15,221 research outputs found
Protein deprivation facilitates the independent evolution of behavior and morphology
Ecological conditions such as nutrition can change genetic covariances between traits and accelerate or slow down trait evolution. As adaptive trait correlations can become maladaptive following rapid environmental change, poor or stressful environments are expected to weaken genetic covariances, thereby increasing the opportunity for independent evolution of traits. Here, we demonstrate the differences in genetic covariance among multiple behavioral and morphological traits (exploration, aggression, and body weight) between southern field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) raised in favorable (free-choice) versus stressful (protein-deprived) nutritional environments. We also quantify the extent to which differences in genetic covariance structures contribute to the potential for the independent evolution of these traits. We demonstrate that protein-deprived environments tend to increase the potential for traits to evolve independently, which is caused by genetic covariances that are significantly weaker for crickets raised on protein-deprived versus free-choice diets. The weakening effects of stressful environments on genetic covariances tended to be stronger in males than in females. The weakening of the genetic covariance between traits under stressful nutritional environments was expected to facilitate the opportunity for adaptive evolution across generations. Therefore, the multivariate gene-by-environment interactions revealed here may facilitate behavioral and morphological adaptations to rapid environmental change
Rotations associated with Lorentz boosts
It is possible to associate two angles with two successive non-collinear
Lorentz boosts. If one boost is applied after the initial boost, the result is
the final boost preceded by a rotation called the Wigner rotation. The other
rotation is associated with Wigner's O(3)-like little group. These two angles
are shown to be different. However, it is shown that the sum of these two
rotation angles is equal to the angle between the initial and final boosts.
This relation is studied for both low-speed and high-speed limits. Furthermore,
it is noted that the two-by-two matrices which are under the responsibility of
other branches of physics can be interpreted in terms of the transformations of
the Lorentz group, or vice versa. Classical ray optics is mentioned as a case
in point.Comment: LaTeX, 16 Pages, 4 epsfigure
Commuting Simplicity and Closure Constraints for 4D Spin Foam Models
Spin Foam Models are supposed to be discretised path integrals for quantum
gravity constructed from the Plebanski-Holst action. The reason for there being
several models currently under consideration is that no consensus has been
reached for how to implement the simplicity constraints. Indeed, none of these
models strictly follows from the original path integral with commuting B
fields, rather, by some non standard manipulations one always ends up with non
commuting B fields and the simplicity constraints become in fact anomalous
which is the source for there being several inequivalent strategies to
circumvent the associated problems. In this article, we construct a new
Euclidian Spin Foam Model which is constructed by standard methods from the
Plebanski-Holst path integral with commuting B fields discretised on a 4D
simplicial complex. The resulting model differs from the current ones in
several aspects, one of them being that the closure constraint needs special
care. Only when dropping the closure constraint by hand and only in the large
spin limit can the vertex amplitudes of this model be related to those of the
FK Model but even then the face and edge amplitude differ. Curiously, an ad hoc
non-commutative deformation of the variables leads from our new model
to the Barrett-Crane Model in the case of Barbero-Immirzi parameter goes to
infinity.Comment: 41 pages, 4 figure
Curvature Radiation in Rotating Pulsar Magnetosphere
We consider the curvature emission properties from relativistic particles
streaming along magnetic field lines and co-rotating with pulsar magnetosphere.
The co-rotation affects the trajectories of the particles and hence the
emission properties, especially the polarization. We consider the modification
of the particle velocity and acceleration due to the co-rotation. Curvature
radiation from a single particle is calculated using the approximation of a
circular path to the particle trajectory. Curvature radiation from particles at
a given height actually contains the contributions from particles streaming
along all the nearby field lines around the tangential point, forming the
emission cone of 1/{\gamma}. The polarization patterns from the emission cone
are distorted by the additional rotation, more serious for emission from a
larger height. Net circular polarization can be generated by the density
gradient in the emission cone. For three typical density models in the form of
core, cone and patches, we calculate the polarization profiles for emission
generated at a given height. We find that the circular polarization could have
a single sign or sign reversal, depending on the density gradient along the
rotation phase. The polarization profiles of the total curvature radiation from
the whole open field line region, calculated by adding the emission from all
possible heights, are similar to that from a dominating emission height. The
circular polarization of curvature radiation has sign reversals in the patchy
emission, while it has a single sign for the core emission, and is negligible
for the cone emission.Comment: 13pages,20figure
Canonical path integral measures for Holst and Plebanski gravity. I. Reduced Phase Space Derivation
An important aspect in defining a path integral quantum theory is the
determination of the correct measure. For interacting theories and theories
with constraints, this is non-trivial, and is normally not the heuristic
"Lebesgue measure" usually used. There have been many determinations of a
measure for gravity in the literature, but none for the Palatini or Holst
formulations of gravity. Furthermore, the relations between different resulting
measures for different formulations of gravity are usually not discussed.
