Highlights from Five Years at the B Factories

The highlights and conflicts at the B Factories are briefly reviewed. $CP$ violation was established in 2001 in $B^0 \to J/\psi K_S$ and related modes, which has now become a precision measurement of CP violation in $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ mixing. However, the situation for the $B^0 \to \pi^+\pi^-$ and charmless $b\to s$ modes, which probe also CP violation in the {\it decay} amplitude, are not quite settled yet. They could be hinting at presence of both strong (CP conserving) and new physics (CP violating) phases. We critically assess the developments and discuss some related discrepancies and highlights, such as observation of direct CP violation, and make a projection towards the next few years.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, to appear as Brief Review in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Trajectories of quality of life, life satisfaction, and psychological adjustment after prostate cancer

Background: To describe trajectories of health-related quality of life (QoL), life satisfaction, and psychological adjustment for men with prostate cancer over the medium to long term and identify predictors of poorer outcomes using growth mixture models. Methods: One-thousand sixty-four (82.4% response) men diagnosed with prostate cancer were recruited close to diagnosis and assessed over a 72-month (6-year) period with self-report assessment of health-related QoL, life satisfaction, cancer-related distress, and prostate specific antigen anxiety. Urinary, bowel, and sexual function were also assessed using validated questionnaires. Results: Poorer physical QOL was predicted by older age, lower education, lower income, comorbidities, and receiving hormone therapy. Lower life satisfaction was related to younger age, lower income, not being partnered, and comorbidities. Poorer psychological trajectories were predicted by younger age, lower income, comorbidities, and receiving radical prostatectomy or brachytherapy. Better urinary, bowel, and sexual function were related to better global outcomes over time. Anxiety about prostate specific antigen testing was rare. Conclusions: Distinct trajectories exist for medium- to long-term QoL, life satisfaction, and psychological adjustment after prostate cancer; with age and socioeconomic deprivation playing a differential role in men\u27s survivorship profile and the impact of functional status on outcomes increasing over time. These results reinforce the need for an appraisal of men\u27s life course in addition to treatment side effects when planning survivorship care after cancer

Structure in the nucleus of NGC 1068 at 10 microns

New 8 to 13 micron array camera images of the central kiloparsec of Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068 resolve structure that is similar to that observed at visible and radio wavelengths. The images reveal an infrared source which is extended and asymmetric, with its long axis oriented at P.A. 33 deg. Maps of the spatial distribution of 8 to 13 micron color temperature and warm dust opacity are derived from the multiwavelength infrared images. The results suggest that there exist two pointlike luminosity sources in the central regions of NGC 1068, with the brighter source at the nucleus and the fainter one some 100 pc to the northeast. This geometry strengthens the possibility that the 10 micron emission observed from grains in the nucleus is powered by a nonthermal source. In the context of earlier visible and radio studies, these results considerably strengthen the case for jet induced star formation in NGC 1068

Low Mach number effect in simulation of high Mach number flow

In this note, we relate the two well-known difficulties of Godunov schemes: the carbuncle phenomena in simulating high Mach number flow, and the inaccurate pressure profile in simulating low Mach number flow. We introduced two simple low-Mach-number modifications for the classical Roe flux to decrease the difference between the acoustic and advection contributions of the numerical dissipation. While the first modification increases the local numerical dissipation, the second decreases it. The numerical tests on the double-Mach reflection problem show that both modifications eliminate the kinked Mach stem suffered by the original flux. These results suggest that, other than insufficient numerical dissipation near the shock front, the carbuncle phenomena is strongly relevant to the non-comparable acoustic and advection contributions of the numerical dissipation produced by Godunov schemes due to the low Mach number effect.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Nonlinear variations in axisymmetric accretion

We subject the stationary solutions of inviscid and axially symmetric rotational accretion to a time-dependent radial perturbation, which includes nonlinearity to any arbitrary order. Regardless of the order of nonlinearity, the equation of the perturbation bears a form that is similar to the metric equation of an analogue acoustic black hole. We bring out the time dependence of the perturbation in the form of a Li\'enard system, by requiring the perturbation to be a standing wave under the second order of nonlinearity. We perform a dynamical systems analysis of the Li\'enard system to reveal a saddle point in real time, whose implication is that instabilities will develop in the accreting system when the perturbation is extended into the nonlinear regime. We also model the perturbation as a high-frequency travelling wave, and carry out a Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin analysis, treating nonlinearity iteratively as a very feeble effect. Under this approach both the amplitude and the energy flux of the perturbation exhibit growth, with the acoustic horizon segregating the regions of stability and instability.Comment: 15 pages, ReVTeX. Substantially revised with respect to the previous version. One figure and a new section on travelling waves (Sec. VI) have been added. The bibliography has been revised. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1207.107