44,312 research outputs found
New methods for B meson decay constants and form factors from lattice NRQCD
We determine the normalisation of scalar and pseudoscalar current operators
made from non-relativistic quarks and Highly Improved Staggered light
quarks in lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) through
and . We use matrix elements of these operators to
extract meson decay constants and form factors, then compare to those
obtained using the standard vector and axial-vector operators. This provides a
test of systematic errors in the lattice QCD determination of the meson
decay constants and form factors. We provide a new value for the and
meson decay constants from lattice QCD calculations on ensembles that include
, , and quarks in the sea and those which have the quark
mass going down to its physical value. Our results are GeV,
GeV and , agreeing well with earlier
results using the temporal axial current. By combining with these previous
results, we provide updated values of GeV,
GeV and .Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure
Pre-design study for a modern four-bladed rotor for the Rotor System Research Aircraft (RSRA)
Various candidate rotor systems were compared in an effort to select a modern four-bladed rotor for the RSRA. The YAH-64 rotor system was chosen as the candidate rotor system for further development for the RSRA. The process used to select the rotor system, studies conducted to mate the rotor with the RSRA and provide parametric variability, and the development plan which would be used to implement these studies are presented. Drawings are included
Nonlinear photon transport in a semiconductor waveguide-cavity system containing a single quantum dot: Anharmonic cavity-QED regime
We present a semiconductor master equation technique to study the
input/output characteristics of coherent photon transport in a semiconductor
waveguide-cavity system containing a single quantum dot. We use this approach
to investigate the effects of photon propagation and anharmonic cavity-QED for
various dot-cavity interaction strengths, including weakly-coupled,
intermediately-coupled, and strongly-coupled regimes. We demonstrate that for
mean photon numbers much less than 0.1, the commonly adopted weak excitation
(single quantum) approximation breaks down, even in the weak coupling regime.
As a measure of the anharmonic multiphoton-correlations, we compute the Fano
factor and the correlation error associated with making a semiclassical
approximation. We also explore the role of electron--acoustic-phonon scattering
and find that phonon-mediated scattering plays a qualitatively important role
on the light propagation characteristics. As an application of the theory, we
simulate a conditional phase gate at a phonon bath temperature of K in the
strong coupling regime.Comment: To appear in PR
Supersymmetry of FRW barotropic cosmologies
Barotropic FRW cosmologies are presented from the standpoint of
nonrelativistic supersymmetry. First, we reduce the barotropic FRW system of
differential equations to simple harmonic oscillator differential equations.
Employing the factorization procedure, the solutions of the latter equations
are divided into the two classes of bosonic (nonsingular) and fermionic
(singular) cosmological solutions. We next introduce a coupling parameter
denoted by K between the two classes of solutions and obtain barotropic
cosmologies with dissipative features acting on the scale factors and spatial
curvature of the universe. The K-extended FRW equations in comoving time are
presented in explicit form in the low coupling regime. The standard barotropic
FRW cosmologies correspond to the dissipationless limit K =0Comment: 6 page
Emergency chlorination of farm water supplies
TOWARDS the end of summer (and especially in a drought) the risk of water in dams, soaks, wells or tanks becoming polluted is increased.
Bore water is much less likely to be affected unless the bore is poorly sited near a farm building, such as a shearing or milking shed, a pig pen, or a septic tank system
Midlatitude Pi2 pulsations: AFGL and ISEE magnetometer observations correlated
The ISEE observations of the pi2 magnetic pulsations occuring substorm onset in the inner magnetosphere are discussed. One of these events which was also detected as a pi2 event by the AFGL midlatitude magnetometers is considered. The event occurred when the foot of the ISEE field line was over North America. The ground and satellite signals are remarkably similar: they start and stop at the same time, have the same period and can be correlated cycle by cycle. The waves are detected in the electric field data from ISEE 1 and in the magnetic field data from both ISEE 1 and ISEE 2. Calculation of the Poynting vector at ISEE 1 shows that the energy flowed mainly westward, but that there was also a component towards the nearer (southern) ionospheric foot of the field line. The phases between the various field components measured by ISEE 1 and 2 indicate that this is a standing hydromagnetic oscillation
Sanitizing the fortress: protection of ant brood and nest material by worker antibiotics
Social groups are at particular risk for parasite infection, which is heightened in eusocial insects by the low genetic diversity of individuals within a colony. To combat this, adult ants have evolved a suite of defenses to protect each other, including the production of antimicrobial secretions. However, it is the brood in a colony that are most vulnerable to parasites because their individual defenses are limited, and the nest material in which ants live is also likely to be prone to colonization by potential parasites. Here, we investigate in two ant species whether adult workers use their antimicrobial secretions not only to protect each other but also to sanitize the vulnerable brood and nest material. We find that, in both leaf-cutting ants and weaver ants, the survival of the brood was reduced and the sporulation of parasitic fungi from them increased, when the workers nursing them lacked functional antimicrobial-producing glands. This was the case for both larvae that were experimentally treated with a fungal parasite (Metarhizium) and control larvae which developed infections of an opportunistic fungal parasite (Aspergillus). Similarly, fungi were more likely to grow on the nest material of both ant species if the glands of attending workers were blocked. The results show that the defense of brood and sanitization of nest material are important functions of the antimicrobial secretions of adult ants and that ubiquitous, opportunistic fungi may be a more important driver of the evolution of these defenses than rarer, specialist parasites
Daylight quantum key distribution over 1.6 km
Quantum key distribution (QKD) has been demonstrated over a point-to-point
-km atmospheric optical path in full daylight. This record
transmission distance brings QKD a step closer to surface-to-satellite and
other long-distance applications.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Submitted to PRL on 14 January 2000 for
publication consideratio
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