12,005 research outputs found
A Small Cosmological Constant and Backreaction of Non-Finetuned Parameters
We include the backreaction on the warped geometry induced by non-finetuned
parameters in a two domain-wall set-up to obtain an exponentially small
Cosmological Constant . The mechanism to suppress the Cosmological
Constant involves one classical fine-tuning as compared to an infinity of
finetunings at the quantum level in standard D=4 field theory.Comment: 13 pages, minor corrections and references adde
Measurement of the Casimir force between dissimilar metals
The first precise measurement of the Casimir force between dissimilar metals
is reported. The attractive force, between a Cu layer evaporated on a
microelectromechanical torsional oscillator, and an Au layer deposited on an
AlO sphere, was measured dynamically with a noise level of 6
fN/. Measurements were performed for separations in the 0.2-2
m range. The results agree to better than 1% in the 0.2-0.5 m range
with a theoretical model that takes into account the finite conductivity and
roughness of the two metals. The observed discrepancies, which are much larger
than the experimental precision, can be attributed to a lack of a complete
characterization of the optical properties of the specific samples used in the
experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Aspects of Nucleon Chiral Perturbation Theory
I review recent progress made in the calculation of nucleon properties in the
framework of heavy baryon CHPT. Topics include: Compton scattering,
scattering, the anatomy of a low-energy constant and the induced pseudoscalar
form factor.Comment: plain TeX (macro included), 12pp, lecture delivered at the workshop
on "Chiral Dynamics: Theory and Experiments", MIT, July 25-29, 199
Precise comparison of theory and new experiment for the Casimir force leads to stronger constraints on thermal quantum effects and long-range interactions
We report an improved dynamic determination of the Casimir pressure between
two plane plates obtained using a micromachined torsional oscillator. The main
improvements in the current experiment are a significant suppression of the
surface roughness of the Au layers deposited on the interacting surfaces, and a
decrease in the experimental error in the measurement of the absolute
separation. A metrological analysis of all data permitted us to determine both
the random and systematic errors, and to find the total experimental error as a
function of separation at the 95% confidence level. In contrast to all previous
experiments on the Casimir effect, our smallest experimental error (%) is achieved over a wide separation range. The theoretical Casimir
pressures in the experimental configuration were calculated by the use of four
theoretical approaches suggested in the literature. All corrections to the
Casimir force were calculated or estimated. All theoretical errors were
analyzed and combined to obtain the total theoretical error at the 95%
confidence level. Finally, the confidence interval for the differences between
theoretical and experimental pressures was obtained as a function of
separation. Our measurements are found to be consistent with two theoretical
approaches utilizing the plasma model and the surface impedance over the entire
measurement region. Two other approaches to the thermal Casimir force,
utilizing the Drude model or a special prescription for the determination of
the zero-frequency contribution to the Lifshitz formula, are excluded on the
basis of our measurements at the 99% and 95% confidence levels, respectively.
Finally, constraints on Yukawa-type hypothetical interactions are strengthened
by up to a factor of 20 in a wide interaction range.Comment: 43 pages, 15 figures, elsart.cls is used. Accepted for publication in
Annals of Physics. (Several misprints in the text are corrected.
Comment on "Anomalies in electrostatic calibration for the measurement of the Casimir force in a sphere-plane geometry"
Recently W. J. Kim, M. Brown-Hayes, D. A. R. Dalvit, J. H. Brownell, and R.
Onofrio [Phys. Rev. A, v.78, 036102(R) (2008)] performed electrostatic
calibrations for a plane plate above a centimeter-size spherical lens at
separations down to 20-30 nm and observed "anomalous behavior". It was found
that the gradient of the electrostatic force does not depend on separation as
predicted on the basis of a pure Coulombian contribution. Some hypotheses which
could potentially explain the deviation from the expected behavior were
considered, and qualitative arguments in favor of the influence of patch
surface potentials were presented. We demonstrate that for the large lenses at
separations of a few tens nanometers from the plate, the electrostatic force
law used by the authors is not applicable due to possible deviations of the
mechanically polished and ground lens surface from a perfect spherical shape. A
model is proposed which explains the observed "anomalous behavior" using the
standard Coulombian force.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Linkages Between the Phenologies of Jack Pine \u3ci\u3e(Pinus Banksiana)\u3c/i\u3e Foliage and Jack Pine Budworm (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)
A field study conducted in 2001 and 2002 in the Michigan Upper Peninsula investigated seasonal associations between the development of jack pine, Pinus banksiana Lamb., and larvae of the jack pine budworm Choristoneura pinus Freeman (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). There was almost no active relationship between post-diapause emerging second instars and elongation of vegetative shoots. Early instars were not closely synchronized with the flushing of current-year needle fascicles, which is required to optimize larval feeding. How- ever, there were close feeding and shelter relationships between early instars and year-2 pollen cone development. Associations with, and larval damage to, year-2 seed cones were dependent upon larval population size and posed only minimal and periodic threats to jack pine seed production. As a consequence, early instar jack pine budworm relied almost exclusively on pollen cones for survival. Third to fifth instars vacated pollen cones as soon as they became desiccated. Only then did these larvae start close associations with vegetative shoots. First, they excised partially emerged needles at their base, and when the needle-pairs completely escaped their fascicle sheath, the larvae fed routinely on the complete needle lamina. Late instars, pupae and adults were associated with previous years’ and current-year foliage without any apparent bias. This study has shown that it might be more practical to time insecticide strategies, which are intended to manage jack pine budworm larvae, to the tree’s phenology rather than jack pine budworm larval indices
Social Support Seeking And Early Adolescent Depression And Anxiety Symptoms: The Moderating Role Of Rumination
This study examined how social support seeking and rumination interacted to predict depression and anxiety symptoms 6 months later in early adolescents (N = 118; 11-14 years at baseline). We expected social support seeking would be more helpful for adolescents engaging in low rather than high levels of rumination. Adolescents self-reported on all measures at baseline, and on depression and anxiety symptoms 6 months later. Social support seeking predicted fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety at low rumination levels but was not associated with benefits as rumination increased. For depression symptoms, social support seeking predicted more symptoms at high rumination levels. Results were stronger for emotion-focused than problem-focused support seeking and for depression compared with anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that cognitive risk factors like rumination may explain some inconsistencies in previous social support literature, and highlight the importance of a nuanced approach to studying social support seeking
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