1,240 research outputs found
Connecting LHC, ILC, and Quintessence
If the cold dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles
(WIMPs), anticipated measurements of the WIMP properties at the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) and the International Linear Collider (ILC) will provide an
unprecedented experimental probe of cosmology at temperatures of order 1 GeV.
It is worth emphasizing that the expected outcome of these tests may or may not
be consistent with the picture of standard cosmology. For example, in
kination-dominated quintessence models of dark energy, the dark matter relic
abundance can be significantly enhanced compared to that obtained from freeze
out in a radiation-dominated universe. Collider measurements then will
simultaneously probe both dark matter and dark energy. In this article, we
investigate the precision to which the LHC and ILC can determine the dark
matter and dark energy parameters under those circumstances. We use an
illustrative set of four benchmark points in minimal supergravity in analogy
with the four LCC benchmark points. The precision achievable together at the
LHC and ILC is sufficient to discover kination-dominated quintessence, under
the assumption that the WIMPs are the only dark matter component. The LHC and
ILC can thus play important roles as alternative probes of both dark matter and
dark energy.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figure
Resonant Lifetime of Core-Excited Organic Adsorbates from First Principles
We investigate by first-principles simulations the resonant electron-transfer
lifetime from the excited state of an organic adsorbate to a semiconductor
surface, namely isonicotinic acid on rutile TiO(110). The
molecule-substrate interaction is described using density functional theory,
while the effect of a truly semi-infinite substrate is taken into account by
Green's function techniques. Excitonic effects due to the presence of
core-excited atoms in the molecule are shown to be instrumental to understand
the electron-transfer times measured using the so-called core-hole-clock
technique. In particular, for the isonicotinic acid on TiO(110), we find
that the charge injection from the LUMO is quenched since this state lies
within the substrate band gap. We compute the resonant charge-transfer times
from LUMO+1 and LUMO+2, and systematically investigate the dependence of the
elastic lifetimes of these states on the alignment among adsorbate and
substrate states.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Journal of Physical Chemistry
Chalcogenide Glass-on-Graphene Photonics
Two-dimensional (2-D) materials are of tremendous interest to integrated
photonics given their singular optical characteristics spanning light emission,
modulation, saturable absorption, and nonlinear optics. To harness their
optical properties, these atomically thin materials are usually attached onto
prefabricated devices via a transfer process. In this paper, we present a new
route for 2-D material integration with planar photonics. Central to this
approach is the use of chalcogenide glass, a multifunctional material which can
be directly deposited and patterned on a wide variety of 2-D materials and can
simultaneously function as the light guiding medium, a gate dielectric, and a
passivation layer for 2-D materials. Besides claiming improved fabrication
yield and throughput compared to the traditional transfer process, our
technique also enables unconventional multilayer device geometries optimally
designed for enhancing light-matter interactions in the 2-D layers.
Capitalizing on this facile integration method, we demonstrate a series of
high-performance glass-on-graphene devices including ultra-broadband on-chip
polarizers, energy-efficient thermo-optic switches, as well as graphene-based
mid-infrared (mid-IR) waveguide-integrated photodetectors and modulators
Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV using Lepton + Jets Events with Secondary Vertex b-tagging
We present a measurement of the ttbar production cross section using events
with one charged lepton and jets from ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass
energy of 1.96 TeV. In these events, heavy flavor quarks from top quark decay
are identified with a secondary vertex tagging algorithm. From 162 pb-1 of data
collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab, a total of 48 candidate events
are selected, where 13.5 +- 1.8 events are expected from background
contributions. We measure a ttbar production cross section of 5.6^{+1.2}_{-1.1}
(stat.) ^{+0.9}_{0.6} (syst.) pb.Comment: 28 pages, 20 figures. Published in Physical Review
Spitzer Observations of the Predicted Eddington Flare from Blazar OJ 287
Binary black hole (BH) central engine description for the unique blazar OJ
287 predicted that the next secondary BH impact-induced bremsstrahlung flare
should peak on 2019 July 31. This prediction was based on detailed general
relativistic modeling of the secondary BH trajectory around the primary BH and
its accretion disk. The expected flare was termed the Eddington flare to
commemorate the centennial celebrations of now-famous solar eclipse
observations to test general relativity by Sir Arthur Eddington. We analyze the
multi-epoch Spitzer observations of the expected flare between 2019 July 31 and
2019 September 6, as well as baseline observations during 2019 February-March.
Observed Spitzer flux density variations during the predicted outburst time
display a strong similarity with the observed optical pericenter flare from OJ
287 during 2007 September. The predicted flare appears comparable to the 2007
flare after subtracting the expected higher base-level Spitzer flux densities
at 3.55 and 4.49 m compared to the optical R-band. Comparing the 2019 and
2007 outburst lightcurves and the previously calculated predictions, we find
that the Eddington flare arrived within 4 hours of the predicted time. Our
Spitzer observations are well consistent with the presence of a nano-Hertz
gravitational wave emitting spinning massive binary BH that inspirals along a
general relativistic eccentric orbit in OJ 287. These multi-epoch Spitzer
observations provide a parametric constraint on the celebrated BH no-hair
theorem.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, to appear in ApJ
Whole-Genome Cartography of Estrogen Receptor α Binding Sites
Using a chromatin immunoprecipitation-paired end diTag cloning and sequencing strategy, we mapped estrogen receptor α (ERα) binding sites in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We identified 1,234 high confidence binding clusters of which 94% are projected to be bona fide ERα binding regions. Only 5% of the mapped estrogen receptor binding sites are located within 5 kb upstream of the transcriptional start sites of adjacent genes, regions containing the proximal promoters, whereas vast majority of the sites are mapped to intronic or distal locations (>5 kb from 5′ and 3′ ends of adjacent transcript), suggesting transcriptional regulatory mechanisms over significant physical distances. Of all the identified sites, 71% harbored putative full estrogen response elements (EREs), 25% bore ERE half sites, and only 4% had no recognizable ERE sequences. Genes in the vicinity of ERα binding sites were enriched for regulation by estradiol in MCF-7 cells, and their expression profiles in patient samples segregate ERα-positive from ERα-negative breast tumors. The expression dynamics of the genes adjacent to ERα binding sites suggest a direct induction of gene expression through binding to ERE-like sequences, whereas transcriptional repression by ERα appears to be through indirect mechanisms. Our analysis also indicates a number of candidate transcription factor binding sites adjacent to occupied EREs at frequencies much greater than by chance, including the previously reported FOXA1 sites, and demonstrate the potential involvement of one such putative adjacent factor, Sp1, in the global regulation of ERα target genes. Unexpectedly, we found that only 22%–24% of the bona fide human ERα binding sites were overlapping conserved regions in whole genome vertebrate alignments, which suggest limited conservation of functional binding sites. Taken together, this genome-scale analysis suggests complex but definable rules governing ERα binding and gene regulation
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