331 research outputs found
Spin diffusion and injection in semiconductor structures: Electric field effects
In semiconductor spintronic devices, the semiconductor is usually lightly
doped and nondegenerate, and moderate electric fields can dominate the carrier
motion. We recently derived a drift-diffusion equation for spin polarization in
the semiconductors by consistently taking into account electric-field effects
and nondegenerate electron statistics and identified a high-field diffusive
regime which has no analogue in metals. Here spin injection from a ferromagnet
(FM) into a nonmagnetic semiconductor (NS) is extensively studied by applying
this spin drift-diffusion equation to several typical injection structures such
as FM/NS, FM/NS/FM, and FM/NS/NS structures. We find that in the high-field
regime spin injection from a ferromagnet into a semiconductor is enhanced by
several orders of magnitude. For injection structures with interfacial
barriers, the electric field further enhances spin injection considerably. In
FM/NS/FM structures high electric fields destroy the symmetry between the two
magnets at low fields, where both magnets are equally important for spin
injection, and spin injection becomes locally determined by the magnet from
which carriers flow into the semiconductor. The field-induced spin injection
enhancement should also be insensitive to the presence of a highly doped
nonmagnetic semiconductor (NS) at the FM interface, thus FM/NS/NS
structures should also manifest efficient spin injection at high fields.
Furthermore, high fields substantially reduce the magnetoresistance observable
in a recent experiment on spin injection from magnetic semiconductors
UV friendly T-parity in the SU(6)/Sp(6) little Higgs model
Electroweak precision tests put stringent constraints on the parameter space
of little Higgs models. Tree-level exchange of TeV scale particles in a generic
little Higgs model produce higher dimensional operators that make contributions
to electroweak observables that are typically too large. To avoid this problem
a discrete symmetry dubbed T-parity can be introduced to forbid the dangerous
couplings. However, it was realized that in simple group models such as the
littlest Higgs model, the implementation of T-parity in a UV completion could
present some challenges. The situation is analogous to the one in QCD where the
pion can easily be defined as being odd under a new symmetry in the
chiral Lagrangian, but this is not a symmetry of the quark Lagrangian. In
this paper we examine the possibility of implementing a T-parity in the low
energy model that might be easier to realize in the UV. In our
model, the T-parity acts on the low energy non-linear sigma model field in way
which is different to what was originally proposed for the Littlest Higgs, and
lead to a different low energy theory. In particular, the Higgs sector of this
model is a inert two Higgs doublets model with an approximate custodial
symmetry. We examine the contributions of the various sectors of the model to
electroweak precision data, and to the dark matter abundance.Comment: 21 pages,4 figures. Clarifications added, typos corrected and
references added. Published in JHE
The evolution of rotating stars
First, we review the main physical effects to be considered in the building
of evolutionary models of rotating stars on the Upper Main-Sequence (MS). The
internal rotation law evolves as a result of contraction and expansion,
meridional circulation, diffusion processes and mass loss. In turn,
differential rotation and mixing exert a feedback on circulation and diffusion,
so that a consistent treatment is necessary.
We review recent results on the evolution of internal rotation and the
surface rotational velocities for stars on the Upper MS, for red giants,
supergiants and W-R stars. A fast rotation is enhancing the mass loss by
stellar winds and reciprocally high mass loss is removing a lot of angular
momentum. The problem of the ``break-up'' or -limit is critically
examined in connection with the origin of Be and LBV stars. The effects of
rotation on the tracks in the HR diagram, the lifetimes, the isochrones, the
blue to red supergiant ratios, the formation of W-R stars, the chemical
abundances in massive stars as well as in red giants and AGB stars, are
reviewed in relation to recent observations for stars in the Galaxy and
Magellanic Clouds. The effects of rotation on the final stages and on the
chemical yields are examined, as well as the constraints placed by the periods
of pulsars. On the whole, this review points out that stellar evolution is not
only a function of mass M and metallicity Z, but of angular velocity
as well.Comment: 78 pages, 7 figures, review for Annual Review of Astronomy and
Astrophysics, vol. 38 (2000
Nets, Spray or Both? The Effectiveness of Insecticide-Treated Nets and Indoor Residual Spraying in Reducing Malaria Morbidity and Child Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.
