency side of the 6s 2S1/2 - 6p 2P3/2 resonance. The measurements depend parametrically on the relative transition matrix elements, but also are sensitive to far-off-resonance 6s 2S1/2 - np 2Pj - 8s 2S1/2 transitions. In the past, this dependence has yielded a generalized sum rule, the value of which is dependent on sums of relative two-photon transition matrix elements. In the present case, best available determinations from other experiments are combined with theoretical matrix elements to extract the ratio of transition matrix elements for the 6p 2Pj - 8s 2S1/2 (j = 1/2,3/2) transition. The resulting experimental value of 1.423(2) is in excellent agreement with the theoretical value, calculated using a relativistic all-order method, of 1.425(2)

A novel thiazolidine compound induces caspase-9 dependent apoptosis in cancer cells

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The forward chemogenomics strategy allowed us to identify a potent cytotoxic thiazolidine compound as an apoptosis-inducing agent. Chemical structures were designed around a thiazolidine ring, a structure already noted for its anticancer properties. Initially, we evaluated these novel compounds on liver, breast, colon and endometrial cancer cell lines. The compound 3 (ALC67) showed the strongest cytotoxic activity (IC50 ∼5 μM). Cell cycle analysis with ALC67 on liver cells revealed SubG1/G1 arrest bearing apoptosis. Furthermore we demonstrated that cytotoxicity of this compound was due to the activation of caspase-9 involved apoptotic pathway, which is death receptor independent. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserve

Photonuclear reactions with Zinc: A case for clinical linacs

The use of bremsstrahlung photons produced by a linac to induce photonuclear reactions is wide spread. However, using a clinical linac to produce the photons is a new concept. We aimed to induce photonuclear reactions on zinc isotopes and measure the subsequent transition energies and half-lives. For this purpose, a bremsstrahlung photon beam of 18 MeV endpoint energy produced by the Philips SLI-25 linac has been used. The subsequent decay has been measured with a well-shielded single HPGe detector. The results obtained for transition energies are in good agreement with the literature data and in many cases surpass these in accuracy. For the half-lives, we are in agreement with the literature data, but do not achieve their precision. The obtained accuracy for the transition energies show what is achievable in an experiment such as ours. We demonstrate the usefulness and benefits of employing clinical linacs for nuclear physics experiments