A novel brain receptor is expressed in a distinct population of olfactory sensory neurons

Three novel G-protein-coupled receptor genes related to the previously described RA1c gene have been isolated from the mouse genome. Expression of these genes has been detected in distinct areas of the brain and also in the olfactory epithelium of the nose. Developmental studies revealed a differential onset of expression: in the brain at embryonic stage 17, in the olfactory system at stage E12. In order to determine which cell type in the olfactory epithelium expresses this unique receptor type, a transgenic approach was employed which allowed a coexpression of histological markers together with the receptor and thus visualization of the appropriate cell population. It was found that the receptor-expressing cells were located very close to the basal membrane of the epithelium; however, the cells extended a dendritic process to the epithelial surface and their axons projected into the main olfactory bulb where they converged onto two or three glomeruli in the dorsal and posterior region of the bulb. Thus, these data provide evidence that this unique type of receptor is expressed in mature olfactory neurons and suggests that it may be involved in the detection of special odour molecules

On the Quasiparticle Description of Lattice QCD Thermodynamics

We propose a novel quasiparticle interpretation of the equation of state of deconfined QCD at finite temperature. Using appropriate thermal masses, we introduce a phenomenological parametrization of the onset of confinement in the vicinity of the predicted phase transition. Lattice results of the energy density, the pressure and the interaction measure of pure SU(3) gauge theory are excellently reproduced. We find a relationship between the thermal energy density of the Yang-Mills vacuum and the chromomagnetic condensate _T. Finally, an extension to QCD with dynamical quarks is discussed. Good agreement with lattice data for 2, 2+1 and 3 flavour QCD is obtained. We also present the QCD equation of state for realistic quark masses.Comment: 20 pages, 10 eps figure

HTL Resummation of the Thermodynamic Potential

Starting from the Phi-derivable approximation scheme at leading-loop order, the thermodynamical potential in a hot scalar theory, as well as in QED and QCD, is expressed in terms of hard thermal loop propagators. This nonperturbative approach is consistent with the leading-order perturbative results, ultraviolet finite, and, for gauge theories, explicitly gauge-invariant. For hot QCD it is argued that the resummed approximation is applicable in the large-coupling regime, down to almost twice the transition temperature.Comment: minor changes, to appear in PRD, 27 pages, 15 eps figure

Dependence of energy loss of jets on the initial thermodynamic state of deconfined matter at RHIC

The dependence of the radiative energy loss of fast partons on the initial thermodynamic parameters is studied for deconfined matter to be expected at RHIC. We demonstrate that the specific QCD radiation pattern with a quadratic dependence of the energy loss on the propagated distance leads to a strong increase of the energy loss with increasing initial entropy of deconfined matter supposed its life-time is less than the average time to pass through the medium. This is in contrast to a parameterization with constant energy loss per unit length of propagation. For a sufficiently high initial temperature a two-regime behavior of the energy loss as a function of the initial parton momentum occurs. The angular structure of the energy loss of hard jets with respect to the initial temperature is also discussed for RHIC conditions.Comment: 10 pages with fig

Dynamics of quark-gluon plasma from Field correlators

It is argued that strong dynamics in the quark-gluon plasma and bound states of quarks and gluons is mostly due to nonperturbative effects described by field correlators. The emphasis in the paper is made on two explicit calculations of these effects from the first principles: one analytic using gluelump Green's functions and another using independent lattice data on correlators. The resulting hadron spectra are investigated in the range T_c < T < 2T_c. The spectra of charmonia, bottomonia, light s-sbar mesons, glueballs and quark-gluon states calculated numerically are in general agreement with lattice MEM data. The possible role of these bound states in the thermodynamics of quark-gluon plasma is discussed.Comment: Revised version with new comments and references and corrected tables VII-IX; 34 pages + 6 figure

Variation of jet quenching from RHIC to LHC and thermal suppression of QCD coupling constant

We perform a joint jet tomographic analysis of the data on the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ from PHENIX at RHIC and ALICE at LHC. The computations are performed accounting for radiative and collisional parton energy loss with running coupling constant. Our results show that the observed slow variation of $R_{AA}$ from RHIC to LHC indicates that the QCD coupling constant is suppressed in the quark-gluon plasma produced at LHC.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Thermodynamics of the PNJL model

QCD thermodynamics is investigated by means of the Polyakov-loop-extended Nambu Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model, in which quarks couple simultaneously to the chiral condensate and to a background temporal gauge field representing Polyakov loop dynamics. The behaviour of the Polyakov loop as a function of temperature is obtained by minimizing the thermodynamic potential of the system. A Taylor series expansion of the pressure is performed. Pressure difference and quark number density are then evaluated up to sixth order in quark chemical potential, and compared to the corresponding lattice data. The validity of the Taylor expansion is discussed within our model, through a comparison between the full results and the truncated ones.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Talk given at the Workshop for Young Scientists on the Physics of Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (Hot Quarks 2006), Villasimius, Italy, 15-20 May 200

The Quantum Effective Mass Hamilton-Jacobi Problem

In this article, the quantum Hamilton- Jacobi theory based on the position dependent mass model is studied. Two effective mass functions having different singularity structures are used to examine the Morse and Poschl- Teller potentials. The residue method is used to obtain the solutions of the quantum effective mass- Hamilton Jacobi equation. Further, it is shown that the eigenstates of the generalized non-Hermitian Swanson Hamiltonian for Morse and Poschl-Teller potentials can be obtained by using the Riccati equation without solving a differential equation

Ordering ambiguity revisited via position dependent mass pseudo-momentum operators

Ordering ambiguity associated with the von Roos position dependent mass (PDM) Hamiltonian is considered. An affine locally scaled first order differential introduced, in Eq.(9), as a PDM-pseudo-momentum operator. Upon intertwining our Hamiltonian, which is the sum of the square of this operator and the potential function, with the von Roos d-dimensional PDM-Hamiltonian, we observed that the so-called von Roos ambiguity parameters are strictly determined, but not necessarily unique. Our new ambiguity parameters' setting is subjected to Dutra's and Almeida's [11] reliability test and classified as good ordering.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, revised/expanded, mathematical presentations in section 2 (Especially, the typological Errors in Eqs.(9)-(12))are now corrected. To appear in the Int. J. Theor. Phy

Chiral Fluid Dynamics and Collapse of Vacuum Bubbles

We study the expansion dynamics of a quark-antiquark plasma droplet from an initial state with restored chiral symmetry. The calculations are made within the linear $\sigma$ model scaled with an additional scalar field representing the gluon condensate. We solve numerically the classical equations of motion for the meson fields coupled to the fluid-dynamical equations for the plasma. Strong space-time oscillations of the meson fields are observed in the course of the chiral transition. A new phenomenon, the formation and collapse of vacuum bubbles, is also predicted. The particle production due to the bremsstrahlung of the meson fields is estimated.Comment: 12 pages Revtex,5 figures, Figures modified, minor changes in text. To be published in Phys. Rev. Let