Malaria control programmes currently face the challenge of maintaining, as well as accelerating, the progress made against malaria with fewer resources and uncertain funding. There is a critical need to determine what combination of malaria interventions confers the greatest protection against malaria morbidity and child mortality under routine conditions. This study assesses intervention effectiveness experienced by children under the age of five exposed to both insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS), as compared to each intervention alone, based on nationally representative survey data collected from 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Living in households with both ITNs and IRS was associated with a significant risk reduction against parasitaemia in medium and high transmission areas, 53% (95% CI 37% to 67%) and 31% (95% CI 11% to 47%) respectively. For medium transmission areas, an additional 36% (95% CI 7% to 53%) protection was garnered by having both interventions compared with exposure to only ITNs or only IRS. Having both ITNs and IRS was not significantly more protective against parasitaemia than either intervention alone in low and high malaria transmission areas. In rural and urban areas, exposure to both interventions provided significant protection against parasitaemia, 57% (95% CI 48% to 65%) and 39% (95% CI 10% to 61%) respectively; however, this effect was not significantly greater than having a singular intervention. Statistically, risk for all-cause child mortality was not significantly reduced by having both ITNs and IRS, and no additional protectiveness was detected for having dual intervention coverage over a singular intervention. These findings suggest that greater reductions in malaria morbidity and health gains for children may be achieved with ITNs and IRS combined beyond the protection offered by IRS or ITNs alone
Quantum impurity dynamics in two-dimensional antiferromagnets and superconductors
We present the universal theory of arbitrary, localized impurities in a
confining paramagnetic state of two-dimensional antiferromagnets with global
SU(2) spin symmetry. The energy gap of the host antiferromagnet to spin-1
excitations, \Delta, is assumed to be significantly smaller than a typical
nearest neighbor exchange. In the absence of impurities, it was argued in
earlier work (Chubukov et al. cond-mat/9304046) that the low-temperature
quantum dynamics is universally and completely determined by the values of
\Delta and a spin-wave velocity c. Here we establish the remarkable fact that
no additional parameters are necessary for an antiferromagnet with a dilute
concentration of impurities, n_{imp} - each impurity is completely
characterized by a integer/half-odd-integer valued spin, S, which measures the
net uncompensated Berry phase due to spin precession in its vicinity. We
compute the impurity-induced damping of the spin-1 collective mode of the
antiferromagnet: the damping occurs on an energy scale \Gamma= n_{imp} (\hbar
c)^2/\Delta, and we predict a universal, asymmetric lineshape for the
collective mode peak. We argue that, under suitable conditions, our results
apply unchanged (or in some cases, with minor modifications) to d-wave
superconductors, and compare them to recent neutron scattering experiments on
YBCO by Fong et al. (cond-mat/9812047). We also describe the universal
evolution of numerous measurable correlations as the host antiferromagnet
undergoes a quantum phase transition to a Neel ordered state.Comment: 36 pages, 12 figures; added reference
Variation in herbivore space use: comparing two savanna ecosystems with different anthrax outbreak patterns in southern Africa
Abstract
Background
The distribution of resources can affect animal range sizes, which in turn may alter infectious disease dynamics in heterogenous environments. The risk of pathogen exposure or the spatial extent of outbreaks may vary with host range size. This study examined the range sizes of herbivorous anthrax host species in two ecosystems and relationships between spatial movement behavior and patterns of disease outbreaks for a multi-host environmentally transmitted pathogen.
Methods
We examined range sizes for seven host species and the spatial extent of anthrax outbreaks in Etosha National Park, Namibia and Kruger National Park, South Africa, where the main host species and outbreak sizes differ. We evaluated host range sizes using the local convex hull method at different temporal scales, within-individual temporal range overlap, and relationships between ranging behavior and species contributions to anthrax cases in each park. We estimated the spatial extent of annual anthrax mortalities and evaluated whether the extent was correlated with case numbers of a given host species.
Results
Range size differences among species were not linearly related to anthrax case numbers. In Kruger the main host species had small range sizes and high range overlap, which may heighten exposure when outbreaks occur within their ranges. However, different patterns were observed in Etosha, where the main host species had large range sizes and relatively little overlap. The spatial extent of anthrax mortalities was similar between parks but less variable in Etosha than Kruger. In Kruger outbreaks varied from small local clusters to large areas and the spatial extent correlated with case numbers and species affected. Secondary host species contributed relatively few cases to outbreaks; however, for these species with large range sizes, case numbers positively correlated with outbreak extent.
Conclusions
Our results provide new information on the spatiotemporal structuring of ranging movements of anthrax host species in two ecosystems. The results linking anthrax dynamics to host space use are correlative, yet suggest that, though partial and proximate, host range size and overlap may be contributing factors in outbreak characteristics for environmentally transmitted pathogens
Electroweak Symmetry Breaking at the LHC
One of the major goals of the Large Hadron Collider is to probe the
electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism and the generation of the masses of the
elementary particles. We review the physics of the Higgs sector in the Standard
Model and some of its extensions such as supersymmetric theories and models of
extra dimensions. The prospects for discovering the Higgs particles at the LHC
and the study of their fundamental properties are summarised.Comment: 27 pages, 45 figures, uses LaTeX (insa.sty). Invited review for
volume on LHC physics to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the Indian
National Science Academy, edited by Amitava Datta, Biswarup Mukhopadhyaya and
Amitava Raychaudhuri. Expanded the acronym in the title in the annoncement.
No other change in the text or reference
The Higgs resonance in vector boson scattering
A heavy Higgs resonance is described in a representation-independent way
which is valid for the whole energy range of 2 -> 2 scattering processes,
including the asymptotic behavior at low and high energies. The low-energy
theorems which follow from to the custodial SU_2 symmetry of the Higgs sector
restrict the possible parameterizations of the lineshape that are consistent in
perturbation theory. Matching conditions are specified which are necessary and
sufficient to relate the parameters arising in different expansions. The
construction is performed explicitly up to next-to-leading order.Comment: 25 pages, revtex, uses epsf, amssym
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