489 research outputs found
Far-Ultraviolet Radiation from Elliptical Galaxies
Far-ultraviolet radiation is a ubiquitous, if unanticipated, phenomenon in
elliptical galaxies and early-type spiral bulges. It is the most variable
photometric feature associated with old stellar populations. Recent
observational and theoretical evidence shows that it is produced mainly by
low-mass, small-envelope, helium-burning stars in extreme horizontal branch and
subsequent phases of evolution. These are probably descendents of the dominant,
metal rich population of the galaxies. Their lifetime UV outputs are remarkably
sensitive to their physical properties and hence to the age and the helium and
metal abundances of their parents. UV spectra are therefore exceptionally
promising diagnostics of old stellar populations, although their calibration
requires a much improved understanding of giant branch mass loss, helium
enrichment, and atmospheric diffusion.Comment: 46 pages; includes LaTeX text file, 9 PS figures, 1 JPG figure, 2
style files. Full resolution figures and PS version available at
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~rwo/araa99/. Article to appear in Annual
Reviews of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 199
Observation of spin Coulomb drag in a two-dimensional electron gas
An electron propagating through a solid carries spin angular momentum in
addition to its mass and charge. Of late there has been considerable interest
in developing electronic devices based on the transport of spin, which offer
potential advantages in dissipation, size, and speed over charge-based devices.
However, these advantages bring with them additional complexity. Because each
electron carries a single, fixed value (-e) of charge, the electrical current
carried by a gas of electrons is simply proportional to its total momentum. A
fundamental consequence is that the charge current is not affected by
interactions that conserve total momentum, notably collisions among the
electrons themselves. In contrast, the electron's spin along a given spatial
direction can take on two values, "up" and "down", so that the spin current and
momentum need not be proportional. Although the transport of spin polarization
is not protected by momentum conservation, it has been widely assumed that,
like the charge current, spin current is unaffected by electron-electron (e-e)
interactions. Here we demonstrate experimentally not only that this assumption
is invalid, but that over a broad range of temperature and electron density,
the flow of spin polarization in a two-dimensional gas of electrons is
controlled by the rate of e-e collisions
Vanishing Cosmological Constant by Gravitino-Dressed Compactification of 11D Supergravity
We consider compactifications induced by the gravitino field of eleven
dimensional supergravity. Such compactifications are not trivial in the sense
that the gravitino profiles are not related to pure bosonic ones by means of a
supersymmetry transformation. The basic property of such backgrounds is that
they admit -torsion although they have vanishing Riemann tensor. Thus,
these backgrounds may be considered also as solutions of the teleparallel
formulation of supergravity. We construct two classes of solutions, one with
both antisymmetric three-form field, gravity and gravitino and one with only
gravity and gravitino. In these classes of solutions, the internal space is a
parallelized compact manifold, so that it does not inherit any cosmological
constant to the external spacetime. The latter turns out to be flat Minkowski
in the maximally symmetric case. The elimination of the cosmological constant
in the spontaneously compactified supergravity seems to be a generic property
based on the trading of the cosmological constant for parallelizing torsion.Comment: 17 pages, no figure
Genetic specification of left-right asymmetry in the diaphragm muscles and their motor innervation.
The diaphragm muscle is essential for breathing in mammals. Its asymmetric elevation during contraction correlates with morphological features suggestive of inherent left-right (L/R) asymmetry. Whether this asymmetry is due to L versus R differences in the muscle or in the phrenic nerve activity is unknown. Here, we have combined the analysis of genetically modified mouse models with transcriptomic analysis to show that both the diaphragm muscle and phrenic nerves have asymmetries, which can be established independently of each other during early embryogenesis in pathway instructed by Nodal, a morphogen that also conveys asymmetry in other organs. We further found that phrenic motoneurons receive an early L/R genetic imprint, with L versus R differences both in Slit/Robo signaling and MMP2 activity and in the contribution of both pathways to establish phrenic nerve asymmetry. Our study therefore demonstrates L-R imprinting of spinal motoneurons and describes how L/R modulation of axon guidance signaling helps to match neural circuit formation to organ asymmetry
Search for electromagnetic properties of the neutrinos at the LHC
Exclusive production of neutrinos via photon-photon fusion provides an
excellent opportunity to probe electromagnetic properties of the neutrinos at
the LHC. We explore the potential of processes pp-> p gamma gamma p -> p nu
anti-nu p and pp -> p gamma gamma p -> p nu anti-nu Z p to probe
neutrino-photon and neutrino-two photon couplings. We show that these reactions
provide more than seven orders of magnitude improvement in neutrino-two photon
couplings compared to LEP limits.Comment: 11 pages, 4 tables, New backgrounds have been adde
Gauge symmetry and W-algebra in higher derivative systems
The problem of gauge symmetry in higher derivative Lagrangian systems is
discussed from a Hamiltonian point of view. The number of independent gauge
parameters is shown to be in general {\it{less}} than the number of independent
