Distributed SUSY Breaking: Dark Energy, Newton's Law and the LHC

We identify the underlying symmetry mechanism that suppresses the low-energy effective 4D cosmological constant within 6D supergravity models, leading to results suppressed by powers of the KK scale relative to the much larger masses associated with particles localized on codimension-2 branes. In these models the conditions for unbroken supersymmetry can be satisfied locally everywhere within the extra dimensions, but are obstructed by global conditions like flux quantization or the mutual inconsistency of boundary conditions at the various branes. Consequently quantities forbidden by supersymmetry cannot be nonzero until wavelengths of order the KK scale are integrated out, since only such long wavelength modes see the entire space and so know that supersymmetry breaks. We verify these arguments by extending earlier rugby-ball calculations of one-loop vacuum energies to more general pairs of branes within two warped extra dimensions. The predicted effective 4D vacuum energy density can be of order C (m Mg/4 pi Mp)^4, where Mg (Mp) is the rationalized 6D (4D) Planck scale and m is the heaviest brane-localized particle. Numerically this is C (5.6 x 10^{-5} eV)^4 if we take m = 173 GeV and take Mg as small as possible (10 TeV corresponding to KK size r < 1 micron), consistent with supernova bounds. C is a constant depending on details of the bulk spectrum, which could be ~ 500 for each of hundreds of fields. The value C ~ 6 x 10^6 gives the observed Dark Energy density

Gravitational Forces on a Codimension-2 Brane

We compute the gravitational response of six dimensional gauged, chiral supergravity to localized stress energy on one of two space-filling branes, including the effects of compactifying the extra dimensions and brane back-reaction. We find a broad class of exact solutions, including various black-brane solutions. Several approximate solutions are also described, such as the near-horizon geometry of a small black hole which is argued to be approximately described by a 6D Schwarzschild (or Kerr) black hole, with event horizon appropriately modified to encode the brane back-reaction. The general linearized far-field solutions are found in the 4D regime very far from the source, and all integration constants are related to physical quantities describing the branes and the localized energy source. The localized source determines two of these, corresponding to the source mass and the size of the strength of a coupling to a 4D scalar mode whose mass is parametrically smaller than the KK scale. At large distances the solutions agree with those of 4D general relativity, but for an intermediate range of distances (larger than the KK scale) the solutions better fit a Brans-Dicke theory. For a realistic choice of parameters the KK scale could lie at a micron, while the crossover to Brans-Dicke behaviour could occur at around 10 microns. While allowed by present data this points to potentially measurable changes to Newton's Law arising at distances larger than the KK scale.Comment: 31 pages + appendices, 2 figure

Running with Rugby Balls: Bulk Renormalization of Codimension-2 Branes

We compute how one-loop bulk effects renormalize both bulk and brane effective interactions for geometries sourced by codimension-two branes. We do so by explicitly integrating out spin-zero, -half and -one particles in 6-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Scalar theories compactified to 4 dimensions on a flux-stabilized 2D geometry. (Our methods apply equally well for D dimensions compactified to D-2 dimensions, although our explicit formulae do not capture all divergences when D>6.) The renormalization of bulk interactions are independent of the boundary conditions assumed at the brane locations, and reproduce standard heat-kernel calculations. Boundary conditions at any particular brane do affect how bulk loops renormalize this brane's effective action, but not the renormalization of other distant branes. Although we explicitly compute our loops using a rugby ball geometry, because we follow only UV effects our results apply more generally to any geometry containing codimension-two sources with conical singularities. Our results have a variety of uses, including calculating the UV sensitivity of one-loop vacuum energy seen by observers localized on the brane. We show how these one-loop effects combine in a surprising way with bulk back-reaction to give the complete low-energy effective cosmological constant, and comment on the relevance of this calculation to proposed applications of codimension-two 6D models to solutions of the hierarchy and cosmological constant problems.Comment: 42 pages + appendices. This is the final version which appears in JHE

Accidental SUSY: Enhanced Bulk Supersymmetry from Brane Back-reaction

We compute how bulk loops renormalize both bulk and brane effective interactions for codimension-two branes in 6D gauged chiral supergravity, as functions of the brane tension and brane-localized flux. We do so by explicitly integrating out hyper- and gauge-multiplets in 6D gauged chiral supergravity compactified to 4D on a flux-stabilized 2D rugby-ball geometry, specializing the results of a companion paper, arXiv:1210.3753, to the supersymmetric case. While the brane back-reaction generically breaks supersymmetry, we show that the bulk supersymmetry can be preserved if the amount of brane-localized flux is related in a specific BPS-like way to the brane tension, and verify that the loop corrections to the brane curvature vanish in this special case. In these systems it is the brane-bulk couplings that fix the size of the extra dimensions, and we show that in some circumstances the bulk geometry dynamically adjusts to ensure the supersymmetric BPS-like condition is automatically satisfied. We investigate the robustness of this residual supersymmetry to loops of non-supersymmetric matter on the branes, and show that supersymmetry-breaking effects can enter only through effective brane-bulk interactions involving at least two derivatives. We comment on the relevance of this calculation to proposed applications of codimension-two 6D models to solutions of the hierarchy and cosmological constant problems.Comment: 49 pages + appendices. This is the final version to appear in JHE

Effects of organically and conventionally produced feed on biomarkers of health in a chicken model

