Fermion scattering off electroweak phase transition kink walls with hypermagnetic fields

We study the scattering of fermions off a finite width kink wall during the electroweak phase transition in the presence of a background hypermagnetic field. We derive and solve the Dirac equation for such fermions and compute the reflection and transmission coefficients for the case when the fermions move from the symmetric to the broken symmetry phase. We show that the chiral nature of the fermion coupling with the background field in the symmetric phase generates an axial asymmetry in the scattering processes. We discuss possible implications of such axial charge segregation for baryon number generation.Comment: 9 pages, 3 Postscript figures, uses RevTeX4. Expanded discussion, published versio

A Proposal for a New HOM Absorber in a Straight Section of the PEP-II Low Energy Ring

Attainment of high luminosity in storage ring colliders necessitates increasing stored currents and reducing bunch lengths. Consequently, intense beam fields will scatter more power into higher order modes from beam line sources such as collimators, masks and tapers. This power penetrates into sensitive components such as a bellows, causing undesirable heating and limits machine performance. To overcome this limitation we propose incorporating ceramic absorbers in the vicinity of the bellows to damp beam induced modes while preserving a matched impedance to the beam. This is accomplished with an absorber configuration which damps TE dipole and quadrupole traveling waves while preserving TM monopole propagation. A scattering parameter analysis is presented utilizing properties of commercial grade ceramics and indicates a feasible solution

Axially asymmetric fermion scattering off electroweak phase transition bubble walls with hypermagnetic fields

We show that in the presence of large scale primordial hypermagnetic fields, it is possible to generate an axial asymmetry for a first order electroweak phase transition. This happens during the reflection and transmission of fermions off the true vacuum bubbles, due to the chiral nature of the fermion coupling with the background field in the symmetric phase. We derive and solve the Dirac equation for such fermions and compute the reflection and transmission coefficients for the case when these fermions move from the symmetric to the symmetry broken phase. We also comment on the possible implications of such axial charge segregation processes for baryon number generation.Comment: 8 pages, 2 Encapsulated Postscript figures, uses ReVTeX and epsfig.sty, expanded discussion, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Effects of Interferon-α/β on HBV Replication Determined by Viral Load

Interferons α and β (IFN-α/β) are type I interferons produced by the host to control microbial infections. However, the use of IFN-α to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV) patients generated sustained response to only a minority of patients. By using HBV transgenic mice as a model and by using hydrodynamic injection to introduce HBV DNA into the mouse liver, we studied the effect of IFN-α/β on HBV in vivo. Interestingly, our results indicated that IFN-α/β could have opposite effects on HBV: they suppressed HBV replication when viral load was high and enhanced HBV replication when viral load was low. IFN-α/β apparently suppressed HBV replication via transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulations. In contrast, IFN-α/β enhanced viral replication by inducing the transcription factor HNF3γ and activating STAT3, which together stimulated HBV gene expression and replication. Further studies revealed an important role of IFN-α/β in stimulating viral growth and prolonging viremia when viral load is low. This use of an innate immune response to enhance its replication and persistence may represent a novel strategy that HBV uses to enhance its growth and spread in the early stage of viral infection when the viral level is low

The Chemical Characterization of Microplastic Polymer Composition from Various Littoral Environments with NOAA

As a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hollings Scholar, I interned at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Sandy Hook, NJ. I worked with Dr. Ashok Deshpande on the chemical characterization of microplastic polymers. For my project, I collected plastic samples from various littoral environments along the shores of Cape Cod, MA. I then ran these samples in a pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry instrument, and analyzed the resulting spectra to determine their polymer composition. This research is important because plastics can absorb toxic chemical contaminants, so it is necessary to raise awareness about the dangers of plastic consumption and pollution