10,235 research outputs found
Lyman-alpha radiative transfer during the Epoch of Reionization: contribution to 21-cm signal fluctuations
During the epoch of reionization, Ly-alpha photons emitted by the first stars
can couple the neutral hydrogen spin temperature to the kinetic gas
temperature, providing the opportunity to observe the gas in emission or
absorption in the 21-cm line. Given the bright foregrounds, it is of prime
importance to determine precisely the fluctuations signature of the signal, to
be able to extract it by its correlation power.
LICORICE is a Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code, coupled to the dynamics
via an adaptative Tree-SPH code. We present here the Ly-alpha part of the
implementation, and validate it through three classical tests. Contrary to
previous works, we do not assume that P_alpha, the number of scatterings of
Ly-alpha photons per atom per second, is proportional to the Ly-alpha
background flux, but take into account the scatterings in the Ly-alpha line
wings. The latter have the effect to steepen the radial profile of P_alpha
around each source, and re-inforce the contrast of the fluctuations. In the
particular geometry of cosmic filaments of baryonic matter, Ly-alpha photons
are scattered out of the filament, and the large scale structure of P_alpha is
significantly anisotropic. This could have strong implications for the possible
detection of the 21-cm signal.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. To be published in A&
Can one detect new physics in I=0 and/or I=2 contributions to the decays B --> pi pi?
We study the effects of new-physics contributions to B --> pi pi decays,
which can be parametrized as four new complex quantities. A simple analysis is
provided by utilizing the reparametrization invariance of the decay amplitudes.
We find that six quantities can be reabsorbed into the definitions of Standard
Model-like parameters. As a result, the usual isospin analysis provides only
two constraints on new physics which are independent of estimates for the
Standard Model contributions. In particular, we show that one is not sensitive
to new physics affecting the I=0 amplitudes. On the other hand, I=2 new physics
can be detected, and its parameters can be measured by using independent
determinations of the weak phases. We obtain constraints on these new-physics
parameters through a fit to the current experimental data.Comment: 8 pages, RevTe
Thyroid nodules treated with percutaneous radiofrequency thermal ablation: a comparative study
Percutaneous radiofrequency thermal ablation (RTA) was reported as an effective tool for the management of thyroid nodules (TNs). The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of RTA and to establish whether they were treatment-related by comparison with a matched, untreated control group
Giant isotope effect in the incoherent tunneling specific heat of the molecular nanomagnet Fe8
Time-dependent specific heat experiments on the molecular nanomagnet Fe8 and
the isotopic enriched analogue 57Fe8 are presented. The inclusion of the 57Fe
nuclear spins leads to a huge enhancement of the specific heat below 1 K,
ascribed to a strong increase in the spin-lattice relaxation rate Gamma arising
from incoherent, nuclear-spin-mediated magnetic quantum tunneling in the
ground-doublet. Since Gamma is found comparable to the expected tunneling rate,
the latter process has to be inelastic. A model for the coupling of the
tunneling levels to the lattice is presented. Under transverse field, a
crossover from nuclear-spin-mediated to phonon-induced tunneling is observed.Comment: Replaced with version accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
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