Truncated Schwinger-Dyson Equations and Gauge Covariance in QED3

We study the Landau-Khalatnikov-Fradkin transformations (LKFT) in momentum space for the dynamically generated mass function in QED3. Starting from the Landau gauge results in the rainbow approximation, we construct solutions in other covariant gauges. We confirm that the chiral condensate is gauge invariant as the structure of the LKFT predicts. We also check that the gauge dependence of the constituent fermion mass is considerably reduced as compared to the one obtained directly by solving SDE.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. v3. Improved and Expanded. To appear in Few Body System

Filling in the gaps:A grounded theory of the experiences and needs of healthcare staff following a colleague death by suicide in the UK

Health-workers are more likely to die by suicide than their counterparts in other occupational groups. The suicide of a staff member can be widely felt by colleagues, leading to complex emotional and cognitive responses. Exposure to suicide heightens the risk of dying by suicide. We investigated the impact of a colleague suicide on National Health Service (NHS) staff. Twenty-nine staff were interviewed; all participants were white British, and so not representative of the ethnic make-up of the NHS. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methods. A theory, “filling in the gaps” was developed. Staff experiences gave rise to needs that were not always met. Staff endeavoured to “fill in the gaps” in support; however, sometimes fell through those gaps. Organizational and professional contexts shaped their experiences and responses. Recommendations include skilled and targeted support and compassion for affected staff. Cultural change is needed to challenge suicide stigma and unhelpful narratives

Accelerating the transition towards a net zero NHS: Delivering a sustainable and resilient UK healthcare sector

This is the final version. Available via the link in this recordCurrently, a take-make-dispose ‘linear’ health system prevails in the health sector involving large volumes of waste including single use products and disposing of medical equipment prematurely. This creates unnecessary carbon emissions and also wastes money. The 8% annual reduction cannot be achieved by incremental innovation. Instead, suppliers and the NHS need to collaborate to deliver net zero care models. Enabling these changes requires new forms of collaboration between suppliers, health sector decision-makers and the involvement of all staff and service users

Protective factors and sources of support in the workplace as experienced by UK foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study

Objectives: This paper reports findings identifying foundation and junior doctors’ experiences of occupational and psychological protective factors in the workplace and sources of effective support. Design: Interpretative, inductive, qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 21 junior doctor participants. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymised and imported into NVivo V.11 to facilitate data management. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis employing the constant comparative method. Setting: National Health Service in the UK. Participants: Participants were recruited from junior doctors through social media (eg, the British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctors’ Facebook group, Twitter and the mental health research charity websites). A purposive sample of 16 females and 5 males, ethnically diverse, from a range of specialities, across the UK. Junior doctor participants self-identified as having stress, distress, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts or having attempted to kill themselves. Results: Analysis identified three main themes, with corresponding subthemes relating to protective work factors and facilitators of support: (1) support from work colleagues – help with managing workloads and emotional support; (2) supportive leadership strategies, including feeling valued and accepted, trust and communication, supportive learning environments, challenging stigma and normalising vulnerability; and (3) access to professional support – counselling, cognitive–behavioural therapy and medication through general practitioners, specialist support services for doctors and private therapy. Conclusions: Findings show that supportive leadership, effective management practices, peer support and access to appropriate professional support can help mitigate the negative impact of working conditions and cultures experienced by junior doctors. Feeling connected, supported and valued by colleagues and consultants acts as an important buffer against emotional distress despite working under challenging working conditions

Working conditions, psychological distress and suicidal ideation: cross-sectional survey study of UK junior doctors

Background Evidence attests a link between junior doctors’ working conditions and psychological distress. Despite increasing concerns around suicidality among junior doctors, little is known about its relationship to their working conditions. Aims To (a) establish the prevalence of suicidal ideation among junior doctors in the National Health Service; (b) examine the relationships between perceived working conditions and suicidal ideation; and (c) explore whether psychological distress (e.g. symptoms of depression and anxiety) mediates these relationships. Method Junior doctors were recruited between March 2020 and January 2021, for a cross-sectional online survey. We used the Health and Safety Executive's Management Standards Tool; Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21; and Paykel Suicidality Scale to assess working conditions, psychological distress and suicidality, respectively. Results Of the 424 participants, 50.2% reported suicidal ideation, including 6.1% who had made an attempt on their own life. Participants who identified as LGBTQ+ (odds ratio 2.18, 95% CI 1.15–4.12) or reported depression symptoms (odds ratio 1.10, 95% CI 1.07–1.14) were more likely to report suicidal ideation. No direct relationships were reported between working conditions (i.e. control, support, role clarity, strained relationships, demand and change) and suicidal ideation. However, depression symptoms mediated all six relationships. Conclusions This sample of junior doctors reported alarming levels of suicidal ideation. There may be an indirect relationship between working conditions and suicidal ideation via depressive symptoms. Clearer research exploring the experience of suicidality in junior doctors is needed, including those who identify as LGBTQ+. Systematic interventions addressing working environment are needed to support junior doctors’ mental health

