A two-loop relation between inclusive radiative and semileptonic B-decay spectra

A shape-function independent relation is derived between the partial B->X_u+l+nu decay rate with a cut on P_+=E_X-P_X<Delta and a weighted integral over the normalized B->X_s+gamma photon-energy spectrum. The leading-power contribution to the weight function is calculated at next-to-next-to-leading order in renormalization-group improved perturbation theory, including exact two-loop matching corrections at the scale mu_i^2 ~ m_b*Lambda_{QCD}. The overall normalization of the weight function is obtained up to yet unknown corrections of order [alpha_s(m_b)]^2. Power corrections from phase-space factors are included exactly, while the remaining subleading contributions are included at first order in 1/m_b. At this level unavoidable hadronic uncertainties enter, which are estimated in a conservative way. The combined theoretical accuracy in the extraction of |V_{ub}| is at the level of 5% if a value of Delta near the charm threshold can be achieved experimentally.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures; few comments and one reference added; version to appear in JHE

Stability analysis for the background equations for inflation with dissipation and in a viscous radiation bath

The effects of bulk viscosity are examined for inflationary dynamics in which dissipation and thermalization are present. A complete stability analysis is done for the background inflaton evolution equations, which includes both inflaton dissipation and radiation bulk viscous effects. Three representative approaches of bulk viscous irreversible thermodynamics are analyzed: the Eckart noncausal theory, the linear and causal theory of Israel-Stewart and a more recent nonlinear and causal bulk viscous theory. It is found that the causal theories allow for larger bulk viscosities before encountering an instability in comparison to the noncausal Eckart theory. It is also shown that the causal theories tend to suppress the radiation production due to bulk viscous pressure, because of the presence of relaxation effects implicit in these theories. Bulk viscosity coefficients derived from quantum field theory are applied to warm inflation model building and an analysis is made of the effects to the duration of inflation. The treatment of bulk pressure would also be relevant to the reheating phase after inflation in cold inflation dynamics and during the radiation dominated regime, although very little work in both areas has been done, the methodology developed in this paper could be extended to apply to these other problems.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, Published version JCA

General dissipation coefficient in low-temperature warm inflation

In generic particle physics models, the inflaton field is coupled to other bosonic and fermionic fields that acquire large masses during inflation and may decay into light degrees of freedom. This leads to dissipative effects that modify the inflationary dynamics and may generate a nearly-thermal radiation bath, such that inflation occurs in a warm rather than supercooled environment. In this work, we perform a numerical computation and obtain expressions for the associated dissipation coefficient in supersymmetric models, focusing on the regime where the radiation temperature is below the heavy mass threshold. The dissipation coefficient receives contributions from the decay of both on-shell and off-shell degrees of freedom, which are dominant for small and large couplings, respectively, taking into account the light field multiplicities. In particular, we find that the contribution from on-shell decays, although Boltzmann-suppressed, can be much larger than that of virtual modes, which is bounded by the validity of a perturbative analysis. This result opens up new possibilities for realizations of warm inflation in supersymmetric field theories.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures; revised version with new results added; published in JCA

The first confirmation of V-type asteroids among the Mars crosser population

The Mars crossing region constitutes a path to deliver asteroids from the Inner Main Belt to the Earth crossing space. While both the Inner Main Belt and the population of Earth crossing asteroids contains a significant fraction of asteroids belonging to the V taxonomic class, only two of such V-type asteroids has been detected in the Mars crossing region up to now. In this work, we searched for asteroids belonging to the V class among the population of Mars crossing asteroids, in order to support alternative paths to the delivery of this bodies into the Earth crossing region. We selected 18 candidate V-type asteroids in the Mars crossing region using observations contained in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Moving Objects Catalog. Then, we observed 4 of these candidates to take their visible spectra using the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR). We also performed the numerical simulation of the orbital evolution of the observed asteroids. We confirmed that 3 of the observed asteroids belong to the V class, and one of these may follow a path that drives it to an Earth collision in some tens of million years

