Hierarchical Mass Matrices in a Minimal SO(10) Grand Unification I

We consider a minimal SO(10) unified model with horizontal Peccei-Quinn symmetry. The hierarchical structure of quark-lepton mass matrices is naturally implemented by the remnants of certain irrelevant terms. Georgi-Jarlskog relations are also realized due to the horizontal symmetry.Comment: phyzzx and tables, 15 pages, KUNS 125

Level Truncated Tachyon Potential in Various Gauges

New gauge fixing condition with single gauge parameter proposed by the authors is applied to the level truncated analysis of tachyon condensation in cubic open string field theory. It is found that the only one real non-trivial extremum persists to appear in the well-defined region of the gauge parameter, while the other solutions are turned out to be gauge-artifacts. Contrary to the previously known pathology in the Feynman-Siegel gauge, tachyon potential is remarkably smooth enough around Landau-type gauge.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. For associated movie files, see http://hep1.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~kato/sft

The Acidic Amino-Terminal Region of Varicella-Zoster Virus Open Reading Frame 4 Protein Is Required for Transactivation and Can Functionally Replace the Corresponding Region of Herpes Simplex Virus ICP27

AbstractBoth varicella-zoster virus open reading frame 4 (ORF4) protein and its herpes simplex virus type 1 homolog ICP27 have highly acidic amino-terminal regions and cysteine-rich carboxy-terminal regions. To investigate the functional domains of these proteins, mutants were constructed and their transregulatory functions were tested in transient expression assays using two reporter plasmids, pTK-CAT-SV40A and pTK-CAT-synA, containing the same promoter sequences but different mRNA processing signals. ORF4 transactivates both pTK-CAT-SV40A and pTK-CAT-synA, while ICP27 transrepresses pTKCAT-SV40A and transactivates pTK-CAT-synA. Deletion of the ORF4 amino-terminal region abolished most of the transactivating activity for pTK-CAT-synA but retained most of the transactivating activity for pTK-CAT-SV40A. Construction of chimeric ORF4-ICP27 molecules indicated that the ORF4 amino-terminal region was able to replace the corresponding region of ICP27 which is required for both transrepression of pTK-CAT-SV40A and transactivation of pTK-CAT-synA. Similarly, the ICP27 amino-terminal region was able to partially replace the corresponding region of ORF4 which is required for transactivation of pTK-CAT-synA. Thus, while ORF4 and ICP27 have different properties in transient expression assays, the aminoterminal regions of ORF4 and ICP27 are functionally homologous to each other and are important in regulating gene expression

Brane fluctuations and suppression of Kaluza-Klein mode couplings

In higher dimensional models where the gauge and gravity fields live in the bulk and the matter fields only in a brane, we point out the importance of the brane (transverse) coordinate modes, which are the Nambu-Goldstone bosons appearing as a result of spontaneous breaking of the translation symmetry. The brane recoil effect suppresses the couplings of higher Kaluza-Klein modes to the matter, and gives a natural resolution to the divergence problem caused by the exchange of infinitely many Kaluza-Klein modes.Comment: 11 pages, 1 eps figure, references adde

Rolling Tachyon Solution in Vacuum String Field Theory

We construct a time-dependent solution in vacuum string field theory and investigate whether the solution can be regarded as a rolling tachyon solution. First, compactifying one space direction on a circle of radius R, we construct a space-dependent solution given as an infinite number of *-products of a string field with center-of-mass momentum dependence of the form e^{-b p^2/4}. Our time-dependent solution is obtained by an inverse Wick rotation of the compactified space direction. We focus on one particular component field of the solution, which takes the form of the partition function of a Coulomb system on a circle with temperature R^2. Analyzing this component field both analytically and numerically using Monte Carlo simulation, we find that the parameter b in the solution must be set equal to zero for the solution to approach a finite value in the large time limit x^0\to\infty. We also explore the possibility that the self-dual radius R=\sqrt{\alpha'} is a phase transition point of our Coulomb system.Comment: 39 pages, 17 figures, v3: references adde

Interplay Between Time-Temperature-Transformation and the Liquid-Liquid Phase Transition in Water

We study the TIP5P water model proposed by Mahoney and Jorgensen, which is closer to real water than previously-proposed classical pairwise additive potentials. We simulate the model in a wide range of deeply supercooled states and find (i) the existence of a non-monotonic ``nose-shaped'' temperature of maximum density line and a non-reentrant spinodal, (ii) the presence of a low temperature phase transition, (iii) the free evolution of bulk water to ice, and (iv) the time-temperature-transformation curves at different densities.Comment: RevTeX4, 4 pages, 4 eps figure

The BRST quantization and the no-ghost theorem for AdS_3

In our previous papers, we prove the no-ghost theorem without light-cone directions (hep-th/0005002, hep-th/0303051). We point out that our results are valid for more general backgrounds. In particular, we prove the no-ghost theorem for AdS_3 in the context of the BRST quantization (with the standard restriction on the spin). We compare our BRST proof with the OCQ proof and establish the BRST-OCQ equivalence for AdS_3. The key in both approaches lies in the certain structure of the matter Hilbert space as a product of two Verma modules. We also present the no-ghost theorem in the most general form.Comment: 22 pages, JHEP and AMS-LaTeX; v2 & 3: minor improvement

BAAD: a Biomass And Allometry Database for woody plants

Understanding how plants are constructed—i.e., how key size dimensions and the amount of mass invested in different tissues varies among individuals—is essential for modeling plant growth, carbon stocks, and energy fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere. Allocation patterns can differ through ontogeny, but also among coexisting species and among species adapted to different environments. While a variety of models dealing with biomass allocation exist, we lack a synthetic understanding of the underlying processes. This is partly due to the lack of suitable data sets for validating and parameterizing models. To that end, we present the Biomass And Allometry Database (BAAD) for woody plants. The BAAD contains 259 634 measurements collected in 176 different studies, from 21 084 individuals across 678 species. Most of these data come from existing publications. However, raw data were rarely made public at the time of publication. Thus, the BAAD contains data from different studies, transformed into standard units and variable names. The transformations were achieved using a common workflow for all raw data files. Other features that distinguish the BAAD are: (i) measurements were for individual plants rather than stand averages; (ii) individuals spanning a range of sizes were measured; (iii) plants from 0.01–100 m in height were included; and (iv) biomass was estimated directly, i.e., not indirectly via allometric equations (except in very large trees where biomass was estimated from detailed sub‐sampling). We included both wild and artificially grown plants. The data set contains the following size metrics: total leaf area; area of stem cross‐section including sapwood, heartwood, and bark; height of plant and crown base, crown area, and surface area; and the dry mass of leaf, stem, branches, sapwood, heartwood, bark, coarse roots, and fine root tissues. We also report other properties of individuals (age, leaf size, leaf mass per area, wood density, nitrogen content of leaves and wood), as well as information about the growing environment (location, light, experimental treatment, vegetation type) where available. It is our hope that making these data available will improve our ability to understand plant growth, ecosystem dynamics, and carbon cycling in the world\u27s vegetation