20,387 research outputs found
Vacuum Alignment in Technicolor Theories-I. The Technifermion Sector
We have carried out numerical studies of vacuum alignment in technicolor
models of electroweak and flavor symmetry breaking. The goal is to understand
alignment's implications for strong and weak CP nonconservation in quark
interactions. In this first part, we restrict our attention to the
technifermion sector of simple models. We find several interesting phenomena,
including (1) the possibility that all observable phases in the technifermions'
unitary vacuum-alignment matrix are integer multiples of \pi/N' where N' \le N,
the number of technifermion doublets, and (2) the possibility of exceptionally
light pseudoGoldstone technipions.Comment: 19 pages, Latex with one postscript figur
First record of verticillium wilt (Verticillium longisporum) in winter oilseed rape in the UK
Verticillium longisporum is an important pathogen of oilseed rape (OSR) and vegetable brassicas in several European countries, but has not been reported previously in the UK (Karapapa et al., 1997; Steventon et al., 2002). In 2007, Verticillium wilt was suspected in UK crops of winter OSR (W-OSR) on cv. Castille in Romney Marsh, Kent and on cv. Barrel near Hereford. At these two locations, 32 and 10% of the plants, respectively, appeared to be affected, but the presence of stem canker may have masked some infections. Symptoms were first seen as the crops began to ripen (seeds green-brown to brown, Growth Stage: 6,4-6,5) and included brown and dark grey vertical bands on the stems from soil level into the branches, and premature ripening of some branches (Fig. 1).
Microsclerotia were observed on stem samples collected in the field (Fig. 2), suggesting V. longisporum as the causal agent. Cultures were prepared from field samples by immersing stem pieces in 5% sodium hypochlorite solution for one minute, washing twice in sterile distilled water and plating onto potato dextrose agar containing 25 mg/l streptomycin sulphate. Isolates from three plants per outbreak were identified morphologically as V. longisporum. Mean conidial dimensions (25 spores per isolate) were 8.80-9.65 μm (length) and 2.50-2.85 μm (width) and all isolates produced elongated microsclerotia, characters typical of V. longisporum (Karapapa et al., 1997). The identity was confirmed by PCR using species-specific primers (Steventon et al., 2002) and, as a member of the α sub-group, by direct sequencing of the amplicons from primer pairs ITS4-ITS5 and DB19-DB22 (Collins et al., 2003; 2005). Sequences for isolate 003 from Kent were deposited in GenBank (Accession Nos. HQ702376 and HQ702377). All isolates tested from 2008 and 2009 were identical with previously deposited sequences for European OSR isolates (e.g. AF363992 and AF363246 respectively). Pathogenicity was confirmed by inoculating three OSR cv. Castille seedlings per isolate using the root dip technique with 1 x 106 spores/ml (Karapapa et al., 1997) under heated glasshouse conditions at 19°C. Leaf yellowing and blackening of the leaf veins were found 26 days after inoculation (Fig. 3). Yellowing affecting the three oldest leaves increased for seven to nine days. After five weeks the final mean leaf area affected was 63-78% with no differences between isolates. No leaf yellowing occurred in the controls. After five weeks, V. longisporum was re-isolated from all the inoculated seedlings, but not from the non-inoculated controls.
In June 2008, infection of W-OSR crops in different fields on the same farms was found on cv. Es Astrid in Kent (56% incidence) and on cv. Lioness in Hereford (15% incidence). The Kent farm had been growing W-OSR alternating with winter wheat for at least 10 years whilst the Hereford farm had grown W-OSR one year in four. These short rotations of OSR may be contributing to the appearance of this disease. This study confirms the identification of V. longisporum on any host in the UK, through molecular studies and detailed spore measurements that were not reported in an earlier review (Gladders, 2009). This pathogen occurs in several European countries and, since OSR may be traded freely, following a Defra consultation, no statutory plant health action is to be taken
Bringing closure to microlensing mass measurement
Interferometers offer multiple methods for studying microlensing events and
determining the properties of the lenses. We investigate the study of
microlensing events with optical interferometers, focusing on narrow-angle
astrometry, visibility, and closure phase. After introducing the basics of
microlensing and interferometry, we derive expressions for the signals in each
of these three channels. For various forecasts of the instrumental performance,
we discuss which method provides the best means of measuring the lens angular
Einstein radius theta_E, a prerequisite for determining the lens mass. If the
upcoming generation of large-aperture, AO-corrected long baseline
interferometers (e.g. VLTI, Keck, OHANA) perform as well as expected, theta_E
may be determined with signal-to-noise greater than 10 for all bright events.
We estimate that roughly a dozen events per year will be sufficiciently bright
and have long enough durations to allow the measurement of the lens mass and
distance from the ground. We also consider the prospects for a VLTI survey of
all bright lensing events using a Fisher matrix analysis, and find that even
without individual masses, interesting constraints may be placed on the bulge
mass function, although large numbers of events would be required.Comment: 23 pages, aastex, submitted to Ap
Forces between functionalized silica nanoparticles in solution
To prevent the flocculation and phase separation of nanoparticles in
solution, nanoparticles are often functionalized with short chain surfactants.
Here we present fully-atomistic molecular dynamics simulations which
characterize how these functional coatings affect the interactions between
nanoparticles and with the surrounding solvent. For 5 nm diameter silica
nanoparticles coated with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) oligomers in water, we
determined the hydrodynamic drag on two approaching nanoparticles moving
through solvent and on a single nanoparticle as it approaches a planar surface.
