219 research outputs found
The baryon vertex with magnetic flux
In this letter we generalise the baryon vertex configuration of AdS/CFT by
adding a suitable instantonic magnetic field on its worldvolume, dissolving
D-string charge. A careful analysis of the configuration shows that there is an
upper bound on the number of dissolved strings. This should be a manifestation
of the stringy exclusion principle. We provide a microscopical description of
this configuration in terms of a dielectric effect for the dissolved strings.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures. V2: reference added. V3: version to appear in
JHE
Dynamics of Flux Tubes in Large N Gauge Theories
The gluonic field created by a static quark anti-quark pair is described via
the AdS/CFT correspondence by a string connecting the pair which is located on
the boundary of AdS. Thus the gluonic field in a strongly coupled large N CFT
has a stringy spectrum of excitations. We trace the stability of these
excitations to a combination of large N suppressions and energy conservation.
Comparison of the physics of the N=infinity flux tube in the {\cal N}=4 SYM
theory at weak and strong coupling shows that the excitations are present only
above a certain critical coupling. The density of states of a highly excited
string with a fold reaching towards the horizon of AdS is in exact agreement at
strong coupling with that of the near-threshold states found in a ladder
diagram model of the weak-strong coupling transition. We also study large
distance correlations of local operators with a Wilson loop, and show that the
fall off at weak coupling and N=infinity (i.e. strictly planar diagrams)
matches the strong coupling predictions given by the AdS/CFT correspondence,
rather than those of a weakly coupled U(1) gauge theory.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures; v2: clarifications in section 5, 1 reference
added; v3: the final version (minor changes, 1 more reference added
Operator product expansion of higher rank Wilson loops from D-branes and matrix models
In this paper we study correlation functions of circular Wilson loops in
higher dimensional representations with chiral primary operators of N=4 super
Yang-Mills theory. This is done using the recently established relation between
higher rank Wilson loops in gauge theory and D-branes with electric fluxes in
supergravity. We verify our results with a matrix model computation, finding
perfect agreement in both the symmetric and the antisymmetric case.Comment: 28 pages, latex; v2: minor misprints corrected, references adde
On Online Collaboration and Construction of Shared Knowledge: Assessing Mediation Capability in Computer Supported Argument Visualization Tools
Collaborative Computer-Supported Argument Visualization (CCSAV) has often been proposed as an alternative over more conventional, mainstream platforms for online discussion (e.g., online forums and wikis). CCSAV tools require users to contribute to the creation of a joint artifact (argument map) instead of contributing to a conversation. In this paper we assess empirically the effects of this fundamental design choice and show that the absence of conversational affordances and socially salient information in representation-centric tools is detrimental to the users' collaboration experience. We report empirical findings from a study in which subjects using different collaborative platforms (a forum, an argumentation platform, and a socially augmented argumentation tool) were asked to discuss and predict the price of a commodity. By comparing users' experience across several metrics we found evidence that the collaborative performance decreases gradually when we remove conversational interaction and other types of socially salient information. We interpret these findings through theories developed in conversational analysis (common ground theory) and communities of practice and discuss design implications. In particular, we propose balancing the trade-off between knowledge reification and participation in representation-centric tools with the provision of social feedback and functionalities supporting meaning negotiation
Marine pelagic ecosystems: the West Antarctic Peninsula
The marine ecosystem of the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) extends from the Bellingshausen Sea to the northern tip of the peninsula and from the mostly glaciated coast across the continental shelf to the shelf break in the west. The glacially sculpted coastline along the peninsula is highly convoluted and characterized by deep embayments that are often interconnected by channels that facilitate transport of heat and nutrients into the shelf domain. The ecosystem is divided into three subregions, the continental slope, shelf and coastal regions, each with unique ocean dynamics, water mass and biological distributions. The WAP shelf lies within the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone (SIZ) and like other SIZs, the WAP system is very productive, supporting large stocks of marine mammals, birds and the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba. Ecosystem dynamics is dominated by the seasonal and interannual variation in sea ice extent and retreat. The Antarctic Peninsula is one among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, having experienced a 28C increase in the annual mean temperature and a 68C rise in the mean winter temperature since 1950. Delivery of heat from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current has increased significantly in the past decade, sufficient to drive to a 0.68C warming of the upper 300 m of shelf water. In the past 50 years and continuing in the twenty-first century, the warm, moist maritime climate of the northern WAP has been migrating south, displacing the once dominant cold, dry continental Antarctic climate and causing multi-level responses in the marine ecosystem. Ecosystem responses to the regional warming include increased heat transport, decreased sea ice extent and duration, local declines in icedependent AdeÂŽlie penguins, increase in ice-tolerant gentoo and chinstrap penguins, alterations in phytoplankton and zooplankton community composition and changes in krill recruitment, abundance and availability to predators. The climate/ecological gradients extending along theWAPand the presence of monitoring systems, field stations and long-term research programmes make the region an invaluable observatory of climate change and marine ecosystem response
