1,226 research outputs found
Towards an understanding of hole superconductivity
From the very beginning K. Alex M\"uller emphasized that the materials he and
George Bednorz discovered in 1986 were superconductors. Here I would
like to share with him and others what I believe to be key reason for why
high cuprates as well as all other superconductors are hole
superconductors, which I only came to understand a few months ago. This paper
is dedicated to Alex M\"uller on the occasion of his 90th birthday.Comment: Dedicated to Alex M\"uller on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday.
arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1703.0977
On the Quantitative Impact of the Schechter-Valle Theorem
We evaluate the Schechter-Valle (Black Box) theorem quantitatively by
considering the most general Lorentz invariant Lagrangian consisting of
point-like operators for neutrinoless double beta decay. It is well known that
the Black Box operators induce Majorana neutrino masses at four-loop level.
This warrants the statement that an observation of neutrinoless double beta
decay guarantees the Majorana nature of neutrinos. We calculate these
radiatively generated masses and find that they are many orders of magnitude
smaller than the observed neutrino masses and splittings. Thus, some lepton
number violating New Physics (which may at tree-level not be related to
neutrino masses) may induce Black Box operators which can explain an observed
rate of neutrinoless double beta decay. Although these operators guarantee
finite Majorana neutrino masses, the smallness of the Black Box contributions
implies that other neutrino mass terms (Dirac or Majorana) must exist. If
neutrino masses have a significant Majorana contribution then this will become
the dominant part of the Black Box operator. However, neutrinos might also be
predominantly Dirac particles, while other lepton number violating New Physics
dominates neutrinoless double beta decay. Translating an observed rate of
neutrinoless double beta decay into neutrino masses would then be completely
misleading. Although the principal statement of the Schechter-Valle theorem
remains valid, we conclude that the Black Box diagram itself generates
radiatively only mass terms which are many orders of magnitude too small to
explain neutrino masses. Therefore, other operators must give the leading
contributions to neutrino masses, which could be of Dirac or Majorana nature.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor corrections, reference added, matches
journal version; v3: typo corrected, physics result and conclusions unchange
Minimal Supersymmetric Inverse Seesaw: Neutrino masses, lepton flavour violation and LHC phenomenology
We study neutrino masses in the framework of the supersymmetric inverse
seesaw model. Different from the non-supersymmetric version a minimal
realization with just one pair of singlets is sufficient to explain all
neutrino data. We compute the neutrino mass matrix up to 1-loop order and show
how neutrino data can be described in terms of the model parameters. We then
calculate rates for lepton flavour violating (LFV) processes, such as , and chargino decays to singlet scalar neutrinos. The latter decays
are potentially observable at the LHC and show a characteristic decay pattern
dictated by the same parameters which generate the observed large neutrino
angles.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures; added explanatory comments, final version for
publicatio
Assessing the impact of biomedical research in academic institutions of disparate sizes
Abstract Background The evaluation of academic research performance is nowadays a priority issue. Bibliometric indicators such as the number of publications, total citation counts and h-index are an indispensable tool in this task but their inherent association with the size of the research output may result in rewarding high production when evaluating institutions of disparate sizes. The aim of this study is to propose an indicator that may facilitate the comparison of institutions of disparate sizes. Methods The Modified Impact Index (MII) was defined as the ratio of the observed h-index (h) of an institution over the h-index anticipated for that institution on average, given the number of publications (N) it produces i.e. (α and β denote the intercept and the slope, respectively, of the line describing the dependence of the h-index on the number of publications in log10 scale). MII values higher than 1 indicate that an institution performs better than the average, in terms of its h-index. Data on scientific papers published during 2002–2006 and within 36 medical fields for 219 Academic Medical Institutions from 16 European countries were used to estimate α and β and to calculate the MII of their total and field-specific production. Results From our biomedical research data, the slope β governing the dependence of h-index on the number of publications in biomedical research was found to be similar to that estimated in other disciplines (≈0.4). The MII was positively associated with the average number of citations/publication (r = 0.653, p Conclusion The MII should complement the use of h-index when comparing the research output of institutions of disparate sizes. It has a conceptual interpretation and, with the data provided here, can be computed for the total research output as well as for field-specific publication sets of institutions in biomedicine.</p
Careers of an elite cohort of U.S. basic life science postdoctoral fellows and the influence of their mentor's citation record
