159 research outputs found
Localized modes at a D-brane--O-plane intersection and heterotic Alice strings
We study a system of -branes intersecting -branes and
-planes in 1+1-dimensions. We use anomaly cancellation and string dualities
to argue that there must be chiral fermion zero-modes on the -branes which
are localized near the -planes. Away from the orientifold limit we verify
this by using index theory as well as explicit construction of the zero-modes.
This system is related to F-theory on K3 and heterotic matrix string theory,
and the heterotic strings are related to Alice string defects in
Super-Yang-Mills. In the limit of large we find an
dual of the heterotic matrix string CFT.Comment: 44 pages, typos corrected, version published in JHE
alpha'-exact entropies for BPS and non-BPS extremal dyonic black holes in heterotic string theory from ten-dimensional supersymmetry
We calculate near-horizon solutions for four-dimensional 4-charge and
five-dimensional 3-charge black holes in heterotic string theory from the part
of the ten-dimensional tree-level effective action which is connected to
gravitational Chern-Simons term by supersymmetry. We obtain that the entropies
of large black holes exactly match the alpha'-exact statistical entropies
obtained from microstate counting (D=4) and AdS/CFT correspondence (D=5).
Especially interesting is that we obtain agreement for both BPS and non-BPS
black holes, contrary to the case of R^2-truncated (four-derivative) actions
(D-dimensional N=2 off-shell supersymmetric or Gauss-Bonnet) were used, which
give the entropies agreeing (at best) just for BPS black holes. The key
property of the solutions, which enabled us to tackle the action containing
infinite number of terms, is vanishing of the Riemann tensor \bar{R}_{MNPQ}
obtained from torsional connection defined with \bar{\Gamma} = \Gamma - H/2.
Morover, if every monomial of the remaining part of the effective action would
contain at least two Riemanns \bar{R}_{MNPQ}, it would trivially follow that
our solutions are exact solutions of the full heterotic effective action in
D=10. The above conjecture, which appeared (in this or stronger form) from time
to time in the literature, has controversial status, but is supported by the
most recent calculations of Richards (arXiv:0807.3453 [hep-th]). Agreement of
our results for the entropies with the microscopic ones supports the
conjecture. As for small black holes, our solutions in D=5 still have singular
horizons.Comment: 28 pages; v2: minor changes, references added; v3: extended
discussion on small black holes in sec. 5.4, more references added, accepted
in JHE
Near the horizon of 5D black rings
For the five dimensional N=2 black rings, we study the supersymmetry
enhancement and identify the global supergroup of the near horizon geometry. We
show that the global part of the supergroup is OSp(4*|2)X U(1) which is similar
to the small black string. We show that results obtained by applying the
entropy function formalism, the c-extremization approach and the Brown-Henneaux
method to the black ring solution are in agreement with the microscopic entropy
calculation.Comment: 26 pages, version to appear in JHEP, the near horizon superalgebra is
corrected, discussion on small black ring is discarded, Brown-Henneaux
approach to large black ring is adde
Fundamental Superstrings as Holograms
The worldsheet of a macroscopic fundamental superstring in the Green-Schwarz
light-cone gauge is viewed as a possible boundary hologram of the near horizon
region of a small black string. For toroidally compactified strings, the
hologram has global symmetries of AdS_3 \times S^{d-1} \times T^{8-d}, (d
=3,..,8), only some of which extend to local conformal symmetries. We construct
the bulk string theory in detail for the particular case of d=3. The symmetries
of the hologram are correctly reproduced from this exact worldsheet description
in the bulk. Moreover, the central charge of the boundary Virasoro algebra
obtained from the bulk agrees with the Wald entropy of the associated small
black holes. This construction provides an exact CFT description of the near
horizon region of small black holes both in Type-II and heterotic string theory
arising from multiply wound fundamental superstrings.Comment: 46 pages, JHEP style. v2: Comments, references adde
D-Brane Propagation in Two-Dimensional Black Hole Geometries
We study propagation of D0-brane in two-dimensional Lorentzian black hole
backgrounds by the method of boundary conformal field theory of SL(2,R)/U(1)
supercoset at level k. Typically, such backgrounds arise as near-horizon
geometries of k coincident non-extremal NS5-branes, where 1/k measures
curvature of the backgrounds in string unit and hence size of string worldsheet
effects. At classical level, string worldsheet effects are suppressed and
D0-brane propagation in the Lorentzian black hole geometry is simply given by
the Wick rotation of D1-brane contour in the Euclidean black hole geometry.
