Gluino zero-modes for non-trivial holonomy calorons

We couple fermion fields in the adjoint representation (gluinos) to the SU(2) gauge field of unit charge calorons defined on R^3 x S_1. We compute corresponding zero-modes of the Dirac equation. These are relevant in semiclassical studies of N=1 Super-symmetric Yang-Mills theory. Our formulas, show that, up to a term proportional to the vector potential, the modes can be constructed by different linear combinations of two contributions adding up to the total caloron field strength.Comment: 17 pages, 3 Postscript figures, late

Matter degrees of freedom and string breaking in Abelian projected quenched SU(2) QCD

In the Abelian projection the Yang--Mills theory contains Abelian gauge fields (diagonal degrees of freedom) and the Abelian matter fields (off-diagonal degrees) described by a complicated action. The matter fields are essential for the breaking of the adjoint string. We obtain numerically the effective action of the Abelian gauge and the Abelian matter fields in quenched SU(2) QCD and show that the Abelian matter fields provide an essential contribution to the total action even in the infrared region. We also observe the breaking of an Abelian analog of the adjoint string using Abelian operators. We show that the adjoint string tension is dominated by the Abelian and the monopole contributions similarly to the case of the fundamental particles. We conclude that the adjoint string breaking can successfully be described in the Abelian projection formalism.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

An Abelian effective action reproducing screening and confinement in quenched SU(2) QCD

In an Abelian projection SU(2) gluodynamics contains Abelian gauge fields (diagonal degrees of freedom) and Abelian matter fields (off-diagonal degrees). The matter fields are essential for the breaking of the adjoint string. We obtain numerically the effective action of the Abelian fields in quenched SU(2) QCD and show that the Abelian matter fields provide an essential contribution to the total action even in the infrared region.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, uses espcrc2.sty; Lattice2003(topology

Fisheries and reproductive biology of Octopus vulgaris (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) in the Gulf of Alicante (Northwestern Mediterranean)

The common octopus Octopus vulgarisCuvier, 1797 is the most fished cephalopod species along the Spanish coasts. Its catches are highly fluctuating due to the short life cycle of the species and to the annual variability of the recruitment pattern, strongly dependent on the environmental conditions affecting the eggs and paralarvae. This study examines the common octopus fishery, the catch composition, and the main features of the reproductive biology of this species in the Gulf of Alicante (Spanish Eastern coast, Western Mediterranean FAO division 37.1.1). The common octopus fishery was studied analysing the monthly landing and effort data by fishing gear from 1994 to 2005. Monthly samplings of the commercial O. vulgarislandings from trawlers and clay pots from January 2004 to December 2005 resulted in the measuring of 1833 specimens to enable analysis of the catch composition, and allowed the biological sampling of 1176 individuals to provide the reproductive parameters of the species in the study area. The length-weight relationship calculated for the species was BW = 0.51 * DML 2.87. The yearly sex ratios (males:females) were 1:1 (trawl, 2004), 1:0.74 (trawl, 2005), and 1:0.88 (clay pots, 2005). The size (dorsal mantle length, DML) at maturity of the species in the study area was 9.67 cm for males and 14.38 cm for females. The gonadosomatic index reached a peak between April and July for males and in July for females. The Fulton condition index was lower in both sexes between June and September, and for males in November-December, whereas for both sexes the values of the digestive gland index were at their maximum between June and December. The energy allocation between somatic and reproductive growth was investigated and the results suggested that the energy spent on reproduction mainly came from feeding, and not from energy stored in the mantle tissues or in the digestive glan

A novel adaptive density-based ACO algorithm with minimal encoding redundancy for clustering problems

In the so-called Big Data paradigm descriptive analytics are widely conceived as techniques and models aimed at discovering knowledge within unlabeled datasets (e.g. patterns, similarities, etc) of utmost help for subsequent predictive and prescriptive methods. One of these techniques is clustering, which hinges on different multi-dimensional measures of similarity between unsupervised data instances so as to blindly collect them in groups of clusters. Among the myriad of clustering approaches reported in the literature this manuscript focuses on those relying on bio-inspired meta-heuristics, which have been lately shown to outperform traditional clustering schemes in terms of convergence, adaptability and parallelization. Specifically this work presents a new clustering approach based on the processing fundamentals of the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm, i.e. stigmergy via pheromone trails and progressive construction of solutions through a graph. The novelty of the proposed scheme beyond previous research on ACO-based clustering lies on a significantly pruned graph that not only minimizes the representation redundancy of the problem at hand, but also allows for an embedded estimation of the number of clusters within the data. However, this approach imposes a modified ant behavior so as to account for the optimality of entire paths rather than that of single steps within the graph. Simulation results over conventional datasets will evince the promising performance of our approach and motivate further research aimed at its applicability to real scenarios

