1,582 research outputs found
QCD-like theories at nonzero temperature and density
We investigate the properties of hot and/or dense matter in QCD-like theories
with quarks in a (pseudo)real representation of the gauge group using the
Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. The gauge dynamics is modeled using a simple lattice
spin model with nearest-neighbor interactions. We first keep our discussion as
general as possible, and only later focus on theories with adjoint quarks of
two or three colors. Calculating the phase diagram in the plane of temperature
and quark chemical potential, it is qualitatively confirmed that the critical
temperature of the chiral phase transition is much higher than the
deconfinement transition temperature. At a chemical potential equal to half of
the diquark mass in the vacuum, a diquark Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC)
phase transition occurs. In the two-color case, a Ginzburg-Landau expansion is
used to study the tetracritical behavior around the intersection point of the
deconfinement and BEC transition lines, which are both of second order. We
obtain a compact expression for the expectation value of the Polyakov loop in
an arbitrary representation of the gauge group (for any number of colors),
which allows us to study Casimir scaling at both nonzero temperature and
chemical potential.Comment: JHEP class, 31 pages, 7 eps figures; v2: error in Eq. (3.11) fixed,
two references added; matches published versio
Dendritic Spine Shape Analysis: A Clustering Perspective
Functional properties of neurons are strongly coupled with their morphology.
Changes in neuronal activity alter morphological characteristics of dendritic
spines. First step towards understanding the structure-function relationship is
to group spines into main spine classes reported in the literature. Shape
analysis of dendritic spines can help neuroscientists understand the underlying
relationships. Due to unavailability of reliable automated tools, this analysis
is currently performed manually which is a time-intensive and subjective task.
Several studies on spine shape classification have been reported in the
literature, however, there is an on-going debate on whether distinct spine
shape classes exist or whether spines should be modeled through a continuum of
shape variations. Another challenge is the subjectivity and bias that is
introduced due to the supervised nature of classification approaches. In this
paper, we aim to address these issues by presenting a clustering perspective.
In this context, clustering may serve both confirmation of known patterns and
discovery of new ones. We perform cluster analysis on two-photon microscopic
images of spines using morphological, shape, and appearance based features and
gain insights into the spine shape analysis problem. We use histogram of
oriented gradients (HOG), disjunctive normal shape models (DNSM), morphological
features, and intensity profile based features for cluster analysis. We use
x-means to perform cluster analysis that selects the number of clusters
automatically using the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). For all features,
this analysis produces 4 clusters and we observe the formation of at least one
cluster consisting of spines which are difficult to be assigned to a known
class. This observation supports the argument of intermediate shape types.Comment: Accepted for BioImageComputing workshop at ECCV 201
Schr\"odinger Deformations of AdS_3 x S^3
We study Schr\"odinger invariant deformations of the AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 (or
K3) solution of IIB supergravity and find a large class of solutions with
integer and half-integer dynamical exponents. We analyze the supersymmetries
preserved by our solutions and find an infinite number of solutions with four
supersymmetries. We study the solutions holographically and find that the dual
D1-D5 (or F1-NS5) CFT is deformed by irrelevant operators of spin one and two.Comment: 23 page
Wilsonian Approach to Fluid/Gravity Duality
The problem of gravitational fluctuations confined inside a finite cutoff at
radius outside the horizon in a general class of black hole geometries
is considered. Consistent boundary conditions at both the cutoff surface and
the horizon are found and the resulting modes analyzed. For general cutoff
the dispersion relation is shown at long wavelengths to be that of a
linearized Navier-Stokes fluid living on the cutoff surface. A cutoff-dependent
line-integral formula for the diffusion constant is derived. The
dependence on is interpreted as renormalization group (RG) flow in the
fluid. Taking the cutoff to infinity in an asymptotically AdS context, the
formula for reproduces as a special case well-known results derived
using AdS/CFT. Taking the cutoff to the horizon, the effective speed of sound
goes to infinity, the fluid becomes incompressible and the Navier-Stokes
dispersion relation becomes exact. The resulting universal formula for the
diffusion constant reproduces old results from the membrane
paradigm. Hence the old membrane paradigm results and new AdS/CFT results are
related by RG flow. RG flow-invariance of the viscosity to entropy ratio is shown to follow from the first law of thermodynamics together with
isentropy of radial evolution in classical gravity. The ratio is expected to
run when quantum gravitational corrections are included.Comment: 34 pages, harvmac, clarified boundary conditio
QCD with Chemical Potential in a Small Hyperspherical Box
To leading order in perturbation theory, we solve QCD, defined on a small
three sphere in the large N and Nf limit, at finite chemical potential and map
out the phase diagram in the (mu,T) plane. The action of QCD is complex in the
presence of a non-zero quark chemical potential which results in the sign
problem for lattice simulations. In the large N theory, which at low
temperatures becomes a conventional unitary matrix model with a complex action,
we find that the dominant contribution to the functional integral comes from
complexified gauge field configurations. For this reason the eigenvalues of the
Polyakov line lie off the unit circle on a contour in the complex plane. We
find at low temperatures that as mu passes one of the quark energy levels there
is a third-order Gross-Witten transition from a confined to a deconfined phase
and back again giving rise to a rich phase structure. We compare a range of
physical observables in the large N theory to those calculated numerically in
the theory with N=3. In the latter case there are no genuine phase transitions
in a finite volume but nevertheless the observables are remarkably similar to
