Tenth-Order QED Contribution to the Electron g-2 and an Improved Value of the Fine Structure Constant

This paper presents the complete QED contribution to the electron g-2 up to the tenth order. With the help of the automatic code generator, we have evaluated all 12672 diagrams of the tenth-order diagrams and obtained 9.16 (58)(\alpha/\pi)^5. We have also improved the eighth-order contribution obtaining -1.9097(20)(\alpha/\pi)^4, which includes the mass-dependent contributions. These results lead to a_e(theory)=1 159 652 181.78 (77) \times 10^{-12}. The improved value of the fine-structure constant \alpha^{-1} = 137.035 999 174 (35) [0.25 ppb] is also derived from the theory and measurement of a_e.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Some numbers are slightly change

Field quantization for chaotic resonators with overlapping modes

Feshbach's projector technique is employed to quantize the electromagnetic field in optical resonators with an arbitray number of escape channels. We find spectrally overlapping resonator modes coupled due to the damping and noise inflicted by the external radiation field. For wave chaotic resonators the mode dynamics is determined by a non--Hermitean random matrix. Upon including an amplifying medium, our dynamics of open-resonator modes may serve as a starting point for a quantum theory of random lasing.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Growth, micro-structuring, spectroscopy, and optical gain in as-deposited Al2O3:ErAl_2O_3:Er waveguides

Deposition and micro-structuring of $Al_2O_3:Er$ layers with low background losses (0.11 dB/cm) and lifetimes up to 7 ms have been optimized for active devices. Net gain of 0.7 dB/cm at 1533 nm has been measured.\ud \u

What happens during a blackout: Consequences of a prolonged and wide-ranging power outage

Power outages in Europe and North America in recent years have given a lasting impression of the vulnerability of modern and high-tech societies. Although the power supply was interrupted for a week at most and only locally, massive functional and supply disruptions, threats to public order and damage amounting to billions of euros have already become apparent. This book shows what consequences a prolonged and widespread power blackout could have on society and its critical infrastructures and how Germany is prepared for such a large-scale disaster. By means of comprehensive consequence analyses, the authors drastically demonstrate that after only a few days, the supply of the population with (vital) goods and services can no longer be guaranteed in the affected area. It is also made clear that considerable efforts are required to increase the sustainability of critical infrastructures and to further optimise the capacities of the national disaster management system. The book is based on TAB Report Nr. 141 "Gefährdung und Verletzbarkeit moderner Gesellschaften - am Beispiel eines großräumigen und langandauernden Ausfalls der Stromversorgung"

Cinacalcet Treatment of Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Although parathyroidectomy remains the only curative approach to most primary hyperparathyroidism cases, medical treatment with cinacalcet HCl has been proven to be a reasonable alternative for several patient subgroups. Cinacalcet almost always controls hypercalcemia and hypophosphatemia sufficiently. PTH levels are lowered, and cognitive parameters improve. While an increase in bone mineral density DEXA scan scores was not demonstrated in cinacalcet trials, the same applies to more than half of patients after parathyroidectomy. Medical therapy should be first choice in patients with hyperplasia in all glands rather than an isolated adenoma (10–15%), patients with persisting HPT following unsuccessful surgery or inoperable cases due to comorbidities, and patients detected in lab screens for hypercalcemia before developing symptoms who should be treated early but are usually reluctant to undergo surgery. Nephrolithiasis was not found to occur more frequently in cinacalcet trial groups, but urine calcium excretion as one major risk factor of this complication of primary HPT may increase on cinacalcet. Patients carrying the rs1042636 polymorphism of the calcium-sensing receptor gene respond more sensitively to cinacalcet and have a higher risk of calcium stone formation. Cinacalcet is usually administered twice daily but three or four doses per day should be discussed to mimic the beneficial pulsatile PTH-pattern

The role of clustering and gridlike ordering in epidemic spreading

The spreading of an epidemic is determined by the connectiviy patterns which underlie the population. While it has been noted that a virus spreads more easily on a network in which global distances are small, it remains a great challenge to find approaches that unravel the precise role of local interconnectedness. Such topological properties enter very naturally in the framework of our two-timestep description, also providing a novel approach to tract a probabilistic system. The method is elaborated for SIS-type epidemic processes, leading to a quantitative interpretation of the role of loops up to length 4 in the onset of an epidemic.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. E; 15 pages, 11 figures, 5 table

R-process nucleosynthesis calculations with complete nuclear physics input

The r-process constitutes one of the major challenges in nuclear astrophysics. Its astrophysical site has not yet been identified but there is observational evidence suggesting that at least two possible sites should contribute to the solar system abundance of r-process elements and that the r-process responsible for the production of elements heavier than Z=56 operates quite robustly producing always the same relative abundances. From the nuclear-physics point of view the r-process requires the knowledge of a large number of reaction rates involving exotic nuclei. These include neutron capture rates, beta-decays and fission rates, the latter for the heavier nuclei produced in the r-process. We have developed for the first time a complete database of reaction rates that in addition to neutron-capture rates and beta-decay half-lives includes all possible reactions that can induce fission (neutron-capture, beta-decay and spontaneous fission) and the corresponding fission yields. In addition, we have implemented these reaction rates in a fully implicit reaction network. We have performed r-process calculations for the neutrino-driven wind scenario to explore whether or not fission can contribute to provide a robust r-process pattern