Measurement of the Proton and Deuteron Spin Structure Functions g2 and Asymmetry A2
We have measured the spin structure functions g2p and g2d and the virtual
photon asymmetries A2p and A2d over the kinematic range 0.02 < x < 0.8 and 1.0
< Q^2 < 30(GeV/c)^2 by scattering 38.8 GeV longitudinally polarized electrons
from transversely polarized NH3 and 6LiD targets.The absolute value of A2 is
significantly smaller than the sqrt{R} positivity limit over the measured
range, while g2 is consistent with the twist-2 Wandzura-Wilczek calculation. We
obtain results for the twist-3 reduced matrix elements d2p, d2d and d2n. The
Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule integral - int(g2(x)dx) is reported for the range
0.02 < x < 0.8.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Measurements of the -Dependence of the Proton and Neutron Spin Structure Functions g1p and g1n
The structure functions g1p and g1n have been measured over the range 0.014 <
x < 0.9 and 1 < Q2 < 40 GeV2 using deep-inelastic scattering of 48 GeV
longitudinally polarized electrons from polarized protons and deuterons. We
find that the Q2 dependence of g1p (g1n) at fixed x is very similar to that of
the spin-averaged structure function F1p (F1n). From a NLO QCD fit to all
available data we find at
Q2=5 GeV2, in agreement with the Bjorken sum rule prediction of 0.182 \pm
0.005.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Physics Letters
Identifying the transcriptional response of cancer and inflammation-related genes in lung cells in relation to ambient air chemical mixtures in Houston, Texas
Atmospheric pollution represents a complex mixture of air chemicals that continually interact and transform, making it difficult to accurately evaluate associated toxicity responses representative of real-world exposure. This study leveraged data from a previously published article and reevaluated lung cell transcriptional response induced by outdoor atmospheric pollution mixtures using field-based exposure conditions in the industrialized Houston Ship Channel. The tested hypothesis was that individual and co-occurring chemicals in the atmosphere relate to altered expression of critical genes involved in inflammation and cancer-related processes in lung cells. Human lung cells were exposed at an airâliquid interface to ambient air mixtures for 4 h, with experiments replicated across 5 days. Real-time monitoring of primary and secondary gas-phase pollutants, as well as other atmospheric conditions, was simultaneously conducted. Transcriptional analysis of exposed cells identified critical genes showing differential expression associated with both individual and chemical mixtures. The individual pollutant identified with the largest amount of associated transcriptional response was benzene. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRFN1) were identified as key upstream transcription factor regulators of the cellular response to benzene. This study is among the first to measure lung cell transcriptional responses in relation to real-world, gas-phase air mixtures
The Similarity Hypothesis in General Relativity
Self-similar models are important in general relativity and other fundamental
theories. In this paper we shall discuss the ``similarity hypothesis'', which
asserts that under a variety of physical circumstances solutions of these
theories will naturally evolve to a self-similar form. We will find there is
good evidence for this in the context of both spatially homogenous and
inhomogeneous cosmological models, although in some cases the self-similar
model is only an intermediate attractor. There are also a wide variety of
situations, including critical pheneomena, in which spherically symmetric
models tend towards self-similarity. However, this does not happen in all cases
and it is it is important to understand the prerequisites for the conjecture.Comment: to be submitted to Gen. Rel. Gra
Deconfining Phase Transition as a Matrix Model of Renormalized Polyakov Loops
We discuss how to extract renormalized from bare Polyakov loops in SU(N)
lattice gauge theories at nonzero temperature in four spacetime dimensions.
Single loops in an irreducible representation are multiplicatively renormalized
without mixing, through a renormalization constant which depends upon both
representation and temperature. The values of renormalized loops in the four
lowest representations of SU(3) were measured numerically on small, coarse
lattices. We find that in magnitude, condensates for the sextet and octet loops
are approximately the square of the triplet loop. This agrees with a large
expansion, where factorization implies that the expectation values of loops in
adjoint and higher representations are just powers of fundamental and
anti-fundamental loops. For three colors, numerically the corrections to the
large relations are greatest for the sextet loop, ; these
represent corrections of for N=3. The values of the renormalized
triplet loop can be described by an SU(3) matrix model, with an effective
action dominated by the triplet loop. In several ways, the deconfining phase
transition for N=3 appears to be like that in the matrix model of
Gross and Witten.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures; v2, 27 pages, 12 figures, extended discussion
for clarity, results unchange
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