Consumers expect organic products to be healthier. However, limited research has been performed to study the effect of organic food on health. The present study aimed to identify biomarkers of health to enable future studies in human subjects. A feeding experiment was performed in two generations of three groups of chickens differing in immune responsiveness, which were fed identically composed feeds from either organic or conventional produce. The animals of the second generation were exposed to an immune challenge and sacrificed at 13 weeks of age. Feed and ingredients were analysed on macro- and micronutrients, i.e. vitamins, minerals, trace elements, heavy metals and microbes. The chickens were studied by general health and immune parameters, metabolomics, genomics and post-mortem evaluation. The organic and conventional feeds were comparable with respect to metabolisable energy. On average, the conventionally produced feeds had a 10 % higher protein content and some differences in micronutrients were observed. Although animals on both feeds were healthy, differences between the groups were found. The random control group of chickens fed conventional feed showed overall a higher weight gain during life span than the group on organic feed, although feed intake was mostly comparable. The animals on organic feed showed an enhanced immune reactivity, a stronger reaction to the immune challenge as well as a slightly stronger ‘catch-up growth’ after the challenge. Biomarkers for future research were identified in the parameters feed intake, body weight and growth rate, and in immunological, physiological and metabolic parameters, several of these differing most pronounced after the challeng

Human Paramyxovirus Infections Induce T Cells That Cross-React with Zoonotic Henipaviruses

Humans are infected with paramyxoviruses of different genera early in life, which induce cytotoxic T cells that may recognize conserved epitopes. This raises the question of whether cross-reactive T cells induced by antecedent paramyxovirus infections provide partial protection against highly lethal zoonotic Nipah virus infections. By characterizing a measles virus-specific but paramyxovirus cross-reactive human T cell clone, we discovered a highly conserved HLA-B*1501- restricted T cell epitope in the fusion protein. Using peptides, tetramers, and single cell sorting, we isolated a parainfluenza virus-specific T cell clone from a healthy adult and showed that both clones cleared Nipah virus-infected cells. We identified multiple conserved hot spots in paramyxovirus proteomes that contain other potentially cross-reactive epitopes. Our data suggest that, depending on HLA haplotype and history of paramyxovirus exposures, humans may have cross-reactive T cells that provide protection against Nipah virus. The effect of preferential boosting of these cross-reactive epitopes needs to be further studied in light of paramyxovirus vaccination studies

Single-strand nicks induce homologous recombination with less toxicity than double-strand breaks using an AAV vector template

Gene targeting by homologous recombination (HR) can be induced by double-strand breaks (DSBs), however these breaks can be toxic and potentially mutagenic. We investigated the I-AniI homing endonuclease engineered to produce only nicks, and found that nicks induce HR with both plasmid and adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector templates. The rates of nick-induced HR were lower than with DSBs (24-fold lower for plasmid transfection and 4- to 6-fold lower for AAV vector infection), but they still represented a significant increase over background (240- and 30-fold, respectively). We observed severe toxicity with the I-AniI ‘cleavase’, but no evidence of toxicity with the I-AniI ‘nickase.’ Additionally, the frequency of nickase-induced mutations at the I-AniI site was at least 150-fold lower than that induced by the cleavase. These results, and the observation that the surrounding sequence context of a target site affects nick-induced HR but not DSB-induced HR, strongly argue that nicks induce HR through a different mechanism than DSBs, allowing for gene correction without the toxicity and mutagenic activity of DSBs

Verification Study of Residual Activity Measurements After Yttrium-90 Radioembolization with Glass Microspheres

OBJECTIVE: After yttrium-90 (90Y) radioembolization, residual activity and its consequences for dosimetric calculations are often not reported. The manufacturer for glass microspheres prescribes standard residual activity measurements by a survey meter, but the validity lacks evidence. This study aims to verify the accuracy of the survey meter approach for measuring residual activity of glass microspheres after treatment with glass microspheres. METHODS: To validate the accuracy of the survey meter approach, the measured residual activity of glass microspheres by survey meter was compared with measurements by PET. A sample of these waste containers was also measured by dose calibrator to confirm the accuracy of the PET. RESULTS: Twenty-four waste containers from glass microsphere treatments were prospectively scanned with 90Y-PET/CT. Bland-Altman plots showed substantial disagreement in residual activity measured by survey meter versus the residual activity measured by PET and dose calibrator, whereas the correlation between PET and dose calibrator was excellent (ρ = 0.99). CONCLUSION: This study found a significant disagreement between the residual activities measured by the survey meter, compared to measurements by PET and dose calibrator. If relatively high amounts of residual activity are encountered using the exposure rate measurement with a survey meter, additional quantification should be considered using either PET/CT or a dose calibrator measurement

Bulk Axions, Brane Back-reaction and Fluxes

Extra-dimensional models can involve bulk pseudo-Goldstone bosons (pGBs) whose shift symmetry is explicitly broken only by physics localized on branes. Reliable calculation of their low-energy potential is often difficult because it requires details of the stabilization of the extra dimensions. In rugby ball solutions, for which two compact extra dimensions are stabilized in the presence of only positive-tension brane sources, the effects of brane back-reaction can be computed explicitly. This allows the calculation of the shape of the low-energy pGB potential and response of the extra dimensional geometry as a function of the perturbing brane properties. If the pGB-dependence is a small part of the total brane tension a very general analysis is possible, permitting an exploration of how the system responds to frustration when the two branes disagree on what the proper scalar vacuum should be. We show how the low-energy potential is given by the sum of brane tensions (in agreement with common lore) when only the brane tensions couple to the pGB. We also show how a direct brane coupling to the flux stabilizing the extra dimensions corrects this result in a way that does not simply amount to the contribution of the flux to the brane tensions. We calculate the mass of the would-be zero mode, and briefly describe several potential applications, including a brane realization of `natural inflation,' and a dynamical mechanism for suppressing the couplings of the pGB to matter localized on the branes. Since the scalar can be light enough to be relevant to precision tests of gravity (in a technically natural way) this mechanism can be relevant to evading phenomenological bounds.Comment: 36 pages, JHEP styl