7,652 research outputs found
Asymptotics of relative heat traces and determinants on open surfaces of finite area
The goal of this paper is to prove that on surfaces with asymptotically cusp
ends the relative determinant of pairs of Laplace operators is well defined. We
consider a surface with cusps (M,g) and a metric h on the surface that is a
conformal transformation of the initial metric g. We prove the existence of the
relative determinant of the pair under suitable
conditions on the conformal factor. The core of the paper is the proof of the
existence of an asymptotic expansion of the relative heat trace for small
times. We find the decay of the conformal factor at infinity for which this
asymptotic expansion exists and the relative determinant is defined. Following
the paper by B. Osgood, R. Phillips and P. Sarnak about extremal of
determinants on compact surfaces, we prove Polyakov's formula for the relative
determinant and discuss the extremal problem inside a conformal class. We
discuss necessary conditions for the existence of a maximizer.Comment: This is the final version of the article before it gets published. 51
page
Substrate-induced band gap opening in epitaxial graphene
Graphene has shown great application potentials as the host material for next
generation electronic devices. However, despite its intriguing properties, one
of the biggest hurdles for graphene to be useful as an electronic material is
its lacking of an energy gap in the electronic spectra. This, for example,
prevents the use of graphene in making transistors. Although several proposals
have been made to open a gap in graphene's electronic spectra, they all require
complex engineering of the graphene layer. Here we show that when graphene is
epitaxially grown on the SiC substrate, a gap of ~ 0.26 is produced. This gap
decreases as the sample thickness increases and eventually approaches zero when
the number of layers exceeds four. We propose that the origin of this gap is
the breaking of sublattice symmetry owing to the graphene-substrate
interaction. We believe our results highlight a promising direction for band
gap engineering of graphene.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; updated reference
Essential self-adjointness of magnetic Schr\"odinger operators on locally finite graphs
We give sufficient conditions for essential self-adjointness of magnetic
Schr\"odinger operators on locally finite graphs. Two of the main theorems of
the present paper generalize recent results of Torki-Hamza.Comment: 14 pages; The present version differs from the original version as
follows: the ordering of presentation has been modified in several places,
more details have been provided in several places, some notations have been
changed, two examples have been added, and several new references have been
inserted. The final version of this preprint will appear in Integral
Equations and Operator Theor
Effects of Multi-Surface Modification on Curie temperature of ferroelectric films
Within the framework of mean field theory, we study the effects of
multi-surface modification on Curie temperature of ferroelectric films using
the transverse Ising model. The general nonlinear equations for Curie
temperature of multi-surface ferroelectric films with arbitrary exchange
constants and transverse fields are derived by the transfer matrix method. As
an example, we consider a film consisting of top surface layers, bulk layers
and bottom surface layers. Two types of surface modifications, modifications of
a surface exchange constant and a surface transverse field are taken into
account. The dependence of Curie temperature on the surface layer numbers, bulk
layer numbers, surface exchange constants, surface transverse fields and bulk
transverse fields is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
PAMELA results on the cosmic-ray antiproton flux from 60 MeV to 180 GeV in kinetic energy
The satellite-borne experiment PAMELA has been used to make a new measurement
of the cosmic-ray antiproton flux and the antiproton-to-proton flux ratio which
extends previously published measurements down to 60 MeV and up to 180 GeV in
kinetic energy. During 850 days of data acquisition approximately 1500
antiprotons were observed. The measurements are consistent with purely
secondary production of antiprotons in the galaxy. More precise secondary
production models are required for a complete interpretation of the results.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Physical
Review Letter
Non-unitary Leptonic Mixing and Leptogenesis
We investigate the relation between non-unitarity of the leptonic mixing
matrix and leptogenesis. We discuss how all parameters of the canonical type-I
seesaw mechanism can, in principle, be reconstructed from the neutrino mass
matrix and the deviation of the effective low-energy leptonic mixing matrix
from unitary. When the mass M' of the lightest right-handed neutrino is much
lighter than the masses of the others, we show that its decay asymmetries
within flavour-dependent leptogenesis can be expressed in terms of two
contributions, one depending on the unique dimension five (d=5) operator
generating neutrino masses and one depending on the dimension six (d=6)
operator associated with non-unitarity. In low-energy seesaw scenarios where
small lepton number violation explains the smallness of neutrino masses, the
lepton number conserving d=6 operator contribution generically dominates over
the d=5 operator contribution which results in a strong enhancement of the
flavour-dependent decay asymmetries without any resonance effects. To calculate
the produced final baryon asymmetry, the flavour equilibration effects directly
related to non-unitarity have to be taken into account. In a simple realization
of this non-unitarity driven leptogenesis, the lower bound on M' is found to be
