Massless Decoupled Doublers: Chiral Yukawa Models and Chiral Gauge Theories

We present a new method for regularizing chiral theories on the lattice. The arbitrariness in the regularization is used in order to decouple massless replica fermions. A continuum limit with only one fermion is obtained in perturbation theory and a Golterman-Petcher like symmetry related to the decoupling of the replicas in the non-perturbative regime is identified. In the case of Chiral Gauge Theories gauge invariance is broken at the level of the regularization, so our approach shares many of the characteristics of the Rome approach.Comment: 11 page

Ground state non-universality in the random field Ising model

Two attractive and often used ideas, namely universality and the concept of a zero temperature fixed point, are violated in the infinite-range random-field Ising model. In the ground state we show that the exponents can depend continuously on the disorder and so are non-universal. However, we also show that at finite temperature the thermal order parameter exponent one half is restored so that temperature is a relevant variable. The broader implications of these results are discussed.Comment: 4 pages 2 figures, corrected prefactors caused by a missing factor of two in Eq. 2., added a paragraph in conclusions for clarit

Coulomb Gauge QCD, Confinement, and the Constituent Representation

Quark confinement and the genesis of the constituent quark model are examined in nonperturbative QCD in Coulomb gauge. We employ a self-consistent method to construct a quasiparticle basis and to determine the quasiparticle interaction. The results agree remarkably well with lattice computations. They also illustrate the mechanism by which confinement and constituent quarks emerge, provide support for the Gribov-Zwanziger confinement scenario, clarify several perplexing issues in the constituent quark model, and permit the construction of an improved model of low energy QCD.Comment: 43 pages, 14 figures, revtex, uses psfig.st

Carbon dioxide, hydrographic, and chemical data obtained in the South Pacific Ocean (WOCE Sections P16A/P17A, P17E/P19S, and P19C, R/V Knorr, October 1992--April 1993)

This data documentation discusses the procedures and methods used to measure total carbon dioxide concentration (TCO{sub 2}) and partial pressure of CO{sub 2} (pCO{sub 2}) in discrete water samples collected during three expeditions of the Research Vessel (R/V) Knorr in the South Pacific Ocean. Conducted as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), the first cruise (WOCE Section P16A/P17A) began in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia, on October 6, 1992, and returned to Papeete on November 25, 1992. The second cruise (WOCE Section P17E/P19S) began in Papeete on December 4, 1992, and finished in Punta Arenas, Chile, on January 22, 1993. The third expedition (WOCE Section P19C) started in Punta Arenas, on February 22 and finished in Panama City, Panama, on April 13, 1993. During the three expeditions, 422 hydrographic stations were occupied. Hydrographic and chemical measurements made along WOCE Sections P16A/P17A, P17E/P19S, and P19C included pressure, temperature, salinity, and oxygen [measured by conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensor], as well as discrete measurements of salinity, oxygen, phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, silicate, chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-11, CFC-12), TCO{sub 2}, and pCO{sub 2} measured at 4 and 20 C. In addition, potential temperatures were calculated from the measured variables

A lattice formulation of chiral gauge theories

We present a method for implementing gauge theories of chiral fermions on the lattice.Comment: 3 pages LaTeX, espcrc2 style file. Talk presented at LATTICE96(chiral gauge

The three-dimensional random field Ising magnet: interfaces, scaling, and the nature of states

The nature of the zero temperature ordering transition in the 3D Gaussian random field Ising magnet is studied numerically, aided by scaling analyses. In the ferromagnetic phase the scaling of the roughness of the domain walls, $w\sim L^\zeta$, is consistent with the theoretical prediction $\zeta = 2/3$. As the randomness is increased through the transition, the probability distribution of the interfacial tension of domain walls scales as for a single second order transition. At the critical point, the fractal dimensions of domain walls and the fractal dimension of the outer surface of spin clusters are investigated: there are at least two distinct physically important fractal dimensions. These dimensions are argued to be related to combinations of the energy scaling exponent, $\theta$, which determines the violation of hyperscaling, the correlation length exponent $\nu$, and the magnetization exponent $\beta$. The value $\beta = 0.017\pm 0.005$ is derived from the magnetization: this estimate is supported by the study of the spin cluster size distribution at criticality. The variation of configurations in the interior of a sample with boundary conditions is consistent with the hypothesis that there is a single transition separating the disordered phase with one ground state from the ordered phase with two ground states. The array of results are shown to be consistent with a scaling picture and a geometric description of the influence of boundary conditions on the spins. The details of the algorithm used and its implementation are also described.Comment: 32 pp., 2 columns, 32 figure

