Renormalization flow of Yang-Mills propagators

We study Landau-gauge Yang-Mills theory by means of a nonperturbative vertex expansion of the quantum effective action. Using an exact renormalization group equation, we compute the fully dressed gluon and ghost propagators to lowest nontrivial order in the vertex expansion. In the mid-momentum regime, $p^2\sim\mathcal{O}(1)\text{GeV}^2$, we probe the propagator flow with various {\em ans\"atze} for the three- and four-point correlations. We analyze the potential of these truncation schemes to generate a nonperturbative scale. We find universal infrared behavior of the propagators, if the gluon dressing function has developed a mass-like structure at mid-momentum. The resulting power laws in the infrared support the Kugo-Ojima confinement scenario.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures. V2: Typos corrected and reference adde

Prevalence of the C282Y and H63D mutations in the HFE gene in patients with hereditary haemochromatosis and in control subjects from Northern Germany

Br J Haematol. 1998 Dec;103(3):842-5. Prevalence of the C282Y and H63D mutations in the HFE gene in patients with hereditary haemochromatosis and in control subjects from Northern Germany. Nielsen P, Carpinteiro S, Fischer R, Cabeda JM, Porto G, Gabbe EE. Abteilung für Medizinische Biochemie, Universitätskrankenhaus Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. Abstract Mutation analysis was performed for two HFE mutations (C282Y, H63D) in unrelated patients with hereditary haemochromatosis (n = 92), family members of patients (n = 34), and unrelated controls (n = 157) from Northern Germany, 87/92 patients (94.6%) revealed the C282Y mutation in homozygous form, five were heterozygous. No H63D mutation was found in 174 chromosomes of patients homozygous for C282Y, whereas four of the heterozygote patients also carried the H63D mutation. Among the control group, 9.6% were heterozygotes for C282Y. 2/157 subjects were homozygous, 37/157 were heterozygous for the H63D mutation, but showed no signs of iron overload. PMID: 9858243 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

On the Nature of the Phase Transition in SU(N), Sp(2) and E(7) Yang-Mills theory

We study the nature of the confinement phase transition in d=3+1 dimensions in various non-abelian gauge theories with the approach put forward in [1]. We compute an order-parameter potential associated with the Polyakov loop from the knowledge of full 2-point correlation functions. For SU(N) with N=3,...,12 and Sp(2) we find a first-order phase transition in agreement with general expectations. Moreover our study suggests that the phase transition in E(7) Yang-Mills theory also is of first order. We find that it is weaker than for SU(N). We show that this can be understood in terms of the eigenvalue distribution of the order parameter potential close to the phase transition.Comment: 15 page

On the black hole limit of rotating discs and rings

Solutions to Einstein's field equations describing rotating fluid bodies in equilibrium permit parametric (i.e. quasi-stationary) transitions to the extreme Kerr solution (outside the horizon). This has been shown analytically for discs of dust and numerically for ring solutions with various equations of state. From the exterior point of view, this transition can be interpreted as a (quasi) black hole limit. All gravitational multipole moments assume precisely the values of an extremal Kerr black hole in the limit. In the present paper, the way in which the black hole limit is approached is investigated in more detail by means of a parametric Taylor series expansion of the exact solution describing a rigidly rotating disc of dust. Combined with numerical calculations for ring solutions our results indicate an interesting universal behaviour of the multipole moments near the black hole limit.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; Dedicated to Gernot Neugebauer on the occasion of his 70th birthda

Order of Two-Dimensional Isotropic Dipolar Antiferromagnets

The question of the existence of order in two-dimensional isotropic dipolar Heisenberg antiferromagnets is studied. It is shown that the dipolar interaction leads to a gap in the spin-wave energy and a nonvanishing order parameter. The resulting finite N\'eel-temperature is calculated for a square lattice by means of linear spin-wave theory.Comment: 10 pages, REVTEX, 1 figure available upon request, TUM-CP-93-0

The Momentum Constraints of General Relativity and Spatial Conformal Isometries

Transverse-tracefree (TT-) tensors on $({\bf R}^3,g_{ab})$, with $g_{ab}$ an asymptotically flat metric of fast decay at infinity, are studied. When the source tensor from which these TT tensors are constructed has fast fall-off at infinity, TT tensors allow a multipole-type expansion. When $g_{ab}$ has no conformal Killing vectors (CKV's) it is proven that any finite but otherwise arbitrary set of moments can be realized by a suitable TT tensor. When CKV's exist there are obstructions -- certain (combinations of) moments have to vanish -- which we study.Comment: 16 page

Linking cytoarchitecture to metabolism: sarcolemma-associated plectin affects glucose uptake by destabilizing microtubule networks in mdx myofibers

BACKGROUND: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is one of the most frequent forms of muscular disorders. It is caused by the absence of dystrophin, a core component of the sarcolemma-associated junctional complex that links the cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix. We showed previously that plectin 1f (P1f), one of the major muscle-expressed isoforms of the cytoskeletal linker protein plectin, accumulates at the sarcolemma of DMD patients as well as of mdx mice, a widely studied animal model for DMD.Based on plectin's dual role as structural protein and scaffolding platform for signaling molecules, we speculated that the dystrophic phenotype observed after loss of dystrophin was caused, at least to some extent, by excess plectin. Thus, we hypothesized that elimination of plectin expression in mdx skeletal muscle, while probably resulting in an overall more severe phenotype, may lead to a partial phenotype rescue. In particular, we wanted to assess whether excess sarcolemmal plectin contributes to the dysregulation of sugar metabolism in mdx myofibers. METHODS: We generated plectin/dystrophin double deficient (dKO) mice by breeding mdx with conditional striated muscle-restricted plectin knockout (cKO) mice. The phenotype of these mice was comparatively analyzed with that of mdx, cKO, and wild-type mice, focusing on structural integrity and dysregulation of glucose metabolism. RESULTS: We show that the accumulation of plectin at the sarcolemma of mdx muscle fibers hardly compensated for their loss of structural integrity. Instead, it led to an additional metabolic deficit by impairing glucose uptake. While dKO mice suffered from an overall more severe form of muscular dystrophy compared to mdx or plectin-deficient mice, sarcolemmal integrity as well as glucose uptake of their myofibers were restored to normal levels upon ablation of plectin. Furthermore, microtubule (MT) networks in intact dKO myofibers, including subsarcolemmal areas, were found to be more robust than those in mdx mice. Finally, myotubes differentiated from P1f-overexpressing myoblasts showed an impairment of glucose transporter 4 translocation and a destabilization of MT networks. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these results we propose that sarcolemma-associated plectin acts as an antagonist of MT network formation in myofibers, thereby hindering vesicle-mediated (MT-dependent) transport of glucose transporter 4. This novel role of plectin throws a bridge between extra-sarcomeric cytoarchitecture and metabolism of muscle fibers. Our study thus provides new insights into pathomechanisms of plectinopathies and muscular dystrophies in general

Improved lower bounds for the ground-state energy of many-body systems

New lower bounds for the binding energy of a quantum-mechanical system of interacting particles are presented. The new bounds are expressed in terms of two-particle quantities and improve the conventional bounds of the Hall-Post type. They are constructed by considering not only the energy in the two-particle system, but also the structure of the pair wave function. We apply the formal results to various numerical examples, and show that in some cases dramatic improvement over the existing bounds is reached.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.