44,594 research outputs found
Behavior of X-Ray Dust Scattering and Implications for X-Ray Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts
The afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have commonly been assumed to be
due to shocks sweeping up the circum-stellar medium. However, most GRBs have
been found in dense star-forming regions where a significant fraction of the
prompt X-ray emission can be scattered by dust grains. Here we revisit the
behavior of dust scattering of X-rays in GRBs. We find that the features of
some X-ray afterglows from minutes to days after the gamma-ray triggers are
consistent with the scattering of prompt X-ray emission from GRBs off host dust
grains. This implies that some of the observed X-ray afterglows (especially
those without sharp rising and decaying flares) could be understood with a
dust-scattering--driven emission model.Comment: ApJ, in pres
Twin SUSY
We construct an extension of the MSSM in which superpartners can naturally be
heavier than the electroweak scale. This ``little hierarchy'' of scales is
stable because the Higgs arises as a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson in the
breaking of an accidental SU(4) symmetry of the Higgs sector. Supersymmetry and
the global symmetry combine to forbid logarithmically divergent one-loop
contributions to the Higgs mass. The accidental symmetry follows from a simple
``twin'' parity which exchanges the SU(2) sectors in the SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L x
SU(2)_R x U(1)_X gauge group.Comment: 10 pages; v2: references and Lawrence adde
Analyticity and the counting rule of matrix poles
By studying scattering amplitudes in the large limit, we
clarify the dependence of the matrix pole position. It is
demonstrated that analyticity and the counting rule exclude the existence
of matrix poles with . Especially the properties
of and with respect to the expansion are discussed.
We point out that in general tetra-quark resonances do not exist.Comment: This paper replaces hep-ph/0412175. The latter is withdraw
A feasibility study: Forest Fire Advanced System Technology (FFAST)
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service completed a feasibility study that examined the potential uses of advanced technology in forest fires mapping and detection. The current and future (1990's) information needs in forest fire management were determined through interviews. Analysis shows that integrated information gathering and processing is needed. The emerging technologies that were surveyed and identified as possible candidates for use in an end to end system include ""push broom'' sensor arrays, automatic georeferencing, satellite communication links, near real or real time image processing, and data integration. Matching the user requirements and the technologies yielded a ""strawman'' system configuration. The feasibility study recommends and outlines the implementation of the next phase for this project, a two year, conceptual design phase to define a system that warrants continued development
Interfacial dynamics in transport-limited dissolution
Various model problems of ``transport-limited dissolution'' in two dimensions
are analyzed using time-dependent conformal maps. For diffusion-limited
dissolution (reverse Laplacian growth), several exact solutions are discussed
for the smoothing of corrugated surfaces, including the continuous analogs of
``internal diffusion-limited aggregation'' and ``diffusion-limited erosion''. A
class of non-Laplacian, transport-limited dissolution processes are also
considered, which raise the general question of when and where a finite solid
will disappear. In a case of dissolution by advection-diffusion, a tilted
ellipse maintains its shape during collapse, as its center of mass drifts
obliquely away from the background fluid flow, but other initial shapes have
more complicated dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 4 fig
Competition and norms: a self-defeating combination?
This paper investigates the effects of information feedback mechanisms on electricity and heating usage at a student hall of residence in London. In a randomised control trial, we formulate different treatments such as feedback information and norms, as well as prize competition among subjects. We show that information and norms lead to a sharp – more than 20% - reduction in overall energy consumption. Because participants do not pay for their energy consumption this response cannot be driven by cost saving incentives. Interestingly, when combining feedback and norms with a prize competition for achieving low energy consumption, the reduction effect – while present initially – disappears in the long run. This could suggest that external rewards reduce and even destroy intrinsic motivation to change behaviour
The C-flash and the ignition conditions of type Ia supernovae
Thanks to a stellar evolution code able to compute through the
C-flash we link the binary population synthesis of single degenerate
progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to their physical condition at the
time of ignition. We show that there is a large range of possible ignition
densities and we detail how their probability distribution depends on the
accretion properties. The low density peak of this distribution qualitatively
reminds of the clustering of the luminosities of Branch-normal SNe Ia. We
tighten the possible range of initial physical conditions for explosion models:
they form a one-parameter family, independent of the metallicity. We discuss
how these results may be modified if we were to relax our hypothesis of a
permanent Hachisu wind or if we were to include electron captures.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, MNRAS accepte
DNA polymerase α (swi7) and the flap endonuclease fen1 (rad2) act together in the s-phase alkylation damage response in S. pombe
Polymerase α is an essential enzyme mainly mediating Okazaki fragment synthesis during lagging strand replication. A specific point mutation in Schizosaccharomyces pombe polymerase α named swi7-1, abolishes imprinting required for mating-type switching. Here we investigate whether this mutation confers any genome-wide defects. We show that the swi7-1 mutation renders cells hypersensitive to the DNA damaging agents methyl methansulfonate (MMS), hydroxyurea (HU) and UV and incapacitates activation of the intra-S checkpoint in response to DNA damage. In addition we show that, in the swi7-1 background, cells are characterized by an elevated level of repair foci and recombination, indicative of increased genetic instability. Furthermore, we detect novel Swi1-, -Swi3- and Pol α- dependent alkylation damage repair intermediates with mobility on 2D-gel that suggests presence of single-stranded regions. Genetic interaction studies showed that the flap endonuclease Fen1 works in the same pathway as Pol α in terms of alkylation damage response. Fen1 was also required for formation of alkylation- damage specific repair intermediates. We propose a model to explain how Pol α, Swi1, Swi3 and Fen1 might act together to detect and repair alkylation damage during S-phase
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