Confinement Effects in Antiferromagnets

Phase equilibrium in confined Ising antiferromagnets was studied as a function of the coupling (v) and a magnetic field (h) at the surfaces, in the presence of an external field H. The ground state properties were calculated exactly for symmetric boundary conditions and nearest-neighbor interactions, and a full zero-temperature phase diagram in the plane v-h was obtained for films with symmetry-preserving surface orientations. The ground-state analysis was extended to the H-T plane using a cluster-variation free energy. The study of the finite-T properties (as a function of v and h) reveals the close interdependence between the surface and finite-size effects and, together with the ground-state phase diagram, provides an integral picture of the confinement in anisotropic antiferromagnets with surfaces that preserve the symmetry of the order parameter.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, Accepted in Phys. Rev.

Landslide monitoring using seismic refraction tomography: the importance of incorporating topographic variations

Seismic refraction tomography provides images of the elastic properties of subsurface materials in landslide settings. Seismic velocities are sensitive to changes in moisture content, which is a triggering factor in the initiation of many landslides. However, the application of the method to long-term monitoring of landslides is rarely used, given the challenges in undertaking repeat surveys and in handling and minimizing the errors arising from processing time-lapse surveys. This work presents a simple method and workflow for producing a reliable time-series of inverted seismic velocity models. This method is tested using data acquired during a recent, novel, long-term seismic refraction monitoring campaign at an active landslide in the UK. Potential sources of error include those arising from inaccurate and inconsistent determination of first-arrival times, inaccurate receiver positioning, and selection of inappropriate inversion starting models. At our site, a comparative analysis of variations in seismic velocity to real-world variations in topography over time shows that topographic error alone can account for changes in seismic velocity of greater than ±10% in a significant proportion (23%) of the data acquired. The seismic velocity variations arising from real material property changes at the near-surface of the landslide, linked to other sources of environmental data, are demonstrated to be of a similar magnitude. Over the monitoring period we observe subtle variations in the bulk seismic velocity of the sliding layer that are demonstrably related to variations in moisture content. This highlights the need to incorporate accurate topographic information for each time-step in the monitoring time-series. The goal of the proposed workflow is to minimize the sources of potential errors, and to preserve the changes observed by real variations in the subsurface. Following the workflow produces spatially comparable, time-lapse velocity cross-sections formulated from disparate, discretely-acquired datasets. These practical steps aim to aid the use of the seismic refraction tomography method for the long-term monitoring of landslides prone to hydrological destabilization

Genomic and functional analyses of fungal and bacterial consortia that enable lignocellulose breakdown in goat gut microbiomes

The herbivore digestive tract is home to a complex community of anaerobic microbes that work together to break down lignocellulose. These microbiota are an untapped resource of strains, pathways and enzymes that could be applied to convert plant waste into sugar substrates for green biotechnology. We carried out more than 400 parallel enrichment experiments from goat faeces to determine how substrate and antibiotic selection influence membership, activity, stability and chemical productivity of herbivore gut communities. We assembled 719 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) that are unique at the species level. More than 90% of these MAGs are from previously unidentified herbivore gut microorganisms. Microbial consortia dominated by anaerobic fungi outperformed bacterially dominated consortia in terms of both methane production and extent of cellulose degradation, which indicates that fungi have an important role in methane release. Metabolic pathway reconstructions from MAGs of 737 bacteria, archaea and fungi suggest that cross-domain partnerships between fungi and methanogens enabled production of acetate, formate and methane, whereas bacterially dominated consortia mainly produced short-chain fatty acids, including propionate and butyrate. Analyses of carbohydrate-active enzyme domains present in each anaerobic consortium suggest that anaerobic bacteria and fungi employ mostly complementary hydrolytic strategies. The division of labour among herbivore anaerobes to degrade plant biomass could be harnessed for industrial bioprocessing

Astroparticle Physics with a Customized Low-Background Broad Energy Germanium Detector

The MAJORANA Collaboration is building the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, a 60 kg array of high purity germanium detectors housed in an ultra-low background shield at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, SD. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge while demonstrating the feasibility of a tonne-scale experiment. It may also carry out a dark matter search in the 1-10 GeV/c^2 mass range. We have found that customized Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detectors produced by Canberra have several desirable features for a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment, including low electronic noise, excellent pulse shape analysis capabilities, and simple fabrication. We have deployed a customized BEGe, the MAJORANA Low-Background BEGe at Kimballton (MALBEK), in a low-background cryostat and shield at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility in Virginia. This paper will focus on the detector characteristics and measurements that can be performed with such a radiation detector in a low-background environment.Comment: Submitted to NIMA Proceedings, SORMA XII. 9 pages, 4 figure