primary first class constraints, thereby distinguishing it from conventional
first order systems. Different models have been considered as illustrative
examples. In particular we show a direct connection between the gauge symmetry
and the W-algebra for the rigid relativistic particle.Comment: 1+22 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX, v2; title changed, considerably expanded
version with new results, to appear in JHE
Precision Spectroscopy and Higher Spin symmetry in the ABJM model
We revisit Kaluza-Klein compactification of 11-d supergravity on S^7/Z_k
using group theory techniques that may find application in other flux vacua
with internal coset spaces. Among the SO(2) neutral states, we identify
marginal deformations and fields that couple to the recently discussed
world-sheet instanton of Type IIA on CP^3. We also discuss charged states, dual
to monopole operators, and the Z_k projection of the Osp(4|8) singleton and its
tensor products. In particular, we show that the doubleton spectrum may account
for N=6 higher spin symmetry enhancement in the limit of vanishing 't Hooft
coupling in the boundary Chern-Simons theory.Comment: 44 page
Extremal Multicenter Black Holes: Nilpotent Orbits and Tits Satake Universality Classes
Four dimensional supergravity theories whose scalar manifold is a symmetric
coset manifold U[D=4]/Hc are arranged into a finite list of Tits Satake
universality classes. Stationary solutions of these theories, spherically
symmetric or not, are identified with those of an euclidian three-dimensional
sigma-model, whose target manifold is a Lorentzian coset U[D=3]/H* and the
extremal ones are associated with H* nilpotent orbits in the K* representation
emerging from the orthogonal decomposition of the algebra U[D=3] with respect
to H*. It is shown that the classification of such orbits can always be reduced
to the Tits-Satake projection and it is a class property of the Tits Satake
universality classes. The construction procedure of Bossard et al of extremal
multicenter solutions by means of a triangular hierarchy of integrable
equations is completed and converted into a closed algorithm by means of a
general formula that provides the transition from the symmetric to the solvable
gauge. The question of the relation between H* orbits and charge orbits W of
the corresponding black holes is addressed and also reduced to the
corresponding question within the Tits Satake projection. It is conjectured
that on the vanishing locus of the Taub-NUT current the relation between
H*-orbit and W-orbit is rigid and one-to-one. All black holes emerging from
multicenter solutions associated with a given H* orbit have the same W-type.
For the S^3 model we provide a complete survey of its multicenter solutions
associated with all of the previously classified nilpotent orbits of sl(2) x
sl(2) within g[2,2]. We find a new intrinsic classification of the W-orbits of
this model that might provide a paradigm for the analogous classification in
all the other Tits Satake universality classes.Comment: 83 pages, LaTeX; v2: few misprints corrected and references adde
Prozone effect of serum IgE levels in a case of plasma cell leukemia
We describe a case of multiple myeloma (MM) and secondary plasma cell leukemia (PCL) secreting IgE-kappa immunoglobulin. To our knowledge, only 2 cases of IgE-producing secondary PCL have been reported in the medical literature. In our patient, the only tumor marker available for monitoring the therapeutic response to chemotherapy and allogeneic stem cell transplantation was the quantitative M component at serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP), because serum free light chains were in the normal range, Bence-Jones proteinuria was absent, and quantitative serum IgE levels provided inaccurate and erratic results, due to the prozone effect. This is a laboratory phenomenon that occurs when antigen excess interferes with antibody-based methods requiring immune complex formation for detection. It is important to recognize the presence of a prozone effect, because it can produce falsely normal results, and therefore it could lead clinicians to incorrect assessment of the response to therapy
A Common Origin for Neutrino Anarchy and Charged Hierarchies
The generation of exponential flavor hierarchies from extra-dimensional
wavefunction overlaps is re-examined. We find, surprisingly, that coexistence
of anarchic fermion mass matrices with such hierarchies is intrinsic and
natural to this setting. The salient features of charged fermion and neutrino
masses and mixings can thereby be captured within a single framework. Both
Dirac and Majorana neutrinos can be realized. The minimal phenomenological
consequences are discussed, including the need for a fundamental scale far
above the weak scale to adequately suppress flavor-changing neutral currents.
Two broad scenarios for stabilizing this electroweak hierarchy are studied,
warped compactification and supersymmetry. In warped compactifications and
"Flavorful Supersymmetry," where non-trivial flavor structure appears in the
new TeV physics, Dirac neutrinos are strongly favored over Majorana by lepton
flavor violation tests. We argue that this is part of a more general result for
flavor-sensitive TeV-scale physics. Our scenario strongly suggests that the
supersymmetric flavor problem is not solved locally in the extra dimension, but
rather at or below the compactification scale. In the supersymmetric Dirac
case, we discuss how the appearance of light right-handed sneutrinos
considerably alters the physics of dark matter.Comment: Comparison with the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism omitted. Some
clarifications added. This is the version accepted by PRL with a longer
abstract
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