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is general agreement that the number of U.S. science PhDs being trained far exceeds the number of future academic positions. One suggested approach to this problem is to significantly reduce the number of PhD positions. A counter argument is that students are aware of the limited academic positions but have chosen a PhD track because it opens other, non-academic, opportunities. The latter view requires that students have objective information about what careers options will be available for them.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The scientific careers of the 1992-94 cohort of NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Kirchstein-NRSA F32 postdoctoral fellows (PD) was determined by following their publications (PubMed), grants (NIH and NSF), and faculty and industry positions through 2009. These basic life science PDs receive support through individual grant applications and represent the most successful class of NIH PDs as judged by academic careers and grants. The sex dependence of the career and grant success and the influence of the PD mentor's citation record were also determined</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 439 1992-94 NIGMS F32 fellows, the careers of 417 could be determined. Although females had significantly higher rates of dropping out of science (22% females, 9% males) there was no significant difference in the fraction of females that ended up as associate or full professors at research universities (22.8% females, 29.1% for males). More males then females ended up in industry (34% males, 22% females). Although there was no significant correlation between male grant success and their mentor's publication record (h index, citations, publications), there was a significant correlation for females. Females whose mentor's h index was in the top quartile were nearly 3 times as likely to receive a major grant as those whose mentors were in the bottom quartile (38.7% versus 13.3%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Sixteen years after starting their PD, only 9% of males had dropped out of science. More females (28%) have dropped out of science, primarily because fewer went into industry positions. The mentor's publication record does not affect the future grant success of males but it has a dramatic effect on female grant success.</p
Radiative contribution to neutrino masses and mixing in SSM
In an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (popularly known
as the SSM), three right handed neutrino superfields are introduced to
solve the -problem and to accommodate the non-vanishing neutrino masses
and mixing. Neutrino masses at the tree level are generated through parity
violation and seesaw mechanism. We have analyzed the full effect of one-loop
contributions to the neutrino mass matrix. We show that the current three
flavour global neutrino data can be accommodated in the SSM, for both
the tree level and one-loop corrected analyses. We find that it is relatively
easier to accommodate the normal hierarchical mass pattern compared to the
inverted hierarchical or quasi-degenerate case, when one-loop corrections are
included.Comment: 51 pages, 14 figures (58 .eps files), expanded introduction, other
minor changes, references adde
A reverse engineering approach to the suppression of citation biases reveals universal properties of citation distributions
The large amount of information contained in bibliographic databases has
recently boosted the use of citations, and other indicators based on citation
numbers, as tools for the quantitative assessment of scientific research.
Citations counts are often interpreted as proxies for the scientific influence
of papers, journals, scholars, and institutions. However, a rigorous and
scientifically grounded methodology for a correct use of citation counts is
still missing. In particular, cross-disciplinary comparisons in terms of raw
citation counts systematically favors scientific disciplines with higher
citation and publication rates. Here we perform an exhaustive study of the
citation patterns of millions of papers, and derive a simple transformation of
citation counts able to suppress the disproportionate citation counts among
scientific domains. We find that the transformation is well described by a
power-law function, and that the parameter values of the transformation are
typical features of each scientific discipline. Universal properties of
citation patterns descend therefore from the fact that citation distributions
for papers in a specific field are all part of the same family of univariate
distributions.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Supporting information files available at
http://filrad.homelinux.or
Progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy in an immunocompetent patient with favourable outcome. A case report
To report the clinical course of PML in an apparently immunocompetent patient treated with cidofovir
WIMP dark matter as radiative neutrino mass messenger
The minimal seesaw extension of the Standard SU(3)(c)circle times SU(2)(L)circle times U(1)(Y) Model requires two electroweak singlet fermions in order to accommodate the neutrino oscillation parameters at tree level. Here we consider a next to minimal extension where light neutrino masses are generated radiatively by two electroweak fermions: one singlet and one triplet under SU(2)(L). These should be odd under a parity symmetry and their mixing gives rise to a stable weakly interactive massive particle (WIMP) dark matter candidate. For mass in the GeV-TeV range, it reproduces the correct relic density, and provides an observable signal in nuclear recoil direct detection experiments. The fermion triplet component of the dark matter has gauge interactions, making it also detectable at present and near future collider experiments
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