588 research outputs found
Baryons in the warm-hot intergalactic medium
Approximately 30%-40% of all baryons in the present-day universe reside in a warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), with temperatures in the range 105 \u3c T \u3c 107 K. This is a generic prediction from six hydrodynamic simulations of currently favored structure formation models having a wide variety of numerical methods, input physics, volumes, and spatial resolutions. Most of these warm-hot baryons reside in diffuse large-scale structures with a median overdensity around 10-30, not in virialized objects such as galaxy groups or galactic halos. The evolution of the WHIM is primarily driven by shock heating from gravitational perturbations breaking on mildly nonlinear, nonequilibrium structures such as filaments. Supernova feedback energy and radiative cooling play lesser roles in its evolution. WHIM gas may be consistent with observations of the 0.25 keV X-ray background without being significantly heated by nongravitational processes because the emitting gas is very diffuse. Our results confirm and extend previous work by Cen & Ostriker and Davé et al
Using the 3D Facial Norms Database to investigate craniofacial sexual dimorphism in healthy children, adolescents, and adults
Background: Although craniofacial sex differences have been extensively studied in humans, relatively little is known about when various dimorphic features manifest during postnatal life. Using cross-sectional data derived from the 3D Facial Norms data repository, we tested for sexual dimorphism of craniofacial soft-tissue morphology at different ages. Methods: One thousand five hundred fifty-five individuals, pre-screened for craniofacial conditions, between 3 and 25 years of age were placed in to one of six age-defined categories: early childhood, late childhood, puberty, adolescence, young adult, and adult. At each age group, sex differences were tested by ANCOVA for 29 traditional soft-tissue anthropometric measurements collected from 3D facial scans. Additionally, sex differences in shape were tested using a geometric morphometric analysis of 24 3D facial landmarks. Results: Significant (p < 0.05) sex differences were observed in every age group for measurements covering multiple aspects of the craniofacial complex. The magnitude of the dimorphism generally increased with age, with large spikes in the nasal, cranial, and facial measurements observed after puberty. Significant facial shape differences (p < 0.05) were also seen at each age, with some dimorphic features already present in young children (eye fissure inclination) and others emerging only after puberty (mandibular position). Conclusions: Several craniofacial soft-tissue sex differences were already present in the youngest age group studied, indicating that these differences emerged prior to 3 years of age. The results paint a complex and heterogeneous picture, with different groups of traits exhibiting distinct patterns of dimorphism during ontogeny. The definitive adult male and female facial shape was present following puberty, but arose from numerous distinct changes taking place at earlier stages
Rehabilitation for post-stroke cognitive impairment: an overview of recommendations arising from systematic reviews of current evidence
The Effective Field Theory of Cosmological Large Scale Structures
Large scale structure surveys will likely become the next leading
cosmological probe. In our universe, matter perturbations are large on short
distances and small at long scales, i.e. strongly coupled in the UV and weakly
coupled in the IR. To make precise analytical predictions on large scales, we
develop an effective field theory formulated in terms of an IR effective fluid
characterized by several parameters, such as speed of sound and viscosity.
These parameters, determined by the UV physics described by the Boltzmann
equation, are measured from N-body simulations. We find that the speed of sound
of the effective fluid is c_s^2 10^(-6) and that the viscosity contributions
are of the same order. The fluid describes all the relevant physics at long
scales k and permits a manifestly convergent perturbative expansion in the size
of the matter perturbations \delta(k) for all the observables. As an example,
we calculate the correction to the power spectrum at order \delta(k)^4. The
predictions of the effective field theory are found to be in much better
agreement with observation than standard cosmological perturbation theory,
already reaching percent precision at this order up to a relatively short scale
k \sim 0.24 h/Mpc.Comment: v2: typos corrected, JHEP published versio
Minimal flavour violation extensions of the seesaw
We analyze the most natural formulations of the minimal lepton flavour
violation hypothesis compatible with a type-I seesaw structure with three heavy
singlet neutrinos N, and satisfying the requirement of being predictive, in the
sense that all LFV effects can be expressed in terms of low energy observables.
