High momentum lepton pairs from jet-plasma interactions

We discuss the emission of high momentum lepton pairs (p_T>4 GeV) with low invariant masses (M << p_T) in central Au+Au collisions at RHIC (\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200 GeV). The spectra of dileptons produced through interactions of quark and antiquark jets with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) have been calculated. Annihilation and Compton scattering processes, as well as processes benefitting from collinear enhancement, including Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effects, are calculated and convolved with a one dimensional hydrodynamic expansion. The jet-induced contributions are compared to thermal dilepton emission and Drell-Yan processes, and are found to dominate around p_T=4 GeV.Comment: Parallel talk given at QM2006, Shanghai November 2006. 4 pages, 3 figure

Instabilities in complex mixtures with a large number of components

Inside living cells are complex mixtures of thousands of components. It is hopeless to try to characterise all the individual interactions in these mixtures. Thus, we develop a statistical approach to approximating them, and examine the conditions under which the mixtures phase separate. The approach approximates the matrix of second virial coefficients of the mixture by a random matrix, and determines the stability of the mixture from the spectrum of such random matrices.Comment: 4 pages, uses RevTeX 4.

A Preliminary Study of Some Herbicides on Dandelions

The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale Weber) is one of the most common and persistent weeds in lawns and one for which no effective and practical method of eradication has been devised. Cutting the plants below the surface of the soil is effective if repeated frequently, but few individuals consider this method practical. Sprays such as iron sulfate which are supposed to have a differential action on dandelions and grasses leave much to be desired, while stimulating the grasses in an attempt to crowd out the dandelions has met with only moderate success. This situation led to a search for an effective method of application of a dandelion herbicide, and for a herbicide that is lethal to the plant, but does not persist in the soil. As the studies advanced it became apparent that eradication of the dandelions was only the first step in their control. While the dandelion plants were being eradicated it was necessary to stimulate the lawn grasses to prevent the rapid reestablishment of seedling dandelions

Photometric Variability in Earthshine Observations

The identification of an extrasolar planet as Earth-like will depend on the detection of atmospheric signatures or surface non-uniformities. In this paper we present spatially unresolved flux light curves of Earth for the purpose of studying a prototype extrasolar terrestrial planet. Our monitoring of the photometric variability of earthshine revealed changes of up to 23 % per hour in the brightness of Earth's scattered light at around 600 nm, due to the removal of specular reflection from the view of the Moon. This variability is accompanied by reddening of the spectrum, and results from a change in surface properties across the continental boundary between the Indian Ocean and Africa's east coast. Our results based on earthshine monitoring indicate that specular reflection should provide a useful tool in determining the presence of liquid water on extrasolar planets via photometric observations.Comment: To appear in Astrobiology 9(3). 17 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Spin Dependence of Massive Lepton Pair Production in Proton-Proton Collisions

We calculate the transverse momentum distribution for the production of massive lepton-pairs in longitudinally polarized proton-proton reactions at collider energies within the context of perturbative quantum chromodynamics. For values of the transverse momentum Q_T greater than roughly half the pair mass Q, Q_T > Q/2, we show that the differential cross section is dominated by subprocesses initiated by incident gluons, provided that the polarized gluon density is not too small. Massive lepton-pair differential cross sections should be a good source of independent constraints on the polarized gluon density, free from the experimental and theoretical complications of photon isolation that beset studies of prompt photon production. We provide predictions for the spin-averaged and spin-dependent differential cross sections as a function of Q_T at energies relevant for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven, and we compare these with predictions for real prompt photon production.Comment: 34 pages, RevTeX including 17 figures in .ps file

Hodograph solutions of the dispersionless coupled KdV hierarchies, critical points and the Euler-Poisson-Darboux equation

It is shown that the hodograph solutions of the dispersionless coupled KdV (dcKdV) hierarchies describe critical and degenerate critical points of a scalar function which obeys the Euler-Poisson-Darboux equation. Singular sectors of each dcKdV hierarchy are found to be described by solutions of higher genus dcKdV hierarchies. Concrete solutions exhibiting shock type singularities are presented.Comment: 19 page

Zirconium and titanium complexes supported by tridentate LX2 ligands having two phenolates linked to furan, thiophene, and pyridine donors: precatalysts for propylene polymerization and oligomerization

Zirconium and titanium complexes with tridentate bis(phenolate)-donor (donor = pyridine, furan and thiophene) ligands have been prepared and investigated for applications in propylene polymerization. The ligand framework has two X-type phenolates connected to the flat heterocyclic L-type donor at the 2,6- or 2.5- positions via direct ring-ring (sp^2-sp^2)linkages. The zirconium and titanium dibenzyl complexes have been prepared by treatment of the neutral bis(phenol)-donor ligands with M(CH_2Ph)_4 (M = Ti, Zr) with loss of 2 equiv of toluene. Titanium complexes with bis(phenolate)pyridine and -furan ligands and zirconium complexes with bis(phenolate)pyridine and -thiophene ligands have been characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The solid-state structures of the bis(benzyl)titanium complexes are roughly C_2 symmetric, while the zirconium derivatives display C_s and C^1 symmetry. The bis(phenolate)pyridine titanium complexes are structurally affected by the size of the substituents substituents (CMe_3 or CEt_3) ortho to the oxygens, the larger group leading to a larger C_2 distortion. Both titanium and zirconium dibenzyl complexes were found to be catalyst precursors for the polymerization of propylene upon activation with methylaluminoxane (MAO). The activities observed for the zirconium complexes are particularly notable, exceeding 10^6 g polypropylene/mol Zr center dot h in some cases. The bis(phenolate)pyridine titanium analogues are about 10^3 times less active, but generate polymers of higher molecular weight. When activated with MAO, the titanium bis(phenolate)furan and bis(phenolate)thiophene systems were found to promote propylene oligomerization

A weakly random Universe?

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is characterized by well-established scales, the 2.7 K temperature of the Planckian spectrum and the $10^{-5}$ amplitude of the temperature anisotropy. These features were instrumental in indicating the hot and equilibrium phases of the early history of the Universe and its large scale isotropy, respectively. We now reveal one more intrinsic scale in CMB properties. We introduce a method developed originally by Kolmogorov, that quantifies a degree of randomness (chaos) in a set of numbers, such as measurements of the CMB temperature in some region. Considering CMB as a composition of random and regular signals, we solve the inverse problem of recovering of their mutual fractions from the temperature sky maps. Deriving the empirical Kolmogorov's function in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe's maps, we obtain the fraction of the random signal to be about 20 per cent, i.e. the cosmological sky is a weakly random one. The paper is dedicated to the memory of Vladimir Arnold (1937-2010).Comment: 4 pages, 3 figs, A & A (Lett) in press; to match the published versio