QED3 theory of underdoped high temperature superconductors

Low-energy theory of d-wave quasiparticles coupled to fluctuating vortex loops that describes the loss of phase coherence in a two dimensional d-wave superconductor at T=0 is derived. The theory has the form of 2+1 dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED3), and is proposed as an effective description of the T=0 superconductor-insulator transition in underdoped cuprates. The coupling constant ("charge") in this theory is proportional to the dual order parameter of the XY model, which is assumed to be describing the quantum fluctuations of the phase of the superconducting order parameter. The principal result is that the destruction of phase coherence in d-wave superconductors typically, and immediately, leads to antiferromagnetism. The transition can be understood in terms of the spontaneous breaking of an approximate "chiral" SU(2) symmetry, which may be discerned at low enough energies in the standard d-wave superconductor. The mechanism of the symmetry breaking is analogous to the dynamical mass generation in the QED3, with the "mass" here being proportional to staggered magnetization. Other insulating phases that break chiral symmetry include the translationally invariant "d+ip" and "d+is" insulators, and various one dimensional charge-density and spin-density waves. The theory offers an explanation for the rounded d-wave-like dispersion seen in ARPES experiments on Ca2CuO2Cl2 (F. Ronning et. al., Science 282, 2067 (1998)).Comment: Revtex, 20 pages, 5 figures; this is a much extended follow-up to the Phys. Rev. Lett. vol.88, 047006 (2002) (cond-mat/0110188); improved presentation, many additional explanations, comments, and references added, sec. IV rewritten. Final version, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Relationship between working conditions and psychological distress experienced by junior doctors in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey study

Objectives This paper explored the self-reported prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among junior doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also reports the association between working conditions and psychological distress experienced by junior doctors. Design A cross-sectional online survey study was conducted, using the 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and Health and Safety Executive scale to measure psychological well-being and working cultures of junior doctors. Setting The National Health Service in the UK. Participants A sample of 456 UK junior doctors was recruited online during the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to January 2021. Results Junior doctors reported poor mental health, with over 40% scoring extremely severely depressed (45.2%), anxious (63.2%) and stressed (40.2%). Both gender and ethnicity were found to have a significant influence on levels of anxiety. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis outlined the specific working conditions which significantly predicted depression (increased demands (β=0.101), relationships (β=0.27), unsupportive manager (β=−0.111)), anxiety (relationships (β=0.31), change (β=0.18), demands (β=0.179)) and stress (relationships (β=0.18), demands (β=0.28), role (β=0.11)). Conclusions The findings illustrate the importance of working conditions for junior doctors’ mental health, as they were significant predictors for depression, anxiety and stress. Therefore, if the mental health of junior doctors is to be improved, it is important that changes or interventions specifically target the working environment rather than factors within the individual clinician

What challenges did junior doctors face while working during the COVID-19 pandemic? A qualitative study

Objectives: This paper reports findings exploring junior doctors’ experiences of working during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Design: Qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 15 junior doctors. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymised and imported into NVivo V.12 to facilitate data management. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Setting National Health Service (NHS) England. Participants: A purposive sample of 12 female and 3 male junior doctors who indicated severe depression and/or anxiety on the DASS-21 questionnaire or high suicidality on Paykel’s measure were recruited. These doctors self-identified as having lived experience of distress due to their working conditions. Results: We report three major themes. First, the challenges of working during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were both personal and organisational. Personal challenges were characterised by helplessness and included the trauma of seeing many patients dying, fears about safety and being powerless to switch off. Work-related challenges revolved around change and uncertainty and included increasing workloads, decreasing staff numbers and negative impacts on relationships with colleagues and patients. The second theme was strategies for coping with the impact of COVID-19 on work, which were also both personal and organisational. Personal coping strategies, which appeared limited in their usefulness, were problem and emotion focused. Several participants appeared to have moved from coping towards learnt helplessness. Some organisations reacted to COVID-19 collaboratively and flexibly. Third, participants reported a positive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on working practices, which included simplified new ways of working—such as consistent teams and longer rotations—as well as increased camaraderie and support. Conclusions: The trauma that junior doctors experienced while working during COVID-19 led to powerlessness and a reduction in the benefit of individual coping strategies. This may have resulted in feelings of resignation. We recommend that, postpandemic, junior doctors are assigned to consistent teams and offered ongoing support

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011