Hadronization, spin, and lifetimes

Measurements of lifetimes can be done in two ways. For very short lived particles, the width can be measured. For long lived ones, the lifetime can be directly measured, for example, using a displaced vertex. Practically, the lifetime cannot be extracted for particles with intermediate lifetimes. We show that for such cases information about the lifetime can be extracted for heavy colored particles that can be produced with known polarization. For example, a $t$-like particle with intermediate lifetime hadronizes into a superposition of the lowest two hadronic states, $T^*$ and $T$ (the equivalent of $B^*$ and $B$). Depolarization effects are governed by time scales that are much longer than the hadronization time scale, \lqcd^{-1}. After a time of order $1/\Delta m$, with $\Delta m \equiv m(T^*)-m(T)$, half of the initial polarization is lost. The polarization is totally lost after a time of order $1/\Gamma_{\gamma}$, with $\Gamma_{\gamma}= \Gamma(T^*\to T\gamma)$. Thus, by comparing the initial and final polarization, we get information on the particle's lifetime.Comment: Version to appear in JHE

Defining the Transcriptional Landscape during Cytomegalovirus Latency with Single-Cell RNA Sequencing

Primary infection with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) results in a lifelong infection due to its ability to establish latent infection, with one characterized viral reservoir being hematopoietic cells. Although reactivation from latency causes serious disease in immunocompromised individuals, our molecular understanding of latency is limited. Here, we delineate viral gene expression during natural HCMV persistent infection by analyzing the massive RNA-seq atlas generated by the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. This systematic analysis reveals that HCMV persistence in-vivo is prevalent in diverse tissues. Unexpectedly, we find only viral transcripts that resemble gene expression during various stages of lytic infection with no evidence of any highly restricted latency-associated viral gene expression program. To further define the transcriptional landscape during HCMV latent infection, we also used single cell RNA-seq and a tractable experimental latency model. In contrast to some current views on latency, we also find no evidence for any highly restricted latency-associated viral gene expression program. Instead, we reveal that latency-associated gene expression largely mirrors a late lytic viral program albeit at much lower levels of expression. Overall, our work has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of HCMV persistence and suggests that latency is governed mainly by quantitative changes, with a limited number of qualitative changes, in viral gene expression.This research was supported by the EU-FP7-PEOPLE career integration grant, the Israeli Science Foundation (1073/14; N.S.-G.), Infect-ERA (TANKACY; N.S.-G.), the European Research Council starting grant (StG-2014-638142; N.S.-G.), the British Medical Research Programme (grant G0701279; J.S.), a Wellcome Research Studentship Grant (B.K.), and the Cambridge NIHR BRC Cell Phenotyping Hub. N.S.-G. is incumbent of the Skirball career development chair in new scientist

Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions at One Loop

Neutrino oscillation experiments are known to be sensitive to Non-Standard Interactions (NSIs). We extend the NSI formalism to include one-loop effects. We discuss universal effects induced by corrections to the tree level W exchange, as well as non-universal effects that can arise from scalar charged current interactions. We show how the parameters that can be extracted from the experiments are obtained from various loop amplitudes, which include vertex corrections, wave function renormalizations, mass corrections as well as box diagrams. As an illustrative example, we discuss NSIs at one loop in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with generic lepton flavor violating sources in the soft sector. We argue that the size of one-loop NSIs can be large enough to be probed in future neutrino oscillation experiments.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figure

Particle Lifetimes And Neutrino Constraints On Ultraviolet Theories

In order to help the search for new physics we propose two methods for relating experimental results to theories. First, measurements of lifetimes can be done in two ways. For very short lived particles, the width can be measured. For long lived ones, the lifetime can be directly measured, for example, using a displaced vertex. Practically, the lifetime cannot be extracted for particles with intermediate lifetimes. We show that for such cases information about the lifetime can be extracted for heavy colored particles that can be produced with known polarization assuming we can measure their spin. Second, neutrino oscillation experiments are known to be sensitive to Non-Standard Interactions (NSIs). We extend the NSI formalism to include one-loop effects. We show how the parameters that can be extracted from the experiments are obtained from various loop amplitudes, which include vertex corrections, wave function renormalizations, mass corrections as well as box diagrams. We argue that the size of one-loop NSIs can be large enough to be probed in future neutrino oscillation experiments

