19,338 research outputs found
The Magellanic Bridge: The Nearest Purely Tidal Stellar Population
We report on observations of the stellar populations in twelve fields
spanning the region between the Magellanic Clouds, made with the Mosaic-II
camera on the 4-meter telescope at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory.
The two main goals of the observations are to characterize the young stellar
population (which presumably formed in situ in the Bridge and therefore
represents the nearest stellar population formed from tidal debris), and to
search for an older stellar component (which would have been stripped from
either Cloud as stars, by the same tidal forces which formed the gaseous
Bridge). We determine the star-formation history of the young inter-Cloud
population, which provides a constraint on the timing of the gravitational
interaction which formed the Bridge. We do not detect an older stellar
population belonging to the Bridge in any of our fields, implying that the
material that was stripped from the Clouds to form the Magellanic Bridge was
very nearly a pure gas.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures. Accepted to Ap
Interaction effects in topological superconducting wires supporting Majorana fermions
Among the broad spectrum of systems predicted to exhibit topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions, one-dimensional wires with strong spin-orbit coupling provide one of the most promising experimental candidates. Here we investigate the fate of the topological superconducting phase in such wires when repulsive interactions are present. Using a combination of density matrix renormalization group, bosonization, and Hartree–Fock techniques, we demonstrate that while interactions degrade the bulk gap—consistent with recent results of Gangadharaiah et al.—they also greatly expand the parameter range over which the topological phase arises. In particular, we show that with interactions this phase can be accessed over a broader chemical potential window, thereby leading to greater immunity against disorder-induced chemical potential fluctuations in the wire. We also suggest that in certain wires strong interactions may allow Majorana fermions to be generated without requiring a magnetic field
Can Neuroscience Help Predict Future Antisocial Behavior?
Part I of this Article reviews the tools currently available to predict antisocial behavior. Part II discusses legal precedent regarding the use of, and challenges to, various prediction methods. Part III introduces recent neuroscience work in this area and reviews two studies that have successfully used neuroimaging techniques to predict recidivism. Part IV discusses some criticisms that are commonly levied against the various prediction methods and highlights the disparity between the attitudes of the scientific and legal communities toward risk assessment generally and neuroscience specifically. Lastly, Part V explains why neuroscience methods will likely continue to help inform and, ideally, improve the tools we use to help assess, understand, and predict human behavior
Notes on simplicial rook graphs
The simplicial rook graph is the graph of which the vertices
are the sequences of nonnegative integers of length summing to , where
two such sequences are adjacent when they differ in precisely two places. We
show that has integral eigenvalues, and smallest eigenvalue , and that this graph has a large part of its
spectrum in common with the Johnson graph . We determine the
automorphism group and several other properties
Pif1 Helicase Lengthens Some Okazaki Fragment Flaps Necessitating Dna2 Nuclease/Helicase Action in the Two-nuclease Processing Pathway
We have developed a system to reconstitute all of the proposed steps of Okazaki fragment processing using purified yeast proteins and model substrates. DNA polymerase δ was shown to extend an upstream fragment to displace a downstream fragment into a flap. In most cases, the flap was removed by flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1), in a reaction required to remove initiator RNA in vivo. The nick left after flap removal could be sealed by DNA ligase I to complete fragment joining. An alternative pathway involving FEN1 and the nuclease/helicase Dna2 has been proposed for flaps that become long enough to bind replication protein A (RPA). RPA binding can inhibit FEN1, but Dna2 can shorten RPA-bound flaps so that RPA dissociates. Recent reconstitution results indicated that Pif1 helicase, a known component of fragment processing, accelerated flap displacement, allowing the inhibitory action of RPA. In results presented here, Pif1 promoted DNA polymerase δ to displace strands that achieve a length to bind RPA, but also to be Dna2 substrates. Significantly, RPA binding to long flaps inhibited the formation of the final ligation products in the reconstituted system without Dna2. However, Dna2 reversed that inhibition to restore efficient ligation. These results suggest that the two-nuclease pathway is employed in cells to process long flap intermediates promoted by Pif1
Modeling truncated pixel values of faint reflections in MicroED images.
The weak pixel counts surrounding the Bragg spots in a diffraction image are important for establishing a model of the background underneath the peak and estimating the reliability of the integrated intensities. Under certain circumstances, particularly with equipment not optimized for low-intensity measurements, these pixel values may be corrupted by corrections applied to the raw image. This can lead to truncation of low pixel counts, resulting in anomalies in the integrated Bragg intensities, such as systematically higher signal-to-noise ratios. A correction for this effect can be approximated by a three-parameter lognormal distribution fitted to the weakly positive-valued pixels at similar scattering angles. The procedure is validated by the improved refinement of an atomic model against structure factor amplitudes derived from corrected micro-electron diffraction (MicroED) images
Femtosecond frequency comb measurement of absolute frequencies and hyperfine coupling constants in cesium vapor
We report measurements of absolute transition frequencies and hyperfine
coupling constants for the 8S_{1/2}, 9S_{1/2}, 7D_{3/2}, and 7D_{5/2} states in
^{133}Cs vapor. The stepwise excitation through either the 6P_{1/2} or 6P_{3/2}
intermediate state is performed directly with broadband laser light from a
stabilized femtosecond laser optical-frequency comb. The laser beam is split,
counter-propagated and focused into a room-temperature Cs vapor cell. The
repetition rate of the frequency comb is scanned and we detect the fluorescence
on the 7P_{1/2,3/2} -> 6S_{1/2} branches of the decay of the excited states.
The excitations to the different states are isolated by the introduction of
narrow-bandwidth interference filters in the laser beam paths. Using a
nonlinear least-squares method we find measurements of transition frequencies
and hyperfine coupling constants that are in agreement with other recent
measurements for the 8S state and provide improvement by two orders of
magnitude over previously published results for the 9S and 7D states.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figure
The Deuterium to Hydrogen Abundance Ratio Towards the QSO SDSS1558-0031
We present a measurement of the D/H abundance ratio in a metal-poor damped
Lyman alpha (DLA) system along the sightline of QSO SDSS1558-0031. The DLA
system is at redshift z = 2.70262, has a neutral column density of
log(NHI)=20.67+/-0.05 cm^2, and a gas-phase metallicity [O/H]= -1.49 which
indicates that deuterium astration is negligible. Deuterium absorption is
observed in multiple Lyman series with a column density of
log(NDI)=16.19+/-0.04 cm^2, best constrained by the deuterium Lyman-11 line. We
measure log(D/H) = -4.48+/-0.06, which when combined with previous measurements
along QSO sightlines gives a best estimate of log(D/H) = -4.55+/-0.04, where
the 1-sigma error estimate comes from a jackknife analysis of the weighted
means. Using the framework of standard big bang nucleosynthesis, this value of
D/H translates into a baryon density of Omega_b h^2 = 0.0213 +/- 0.0013 +/-
0.0004 where the error terms represent the 1-sigma errors from D/H and the
uncertainties in the nuclear reaction rates respectively. Combining our new
measurement with previous measurements of D/H, we no longer find compelling
evidence for a trend of D/H with NHI.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal
Letter
- …