3,235 research outputs found
Epidemiological and evolutionary consequences of life-history trade-offs in pathogens
Peer reviewe
Survival of Organic Materials in Hypervelocity Impacts of Ice on Sand, Ice, and Water in the Laboratory
The survival of organic molecules in shock impact events has been investigated in the laboratory. A frozen mixture of anthracene and stearic acid, solvated in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), was fired in a two-stage light gas gun at speeds of ?2 and ?4?km s?1 at targets that included water ice, water, and sand. This involved shock pressures in the range of 2–12 GPa. It was found that the projectile materials were present in elevated quantities in the targets after impact and in some cases in the crater ejecta as well. For DMSO impacting water at 1.9?km s?1 and 45° incidence, we quantify the surviving fraction after impact as 0.44±0.05. This demonstrates successful transfer of organic compounds from projectile to target in high-speed impacts. The range of impact speeds used covers that involved in impacts of terrestrial meteorites on the Moon, as well as impacts in the outer Solar System on icy bodies such as Pluto. The results provide laboratory evidence that suggests that exogenous delivery of complex organic molecules from icy impactors is a viable source of such material on target bodies
String Breaking in Non-Abelian Gauge Theories with Fundamental Matter Fields
We present clear numerical evidence for string breaking in three-dimensional
SU(2) gauge theory with fundamental bosonic matter through a mixing analysis
between Wilson loops and meson operators representing bound states of a static
source and a dynamical scalar. The breaking scale is calculated in the
continuum limit. In units of the lightest glueball we find . The implications of our results for QCD are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; equations (4)-(6) corrected, numerical results
and conclusions unchange
Casimir scaling of domain wall tensions in the deconfined phase of D=3+1 SU(N) gauge theories
We perform lattice calculations of the spatial 't Hooft k-string tensions in
the deconfined phase of SU(N) gauge theories for N=2,3,4,6. These equal (up to
a factor of T) the surface tensions of the domain walls between the
corresponding (Euclidean) deconfined phases. For T much larger than Tc our
results match on to the known perturbative result, which exhibits Casimir
Scaling, being proportional to k(N-k). At lower T the coupling becomes stronger
and, not surprisingly, our calculations show large deviations from the
perturbative T-dependence. Despite this we find that the behaviour proportional
to k(N-k) persists very accurately down to temperatures very close to Tc. Thus
the Casimir Scaling of the 't Hooft tension appears to be a `universal' feature
that is more general than its appearance in the low order high-T perturbative
calculation. We observe the `wetting' of these k-walls at T around Tc and the
(almost inevitable) `perfect wetting' of the k=N/2 domain wall. Our
calculations show that as T tends to Tc the magnitude of the spatial `t Hooft
string tension decreases rapidly. This suggests the existence of a (would-be)
't Hooft string condensation transition at some temperature which is close to
but below Tc. We speculate on the `dual' relationship between this and the
(would-be) confining string condensation at the Hagedorn temperature that is
close to but above Tc.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figure
Phenomenological memory-kernel master equations and time-dependent Markovian processes
Do phenomenological master equations with memory kernel always describe a
non-Markovian quantum dynamics characterized by reverse flow of information? Is
the integration over the past states of the system an unmistakable signature of
non-Markovianity? We show by a counterexample that this is not always the case.
We consider two commonly used phenomenological integro-differential master
equations describing the dynamics of a spin 1/2 in a thermal bath. By using a
recently introduced measure to quantify non-Markovianity [H.-P. Breuer, E.-M.
Laine, and J. Piilo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 210401 (2009)] we demonstrate that
as far as the equations retain their physical sense, the key feature of
non-Markovian behavior does not appear in the considered memory kernel master
equations. Namely, there is no reverse flow of information from the environment
to the open system. Therefore, the assumption that the integration over a
memory kernel always leads to a non-Markovian dynamics turns out to be
vulnerable to phenomenological approximations. Instead, the considered
phenomenological equations are able to describe time-dependent and
uni-directional information flow from the system to the reservoir associated to
time-dependent Markovian processes.Comment: 5 pages, no figure
Impacts of drainage, restoration and warming on boreal wetland greenhouse gas fluxes
Northern wetlands with organic soil i.e., mires are significant carbon storages. This key ecosystem service may be threatened by anthropogenic activities and climate change, yet we still lack a consensus on how these major changes affects their carbon sink capacities. We studied how forestry drainage and restoration combined with experimental warming, impacts greenhouse gas fluxes of wetlands with peat. We measured CO2 and CH4 during two and N2O fluxes during one growing season using the chamber method. Gas fluxes were primarily controlled by water table, leaf area and temperature. Land use had a clear impact of on CO2 exchange. Forestry drainage increased respiration rates and decreased field layer net ecosystem CO2 uptake (NEE) and leaf area index (LAI), while at restoration sites the flux rates and LAI had recovered to the level of undrained sites. CH4 emissions were exceptionally low at all sites during our study years due to natural drought, but still somewhat lower at drained compared to undrained sites. Moderate warming triggered an increase in LAI across all land use types. This was accompanied by an increase in cumulative seasonal NEE. Restoration appeared to be an effective tool to return the ecosystem functions of these wetlands as we found no differences in LAI or any gas flux components (PMAX, Reco, NEE, CH4 or N2O) between restored and undrained sites. We did not find any signs that moderate warming would compromise the return of the ecosystem functions related to C sequestration. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe
Layered Higgs Phase as a Possible Field Localisation on a Brane
So far it has been found by using lattice techniques that in the anisotropic
five--dimensional Abelian Higgs model, a layered Higgs phase exists in addition
to the expected five--dimensional one. The exploration of the phase diagram has
shown that the two Higgs phases are separated by a phase transition from the
confining phase. This transition is known to be first order. In this paper we
explore the possibility of finding a second order transition point in the
critical line which separates the first order phase transition from the
crossover region. This is shown to be the case only for the four--dimensional
Higgs layered phase whilst the phase transition to the five--dimensional broken
phase remains first order. The layered phase serves as the possible realisation
of four--dimensional spacetime dynamics which is embedded in a
five--dimensional spacetime. These results are due to gauge and scalar field
localisation by confining interactions along the extra fifth direction.Comment: 1+15 pages, 12 figure
Witness for initial system-environment correlations in open system dynamics
We study the evolution of a general open quantum system when the system and
its environment are initially correlated. We show that the trace distance
between two states of the open system can increase above its initial value, and
derive tight upper bounds for the growth of the distinguishability of open
system states. This represents a generalization of the contraction property of
quantum dynamical maps. The obtained inequalities can be interpreted in terms
of the exchange of information between the system and the environment, and lead
to a witness for system-environment correlations which can be determined
through measurements on the open system alone.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Three-loop matching coefficients for hot QCD: Reduction and gauge independence
We perform an integral reduction for the 3-loop effective gauge coupling and
screening mass of QCD at high temperatures, defined as matching coefficients
appearing in the dimensionally reduced effective field theory (EQCD).
Expressing both parameters in terms of a set master (sum-) integrals, we show
explicit gauge parameter independence. The lack of suitable methods for solving
the comparatively large number of master integrals forbids the complete
evaluation at the moment. Taking one generic class of masters as an example, we
highlight the calculational techniques involved. The full result would allow to
improve on one of the classic probes for the convergence of the weak-coupling
expansion at high temperatures, namely the comparison of full and effective
theory determinations of the spatial string tension. Furthermore, the full
result would also allow to determine one new contribution of order O(g**7) to
the pressure of hot QCD.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures. v2: new Section 6 discussing applications, to
match journal versio
- …