about 10^8 GeV at the onset of the strong washout regime, more than one order
of magnitude below the bound in "standard" thermal leptogenesis.Comment: 19 pages, REVTeX4, 2 eps and 2 axodraw figure
A Comprehensive Analysis of Electric Dipole Moment Constraints on CP-violating Phases in the MSSM
We analyze the constraints placed on individual, flavor diagonal CP-violating
phases in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) by
current experimental bounds on the electric dipole moments (EDMs) of the
neutron, Thallium, and Mercury atoms. We identify the four CP-violating phases
that are individually highly constrained by current EDM bounds, and we explore
how these phases and correlations among them are constrained by current EDM
limits. We also analyze the prospective implications of the next generation of
EDM experiments. We point out that all other CP-violating phases in the MSSM
are not nearly as tightly constrained by limits on the size of EDMs. We
emphasize that a rich set of phenomenological consequences is potentially
associated with these generically large EDM-allowed phases, ranging from B
physics, electroweak baryogenesis, and signals of CP-violation at the CERN
Large Hadron Collider and at future linear colliders. Our numerical study takes
into account the complete set of contributions from one- and two-loop EDMs of
the electron and quarks, one- and two-loop Chromo-EDMs of quarks, the Weinberg
3-gluon operator, and dominant 4-fermion CP-odd operator contributions,
including contributions which are both included and not included yet in the
CPsuperH2.0 package. We also introduce an open-source numerical package, 2LEDM,
which provides the complete set of two-loop electroweak diagrams contributing
to the electric dipole moments of leptons and quarks.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures; v2: references added, minor change
Notch signaling during human T cell development
Notch signaling is critical during multiple stages of T cell development in both mouse and human. Evidence has emerged in recent years that this pathway might regulate T-lineage differentiation differently between both species. Here, we review our current understanding of how Notch signaling is activated and used during human T cell development. First, we set the stage by describing the developmental steps that make up human T cell development before describing the expression profiles of Notch receptors, ligands, and target genes during this process. To delineate stage-specific roles for Notch signaling during human T cell development, we subsequently try to interpret the functional Notch studies that have been performed in light of these expression profiles and compare this to its suggested role in the mouse
Magnetic Catalysis and Quantum Hall Ferromagnetism in Weakly Coupled Graphene
We study the realization in a model of graphene of the phenomenon whereby the
tendency of gauge-field mediated interactions to break chiral symmetry
spontaneously is greatly enhanced in an external magnetic field. We prove that,
in the weak coupling limit, and where the electron-electron interaction
satisfies certain mild conditions, the ground state of charge neutral graphene
in an external magnetic field is a quantum Hall ferromagnet which spontaneously
breaks the emergent U(4) symmetry to U(2)XU(2).
We argue that, due to a residual CP symmetry, the quantum Hall ferromagnet
order parameter is given exactly by the leading order in perturbation theory.
On the other hand, the chiral condensate which is the order parameter for
chiral symmetry breaking generically obtains contributions at all orders. We
compute the leading correction to the chiral condensate. We argue that the
ensuing fermion spectrum resembles that of massive fermions with a vanishing
U(4)-valued chemical potential. We discuss the realization of parity and charge
conjugation symmetries and argue that, in the context of our model, the charge
neutral quantum Hall state in graphene is a bulk insulator, with vanishing
longitudinal conductivity due to a charge gap and Hall conductivity vanishing
due to a residual discrete particle-hole symmetry.Comment: 35 page
Therapeutic DNA vaccine induces broad T cell responses in the gut and sustained protection from viral rebound and AIDS in SIV-infected rhesus macaques.
Immunotherapies that induce durable immune control of chronic HIV infection may eliminate the need for life-long dependence on drugs. We investigated a DNA vaccine formulated with a novel genetic adjuvant that stimulates immune responses in the blood and gut for the ability to improve therapy in rhesus macaques chronically infected with SIV. Using the SIV-macaque model for AIDS, we show that epidermal co-delivery of plasmids expressing SIV Gag, RT, Nef and Env, and the mucosal adjuvant, heat-labile E. coli enterotoxin (LT), during antiretroviral therapy (ART) induced a substantial 2-4-log fold reduction in mean virus burden in both the gut and blood when compared to unvaccinated controls and provided durable protection from viral rebound and disease progression after the drug was discontinued. This effect was associated with significant increases in IFN-γ T cell responses in both the blood and gut and SIV-specific CD8+ T cells with dual TNF-α and cytolytic effector functions in the blood. Importantly, a broader specificity in the T cell response seen in the gut, but not the blood, significantly correlated with a reduction in virus production in mucosal tissues and a lower virus burden in plasma. We conclude that immunizing with vaccines that induce immune responses in mucosal gut tissue could reduce residual viral reservoirs during drug therapy and improve long-term treatment of HIV infection in humans
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