36,942 research outputs found
Symplectic gauge fields and dark matter
The dynamics of symplectic gauge fields provides a consistent framework for
fundamental interactions based on spin three gauge fields. One remarkable
property is that symplectic gauge fields only have minimal couplings with
gravitational fields and not with any other field of the Standard Model.
Interactions with ordinary matter and radiation can only arise from radiative
corrections. In spite of the gauge nature of symplectic fields they acquire a
mass by the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism which generates Higgs-like mass terms
where the gravitational field is playing the role of a Higgs field. Massive
symplectic gauge fields weakly interacting with ordinary matter are natural
candidates for the dark matter component of the Universe.Comment: 16 page
High Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy Techniques for Upper Atmospheric Measurements
Infrared heterodyne techniques were considered primarily for detecting molecules predicted to be present but not yet detected in the upper atmosphere
Non-analyticities in three-dimensional gauge theories
Quantum fluctuations generate in three-dimensional gauge theories not only
radiative corrections to the Chern-Simons coupling but also non-analytic terms
in the effective action. We review the role of those terms in gauge theories
with massless fermions and Chern-Simons theories. The explicit form of
non-analytic terms turns out to be dependent on the regularization scheme and
in consequence the very existence of phenomena like parity and framing
anomalies becomes regularization dependent. In particular we find
regularization regimes where both anomalies are absent. Due to the presence of
non-analytic terms the effective action becomes not only discontinuous but also
singular for some background gauge fields which include sphalerons. The
appearence of this type of singularities is linked to the existence of nodal
configurations in physical states and tunneling suppression at some classical
field configurations. In the topological field theory the number of physical
states may also become regularization dependent. Another consequence of the
peculiar behaviour of three-dimensional theories under parity odd
regularizations is the existence of a simple mechanism of generation of a mass
gap in pure Yang-Mills theory by a suitable choice of regularization scheme.
The generic value of this mass does agree with the values obtained in
Hamiltonian and numerical analysis. Finally, the existence of different
regularization regimes unveils the difficulties of establishing a Zamolodchikov
c-theorem for three-dimensional field theories in terms of the induced
gravitational Chern-Simons couplings.Comment: 21 pages; Contribution to Ian Kogan Memorial Collection, ``From
Fields to Strings: Circumnavigating Theoretical Physics'
Casimir Effect and Global Theory of Boundary Conditions
The consistency of quantum field theories defined on domains with external
borders imposes very restrictive constraints on the type of boundary conditions
that the fields can satisfy. We analyse the global geometrical and topological
properties of the space of all possible boundary conditions for scalar quantum
field theories. The variation of the Casimir energy under the change of
boundary conditions reveals the existence of singularities generically
associated to boundary conditions which either involve topology changes of the
underlying physical space or edge states with unbounded below classical energy.
The effect can be understood in terms of a new type of Maslov index associated
to the non-trivial topology of the space of boundary conditions. We also
analyze the global aspects of the renormalization group flow, T-duality and the
conformal invariance of the corresponding fixed points.Comment: 11 page
Extraction of silymarin compounds from milk thistle (Silybum marianum) seed using hot, liquid water as the solvent
High-value specialty chemicals are usually obtained from natural products by extracting with generally regarded as safe (GRAS) solvents. Because organic solvents are quite often used, high operating and disposal costs occur. When compared to traditional solvents, water is an interesting alternative because of its low operating and disposal costs. Milk thistle contains compounds (taxifolin, silychristin, silydianin, silybinin A, and silybinin B) that display hepatoxic protection properties. This paper examines the batch extraction of silymarin compounds from milk thistle seed meal in 50°C, 70°C, 85°C and 100°C water as a function of time. For taxifolin, silychristin, silybinin A, and silybinin B, extraction with 100°C water resulted in the highest yields. After 210 min of extraction at 100°C, the yield of taxifolin was 1.2 mg/g of seed while the yields of silychristin, silybinin A, and silybinin B were 5.0, 1.8 and 3.3 mg/g of seed, respectively. The ratios of the extracted compounds, and particularly the ratios at long extraction times, showed that the more polar compounds (taxifolin and silychristin) were preferentially extracted at 85°C, while the less polar silybinin was preferentially extracted at 100°C
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