Locality and topology with fat link overlap actions

We study the locality and topological properties of fat link clover overlap (FCO) actions. We find that a small amount of fattening (2-4 steps of APE or 1 step of HYP) already results in greatly improved properties compared to the Wilson overlap (WO). We present a detailed study of the localisation of the FCO and its connection to the density of low modes of $A^\dagger A$. In contrast to the Wilson overlap, on quenched gauge backgrounds we do not find any dependence of the localization of the FCO on the gauge coupling. This suggests that the FCO remains local in the continuum limit. The FCO also faithfully reproduces the zero mode wave functions of typical lattice instantons, not like the Wilson overlap. After a general discussion of different lattice definitions of the topological charge we also show that the FCO together with the Boulder charge are likely to satisfy the index theorem in the continuum limit. Finally, we present a high statistics computation of the quenched topological susceptibility with the FCO action.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe

Liquid-Solid Transition of Hard Spheres Under Gravity

We investigate the liquid-solid transition of two dimensional hard spheres in the presence of gravity. We determine the transition temperature and the fraction of particles in the solid regime as a function of temperature via Even-Driven molecular dynamics simulations and compare them with the theoretical predictions. We then examine the configurational statistics of a vibrating bed from the view point of the liquid-solid transition by explicitly determining the transition temperature and the effective temperature, T, of the bed, and present a relation between T and the vibration strength.Comment: 14 total pages, 4 figure

Giant magnetothermopower of magnon-assisted transport in ferromagnetic tunnel junctions

We present a theoretical description of the thermopower due to magnon-assisted tunneling in a mesoscopic tunnel junction between two ferromagnetic metals. The thermopower is generated in the course of thermal equilibration between two baths of magnons, mediated by electrons. For a junction between two ferromagnets with antiparallel polarizations, the ability of magnon-assisted tunneling to create thermopower $S_{AP}$ depends on the difference between the size $\Pi_{\uparrow, \downarrow}$ of the majority and minority band Fermi surfaces and it is proportional to a temperature dependent factor $(k_{B}T/\omega_{D})^{3/2}$ where $\omega_{D}$ is the magnon Debye energy. The latter factor reflects the fractional change in the net magnetization of the reservoirs due to thermal magnons at temperature $T$ (Bloch's $T^{3/2}$ law). In contrast, the contribution of magnon-assisted tunneling to the thermopower $S_P$ of a junction with parallel polarizations is negligible. As the relative polarizations of ferromagnetic layers can be manipulated by an external magnetic field, a large difference $\Delta S = S_{AP} - S_P \approx S_{AP} \sim - (k_B/e) f (\Pi_{\uparrow},\Pi_{\downarrow}) (k_BT/\omega_{D})^{3/2}$ results in a magnetothermopower effect. This magnetothermopower effect becomes giant in the extreme case of a junction between two half-metallic ferromagnets, $\Delta S \sim - k_B/e$.Comment: 9 pages, 4 eps figure

Effective interaction between helical bio-molecules

The effective interaction between two parallel strands of helical bio-molecules, such as deoxyribose nucleic acids (DNA), is calculated using computer simulations of the "primitive" model of electrolytes. In particular we study a simple model for B-DNA incorporating explicitly its charge pattern as a double-helix structure. The effective force and the effective torque exerted onto the molecules depend on the central distance and on the relative orientation. The contributions of nonlinear screening by monovalent counterions to these forces and torques are analyzed and calculated for different salt concentrations. As a result, we find that the sign of the force depends sensitively on the relative orientation. For intermolecular distances smaller than $6\AA$ it can be both attractive and repulsive. Furthermore we report a nonmonotonic behaviour of the effective force for increasing salt concentration. Both features cannot be described within linear screening theories. For large distances, on the other hand, the results agree with linear screening theories provided the charge of the bio-molecules is suitably renormalized.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures included in text, 100 bibliog

Compaction of Rods: Relaxation and Ordering in Vibrated, Anisotropic Granular Material

We report on experiments to measure the temporal and spatial evolution of packing arrangements of anisotropic, cylindrical granular material, using high-resolution capacitive monitoring. In these experiments, the particle configurations start from an initially disordered, low-packing-fraction state and under vertical vibrations evolve to a dense, highly ordered, nematic state in which the long particle axes align with the vertical tube walls. We find that the orientational ordering process is reflected in a characteristic, steep rise in the local packing fraction. At any given height inside the packing, the ordering is initiated at the container walls and proceeds inward. We explore the evolution of the local as well as the height-averaged packing fraction as a function of vibration parameters and compare our results to relaxation experiments conducted on spherically shaped granular materials.Comment: 9 pages incl. 7 figure

Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV using Lepton + Jets Events with Lifetime b-tagging

We present a measurement of the top quark pair ($t\bar{t}$) production cross section ($\sigma_{t\bar{t}}$) in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV using 230 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with one charged lepton (electron or muon), missing transverse energy, and jets in the final state. We employ lifetime-based b-jet identification techniques to further enhance the $t\bar{t}$ purity of the selected sample. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV, we measure $\sigma_{t\bar{t}}=8.6^{+1.6}_{-1.5}(stat.+syst.)\pm 0.6(lumi.)$ pb, in agreement with the standard model expectation.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables Submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Confinement and Chiral Symmetry Breaking via Domain-Like Structures in the QCD Vacuum

A qualitative mechanism for the emergence of domain structured background gluon fields due to singularities in gauge field configurations is considered, and a model displaying a type of mean field approximation to the QCD partition function based on this mechanism is formulated. Estimation of the vacuum parameters (gluon condensate, topological susceptibility, string constant and quark condensate) indicates that domain-like structures lead to an area law for the Wilson loop, nonzero topological susceptibility and spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry. Gluon and ghost propagators in the presence of domains are calculated explicitly and their analytical properties are discussed. The Fourier transforms of the propagators are entire functions and thus describe confined dynamical fields.Comment: RevTeX, 48 pages (32 pages + Appendices A-E), new references added [1,2,4,5] and minor formulae corrected for typographical error

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports a measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is based on a data sample recorded with the ATLAS detector with an integrated luminosity of 0.30 pb^-1 for jets with transverse momentum between 25 and 70 GeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2.5. D*+/- mesons found in jets are fully reconstructed in the decay chain: D*+ -> D0pi+, D0 -> K-pi+, and its charge conjugate. The production rate is found to be N(D*+/-)/N(jet) = 0.025 +/- 0.001(stat.) +/- 0.004(syst.) for D*+/- mesons that carry a fraction z of the jet momentum in the range 0.3 < z < 1. Monte Carlo predictions fail to describe the data at small values of z, and this is most marked at low jet transverse momentum.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (22 pages total), 5 figures, 1 table, matches published version in Physical Review