Linear Wave Equations and Effective Lagrangians for Wigner Supermultiplets

The relevance of the contracted SU(4) group as a symmetry group of the pion nucleon scattering amplitudes in the large $N_c$ limit of QCD raises the problem on the construction of effective Lagrangians for SU(4) supermultiplets. In the present study we suggest effective Lagrangians for selfconjugate representations of SU(4) in exploiting isomorphism between so(6) and ist universal covering su(4). The model can be viewed as an extension of the linear $\sigma$ model with SO(6) symmetry in place of SO(4) and generalizes the concept of the linear wave equations for particles with arbitrary spin. We show that the vector representation of SU(4) reduces on the SO(4) level to a complexified quaternion. Its real part gives rise to the standard linear $\sigma$ model with a hedgehog configuration for the pion field, whereas the imaginary part describes vector meson degrees of freedom via purely transversal $\rho$ mesons for which a helical field configuration is predicted. As a minimal model, baryonic states are suggested to appear as solitons of that quaternion.Comment: 16 pages, LaTe

Spitzer spectroscopy of circumstellar disks in the 5 Myr old upper Scorpius OB association

We present mid-infrared spectra between 5.2 and 38 μm for 26 disk-bearing members of the ~5 Myr old Upper Scorpius OB association obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. We find clear evidence for changes in the spectral characteristics of dust emission between the early-type (B+A) and late-type (K+M) infrared excess stars. The early-type members exhibit featureless continuum excesses that become apparent redward of ~8 μm. In contrast, 10 and 20 μm silicate features or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission are present in all but one of the late-type excess members of Upper Scorpius. The strength of silicate emission among late-type Upper Scorpius members is spectral-type dependent, with the most prominent features being associated with K5-M2-type stars. By fitting the spectral energy distributions (SED) of a representative sample of low-mass stars with accretion disk models, we find that the SEDs are consistent with models having inner disk radii ranging from ~0.2 to 1.2 AU. Complementary high-resolution (R ~ 33,000) optical (λλ4800-9200) spectra for the Upper Scorpius excess stars were examined for signatures of gaseous accretion. Of the 35 infrared excess stars identified in Upper Scorpius, only seven (all late-type) exhibit definitive signatures of accretion. Mass-accretion rates (M) for these stars were estimated to range from 10^–11 to 10^–8.9 M⊙ yr^–1. Compared to Class II sources in Taurus-Auriga, the disk population in Upper Scorpius exhibits reduced levels of near- and mid-infrared excess emission and an order of magnitude lower mass-accretion rates. These results suggest that the disk structure has changed significantly over the 2-4 Myr in age separating these two stellar populations. The ubiquity of depleted inner disks in the Upper Scorpius excess sample implies that such disks are a common evolutionary pathway that persists for some time

Induced Kramer-Pesch-Effect in a Two Gap Superconductor: Application to MgB2

The size of the vortex core in a clean superconductor is strongly temperature dependent and shrinks with decreasing temperature, decreasing to zero for T -> 0. We study this so-called Kramer-Pesch effect both for a single gap superconductor and for the case of a two gap superconductor using parameters appropriate for Magnesium Diboride. Usually, the Kramer-Pesch effect is absent in the dirty limit. Here, we show that the Kramer-Pesch effect exists in both bands of a two gap superconductor even if only one of the two bands is in the clean limit and the other band in the dirty limit, a case appropriate for MgB2. In this case an induced Kramer-Pesch effect appears in the dirty band. Besides numerical results we also present an analytical model for the spatial variation of the pairing potential in the vicinity of the vortex center that allows a simple calculation of the vortex core radius even in the limit T -> 0.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

Effect of Impurity Scattering on the Nonlinear Microwave Response in High-Tc Superconductors

We theoretically investigate intermodulation distortion in high-Tc superconductors. We study the effect of nonmagnetic impurities on the real and imaginary parts of nonlinear conductivity. The nonlinear conductivity is proportional to the inverse of temperature owing to the dependence of the damping effect on energy, which arises from the phase shift deviating from the unitary limit. It is shown that the final-states interaction makes the real part predominant over the imaginary part. These effects have not been included in previous theories based on the two-fluid model, enabling a consistent explanation for the experiments with the rf and dc fields

Shrinking a large dataset to identify variables associated with increased risk of Plasmodium falciparum infection in Western Kenya

Large datasets are often not amenable to analysis using traditional single-step approaches. Here, our general objective was to apply imputation techniques, principal component analysis (PCA), elastic net and generalized linear models to a large dataset in a systematic approach to extract the most meaningful predictors for a health outcome. We extracted predictors for Plasmodium falciparum infection, from a large covariate dataset while facing limited numbers of observations, using data from the People, Animals, and their Zoonoses (PAZ) project to demonstrate these techniques: data collected from 415 homesteads in western Kenya, contained over 1500 variables that describe the health, environment, and social factors of the humans, livestock, and the homesteads in which they reside. The wide, sparse dataset was simplified to 42 predictors of P. falciparum malaria infection and wealth rankings were produced for all homesteads. The 42 predictors make biological sense and are supported by previous studies. This systematic data-mining approach we used would make many large datasets more manageable and informative for decision-making processes and health policy prioritization

Theory for the Interdependence of High-Tc_c Superconductivity and Dynamical Spin Fluctuations

The doping dependence of the superconducting state for the 2D one-band Hubbard Hamiltonian is determined. By using an Eliashberg-type theory, we find that the gap function $\Delta_{\bf k}$ has a $d_{x^2-y^2}$ symmetry in momentum space and T$_c$ becomes maximal for $13 \; \%$ doping. Since we determine the dynamical excitations directly from real frequency axis calculations, we obtain new structures in the angular resolved density of states related to the occurrence of {\it shadow states} below T$_c$. Explaining the anomalous behavior of photoemission and tunneling experiments in the cuprates, we find a strong interplay between $d$-wave superconductivity and dynamical spin fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages (REVTeX) with 4 figures (Postscript

Transurethral radiofrequency collagen denaturation for the treatment of women with urinary incontinence

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Observation of Andreev bound states in bicrystal grain-boundary Josephson junctions of the electron doped superconductor LaCeCuO

We observe a zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) in the ab-plane quasiparticle tunneling spectra of thin film grain-boundary Josephson junctions made of the electron doped cuprate superconductor LaCeCuO. An applied magnetic field reduces the spectral weight around zero energy and shifts it non-linearly to higher energies consistent with a Doppler shift of the Andreev bound states (ABS) energy. For all magnetic fields the ZBCP appears simultaneously with the onset of superconductivity. These observations strongly suggest that the ZBCP results from the formation of ABS at the junction interfaces, and, consequently, that there is a sign change in the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter of this compound consistent with a d-wave symmetry.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; December 2004, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.