Dilepton Signal of a Type-II Seesaw at CERN LHC: Reveals a TeV Scale B-L Symmetry

We explore the discovery potential of doubly charged Higgs bosons (\xi^{\pm\pm}) at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). For moderate values of the coupling constants in the original Type-II seesaw model, these doubly-charged Higgs bosons are not accessible by any present or near future collider experiments. In a gauged B-L symmetric model we introduce two triplet scalars to execute a variant of type-II seesaw at the TeV scale. This leads to a clear like-sign dilepton signal in the decay mode of \xi^{\pm\pm} for a small vacuum expectation value (\lsim 10^5 \eV) of the triplet scalar \xi= (\xi^{++}, \xi^+, \xi^0) of mass \lsim 1 \TeV. To be specific, for a mass range of 200-1000 GeV of \xi^{\pm\pm}, the like-sign dilepton signal can be detected at CERN LHC at a center of mass energy 14 TeV with an integrated luminosity > 30 {\rm fb}^{-1}. The same analysis is also pursued with center of mass energies 7 TeV and 10 TeV as well. We also comment on the decay mode of singly charged scalars and neutral B-L gauge boson in this model.Comment: Minor change in Introduction, Z' contribution to the production of doubly charged scalars are explicitly shown, new figures added, new references added. To appear in Physical Review

Prevalence, Risk Factors and Antimicrobial Resistance of Asymptomatic Bacteriuria Among Antenatal Women

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ABU) in antenatal women is microbiological diagnosis and if untreated have 20-30 fold increased risk of developing pyelonephritis during pregnancy.Aim: The prospective study was conducted to determine the prevalence, risk factors and antibiotic resistance related to ABU in antenatal women.Subjects and Methods: A total of 287 asymptomatic pregnant women who attended the antenatal clinic at a tertiary care hospital, Odisha, India from July 2012 to December 2012 were enrolled. Two consecutively voided urine specimens were collected by clean-catch midstream urine technique for culture. The urine samples were processed and microbial isolates were identifi ed by conventional methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on all bacterial isolates by Kirby Bauer’s disc diff usion method. Data were analyzed using GraphPad Quick Calcs Statistical Software Inc., USA. Inferential statistics was done by Chi-square (2) test and a P < 0.05 was considered signifi cant. Results: The prevalence of ABU in antenatal women was 11.5% (33/287). Lower socio-economic status and low level of education were signifi cant risk factors related to ABU (P=0.02). Parity, maternal and gestational age was not signifi cantly associated with ABU. Escherichia coli (54.5%, 18/33) were the most prevalent isolate followed by Enterococcus faecalis (15.2%, 5/33). Nitrofurantoin was the most eff ective antibiotic, showed resistance rate of 3% (1/33) for both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.Conclusion: Routine screening using urine culture method should be performed for ABU in early pregnancy. Specifi c guidelines should be issued and followed for testing antimicrobial susceptibility with safe drugs in antenatal women. Empirical treatment with nitrofurantoin can be recommended, which is a safe drug and active for both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Keywords: Antenatal women, antibiotic resistance, asymptomatic bacteriuria, prevalence, risk factor

Interaction of droplet dispersion and evaporation in a polydispersed spray

The interaction between droplet dispersion and evaporation in an acetone spray evaporating under ambient conditions is experimentally studied with an aim to understand the physics behind the spatial correlation between the local vapour mass fraction and droplets. The influence of gas-phase turbulence and droplet–gas slip velocity of such correlations is examined, while the focus is on the consequence of droplet clustering on collective evaporation of droplet clouds. Simultaneous and planar measurements of droplet size, velocity and number density, and vapour mass fraction around the droplets, were obtained by combining the interferometric laser imaging for droplet sizing and planar laser induced fluorescence techniques (Sahu et al., Exp. Fluids, vol. 55, 1673, 2014b, pp. 1–21). Comparison with droplet measurements in a non-evaporating water spray under the same flow conditions showed that droplet evaporation leads to higher fluctuations of droplet number density and velocity relative to the respective mean values. While the mean droplet–gas slip velocity was found to be negligibly small, the vaporization Damköhler number ( ) was approximately ‘one’, which means the droplet evaporation time and the characteristic time scale of large eddies are of the same order. Thus, the influence of the convective effect on droplet evaporation is not expected to be significant in comparison to the instantaneous fluctuations of slip velocity, which refers to the direct effect of turbulence. An overall linearly increasing trend was observed in the scatter plot of the instantaneous values of droplet number density ( ) and vapour mass fraction ( ). Accordingly, the correlation coefficient of fluctuations of vapour mass fraction and droplet number density ( ) was relatively high ( ) implying moderately high correlation. However, considerable spread of the versus scatter plot along both coordinates demonstrated the influence on droplet evaporation due to turbulent droplet dispersion, which leads to droplet clustering. The presence of droplet clustering was confirmed by the measurement of spatial correlation coefficient of the fluctuations of droplet number density for different size classes ( ) and the radial distribution function (RDF) of the droplets. Also, the tendency of the droplets to form clusters was higher for the acetone spray than the water spray, indicating that droplet evaporation promoted droplet grouping in the spray. The instantaneous group evaporation number ( ) was evaluated from the measured length scale of droplet clusters (by the RDF) and the average droplet size and spacing in instantaneous clusters. The mean value of suggests an internal group evaporation mode of the droplet clouds near the spray centre, while single droplet evaporation prevails near the spray boundary. However, the large fluctuations in the magnitude of instantaneous values of at all measurement locations implied temporal variations in the mode of droplet cloud evaporation

A Budding-Defective M2 Mutant Exhibits Reduced Membrane Interaction, Insensitivity To Cholesterol, And Perturbed Interdomain Coupling