Image effects in transport at metal-molecule interfaces

We present a method for incorporating image-charge effects into the description of charge transport through molecular devices. A simple model allows us to calculate the adjustment of the transport levels, due to the polarization of the electrodes as charge is added to and removed from the molecule. For this, we use the charge distributions of the molecule between two metal electrodes in several charge states, rather than in gas phase, as obtained from a density-functional theory-based transport code. This enables us to efficiently model level shifts and gap renormalization caused by image-charge effects, which are essential for understanding molecular transport experiments. We apply the method to benzene di-amine molecules and compare our results with the standard approach based on gas phase charges. Finally, we give a detailed account of the application of our approach to porphyrin-derivative devices recently studied experimentally by Perrin et al. [Nat. Nanotechnol. 8, 282 (2013)], which demonstrates the importance of accounting for image-charge effects when modeling transport through molecular junctions

El desarrollo de la competencia social y ciudadana en alumnado de educación secundaria con la metodología del aprendizaje-servicio

En la experiencia de innovación docente que aquí presentamos están implicadas tres instituciones: la Universitat Jaume I de Castellón y dos centros de la localidad de Betxí: el Instituto de Educación Secundaria (IES) y la Escuela Popular de Adultos (EPA). Desde la Universitat Jaume I profesorado especializado en la metodología del Aprendizaje Servicio preparó a docentes y alumnado del instituto, concretamente al grupo que participa de un PCPI (Programa de Cualificación Profesional Inicial) para desarrollar competencias sociales y ciudadanas, al mismo tiempo que se les formaba para aprender contenidos relacionados con la asignatura de Educación Física. El elemento motivador del aprendizaje era el poder aplicar los conocimientos aprendidos prestando un servicio a las mujeres, de edad comprendida entre 70-80 años, que realizaban el segundo curso del primer nivel en la EPA. Este colectivo presenta limitaciones en la movilidad articular y la fuerza. Los jóvenes debían indagar acerca de la temática en cuestión y de los destinatarios del programa y diseñar las sesiones que sería necesario aplicar a las alumnas adultas, durante cuatro meses. La fase de análisis y diseño se llevaba a cabo en horario lectivo, mientras que la intervención se realizaba en horario libre. Presentamos aquí los resultados satisfactorios que este tipo de metodología tiene para todos los participantes.Peer Reviewe

Multiple shifts and fractional integration in the us and uk unemployment rates

This paper analyses the long-run behaviour of the US and UK unemployment rates by testing for possibly fractional orders of integration and multiple shifts using a sample of over 100 annual observations. The results show that the orders of integration are higher than 0 in both series, which implies long memory. If we assume that the underlying disturbances are white noise, the values are higher than 0.5, i.e., nonstationary. However, if the disturbances are autocorrelated, the orders of integration are in the interval (0, 0.5), implying stationarity and mean-reverting behaviour. Moreover, when multiple shifts are taken into account, unemployment is more persistent in the US than in the UK, implying the need for stronger policy action in the former to bring unemployment back to its original level

The non-self-adjointness of the radial momentum operator in n dimensions

The non self-adjointness of the radial momentum operator has been noted before by several authors, but the various proofs are incorrect. We give a rigorous proof that the $n$-dimensional radial momentum operator is not self- adjoint and has no self-adjoint extensions. The main idea of the proof is to show that this operator is unitarily equivalent to the momentum operator on $L^{2}[(0,\infty),dr]$ which is not self-adjoint and has no self-adjoint extensions.Comment: Some text and a reference adde

Hydrodynamic response of rotationally supported flows in the Small Shearing Box model

The hydrodynamic response of the inviscid small shearing box model of a midplane section of a rotationally supported astrophysical disk is examined. An energy functional ${\cal E}$ is formulated for the general nonlinear problem. It is found that the fate of disturbances is related to the conservation of this quantity which, in turn, depends on the boundary conditions utilized: ${\cal E}$ is conserved for channel boundary conditions while it is not conserved in general for shearing box conditions. Linearized disturbances subject to channel boundary conditions have normal-modes described by Bessel Functions and are qualitatively governed by a quantity $\Sigma$ which is a measure of the ratio between the azimuthal and vertical wavelengths. Inertial oscillations ensue if $\Sigma >1$ - otherwise disturbances must in general be treated as an initial value problem. We reflect upon these results and offer a speculation.Comment: 6 pages, resubmitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics, shortened with references adde