58 research outputs found
Identification of Cost Effective Energy Conservation Methods
In addition to a successful program of readily implemented conservation actions for reducing building energy consumption at Kennedy Space Center, recent detailed analyses have identified further substantial savings for buildings representative of technical facilities designed when energy costs were low. The techniques employed for determination of these energy savings consisted of facility configuration analysis, power and lighting measurements, detailed computer simulations and simulation verifications. Use of these methods resulted in identification of projected energy savings as large as $330,000 a year (approximately fwo year breakeven period) in a single building. Application of these techniques to other commercial buildings is discussed
b-Initiated processes at the LHC: a reappraisal
Several key processes at the LHC in the standard model and beyond that
involve quarks, such as single-top, Higgs, and weak vector boson associated
production, can be described in QCD either in a 4-flavor or 5-flavor scheme. In
the former, quarks appear only in the final state and are typically
considered massive. In 5-flavor schemes, calculations include quarks in the
initial state, are simpler and allow the resummation of possibly large initial
state logarithms of the type into the
parton distribution function (PDF), being the typical scale of the
hard process. In this work we critically reconsider the rationale for using
5-flavor improved schemes at the LHC. Our motivation stems from the observation
that the effects of initial state logs are rarely very large in hadron
collisions: 4-flavor computations are pertubatively well behaved and a
substantial agreement between predictions in the two schemes is found. We
identify two distinct reasons that explain this behaviour, i.e., the
resummation of the initial state logarithms into the -PDF is relevant only
at large Bjorken and the possibly large ratios 's are
always accompanied by universal phase space suppression factors. Our study
paves the way to using both schemes for the same process so to exploit their
complementary advantages for different observables, such as employing a
5-flavor scheme to accurately predict the total cross section at NNLO and the
corresponding 4-flavor computation at NLO for fully exclusive studies.Comment: Fixed typo in Eq. (A.10) and few typos in Eq. (C.2) and (C.3
On the singular behaviour of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory
We analyse the singular behaviour of one-loop integrals and scattering amplitudes in the framework of the loop-tree duality approach. We show that there is a partial cancellation of singularities at the loop integrand level among the different components of the corresponding dual representation that can be interpreted in terms of causality. The remaining threshold and infrared singularities are restricted to a finite region of the loop momentum space, which is of the size of the external momenta and can be mapped to the phase-space of real corrections to cancel the soft and collinear divergences
Basics of Generalized Unitarity
We review generalized unitarity as a means for obtaining loop amplitudes from
on-shell tree amplitudes. The method is generally applicable to both
supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric amplitudes, including non-planar
contributions. Here we focus mainly on N=4 Yang-Mills theory, in the context of
on-shell superspaces. Given the need for regularization at loop level, we also
review a six-dimensional helicity-based superspace formalism and its
application to dimensional and massive regularizations. An important feature of
the unitarity method is that it offers a means for carrying over any identified
tree-level property of on-shell amplitudes to loop level, though sometimes in a
modified form. We illustrate this with examples of dual conformal symmetry and
a recently discovered duality between color and kinematics.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures. Invited review for a special issue of Journal
of Physics A devoted to "Scattering Amplitudes in Gauge Theories", R.
Roiban(ed), M. Spradlin(ed), A. Volovich(ed
Large scale analytic calculations in quantum field theories
We present a survey on the mathematical structure of zero- and single scale
quantities and the associated calculation methods and function spaces in higher
order perturbative calculations in relativistic renormalizable quantum field
theories.Comment: 25 pages Latex, 1 style fil
The SM and NLO multileg working group: Summary report
This report summarizes the activities of the SM and NLO Multileg Working
Group of the Workshop "Physics at TeV Colliders", Les Houches, France 8-26
June, 2009.Comment: 169 pages, Report of the SM and NLO Multileg Working Group for the
Workshop "Physics at TeV Colliders", Les Houches, France 8-26 June, 200
On the Perturbative Stability of the QCD Predictions for the Ratio in Heavy-Quark Leptoproduction
We analyze the perturbative and parametric stability of the QCD predictions
for the Callan-Gross ratio in heavy-quark leptoproduction.