High performance LATP thin film electrolytes for all-solid-state microbattery applications

The NASICON superionic solid electrolyte Li1+xAlxTi2-x(PO4)3 (LATP) with 0.3 = x = 0.5 remains one of the most promising solid electrolytes thanks to its good ionic conductivity and outstanding stability in ambient air. Despite the intensive research for bulk systems, there are only very few studies of LATP in a thin film form (thickness < 1 µm) and its implementation in all-solid-state batteries and microbatteries. The following study fills this gap by exploring the properties of high performance LATP thin films fabricated by large-area Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The as-deposited thin films exhibit an ionic conductivity of around 0.5 µS cm-1 at room temperature (comparable to the state-of-the-art of LiPON) which increases to a remarkably high value of 0.1 mS cm-1 after an additional annealing at 800 °C. A possible cause for this significant enhancement in ionic conductivity by two orders of magnitude is the formation of a glassy, intergranular phase. The performance of both as-deposited and annealed LATP films makes them suitable as solid electrolytes, which opens the path to a new family of stable and high performance all-solid-state thin film batteries. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry

Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations and New Physics

We study the robustness of the determination of the neutrino masses and mixing from the analysis of atmospheric and K2K data under the presence of different forms of phenomenologically allowed new physics in the nu_mu--nu_tau sector. We focus on vector and tensor-like new physics interactions which allow us to treat, in a model independent way, effects due to the violation of the equivalence principle, violations of the Lorentz invariance both CPT conserving and CPT violating, non-universal couplings to a torsion field and non-standard neutrino interactions with matter. We perform a global analysis of the full atmospheric data from SKI together with long baseline K2K data in the presence of nu_mu -> nu_tau transitions driven by neutrino masses and mixing together with sub-dominant effects due to these forms of new physics. We show that within the present degree of experimental precision, the extracted values of masses and mixing are robust under those effects and we derive the upper bounds on the possible strength of these new interactions in the nu_mu--nu_tau sector.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX file using RevTEX4, 5 figures and 4 tables include

Universality of Yukawa Couplings Confronts Recent Neutrino Data

We propose a flavour structure for the leptonic sector of the Standard Model, based on the idea of universality of Yukawa couplings, which accommodates all the experimental data on neutrino masses and mixing, at the same time predicting specific correlations between low energy measurable quantities, such as the ratio of neutrino squared mass differences, $|U_{13}|$, the leptonic Dirac phase, and the double-beta decay mass parameter. We also point out that it is possible, in this framework, to generate a sufficient amount of baryon asymmetry of the Universe through leptogenesis.Comment: 22 Pages, 5 Figure

Leptogenesis, CP violation and neutrino data: What can we learn?

A detailed analytic and numerical study of baryogenesis through leptogenesis is performed in the framework of the standard model of electroweak interactions extended by the addition of three right-handed neutrinos, leading to the seesaw mechanism. We analyze the connection between GUT-motivated relations for the quark and lepton mass matrices and the possibility of obtaining a viable leptogenesis scenario. In particular, we analyze whether the constraints imposed by SO(10) GUTs can be compatible with all the available solar, atmospheric and reactor neutrino data and, simultaneously, be capable of producing the required baryon asymmetry via the leptogenesis mechanism. It is found that the Just-So^2 and SMA solar solutions lead to a viable leptogenesis even for the simplest SO(10) GUT, while the LMA, LOW and VO solar solutions would require a different hierarchy for the Dirac neutrino masses in order to generate the observed baryon asymmetry. Some implications on CP violation at low energies and on neutrinoless double beta decay are also considered.Comment: 36 pages, 6 figures; new references added, final version to appear in Nucl. Phys.