Taking account of string worldsheet effects, boundary state of the Lorentzian
D0-brane is formally constructible via Wick rotation from that of the Euclidean
D1-brane. However, the construction is subject to ambiguities in boundary
conditions. We propose exact boundary states describing the D0-brane, and
clarify physical interpretations of various boundary states constructed from
different boundary conditions. As it falls into the black hole, the D0-brane
radiates off to the horizon and to the infinity. From the boundary states
constructed, we compute physical observables of such radiative process. We find
that part of the radiation to infinity is in effective thermal distribution at
the Hawking temperature. We also find that part of the radiation to horizon is
in the Hagedorn distribution, dominated by massive, highly non-relativistic
closed string states, much like the tachyon matter. Remarkably, such
distribution emerges only after string worldsheet effects are taken exactly
into account. From these results, we observe that nature of the radiation
distribution changes dramatically across the conifold geometry k=1 (k=3 for the
bosonic case), exposing the `string - black hole transition' therein.Comment: 51 pages, 5 figures, v2: referece added, note added replying the
comment made in hep-th/060206
String Theory on Warped AdS_3 and Virasoro Resonances
We investigate aspects of holographic duals to time-like warped AdS_3
space-times--which include G\"odel's universe--in string theory. Using
worldsheet techniques similar to those that have been applied to AdS_3
backgrounds, we are able to identify space-time symmetry algebras that act on
the dual boundary theory. In particular, we always find at least one Virasoro
algebra with computable central charge. Interestingly, there exists a dense set
of points in the moduli space of these models in which there is actually a
second commuting Virasoro algebra, typically with different central charge than
the first. We analyze the supersymmetry of the backgrounds, finding related
enhancements, and comment on possible interpretations of these results. We also
perform an asymptotic symmetry analysis at the level of supergravity, providing
additional support for the worldsheet analysis.Comment: 24 pages + appendice
Computing the Spectrum of a Heterotic Flux Vacuum
We compute the massless spectra of a set of flux vacua of the heterotic
string. The vacua we study include well-known non-Kahler T^2-fibrations over K3
with SU(3) structure and intrinsic torsion. Following gauged linear sigma
models of these vacua into phases governed by asymmetric Landau-Ginzburg
orbifolds allows us to compute the spectrum using generalizations of familiar
LG-orbifold techniques. We study several four- and six-dimensional examples
with N=2 spacetime supersymmetry in detail.Comment: 1+49 pages, updated to JHEP version (added appendix and minor
revisions
Evaluation of methods for detection of fluorescence labeled subcellular objects in microscope images
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several algorithms have been proposed for detecting fluorescently labeled subcellular objects in microscope images. Many of these algorithms have been designed for specific tasks and validated with limited image data. But despite the potential of using extensive comparisons between algorithms to provide useful information to guide method selection and thus more accurate results, relatively few studies have been performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To better understand algorithm performance under different conditions, we have carried out a comparative study including eleven spot detection or segmentation algorithms from various application fields. We used microscope images from well plate experiments with a human osteosarcoma cell line and frames from image stacks of yeast cells in different focal planes. These experimentally derived images permit a comparison of method performance in realistic situations where the number of objects varies within image set. We also used simulated microscope images in order to compare the methods and validate them against a ground truth reference result. Our study finds major differences in the performance of different algorithms, in terms of both object counts and segmentation accuracies.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that the selection of detection algorithms for image based screens should be done carefully and take into account different conditions, such as the possibility of acquiring empty images or images with very few spots. Our inclusion of methods that have not been used before in this context broadens the set of available detection methods and compares them against the current state-of-the-art methods for subcellular particle detection.</p
Image-Based Assessment of Growth and Signaling Changes in Cancer Cells Mediated by Direct Cell-Cell Contact
Many important biological processes are controlled through cell-cell interactions, including the colonization of metastatic tumor cells and the control of differentiation of stem cells within their niche. Despite the crucial importance of the cellular environment in regulating cellular signaling, in vitro methods for the study of such interactions are difficult and/or indirect.We report on the development of an image-based method for distinguishing two cell types grown in coculture. Furthermore, cells of one type that are in direct contact with cells of a second type (adjacent cells) can be analyzed separately from cells that are not within a single well. Changes are evaluated using population statistics, which are useful in detecting subtle changes across two populations. We have used this system to characterize changes in the LNCaP prostate carcinoma cell line when grown in contact with human vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs). We find that the expression and phosphorylation of WWOX is reduced in LNCaP cells when grown in direct contact with HUVECs. Reduced WWOX signaling has been associated with reduced activation or expression of JNK and p73. We find that p73 levels are also reduced in LNCaP cells grown in contact with HUVECs, but we did not observe such a change in JNK levels.We find that the method described is statistically robust and can be adapted to a wide variety of studies where cell function or signaling are affected by heterotypic cell-cell contact. Ironically, a potential challenge to the method is its high level of sensitivity is capable of classifying events as statistically significant (due to the high number cells evaluated individually), when the biological effect may be less clear. The methodology would be best used in conjunction with additional methods to evaluate the biological role of potentially subtle differences between populations. However, many important events, such as the establishment of a metastatic tumor, occur through rare but important changes, and methods such as we describe here can be used to identify and characterize the contribution of the environment to these changes
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