Memory tagging: Minimalist synchronization for scalable concurrent data structures

There has been a significant amount of research on hardware and software support for efficient concurrent data structures; yet, the question of how to build correct, simple, and scalable data structures has not yet been definitively settled. In this paper, we revisit this question from a minimalist perspective, and ask: what is the smallest amount of synchronization required for correct and efficient concurrent search data structures, and how could this minimal synchronization support be provided in hardware? To address these questions, we introduce memory tagging, a simple hardware mechanism which enables the programmer to "tag" a dynamic set of memory locations, at cache-line granularity, and later validate whether the memory has been concurrently modified, with the possibility of updating one of the underlying locations atomically if validation succeeds. We provide several examples showing that this mechanism can enable fast and arguably simple concurrent data structure designs, such as lists, binary search trees, balanced search trees, range queries, and Software Transactional Memory (STM) implementations. We provide an implementation of memory tags in the Graphite multi-core simulator, showing that the mechanism can be implemented entirely at the level of L1 cache, and that it can enable non-trivial speedups versus existing implementations of the above data structures

Defining the Transcriptional Landscape during Cytomegalovirus Latency with Single-Cell RNA Sequencing

Primary infection with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) results in a lifelong infection due to its ability to establish latent infection, with one characterized viral reservoir being hematopoietic cells. Although reactivation from latency causes serious disease in immunocompromised individuals, our molecular understanding of latency is limited. Here, we delineate viral gene expression during natural HCMV persistent infection by analyzing the massive transcriptome RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) atlas generated by the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. This systematic analysis reveals that HCMV persistence in vivo is prevalent in diverse tissues. Notably, we find only viral transcripts that resemble gene expression during various stages of lytic infection with no evidence of any highly restricted latency-associated viral gene expression program. To further define the transcriptional landscape during HCMV latent infection, we also used single-cell RNA-seq and a tractable experimental latency model. In contrast to some current views on latency, we also find no evidence for any highly restricted latency-associated viral gene expression program. Instead, we reveal that latency-associated gene expression largely mirrors a late lytic viral program, albeit at much lower levels of expression. Overall, our work has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of HCMV persistence and suggests that latency is governed mainly by quantitative changes, with a limited number of qualitative changes, in viral gene expression

Context-dependent functional compensation between Ythdf m6A reader proteins

The N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is the most prevalent post-transcriptional mRNA modification, regulating mRNA decay and splicing. It plays a major role during normal development, differentiation, and disease progression. The modification is regulated by a set of writer, eraser, and reader proteins. The YTH domain family of proteins consists of three homologous m6A-binding proteins, Ythdf1, Ythdf2, and Ythdf3, which were suggested to have different cellular functions. However, their sequence similarity and their tendency to bind the same targets suggest that they may have overlapping roles. We systematically knocked out (KO) the Mettl3 writer, each of the Ythdf readers, and the three readers together (triple-KO). We then estimated the effect in vivo in mouse gametogenesis, postnatal viability, and in vitro in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). In gametogenesis, Mettl3-KO severity is increased as the deletion occurs earlier in the process, and Ythdf2 has a dominant role that cannot be compensated by Ythdf1 or Ythdf3, due to differences in readers' expression pattern across different cell types, both in quantity and in spatial location. Knocking out the three readers together and systematically testing viable offspring genotypes revealed a redundancy in the readers' role during early development that is Ythdf1/2/3 gene dosage-dependent. Finally, in mESCs there is compensation between the three Ythdf reader proteins, since the resistance to differentiate and the significant effect on mRNA decay occur only in the triple-KO cells and not in the single KOs. Thus, we suggest a new model for the Ythdf readers function, in which there is profound dosage-dependent redundancy when all three readers are equivalently coexpressed in the same cell types