715 research outputs found
Variation in the responses of wild species of duck, gull, and wader to inoculation with a wild-bird-origin H6N2 low pathogenicity avian influenza virus
There is poor understanding of host responses to avian influenza virus (AIV) infection in wild birds, with most experimental studies using captive-bred birds and highly pathogenic AIVs that have an early endpoint. The objective of this study was to experimentally assess antibody responses and patterns of viral excretion in wild birds challenged with a low pathogenicity AIV. Ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres), silver gulls (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae), and wandering whistling ducks (Dendrocygna arcuata) were challenged with a H6N2 virus, and blood, cloacal, and oropharyngeal (OP) swabs were analyzed from each bird over 28 days, with serology conducted on the ducks for a further 7 mo. Nineteen of 22 birds showed evidence of infection, with respiratory infection prevalent in the turnstones and gulls as mostly low titer viral excretion to 4 days postinoculation (DPI) with gastrointestinal replication detected in only one turnstone. In AIV naive ducks, there was gastrointestinal tropism with moderately high titer viral excretion via the cloaca to 6 DPI and low-grade OP viral excretion to 4 DPI. The hemagglutination inhibition antibody response was poor in the ducks, declining from 19 to 56 DPI, with higher titer responses in the gulls and turnstones. All infected birds responded with elevated nucleoprotein antibodies (in competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) by 7-10 DPI, and in the ducks these waned slowly after 42 DPI and were long-lived to at least 8 mo. The interspecies variability in response was consistent with a subtype that had adapted well in ducks, while the response of the turnstones may have been influenced by preexisting immunity to AIV. These findings provide insight into AIV infection dynamics in wild birds and highlight the need for further research
Lepton polarization correlations in
In this work we will study the polarizations of both leptons () in the
decay channel . In the case of the dileptonic inclusive
decay , where apart from the polarization asymmetries
of single lepton , one can also observe the polarization asymmetries of
both leptons simultaneously. If this sort of measurement is possible then we
can have, apart from decay rate, FB asymmetry and the six single lepton
polarization asymmetries (three each for and ), nine more
double polarization asymmetries. This will give us a very useful tool in more
strict testing of SM and the physics beyond. We discuss the double polarization
asymmetries of leptons in the decay mode within
the SM and the Minimal Supersymmetric extensions of it.Comment: 21 pages, 21 figures; version to match paper to appear in PR
Asymptotics of the mean-field Heisenberg model
We consider the mean-field classical Heisenberg model and obtain detailed
information about the total spin of the system by studying the model on a
complete graph and sending the number of vertices to infinity. In particular,
we obtain Cramer- and Sanov-type large deviations principles for the total spin
and the empirical spin distribution and demonstrate a second-order phase
transition in the Gibbs measures. We also study the asymptotics of the total
spin throughout the phase transition using Stein's method, proving central
limit theorems in the sub- and supercritical phases and a nonnormal limit
theorem at the critical temperature.Comment: 44 page
Classical and quantum properties of a 2-sphere singularity
Recently Boehmer and Lobo have shown that a metric due to Florides, which has
been used as an interior Schwarzschild solution, can be extended to reveal a
classical singularity that has the form of a two-sphere. Here the singularity
is shown to be a scalar curvature singularity that is both timelike and
gravitationally weak. It is also shown to be a quantum singularity because the
Klein-Gordon operator associated with quantum mechanical particles approaching
the singularity is not essentially self-adjoint.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, minor corrections, final versio
Scalar Decay in Chaotic Mixing
I review the local theory of mixing, which focuses on infinitesimal blobs of
scalar being advected and stretched by a random velocity field. An advantage of
this theory is that it provides elegant analytical results. A disadvantage is
that it is highly idealised. Nevertheless, it provides insight into the
mechanism of chaotic mixing and the effect of random fluctuations on the rate
of decay of the concentration field of a passive scalar.Comment: 35 pages, 15 figures. Springer-Verlag conference style svmult.cls
(included). Published in "Transport in Geophysical Flows: Ten Years After,"
Proceedings of the Grand Combin Summer School, 14-24 June 2004, Valle
d'Aosta, Italy. Fixed some typo
FastJet user manual
FastJet is a C++ package that provides a broad range of jet finding and
analysis tools. It includes efficient native implementations of all widely used
2-to-1 sequential recombination jet algorithms for pp and e+e- collisions, as
well as access to 3rd party jet algorithms through a plugin mechanism,
including all currently used cone algorithms. FastJet also provides means to
facilitate the manipulation of jet substructure, including some common boosted
heavy-object taggers, as well as tools for estimation of pileup and
underlying-event noise levels, determination of jet areas and subtraction or
suppression of noise in jets.Comment: 69 pages. FastJet 3 is available from http://fastjet.fr
A recent rebuilding of most spirals ?