Influenza A M2 is a membrane-associated protein with a C-terminal amphipathic helix that plays a cholesterol-dependent role in viral budding. An M2 mutant with alanine substitutions in the C-terminal amphipathic helix is deficient in viral scission. With the goal of providing atomic-level understanding of how the wild-type protein functions, we used a multipronged site-directed spin labeling electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (SDSL-EPR) approach to characterize the conformational properties of the alanine mutant. We spin-labeled sites in the transmembrane (TM) domain and the C-terminal amphipathic helix (AH) of wild-type (WT) and mutant M2, and collected information on line shapes, relaxation rates, membrane topology, and distances within the homotetramer in membranes with and without cholesterol. Our results identify marked differences in the conformation and dynamics between the WT and the alanine mutant. Compared to WT, the dominant population of the mutant AH is more dynamic, shallower in the membrane, and has altered quaternary arrangement of the C-terminal domain. While the AH becomes more dynamic, the dominant population of the TM domain of the mutant is immobilized. The presence of cholesterol changes the conformation and dynamics of the WT protein, while the alanine mutant is insensitive to cholesterol. These findings provide new insight into how M2 may facilitate budding. We propose the AH–membrane interaction modulates the arrangement of the TM helices, effectively stabilizing a conformational state that enables M2 to facilitate viral budding. Antagonizing the properties of the AH that enable interdomain coupling within M2 may therefore present a novel strategy for anti-influenza drug design

Electromagnetic effects of neutrinos in an electron gas

We study the electromagnetic properties of a system that consists of an electron background and a neutrino gas that may be moving or at rest, as a whole, relative to the background. The photon self-energy for this system is characterized by the usual transverse and longitudinal polarization functions, and two additional ones which are the focus of our calculations, that give rise to birefringence and anisotropic effects in the photon dispersion relations. Expressions for them are obtained, which depend on the neutrino number densities and involve momentum integrals over the electron distribution functions, and are valid for any value of the photon momentum and general conditions of the electron gas. Those expressions are evaluated explicitly for several special cases and approximations which are generally useful in astrophysical and cosmological settings. Besides studying the photon dispersion relations, we consider the macroscopic electrodynamic equations for this system, which involve the standard dielectric and permeability constants plus two additional ones related to the photon self-energy functions. As an illustration, the equations are used to discuss the evolution of a magnetic field perturbation in such a medium. This particular phenomena has also been considered in a recent work by Semikoz and Sokoloff as a mechanism for the generation of large-scale magnetic fields in the Early Universe as a consequence of the neutrino-plasma interactions, and allows us to establish contact with a specific application in a well defined context, with a broader scope and from a very different point of view.Comment: Revtex 20 page

A relativistic quark model for the Omega- electromagnetic form factors

We compute the Omega- electromagnetic form factors and the decuplet baryon magnetic moments using a quark model application of the Covariant Spectator Theory. Our predictions for the Omega- electromagnetic form factors can be tested in the future by lattice QCD simulations at the physical strange quark mass.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

The {\alpha}-Decay Chains of the 287,288115^{287, 288}115 Isotopes using Relativistic Mean Field Theory

We study the binding energy, root-mean-square radius and quadrupole deformation parameter for the synthesized superheavy element Z = 115, within the formalism of relativistic mean field theory. The calculation is dones for various isotopes of Z = 115 element, starting from A = 272 to A = 292. A systematic comparison between the binding energies and experimental data is made.The calculated binding energies are in good agreement with experimental result. The results show the prolate deformation for the ground state of these nuclei. The most stable isotope is found to be 282115 nucleus (N = 167) in the isotopic chain. We have also studied Q{\alpha} and T{\alpha} for the {\alpha}-decay chains of $^{287, 288}$115.Comment: 12 Pages 6 Figures 3 Table

Intrinsic and Rashba Spin-orbit Interactions in Graphene Sheets

Starting from a microscopic tight-binding model and using second order perturbation theory, we derive explicit expressions for the intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit interaction induced gaps in the Dirac-like low-energy band structure of an isolated graphene sheet. The Rashba interaction parameter is first order in the atomic carbon spin-orbit coupling strength $\xi$ and first order in the external electric field $E$ perpendicular to the graphene plane, whereas the intrinsic spin-orbit interaction which survives at E=0 is second order in $\xi$. The spin-orbit terms in the low-energy effective Hamiltonian have the form proposed recently by Kane and Mele. \textit{Ab initio} electronic structure calculations were performed as a partial check on the validity of the tight-binding model.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; typos corrected, references update

Bulk cavitation in model gasoline injectors and their correlation with the instantaneous liquid flow field

It is well established that spray characteristics from automotive injectors depend on, among other factors, whether cavitation arises in the injector nozzle. Bulk cavitation, which refers to the cavitation development distant from walls and thus far from the streamline curvature associated with salient points on a wall, has not been thoroughly investigated experimentally in injector nozzles. Consequently, it is not clear what is causing this phenomenon. The research objective of this study was to visualize cavitation in three different injector models (designated as Type A, Type B, and Type C) and quantify the liquid flow field in relation to the bulk cavitation phenomenon. In all models, bulk cavitation was present. We expected this bulk cavitation to be associated with a swirling flow with its axis parallel to that of the nozzle. However, liquid velocity measurements obtained through particle image velocimetry (PIV) demonstrated the absence of a swirling flow structure in the mean flow field just upstream of the nozzle exit, at a plane normal to the hypothetical axis of the injector. Consequently, we applied proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) to analyze the instantaneous liquid velocity data records in order to capture the dominant coherent structures potentially related to cavitation. It was found that the most energetic mode of the liquid flow field corresponded to the expected instantaneous swirling flow structure when bulk cavitation was present in the flow