1,272 research outputs found
Direct CP Violation in B->phi K_s and New Physics
In the presence of large New Physics contributions to loop-induced b->s
transitions, sizable direct CP violation in B-> phi K decays is expected on
general grounds. We compute explicitly CP-violating effects using QCD
factorization and find that, even in the restricted case in which New Physics
has the same penguin structure as the Standard Model, the rate asymmetry can be
of order one. We briefly discuss a more general scenario and comment on the
inclusion of power-suppressed corrections to factorization.Comment: 3 page
Unitarity Triangle Analysis in the Standard Model and Sensitivity to New Physics
By using the most recent determinations of the several theoretical and
experimental input parameters, we update the Unitarity Triangle analysis in the
Standard Model and discuss the sensitivity to New Physics effects. We
investigate the interest of measuring with a better precision the various
physical quantities entering the Unitarity Triangle analysis and study in a
model independent way whether, despite the undoubted success of the CKM
mechanism in the Standard Model, the Unitarity Triangle analysis still allows
the presence of New Physics.Comment: Invited talk at the Workshop on the CKM Unitarity Triangle, IPPP
Durham, April 2003 (eConf C0304052). 9 pages LaTeX, 15 eps figures. Misprint
corrected and references adde
Fermion Virtual Effects in Cross Section
We analyse the contribution of new heavy virtual fermions to the cross section. We find that there exists a relevant
interplay between trilinear and bilinear oblique corrections. The result
strongly depends on the chiral or vector--like nature of the new fermions. As
for the chiral case we consider sequential fermions: one obtains substantial
deviation from the Standard model prediction, making the effect possibly
detectable at or GeV linear colliders. As an example for
the vector--like case we take a SUSY extension with heavy charginos and
neutralinos: due to cancellation, the final effect turns out to be negligible.Comment: uuencoded, gz-compressed, tar-ed file. 8 pages, 4 EPS figures, uses
EPSFIG.ST
Investigating The Physics Case of Running a B-Factory at the Y(5S) Resonance
We discuss the physics case of a high luminosity B-Factory running at the
Y(5S) resonance. We show that the coherence of the B meson pairs is preserved
at this resonance, and that Bs can be well distinguished from Bd and charged B
mesons. These facts allow to cover the physics program of a traditional
B-Factory and, at the same time, to perform complementary measurements which
are not accessible at the Y(4S). In particular we show how, despite the
experimental limitations in performing time-dependent measurements of Bs
decays, the same experimental information can be extracted, in several cases,
from the determination of time-integrated observables. In addition, a few
examples of the potentiality in measuring rare Bs decays are given. Finally, we
discuss how the study of Bs meson will improve the constraints on New Physics
parameters in the Bs sector, in the context of the generalized Unitarity
Triangle analysis.Comment: 47 pages, 22 figure
High-fidelity simulations of the lobe-and-cleft structures and the deposition map in particle-driven gravity currents
Photo-autotrophic Production of Poly(hydroxyalkanoates) in Cyanobacteria
In the last two decades, poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (PHA) were solely produced using heterotrophic bacteria in aerobic cultivation. With respect to the great potential (500 Mt yrâ1) of raw industrial CO2 streams and even greater potential of flue gases, the focus on photo-autotrophic biotechnological processes is increasing steadily. Primarily, PHA-gene transfer from heterotrophic bacteria into algae and plant cells was attempted, with the intention to combine the known biosynthesis pathway with autotrophic cultivation. The natural occurrence of PHA in cyanobacteria is known at least since 1966. However, cyanobacteria were never considered for commercial production because the PHA amount based on cell mass and based on volumetric productivity is generally very low. Therefore, strain improvements were suggested, either by gene amplification or by suppression of biochemical pathways competing for the cellâs acetate pool. In the late 1990s, the success of genetic modification was confirmed experimentally, elevating the cyanobacteria cellâs PHA content. With additional optimization, PHB amounts up to 50 % w/w of biomass dry matter or up to about 2.4 g Lâ1 bioreactor volume could be produced within 11 days. Considering the land use for agriculture and the competition for plant biomass between food, feed, fuel and energy production, the binding of CO2 in a biotechnological process using photo-autotrophic microorganisms may become a promising option
Inhomogeneous Superconductivity in Comb-Shaped Josephson Junction Networks
We show that some of the Josephson couplings of junctions arranged to form an
inhomogeneous network undergo a non-perturbative renormalization provided that
the network's connectivity is pertinently chosen. As a result, the zero-voltage
Josephson critical currents turn out to be enhanced along directions
selected by the network's topology. This renormalization effect is possible
only on graphs whose adjacency matrix admits an hidden spectrum (i.e. a set of
localized states disappearing in the thermodynamic limit). We provide a
theoretical and experimental study of this effect by comparing the
superconducting behavior of a comb-shaped Josephson junction network and a
linear chain made with the same junctions: we show that the Josephson critical
currents of the junctions located on the comb's backbone are bigger than the
ones of the junctions located on the chain. Our theoretical analysis, based on
a discrete version of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation, leads to results which
are in good quantitative agreement with experimental results.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revte
On the molecular basis of the activity of the antimalarial drug chloroquine : EXAFS-assisted DFT evidence of a direct Fe–N bond with free heme in solution
4-aminoquinoline antiplasmodials interfere with the biocrystallization of the malaria pigment, a key step of the malaria parasite metabolism. It is commonly believed that these drugs set stacking \u3c0 \ub7\ub7\ub7 \u3c0 interactions with the Fe-protoporphyrin scaffold of the free heme, even though the details of the heme:drug recognition process remain elusive. In this work, the local coordination of Fe(III) ions in acidic solutions of hematin at room temperature was investigated by extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy in the 4.0\u20135.5 pH range, both in the presence and in the absence of the antimalarial drug chloroquine. EXAFS results were complemented by DFT simulations in polarizable continuum media to model solvent effects. We found evidence that a complex where the drug quinoline nitrogen is coordinated with the iron center might coexist with formerly proposed adduct geometries, based on stacking interactions. Charge-assisted hydrogen bonds among lateral chains of the two molecules play a crucial role in stabilizing this complex, whose formation is favored by the presence of lipid micelles. The direct Fe\u2013N bond could reversibly block the axial position in the Fe 1st coordination shell in free heme, acting as an inhibitor for the crystallization of the malaria pigment without permanently hampering the catalytic activity of the redox center. These findings are discussed in the light of possible implications on the engineering of drugs able to thwart the adaptability of the malaria parasite against classical aminoquinoline-based therapies
Constraints on new physics from the quark mixing unitarity triangle
The status of the Unitarity Triangle beyond the Standard Model including the
most recent results on Delta m_s, on dilepton asymmetries and on width
differences is presented. Even allowing for general New Physics loop
contributions the Unitarity Triangle must be very close to the Standard Model
result. With the new measurements from the Tevatron, we obtain for the first
time a significant constraint on New Physics in the B_s sector. We present the
allowed ranges of New Physics contributions to Delta F=2 processes, and of the
time-dependent CP asymmetry in B_s to J/Psi phi decays.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. v2: numerical error in Delta Gamma_s/Gamma_s
corrected. Plots and tables updated. v3: update after ICHEP06, final version
published in Phys Rev Letter
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