In most circumstances, acroscale fluid theory accurately predicts the drag on
these nano-scale particles. Good agreement is seen with Brenner's analytical
solutions for wall separations larger than the soft nanoparticle radius. For
two approaching coated nanoparticles, the solvent-mediated
(velocity-independent) and lubrication (velocity-dependent) forces are purely
repulsive and do not exhibit force oscillations that are typical of uncoated
rigid spheres.Comment: 4 pages, 3 fig
The Collider Phenomenology of Technihadrons in the Technicolor Straw Man Model
We discuss the phenomenology of the lightest SU(3)_C singlet and non-singlet
technihadrons in the Straw Man Model of low-scale technicolor (TCSM). The
technihadrons are assumed to be those arising in topcolor--assisted technicolor
models in which topcolor is broken by technifermion condensates. We improve
upon the description of the color--singlet sector presented in our earlier
paper introducing the TCSM (hep-ph/9903369). These improvements are most
important for subprocess energies well below the masses of the technirho and
techniomega, and, therefore, apply especially to e+e- colliders such as LEP and
a low--energy linear collider. In the color--octet sector, we consider mixing
of the gluon, the coloron V_8 from topcolor breaking, and four isosinglet
color--octet technirho mesons. We assume, as expected in walking technicolor,
that these technirhos decay into qbar-q, gg, and g-technipion final states, but
not into technipion pairs. All the TCSM production and decay processes
discussed here are included in the event generator Pythia. We present several
simulations appropriate for the Tevatron Collider, and suggest benchmark model
lines for further experimental investigation.Comment: 42 pages, 7 figure
Exploring the Cosmic Evolution of Habitability with Galaxy Merger Trees
We combine inferred galaxy properties from a semi-analytic galaxy evolution
model incorporating dark matter halo merger trees with new estimates of
supernova and gamma ray burst rates as a function of metallicity from stellar
population synthesis models incorporating binary interactions. We use these to
explore the stellar mass fraction of galaxies irradiated by energetic
astrophysical transients and its evolution over cosmic time, and thus the
fraction which is potentially habitable by life like our own. We find that 18
per cent of the stellar mass in the Universe is likely to have been irradiated
within the last 260 Myr, with GRBs dominating that fraction. We do not see a
strong dependence of irradiated stellar mass fraction on stellar mass or
richness of the galaxy environment. We consider a representative merger tree as
a Local Group analogue, and find that there are galaxies at all masses which
have retained a high habitable fraction (>40 per cent) over the last 6 Gyr, but
also that there are galaxies at all masses where the merger history and
associated star formation have rendered galaxies effectively uninhabitable.
This illustrates the need to consider detailed merger trees when evaluating the
cosmic evolution of habitability.Comment: 11 page, 10 figures. MNRAS accepted 13th Dec 2017. Updated to match
accepted version, with additional discussion of metallicity effect
Direct radiative capture of p-wave neutrons
The neutron direct radiative capture (DRC) process is investigated,
highlighting the role of incident p-wave neutrons. A set of calculations is
shown for the 12-C(n,gamma) process at incoming neutron energies up to 500 keV,
a crucial region for astrophysics. The cross section for neutron capture
leading to loosely bound s, p and d orbits of 13-C is well reproduced by the
DRC model demonstrating the feasibility of using this reaction channel to study
the properties of nuclear wave functions on and outside the nuclear surface. A
sensitivity analysis of the results on the neutron-nucleus interaction is
performed for incident s- as well as p-waves. It turned out that the DRC cross
section for p-wave neutrons is insensitive to this interaction, contrary to the
case of incident s-wave neutrons.
PACS number(s): 25.40Lw,21.10Gv,23.40.HcComment: 16 pages, REVTeX file, PostScript file, .dvi fil
Finding Z' bosons coupled preferentially to the third family at CERN LEP and the Fermilab Tevatron
Z' bosons that couple preferentially to the third generation fermions can
arise in models with extended weak (SU(2)xSU(2)) or hypercharge (U(1)xU(1))
gauge groups. We show that existing limits on quark-lepton compositeness set by
the LEP and Tevatron experiments translate into lower bounds of order a few
hundred GeV on the masses of these Z' bosons. Resonances of this mass can be
directly produced at the Tevatron. Accordingly, we explore in detail the limits
that can be set at Run II using the process p pbar -> Z' -> tau tau -> e mu. We
also comment on the possibility of using hadronically-decaying taus to improve
the limits.Comment: LaTeX2e, 24 pages (including title page), 13 figures; version 2:
corrected typographical errors and bad figure placement; version 3: added
references and updated introduction; version 4: changes to compensate for old
latex version on arXiv server; version 5: additional references, and embedded
fonts in eps files for PRD; version 6: corrected some minor typos to address
PRD referee's comment
Composite Scalars at LEP: Constraining Technicolor Theories
LEPI and LEPII data can be used to constrain technicolor models with light,
neutral pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons, Pa. We use published limits on branching
ratios and cross sections for final states with photons, large missing energy,
jet pairs, and b bbar pairs to constrain the anomalous Pa Z0 Z0, Pa Z0 photon,
and Pa photon photon couplings. From these results, we derive bounds on the
size of the technicolor gauge group and the number of technifermion doublets in
models such as Low-scale Technicolor.Comment: 27 pages (including title page), 15 figures, 6 tables. version 2: In
addressing PRD referee comments, we have significantly expanded our
manuscript, to include detailed discussion of limits from LEP II data, as
well as expanding the number or specific models to which we apply our
results. As a result, we have changed the title from "Z0 decays to composite
scalars: constraining technicolor theories
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