Unknotting numbers and triple point cancelling numbers of torus-covering knots

It is known that any surface knot can be transformed to an unknotted surface knot or a surface knot which has a diagram with no triple points by a finite number of 1-handle additions. The minimum number of such 1-handles is called the unknotting number or the triple point cancelling number, respectively. In this paper, we give upper bounds and lower bounds of unknotting numbers and triple point cancelling numbers of torus-covering knots, which are surface knots in the form of coverings over the standard torus $T$. Upper bounds are given by using $m$-charts on $T$ presenting torus-covering knots, and lower bounds are given by using quandle colorings and quandle cocycle invariants.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures, added Corollary 1.7, to appear in J. Knot Theory Ramification

Coulomb effects in semiconductor quantum dots

Coulomb correlations in the optical spectra of semiconductor quantum dots are investigated using a full-diagonalization approach. The resulting multi-exciton spectra are discussed in terms of the symmetry of the involved states. Characteristic features of the spectra like the nearly equidistantly spaced s-shell emission lines and the approximately constant p-shell transition energies are explained using simplified Hamiltonians that are derived taking into account the relative importance of various interaction contributions. Comparisons with previous results in the literature and their interpretation are made.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Relativity and the low energy nd Ay puzzle

We solve the Faddeev equation in an exactly Poincare invariant formulation of the three-nucleon problem. The dynamical input is a relativistic nucleon-nucleon interaction that is exactly on-shell equivalent to the high precision CDBonn NN interaction. S-matrix cluster properties dictate how the two-body dynamics is embedded in the three-nucleon mass operator. We find that for neutron laboratory energies above 20 MeV relativistic effects on Ay are negligible. For energies below 20 MeV dynamical effects lower the nucleon analyzing power maximum slightly by 2% and Wigner rotations lower it further up to 10 % increasing thus disagreement between data and theory. This indicates that three-nucleon forces must provide an even larger increase of the Ay maximum than expected up to now.Comment: 29 pages, 2 ps figure

The alpha-particle based on modern nuclear forces

The Faddeev-Yakubovsky equations for the alpha-particle are solved. Accurate results are obtained for several modern NN interaction models, which include charge-symmetry breaking effects in the NN force, nucleon mass dependences as well as the Coulomb interaction. These models are augmented by three-nucleon forces of different types and adjusted to the 3N binding energy. Our results are close to the experimental binding energy with a slight overbinding. Thus there is only little room left for the contribution of possible 4N interactions to the alpha-particle binding energy. We also discuss model dependences of the binding energies and the wave functions.Comment: 22 pages REVTeX 4, 12 figures, table with TM parameters added, typos corrected, version as published in PR

Relativistic Quantum Mechanics - Particle Production and Cluster Properties

This paper constructs relativistic quantum mechanical models of particles satisfying cluster properties and the spectral condition which do not conserve particle number. The treatment of particle production is limited to systems with a bounded number of bare-particle degrees of freedom. The focus of this paper is about the realization of cluster properties in these theories.Comment: 36 pages, Late

Explosive Percolation in the Human Protein Homology Network

We study the explosive character of the percolation transition in a real-world network. We show that the emergence of a spanning cluster in the Human Protein Homology Network (H-PHN) exhibits similar features to an Achlioptas-type process and is markedly different from regular random percolation. The underlying mechanism of this transition can be described by slow-growing clusters that remain isolated until the later stages of the process, when the addition of a small number of links leads to the rapid interconnection of these modules into a giant cluster. Our results indicate that the evolutionary-based process that shapes the topology of the H-PHN through duplication-divergence events may occur in sudden steps, similarly to what is seen in first-order phase transitions.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Isocurvature fluctuations in Affleck-Dine mechanism and constraints on inflation models

We reconsider the Affleck-Dine mechanism for baryogenesis and show that the baryonic isocurvature fluctuations are generated in many inflation models in supergravity. The inflationary scale and the reheating temperature must satisfy certain constraints to avoid too large baryonic isocurvature fluctuations.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

TL1A/DR3 axis involvement in the inflammatory cytokine network during pulmonary sarcoidosis

BACKGROUND: TNF-like ligand 1A (TL1A), a recently recognized member of the TNF superfamily, and its death domain receptor 3 (DR3), firstly identified for their relevant role in T lymphocyte homeostasis, are now well-known mediators of several immune-inflammatory diseases, ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to inflammatory bowel diseases to psoriasis, whereas no data are available on their involvement in sarcoidosis, a multisystemic granulomatous disease where a deregulated T helper (Th)1/Th17 response takes place. METHODS: In this study, by flow cytometry, real-time PCR, confocal microscopy and immunohistochemistry analyses, TL1A and DR3 were investigated in the pulmonary cells and the peripheral blood of 43 patients affected by sarcoidosis in different phases of the disease (29 patients with active sarcoidosis, 14 with the inactive form) and in 8 control subjects. RESULTS: Our results demonstrated a significant higher expression, both at protein and mRNA levels, of TL1A and DR3 in pulmonary T cells and alveolar macrophages of patients with active sarcoidosis as compared to patients with the inactive form of the disease and to controls. In patients with sarcoidosis TL1A was strongly more expressed in the lung than the blood, i.e., at the site of the involved organ. Additionally, zymography assays showed that TL1A is able to increase the production of matrix metalloproteinase 9 by sarcoid alveolar macrophages characterized, in patients with the active form of the disease, by reduced mRNA levels of the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that TL1A/DR3 interactions are part of the extended and complex immune-inflammatory network that characterizes sarcoidosis during its active phase and may contribute to the pathogenesis and to the progression of the disease

The three- and four-nucleon systems from chiral effective field theory

Recently developed chiral nucleon-nucleon (NN) forces at next-to-leading order (NLO) that describe NN phase shifts up to about 100 MeV fairly well have been applied to 3N and 4N systems. Faddeev-Yakubovsky equations have been solved rigorously. The chiral NLO forces depend on a momentum cut-off \Lambda lying between 540-600 MeV/c. The resulting 3N and 4N binding energies are in the same range as found using standard NN potentials. In additon, low-energy 3N scattering observables are very well reproduced like for standard NN forces. Surprisingly, the long standing A_y-puzzle is resolved at NLO. The cut-off dependence of the scattering observables is rather mild.Comment: 4 pp, revtex, 3 figure