We consider the radiative corrections to the dominant photon-gluon fusion
mechanism. In various kinematic regions, the following contributions are
investigated: exact NLO results at low and moderate ,
asymptotic NLO predictions at high , and both NLO and NNLO
soft-gluon (or threshold) corrections at large Bjorken . Our analysis shows
that large radiative corrections to the structure functions and
cancel each other in their ratio with good accuracy. As
a result, the NLO contributions to the Callan-Gross ratio are less than 10% in
a wide region of the variables and . We provide compact LO predictions
for in the case of low . A simple formula connecting the
high-energy behavior of the Callan-Gross ratio and low- asymptotics of the
gluon density is derived. It is shown that the obtained hadron-level
predictions for are stable under the DGLAP evolution of the
gluon distribution function. Our analytic results simplify the extraction of
the structure functions and from measurements of
the corresponding reduced cross sections, in particular at DESY HERA.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, revtex4; minor correction
Simplifying Multiple Sums in Difference Fields
In this survey article we present difference field algorithms for symbolic
summation. Special emphasize is put on new aspects in how the summation
problems are rephrased in terms of difference fields, how the problems are
solved there, and how the derived results in the given difference field can be
reinterpreted as solutions of the input problem. The algorithms are illustrated
with the Mathematica package \SigmaP\ by discovering and proving new harmonic
number identities extending those from (Paule and Schneider, 2003). In
addition, the newly developed package \texttt{EvaluateMultiSums} is introduced
that combines the presented tools. In this way, large scale summation problems
for the evaluation of Feynman diagrams in QCD (Quantum ChromoDynamics) can be
solved completely automatically.Comment: Uses svmult.cls, to appear as contribution in the book "Computer
Algebra in Quantum Field Theory: Integration, Summation and Special
Functions" (www.Springer.com
From Webs to Polylogarithms
We compute a class of diagrams contributing to the multi-leg soft anomalous
dimension through three loops, by renormalizing a product of semi-infinite
non-lightlike Wilson lines in dimensional regularization. Using non-Abelian
exponentiation we directly compute contributions to the exponent in terms of
webs. We develop a general strategy to compute webs with multiple gluon
exchanges between Wilson lines in configuration space, and explore their
analytic structure in terms of , the exponential of the Minkowski
cusp angle formed between the lines and . We show that beyond the
obvious inversion symmetry , at the level of the
symbol the result also admits a crossing symmetry , relating spacelike and timelike kinematics, and hence argue that
in this class of webs the symbol alphabet is restricted to and
. We carry out the calculation up to three gluons connecting
four Wilson lines, finding that the contributions to the soft anomalous
dimension are remarkably simple: they involve pure functions of uniform weight,
which are written as a sum of products of polylogarithms, each depending on a
single cusp angle. We conjecture that this type of factorization extends to all
multiple-gluon-exchange contributions to the anomalous dimension.Comment: 64 pages, 8 figure
A randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of nutritional supplementation on visual function in normal, and age-related macular disease affected eyes: design and methodology [ISRCTN78467674]
BACKGROUND: Age-related macular disease is the leading cause of blind registration in the developed world. One aetiological hypothesis involves oxidation, and the intrinsic vulnerability of the retina to damage via this process. This has prompted interest in the role of antioxidants, particularly the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, in the prevention and treatment of this eye disease. METHODS: The aim of this randomised controlled trial is to determine the effect of a nutritional supplement containing lutein, vitamins A, C and E, zinc, and copper on measures of visual function in people with and without age-related macular disease. Outcome measures are distance and near visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, colour vision, macular visual field, glare recovery, and fundus photography. Randomisation is achieved via a random number generator, and masking achieved by third party coding of the active and placebo containers. Data collection will take place at nine and 18 months, and statistical analysis will employ Student's t test. DISCUSSION: A paucity of treatment modalities for age-related macular disease has prompted research into the development of prevention strategies. A positive effect on normals may be indicative of a role of nutritional supplementation in preventing or delaying onset of the condition. An observed benefit in the age-related macular disease group may indicate a potential role of supplementation in prevention of progression, or even a degree reversal of the visual effects caused by this condition
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