the large N theory.Comment: 44 pages, 18 figures, jhep3 format. Small corrections and
clarifications added in v3. Conclusions cleaned up. Published versio
Holographic Brownian Motion in Magnetic Environments
Using the gauge/gravity correspondence, we study the dynamics of a heavy
quark in two strongly-coupled systems at finite temperature: Super-Yang-Mills
in the presence of a magnetic field and non-commutative Super-Yang-Mills. In
the former, our results agree qualitatively with the expected behavior from
weakly-coupled theories. In the latter, we propose a Langevin equation that
accounts for the effects of non-commutativity and we find new interesting
features. The equation resembles the structure of Brownian motion in the
presence of a magnetic field and implies that the fluctuations along
non-commutative directions are correlated. Moreover, our results show that the
viscosity is smaller than the commutative case and that the diffusion
properties of the quark are unaffected by non-commutativity. Finally, we
compute the random force autocorrelator and verify that the
fluctuation-dissipation theorem holds in the presence of non-commutativity.Comment: 34 pages. v2: typos corrected. v3: title and abstract slightly
modified in order to better reflect the contents of the paper; footnote 3 and
one reference were also added; version accepted for publication in JHE
Orbifold equivalence for finite density QCD and effective field theory
In the large N_c limit, some apparently different gauge theories turn out to
be equivalent due to large N_c orbifold equivalence. We use effective field
theory techniques to explore orbifold equivalence, focusing on the specific
case of a recently discovered relation between an SO(2N_c) gauge theory and
QCD. The equivalence to QCD has been argued to hold at finite baryon chemical
potential, \mu_B, so long as one deforms the SO(2N_c) theory by certain
"double-trace" terms. The deformed SO(2N_c) theory can be studied without a
sign problem in the chiral limit, in contrast to SU(N_c) QCD at finite \mu_B.
The purpose of the double-trace deformation in the SO(2N_c) theory is to
prevent baryon number symmetry from breaking spontaneously at finite density,
which is necessary for the equivalence to large N_c QCD to be valid. The
effective field theory analysis presented here clarifies the physical
significance of double-trace deformations, and strongly supports the proposed
equivalence between the deformed SO(2N_c) theory and large N_c QCD at finite
density.Comment: 39 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. v2: Minor typo fixes and
clarification
Characterization of a small cryptic plasmid from endophytic Pantoea agglomerans and its use in the construction of an expression vector
A circular cryptic plasmid named pPAGA (2,734 bp) was isolated from Pantoea agglomerans strain EGE6 (an endophytic bacterial isolate from eucalyptus). Sequence analysis revealed that the plasmid has a G+C content of 51% and contains four potential ORFs, 238(A), 250(B), 131(C), and 129(D) amino acids in length without homology to known proteins. The shuttle vector pLGM1 was constructed by combining the pPAGA plasmid with pGFPmut3.0 (which harbors a gene encoding green fluorescent protein, GFP), and the resulting construct was used to over-express GFP in E. coli and P. agglomerans cells. GFP production was used to monitor the colonization of strain EGE6gfp in various plant tissues by fluorescence microscopy. Analysis of EGE6gfp colonization showed that 14 days after inoculation, the strain occupied the inner tissue of Eucalyptus grandis roots, preferentially colonizing the xylem vessels of the host plants
Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks
In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge,
and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor
Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system
that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining
certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control,
learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and
WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new
opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields
which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be
the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path
between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the
advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of
articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a
range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant
to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core
problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity,
localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the
existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from
robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in
the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature,
and identify topics that require more research attention in the future
Differential regulation of alanine aminotransferase homologues by abiotic stresses in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings contain four alanine aminotransferase (AlaAT) homologues. Two of them encode AlaAT enzymes, whereas two homologues act as glumate:glyoxylate aminotransferase (GGAT). To address the function of the distinct AlaAT homologues a comparative examination of the changes in transcript level together with the enzyme activity and alanine and glutamate content in wheat seedlings subjected to low oxygen availability, nitrogen and light deficiency has been studied. Shoots of wheat seedlings were more tolerant to hypoxia than the roots as judging on the basis of enzyme activity and transcript level. Hypoxia induced AlaAT1 earlier in roots than in shoots, while AlaAT2 and GGAT were unaffected. The increase in AlaAT activity lagged behind the increase in alanine content. Nitrogen deficiency has little effect on the activity of GGAT. In contrast, lower activity of AlaAT and the level of mRNA for AlaAT1 and AlaAT2 in wheat seedlings growing on a nitrogen-free medium seems to indicate that AlaAT is regulated by the availability of nitrogen. Both AlaAT and GGAT activities were present in etiolated wheat seedlings but their activity was half of that observed in light-grown seedlings. Exposure of etiolated seedlings to light caused an increase in enzyme activities and up-regulated GGAT1. It is proposed that hypoxia-induced AlaAT1 and light-induced peroxisomal GGAT1 appears to be crucial for the regulation of energy availability in plants grown under unfavourable environmental conditions
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