769 research outputs found
Interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and intraspecific competition affect size and size inequality of Plantago lanceolata L.
Intraspecific competition causes decreases in plant size and increases in size inequality. Arbuscular mycorrhizas usually increase the size and inequality of non-competing plants, but mycorrhizal effects often disappear when plants begin competing. We hypothesized that mycorrhizal effects on size inequality would be determined by the experimental conditions, and conducted simultaneous field and glasshouse experiments to investigate how AM fungi and intraspecific competition determine size inequality in Plantago lanceolata.
2 As predicted, plant size was reduced when plants were competing, in both field and controlled conditions. However, size inequality was unexpectedly reduced by competition. Plants may have competed in a symmetric fashion, probably for nutrients, rather than the more common situation, in which plant competition is strongly asymmetric.
3 Mycorrhizas had no effect on plant size or size inequality in competing plants in either field or controlled conditions, possibly because competition for nutrients was intense and negated any benefit the fungi could provide.
4 The effects of mycorrhizas on non-competing plants were also unexpected. In field-grown plants, AM fungi increased plant size, but decreased size inequality: mycorrhizal plants were more even in size, with few very small individuals. In glasshouse conditions, mycorrhizal colonization was extremely high, and was generally antagonistic, causing a reduction in plant size. Here, however, mycorrhizas caused an increase in size inequality, supporting our original hypothesis. This was because most plants were heavily colonized and small, but a few had low levels of colonization and grew relatively large.
5 This study has important implications for understanding the forces that structure plant communities. AM fungi can have a variety of effects on size inequality and thus potentially important influences on long-term plant population dynamics, by affecting the genetic contribution of individuals to the next generation. However, these effects differ, depending on whether plants are competing or not, the degree of mycorrhizal colonization and the responsiveness of the plant to different colonization densities
First Observation of Coherent Production in Neutrino Nucleus Interactions with 2 GeV
The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab has amassed the largest sample to date
of s produced in neutral current (NC) neutrino-nucleus interactions at
low energy. This paper reports a measurement of the momentum distribution of
s produced in mineral oil (CH) and the first observation of coherent
production below 2 GeV. In the forward direction, the yield of events
observed above the expectation for resonant production is attributed primarily
to coherent production off carbon, but may also include a small contribution
from diffractive production on hydrogen. Integrated over the MiniBooNE neutrino
flux, the sum of the NC coherent and diffractive modes is found to be (19.5
1.1 (stat) 2.5 (sys))% of all exclusive NC production at
MiniBooNE. These measurements are of immediate utility because they quantify an
important background to MiniBooNE's search for
oscillations.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Study of the B^0 Semileptonic Decay Spectrum at the Upsilon(4S) Resonance
We have made a first measurement of the lepton momentum spectrum in a sample
of events enriched in neutral B's through a partial reconstruction of B0 -->
D*- l+ nu. This spectrum, measured with 2.38 fb**-1 of data collected at the
Upsilon(4S) resonance by the CLEO II detector, is compared directly to the
inclusive lepton spectrum from all Upsilon(4S) events in the same data set.
These two spectra are consistent with having the same shape above 1.5 GeV/c.
From the two spectra and two other CLEO measurements, we obtain the B0 and B+
semileptonic branching fractions, b0 and b+, their ratio, and the production
ratio f+-/f00 of B+ and B0 pairs at the Upsilon(4S). We report b+/b0=0.950
(+0.117-0.080) +- 0.091, b0 = (10.78 +- 0.60 +- 0.69)%, and b+ = (10.25 +- 0.57
+- 0.65)%. b+/b0 is equivalent to the ratio of charged to neutral B lifetimes,
tau+/tau0.Comment: 14 page, postscript file also available at
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Anti-Search for the Glueball Candidate f_J(2220) in Two-Photon Interactions
Using 13.3 fb^{-1} of e^+e^- data recorded with the CLEO II and CLEO II.V
detector configurations at CESR, we have searched for f_J(2220) decays to
K^0_{S} K^0_{S} in untagged two-photon interactions. We report an upper limit
on the product of the two-photon partial width and the branching fraction,
Gamma_gamma gamma cdot B (f_J(2220) to K^0_{S} K^0_{S}) of less than 1.1 eV at
the 95% C.L: systematic uncertainties are included. This dataset is four times
larger than that used in the previous CLEO publication.Comment: 10 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, Submitted to PRD (R
On the selection of AGN neutrino source candidates for a source stacking analysis with neutrino telescopes
The sensitivity of a search for sources of TeV neutrinos can be improved by
grouping potential sources together into generic classes in a procedure that is
known as source stacking. In this paper, we define catalogs of Active Galactic
Nuclei (AGN) and use them to perform a source stacking analysis. The grouping
of AGN into classes is done in two steps: first, AGN classes are defined, then,
sources to be stacked are selected assuming that a potential neutrino flux is
linearly correlated with the photon luminosity in a certain energy band (radio,
IR, optical, keV, GeV, TeV). Lacking any secure detailed knowledge on neutrino
production in AGN, this correlation is motivated by hadronic AGN models, as
briefly reviewed in this paper.
The source stacking search for neutrinos from generic AGN classes is
illustrated using the data collected by the AMANDA-II high energy neutrino
detector during the year 2000. No significant excess for any of the suggested
groups was found.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physic
Measurement of the Charged Multiplicities in b, c and Light Quark Events from Z0 Decays
Average charged multiplicities have been measured separately in , and
light quark () events from decays measured in the SLD experiment.
Impact parameters of charged tracks were used to select enriched samples of
and light quark events, and reconstructed charmed mesons were used to select
quark events. We measured the charged multiplicities:
,
, from
which we derived the differences between the total average charged
multiplicities of or quark events and light quark events: and . We compared
these measurements with those at lower center-of-mass energies and with
perturbative QCD predictions. These combined results are in agreement with the
QCD expectations and disfavor the hypothesis of flavor-independent
fragmentation.Comment: 19 pages LaTex, 4 EPS figures, to appear in Physics Letters
Measurement of the Mass Splittings between the States
We present new measurements of photon energies and branching fractions for
the radiative transitions: Upsilon(2S)->gamma+chi_b(J=0,1,2). The masses of the
chi_b states are determined from the measured radiative photon energies. The
ratio of mass splittings between the chi_b substates,
r==(M[J=2]-M[J=1])/(M[J=1]-M[J=0]) with M the chi_b mass, provides information
on the nature of the bbbar confining potential. We find
r(1P)=0.54+/-0.02+/-0.02. This value is in conflict with the previous world
average, but more consistent with the theoretical expectation that r(1P)<r(2P);
i.e., that this mass splittings ratio is smaller for the chi_b(1P) triplet than
for the chi_b(2P) triplet.Comment: 11 page postscript file, postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Radiative Decay Modes of the Meson
Using data recorded by the CLEO-II detector at CESR we have searched for four
radiative decay modes of the meson: ,
, , and . We
obtain 90% CL upper limits on the branching ratios of these modes of , , and
respectively.Comment: 15 page postscript file, postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset
corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected
during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV.
The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the
couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and
right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary
mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b,
leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing
transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W'
boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to
the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for
masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC
data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed
coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant
improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe
Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment
This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and
W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with
the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and
the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto
the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions
f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV
and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw
> 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour,
are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017
+/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second
include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables,
revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio
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