We find a new interesting realization based on the flavour group (being and respectively the SU(2) singlet and
doublet leptons). An intriguing feature of this realization is that, in the
normal hierarchy scenario for neutrino masses, it allows for sizeable
enhancements of transitions with respect to LFV processes involving
the lepton. We also discuss how the symmetries of the type-I seesaw
allow for a strong suppression of the N mass scale with respect to the scale of
lepton number breaking, without implying a similar suppression for possible
mechanisms of N productionComment: 14 pages, 6 figure
Physics Opportunities of e+e- Linear Colliders
We describe the anticipated experimental program of an e+e- linear collider
in the energy range 500 GeV -- 1.5 TeV. We begin with a description of current
collider designs and the expected experimental environment. We then discuss
precision studies of the W boson and top quark. Finally, we review the range of
models proposed to explain the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking and
show, for each case, the central role that the linear collider experiments will
play in elucidating this physics. (to appear in Annual Reviews of Nuclear and
Particle Science)Comment: 93 pages, latex + 23 figures; typos corrections + 1 reference adde
Interacting Spin-2 Fields
We construct consistent theories of multiple interacting spin-2 fields in
arbitrary spacetime dimensions using a vielbein formulation. We show that these
theories have the additional primary constraints needed to eliminate potential
ghosts, to all orders in the fields, and to all orders beyond any decoupling
limit. We postulate that the number of spin-2 fields interacting at a single
vertex is limited by the number of spacetime dimensions. We then show that, for
the case of two spin-2 fields, the vielbein theory is equivalent to the
recently proposed theories of ghost-free massive gravity and bi-metric gravity.
The vielbein formulation greatly simplifies the proof that these theories have
an extra primary constraint which eliminates the Boulware-Deser ghost.Comment: 42 pages, 3 figures. v3 alternative argument using constrained
spatial vielbeins has been removed (see footnote 3
On the effect of resonances in composite Higgs phenomenology
We consider a generic composite Higgs model based on the coset SO(5)/SO(4)
and study its phenomenology beyond the leading low-energy effective lagrangian
approximation. Our basic goal is to introduce in a controllable and simple way
the lowest-lying, possibly narrow, resonances that may exist is such models. We
do so by proposing a criterion that we call partial UV completion. We
characterize the simplest cases, corresponding respectively to a scalar in
either singlet or tensor representation of SO(4) and to vectors in the adjoint
of SO(4). We study the impact of these resonances on the signals associated to
high-energy vector boson scattering, pointing out for each resonance the
characteristic patterns of depletion and enhancement with respect to the
leading-order chiral lagrangian. En route we derive the O(p^4) general chiral
lagrangian and discuss its peculiar accidental and approximate symmetries.Comment: v3: a few typos corrected. Conclusions unchange
Hidden SUSY at the LHC: the light higgsino-world scenario and the role of a lepton collider
While the SUSY flavor, CP and gravitino problems seem to favor a very heavy
spectrum of matter scalars, fine-tuning in the electroweak sector prefers low
values of superpotential mass \mu. In the limit of low \mu, the two lightest
neutralinos and light chargino are higgsino-like. The light charginos and
neutralinos may have large production cross sections at LHC, but since they are
nearly mass degenerate, there is only small energy release in three-body
sparticle decays. Possible dilepton and trilepton signatures are difficult to
observe after mild cuts due to the very soft p_T spectrum of the final state
isolated leptons. Thus, the higgsino-world scenario can easily elude standard
SUSY searches at the LHC. It should motivate experimental searches to focus on
dimuon and trimuon production at the very lowest p_T(\mu) values possible. If
the neutralino relic abundance is enhanced via non-standard cosmological dark
matter production, then there exist excellent prospects for direct or indirect
detection of higgsino-like WIMPs. While the higgsino-world scenario may easily
hide from LHC SUSY searches, a linear e^+e^- collider or a muon collider
operating in the \sqrt{s}\sim 0.5-1 TeV range would be able to easily access
the chargino and neutralino pair production reactions.Comment: 20 pages including 12 .eps figure
Is Our Universe Natural?
It goes without saying that we are stuck with the universe we have.
Nevertheless, we would like to go beyond simply describing our observed
universe, and try to understand why it is that way rather than some other way.
Physicists and cosmologists have been exploring increasingly ambitious ideas
that attempt to explain why certain features of our universe aren't as
surprising as they might first appear.Comment: Invited review for Nature, 11 page
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