In this paper we use the reduced phase technique in order to derive the
path-integral measure for the Palatini and Holst formulation of gravity, which
is different from the Lebesgue measure up to local measure factors which depend
on the spacetime volume element and spatial volume element.
From this path integral for the Holst formulation of GR we can also give a
new derivation of the Plebanski path integral and discover a discrepancy with
the result due to Buffenoir, Henneaux, Noui and Roche (BHNR) whose origin we
resolve. This paper is the first in a series that aims at better understanding
the relation between canonical LQG and the spin foam approach.Comment: 27 pages, minor correction
Output coupling of a Bose-Einstein condensate formed in a TOP trap
Two distinct mechanisms are investigated for transferring a pure 87Rb
Bose-Einstein condensate in the F = 2, mF = 2 state into a mixture of
condensates in all the mF states within the F = 2 manifold. Some of these
condensates remain trapped whilst others are output coupled in the form of an
elementary pulsed atom laser. Here we present details of the condensate
preparation and results of the two condensate output coupling schemes. The
first scheme is a radio frequency technique which allows controllable transfer
into available mF states, and the second makes use of Majorana spin flips to
equally populate all the manifold sub-states.Comment: 12 Pages, 5 Figures, submitted to J. Phys.
Coulomb drag of Luttinger liquids and quantum-Hall edges
We study the transconductance for two coupled one-dimensional wires or edge
states described by Luttinger liquid models. The wires are assumed to interact
over a finite segment. We find for the interaction parameter that the
drag rate is finite at zero temperature, which cannot occur in a Fermi-liquid
system. The zero temperature drag is, however, cut off at low temperature due
to the finite length of the wires. We also consider edge states in the
fractional quantum Hall regime, and we suggest that the low temperature
enhancement of the drag effect might be seen in the fractional quantum Hall
regime.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Island nucleation in the presence of step edge barriers: Theory and applications
We develop a theory of nucleation on top of two-dimensional islands bordered
by steps with an additional energy barrier for descending atoms.
The theory is based on the concept of the residence time of an adatom on the
island,and yields an expression for the nucleation rate which becomes exact in
the limit of strong step edge barriers. This expression differs qualitatively
and quantitatively from that obtained using the conventional rate equation
approach to nucleation [J. Tersoff et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.72, 266 (1994)]. We
argue that rate equation theory fails because nucleation is dominated by the
rare instances when two atoms are present on the island simultaneously. The
theory is applied to two distinct problems: The onset of second layer
nucleation in submonolayer growth, and the distribution of the sizes of top
terraces of multilayer mounds under conditions of strong step edge barriers.
Application to homoepitaxial growth on Pt(111) yields the estimate eV for the additional energy barrier at CO-decorated steps.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
Energy transfer from Cr to Nd in substitutional crystal Y3GaxAl5-x O12 codoped with Nd and Cr
Garnet crystals codoped with Nd3+ and Cr3+ ions are a candidate for solar-pumped laser materials. Substitutional disordered crystals Y3GaxAl5-xO12 were prepared to improve the pumping efficiency of Nd3+ luminescence and energy transfer from Cr3+ to Nd3+ ions. The substitutional disordered crystal host produced inhomogeneous broadening of the Nd3+ and Cr3+ optical spectra. Enhancement of overlapping between the Cr3+ absorption bands and the solar spectrum, and between the Cr3+ luminescence bands and the Nd3+ absorption lines led to the increases of the pumping efficiency and the energy transfer rates, respectively. The excitation spectrum of the Nd3+ luminescence, the nonexponential decay curves of the Cr3+ luminescence, and the quantum yields of the Cr3+ and Nd3+ luminescence have given evidence on the energy transfer from Cr3+ to Nd3+ ions
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