2,899 research outputs found
Comment on `Glassy Transition in a Disordered Model for the RNA Secondary Structure'
In cond-mat/9907125 the low-temperature behavior of a model for RNA secondary
structure was studied. It is claimed that the model exhibits a breaking of the
replica symmetry, since the width of the distribution P(q) of overlaps may
converge to a finite value at T=0. The authors used an exact enumeration method
to obtain all ground states for a given RNA sequence. Because of the
exponential growing degeneracy, only sequences up to length L=256 could be
studied.
Here it is shown that, in contrast to the previous results, by going to much
larger sizes as L=2000 the variance coverges towards zero, i.e. P(q) is a
delta-function in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: completely rewritten, comment to cond-mat/9907125 (PRL 84, 2026
Pathways to early retirement: structure and agency in decision-making among British civil servants
The advantages and disadvantages of horizontal gene transfer and the emergence of the first species
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) is beneficial to a cell if the acquired gene confers a useful function, but is detrimental if the gene has no function, if it is incompatible with existing genes, or if it is a selfishly replicating mobile element. If the balance of these effects is beneficial on average, we would expect cells to evolve high rates of acceptance of horizontally transferred genes, whereas if it is detrimental, cells should reduce the rate of HGT as far as possible. It has been proposed that the rate of HGT was very high in the early stages of prokaryotic evolution, and hence there were no separate lineages of organisms. Only when the HGT rate began to fall, would lineages begin to emerge with their own distinct sets of genes. Evolution would then become more tree-like. This phenomenon has been called the Darwinian Threshold.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We study a model for genome evolution that incorporates both beneficial and detrimental effects of HGT. We show that if rate of gene loss during genome replication is high, as was probably the case in the earliest genomes before the time of the last universal common ancestor, then a high rate of HGT is favourable. HGT leads to the rapid spread of new genes and allows the build-up of larger, fitter genomes than could be achieved by purely vertical inheritance. In contrast, if the gene loss rate is lower, as in modern prokaryotes, then HGT is, on average, unfavourable.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Modern cells should therefore evolve to reduce HGT if they can, although the prevalence of independently replicating mobile elements and viruses may mean that cells cannot avoid HGT in practice. In the model, natural selection leads to gradual improvement of the replication accuracy and gradual decrease in the optimal rate of HGT. By clustering genomes based on gene content, we show that there are no separate lineages of organisms when the rate of HGT is high; however, as the rate of HGT decreases, a tree-like structure emerges with well-defined lineages. The model therefore passes through a Darwinian Threshold.</p> <p>Reviewers</p> <p>This article was reviewed by Eugene V. Koonin, Anthony Poole and J. Peter Gogarten.</p
Probing the Higgs mechanism via
We investigate the sensitivity of the reaction to
the Higgs sector based on the complete one-loop corrections in the minimal
Standard Model and the gauged non-linear -model. While this sensitivity
is very strong for the suppressed cross-section of equally polarized photons
and longitudinal W bosons, it is only marginal for the dominant mode of
transverse polarizations. The corrections within the -model turn out to
be UV-finite in accordance with the absence of \log\MH terms in the Standard
Model with a heavy Higgs boson.Comment: 12 pages uuencoded postscrip
The Triple Higgs Boson Self-Coupling at Future Linear e+e- Colliders Energies: ILC and CLIC
We analyzed the triple Higgs boson self-coupling at future
colliders energies, with the reactions . We evaluate the total cross-sections for both and ,
and calculate the total number of events considering the complete set of
Feynman diagrams at tree-level. We vary the triple coupling
within the range and +2. The numerical
computation is done for the energies expected to be available at a possible
Future Linear Collider with a center-of-mass energy and a luminosity 1000 . Our analysis is also extended to a
center-of-mass energy 3 and luminosities of 1000 and 5000
. We found that for the process , the
complete calculation differs only by 3% from the approximate calculation
, while for the process , the expected number of events, considering the decay products of both
and , is not enough to obtain an accurate determination of the triple Higgs
boson self-coupling.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure
Reply to the Comment on `Glassy Transition in a Disordered Model for the RNA Secondary Structure'
We reply to the Comment by Hartmann (cond-mat/9908132) on our paper Phys.
Rev. Lett. 84 (2000) 2026 (also cond-mat/9907125).Comment: 1 page, no figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Possibility of the new type phase transition
The scalar field theory and the scalar electrodynamics quantized in the flat
gap are considered. The dynamical effects arising due to the boundary presence
with two types of boundary conditions (BC) satisfied by scalar fields are
studied. It is shown that while the Neumann BC lead to the usual scalar field
mass generation, the Dirichlet BC give rise to the dynamical mechanism of
spontaneous symmetry breaking. Due to the later, there arises the possibility
of the new type phase transition from the normal to spontaneously broken phase.
The decreasing in the characteristic size of the quantization region (the gap
size here) and increasing in the temperature compete with each other, tending
to transport the system in the spontaneously broken and in the normal phase,
respectively. The system evolves with a combined parameter, simultaneously
reflecting the change in temperature and in the size. As a result, at the
critical value of this parameter there occurs the phase transition from the
normal phase to the spontaneously broken one. In particular, the usual massless
scalar electrodynamics transforms to the Higgs model
Theoretical predictions for the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in the NMSSM
We analyse the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in the framework of
the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. After performing a detailed
analysis of the parameter space, taking into account all the available
constraints from LEPII, we compute the neutralino-nucleon cross section, and
compare the results with the sensitivity of detectors. We find that sizable
values for the detection cross section, within the reach of dark matter
detectors, are attainable in this framework. For example, neutralino-proton
cross sections compatible with the sensitivity of present experiments can be
obtained due to the exchange of very light Higgses with m_{h_1^0}\lsim 70
GeV. Such Higgses have a significant singlet composition, thus escaping
detection and being in agreement with accelerator data. The lightest neutralino
in these cases exhibits a large singlino-Higgsino composition, and a mass in
the range 50\lsim m_{\tilde\chi_1^0}\lsim 100 GeV.Comment: Final version to appear in JHEP. References added. LaTeX, 53 pages,
23 figure
Observation of Leggett's collective mode in a multi-band MgB2 superconductor
We report observation of Leggett's collective mode in a multi-band MgB2
superconductor with T_c=39K arising from the fluctuations in the relative phase
between two superconducting condensates. The novel mode is observed by Raman
spectroscopy at 9.4 meV in the fully symmetric scattering channel. The observed
mode frequency is consistent with theoretical considerations based on the first
principle computations.Comment: Accepted for PR
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