904 research outputs found
A realistic example of chaotic tunneling: The hydrogen atom in parallel static electric and magnetic fields
Statistics of tunneling rates in the presence of chaotic classical dynamics
is discussed on a realistic example: a hydrogen atom placed in parallel uniform
static electric and magnetic fields, where tunneling is followed by ionization
along the fields direction. Depending on the magnetic quantum number, one may
observe either a standard Porter-Thomas distribution of tunneling rates or, for
strong scarring by a periodic orbit parallel to the external fields, strong
deviations from it. For the latter case, a simple model based on random matrix
theory gives the correct distribution.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Kaon mass in dense matter
The variation of kaon mass in dense, charge-neutral baryonic matter at
beta-equilibrium has been investigated. The baryon interaction has been
included by means of nonlinear Walecka model, with and without hyperons and the
interaction of kaons with the baryons has been incorporated through the
Nelson-Kaplan model. A self-consistant, one-loop level calculation has been
carried out. We find that at the mean field level, the presence of the hyperons
makes the density-dependence of the kaon mass softer. Thus, the kaon
condensation threshold is pushed up in the baryon density. The loop diagrams
tend to lower the kaon condensation point for lower values of . We
also find that the S-wave kaon-nucleon interaction plays the dominant role in
determining the on-set of kaon condensation and the contribution of the P-wave
interaction is insignificant.Comment: Four figures available on reques
Strangeness Production in Neutron Stars
Production of strange quarks in neutron stars is investigated in this work.
Three cases, one in which the energy and neutrinos produced in the strangeness
production reactions are retained in the reaction region, second in which the
neutrinos are allowed to escape the reaction region but the energy is retained
and the third in which both the energy and neutrinos escape the reaction region
are considered. It is shown that the nonleptonic weak process dominates strange
quark production while semileptonic weak processes, which produce neutrinos,
lead to the cooling if the neutrinos escape the reaction region. It is found
that the time required for the saturation of the strangeness fraction is
between and sec, with the shorter time corresponding to the
first two cases. About 0.2 neutrinos/baryon are emitted during the process in
the first two cases where as the neutrino emission is somewhat suppressed in
the last case. The average energy of the neutrinos produced in all the three
cases is found to be several hundred . We also find that a large amount of
energy is released during the strangeness production in the first two cases and
this leads to the heating of the reaction region. Implications of the neutrino
production are investigated.Comment: Latex file. 3 figures available from SKG on request. accepted in Nucl
Phys
The Simplest Little Higgs
We show that the SU(3) little Higgs model has a region of parameter space in
which electroweak symmetry breaking is natural and in which corrections to
precision electroweak observables are sufficiently small. The model is anomaly
free, generates a Higgs mass near 150 GeV, and predicts new gauge bosons and
fermions at 1 TeV.Comment: 13 pages + appendix, typos corrected, version to appear in JHE
Constraining the Littlest Higgs
Little Higgs models offer a new way to address the hierarchy problem, and
give rise to a weakly-coupled Higgs sector. These theories predict the
existence of new states which are necessary to cancel the quadratic divergences
of the Standard Model. The simplest version of these models, the Littlest
Higgs, is based on an non-linear sigma model and predicts that
four new gauge bosons, a weak isosinglet quark, , with , as well as
an isotriplet scalar field exist at the TeV scale. We consider the
contributions of these new states to precision electroweak observables, and
examine their production at the Tevatron. We thoroughly explore the parameter
space of this model and find that small regions are allowed by the precision
data where the model parameters take on their natural values. These regions
are, however, excluded by the Tevatron data. Combined, the direct and indirect
effects of these new states constrain the `decay constant' f\gsim 3.5 TeV and
m_{t'}\gsim 7 TeV. These bounds imply that significant fine-tuning be
present in order for this model to resolve the hierarchy problem.Comment: 31 pgs, 26 figures; bound on t' mass fixed to mt'>2f, conclusions
unchange
Drum vortons in high density QCD
Recently it was shown that high density QCD supports of number of topological
defects. In particular, there are U(1)_Y strings that arise due to K^0
condensation that occurs when the strange quark mass is relatively large. The
unique feature of these strings is that they possess a nonzero K^+ condensate
that is trapped on the core. In the following we will show that these strings
(with nontrivial core structure) can form closed loops with conserved charge
and currents trapped on the string worldsheet. The presence of conserved
charges allows these topological defects, called vortons, to carry angular
momentum, which makes them classically stable objects. We also give arguments
demonstrating that vortons carry angular momentum very efficiently (in terms of
energy per unit angular momentum) such that they might be the important degrees
of freedom in the cores of neutron stars.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Granzyme A-producing T helper cells are critical for acute graft-versus-host disease
Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) can occur after hematopoietic cell transplant in patients undergoing treatment for hematological malignancies or inborn errors. Although CD4+ T helper (Th) cells play a major role in aGVHD, the mechanisms by which they contribute, particularly within the intestines, have remained elusive. We have identified a potentially novel subset of Th cells that accumulated in the intestines and produced the serine protease granzyme A (GrA). GrA+ Th cells were distinct from other Th lineages and exhibited a noncytolytic phenotype. In vitro, GrA+ Th cells differentiated in the presence of IL-4, IL-6, and IL-21 and were transcriptionally unique from cells cultured with either IL-4 or the IL-6/IL-21 combination alone. In vivo, both STAT3 and STAT6 were required for GrA+ Th cell differentiation and played roles in maintenance of the lineage identity. Importantly, GrA+ Th cells promoted aGVHD-associated morbidity and mortality and contributed to crypt destruction within intestines but were not required for the beneficial graft-versus-leukemia effect. Our data indicate that GrA+ Th cells represent a distinct Th subset and are critical mediators of aGVHD
A CsI(Tl) Scintillating Crystal Detector for the Studies of Low Energy Neutrino Interactions
Scintillating crystal detector may offer some potential advantages in the
low-energy, low-background experiments. A 500 kg CsI(Tl) detector to be placed
near the core of Nuclear Power Station II in Taiwan is being constructed for
the studies of electron-neutrino scatterings and other keV-MeV range neutrino
interactions. The motivations of this detector approach, the physics to be
addressed, the basic experimental design, and the characteristic performance of
prototype modules are described. The expected background channels and their
experimental handles are discussed.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Method
Helminth infection reactivates latent γ-herpesvirus via cytokine competition at a viral promoter
Mammals are coinfected by multiple pathogens that interact through unknown mechanisms. We found that helminth infection, characterized by the induction of the cytokine interleukin-4 (IL-4) and the activation of the transcription factor Stat6, reactivated murine γ-herpesvirus infection in vivo. IL-4 promoted viral replication and blocked the antiviral effects of interferon-γ (IFNγ) by inducing Stat6 binding to the promoter for an important viral transcriptional transactivator. IL-4 also reactivated human Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus from latency in cultured cells. Exogenous IL-4 plus blockade of IFNγ reactivated latent murine γ-herpesvirus infection in vivo, suggesting a "two-signal" model for viral reactivation. Thus, chronic herpesvirus infection, a component of the mammalian virome, is regulated by the counterpoised actions of multiple cytokines on viral promoters that have evolved to sense host immune status
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