Re-examination of the properties of distant galaxies leads to the evidence
that most present-day spirals have built up half of their stellar masses during
the last 8 Gyr, mostly during several intense phases of star formation during
which they took the appearance of luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs). Distant
galaxy morphologies encompass all of the expected stages of galaxy merging,
central core formation and disk growth, while their cores are much bluer than
those of present-day bulges. We have tested a spiral rebuilding scenario, for
which 75+/-25% of spirals have experienced their last major merger event less
than 8 Gyr ago. It accounts for the simultaneous decreases, during that period,
of the cosmic star formation density, of the merger rate, of the number
densities of LIRGs and of compact galaxies, while the densities of ellipticals
and large spirals are essentially unaffected.Comment: (1) GEPI, Obs. Meudon, France ;(2)Max-Planck Institut fuer
Astronomie, Germany (3) National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, China. Five
pages, 1 figure. To be published in "Starbursts: From 30 Doradus to Lyman
Break Galaxies", held in Cambridge, ed. R. de Grijs & R. M. Gonzalez Delgado
(Dordrecht: Kluwer
SuperWIMP Dark Matter Signals from the Early Universe
Cold dark matter may be made of superweakly-interacting massive particles,
superWIMPs, that naturally inherit the desired relic density from late decays
of metastable WIMPs. Well-motivated examples are weak-scale gravitinos in
supergravity and Kaluza-Klein gravitons from extra dimensions. These particles
are impossible to detect in all dark matter experiments. We find, however, that
superWIMP dark matter may be discovered through cosmological signatures from
the early universe. In particular, superWIMP dark matter has observable
consequences for Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background
(CMB), and may explain the observed underabundance of 7Li without upsetting the
concordance between deuterium and CMB baryometers. We discuss implications for
future probes of CMB black body distortions and collider searches for new
particles. In the course of this study, we also present a model-independent
analysis of entropy production from late-decaying particles in light of WMAP
data.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, typos correcte
Supersymmetric effects on Forward Backward asymmetries of
Leptonic and semi-leptonic rare decays of B-mesons are very clean (both
theoretically and experimentally) signatures of any new physics beyond the
Standard Model (SM). More specifically the decay \btokll has been theoretically
observed to be very sensitive to new physics as the Forward Backward (FB)
asymmetry in this decay mode vanishes in the SM. Supersymmetry, however,
predicts a non-vanishing value of this asymmetry. In this work we will study
the polarized lepton pair FB asymmetry, i.e. the FB asymmetry of the lepton
when one (or both) final state lepton(s) are polarized. We will study these
asymmetries both within the SM and for Supersymmetric corrections to the SM.Comment: 18 pages, RevTeX file including 21 eps figures; version accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev. D. Some references adde
The Forward-Backward Asymmetry of B to (pi,K) l^+ l^-: Supersymmetry at Work
We analyze the forward-backward asymmetry of the decays B to (pi,K) l^+ l^-
with l = mu or tau in the framework of the constrained minimal supersymmetric
standard model. We find that, the asymmetry is enhanced at large tan beta and
depends strongly on the sign of the mu parameter. For mu > 0, the asymmetry is
typically large and observable whereas for mu < 0, it changes the sign and is
suppressed by an order of magnitude. Including cosmological constraints we find
that the asymmetry has a maximal value of about 30 %, produced when Higgs- and
gauge- induced flavor violations are of comparable size, at a value of tan beta
simeq 35. The present constraints from the B-factories are too weak to
constrain parameter space, and the regions excluded by them are already
disfavoured by at least one of B to X_s gamma, g-2, and/or cosmology. The size
of the asymmetry is mainly determined by the flavor of the final state lepton
rather than the flavor of the pseudoscalar.Comment: 18 pages; 11 eps figures; minor changes in text; journal versio
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