947 research outputs found
Heavy-light mesons with staggered light quarks
We demonstrate the viability of improved staggered light quarks in studies of
heavy-light systems. Our method for constructing heavy-light operators exploits
the close relation between naive and staggered fermions. The new approach is
tested on quenched configurations using several staggered actionsn combined
with nonrelativistic heavy quarks. The B_s meson kinetic mass, the hyperfine
and 1P-1S splittings in B_s, and the decay constant f_{B_s} are calculated and
compared to previous quenched lattice studies. An important technical detail,
Bayesian curve-fitting, is discussed at length.Comment: 38 pages, figures included. v2: Entry in Table IX corrected and other
minor changes, version appearing in Phys. Rev.
Exploring the Expression of Cardiac Regulators in a Vertebrate Extremophile: The Cichlid Fish Oreochromis (Alcolapia) alcalica
Although it is widely accepted that the cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebratecardiac development are evolutionarily conserved, this is on the basis of data from only a fewmodel organisms suited to laboratory studies. Here, we investigate gene expression during cardiacdevelopment in the extremophile, non-model fish species, Oreochromis (Alcolapia) alcalica. Wefirst characterise the early development of O. alcalica and observe extensive vascularisation across the yolk prior to hatching. We further investigate heart development by identifying andcloning O. alcalica orthologues of conserved cardiac transcription factors gata4, tbx5, and mef2cfor analysis by in situ hybridisation. Expression of these three key cardiac developmentalregulators also reveals other aspects of O. alcalica development, as these genes are expressed indeveloping blood, limb, eyes, and muscle, as well as the heart. Our data support the notion that O.alcalica is a direct-developing vertebrate that shares the highly conserved molecular regulation ofthe vertebrate body plan. However, the expression of gata4 in O. alcalica reveals interestingdifferences in the development of the circulatory system distinct from that of the well-studiedzebrafish. Understanding the development of O. alcalica embryos is an important step towardsproviding a model for future research into the adaptation to extreme conditions; this is particularlyrelevant given that anthropogenic-driven climate change will likely result in more freshwaterorganisms being exposed to less favourable conditions
The nucleon's strange electromagnetic and scalar matrix elements
Quenched lattice QCD simulations and quenched chiral perturbation theory are
used together for this study of strangeness in the nucleon. Dependences of the
matrix elements on strange quark mass, valence quark mass and momentum transfer
are discussed in both the lattice and chiral frameworks. The combined results
of this study are in good agreement with existing experimental data and
predictions are made for upcoming experiments. Possible future refinements of
the theoretical method are suggested.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure
Study of decays
We investigate the production of the novel -wave mesons and
, identified as and , in heavy
meson decays, respectively. With the heavy quark limit, we give our modelling
wave functions for the scalar meson . Based on the assumptions of
color transparency and factorization theorem, we estimate the branching ratios
of decays in terms of the obtained wave functions. Some
remarks on productions are also presented.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, Revtex4, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Sea quark effects in B Spectroscopy and Decay Constants
We present comprehensive results for the spectrum and decay constants of
hadrons containing a single b quark. The heavy quark is simulated using an
NRQCD action and the light quark using the tadpole-improved
clover action on gauge configurations containing two degenerate flavours of sea
quarks at provided by the HEMCGC collaboration. We present
detailed results for the lower lying and wave meson states and the
baryon. We find broad agreement with experiment. In addition, we
present results for the pseudoscalar and, for the first time, the vector decay
constants fully consistent to and . We present an investigation of sea quark effects
in the spectrum and decay constants. We compare our results with those from
similar quenched simulations at . For the spectrum, the
quenched results reproduce the experimental spectrum well and there is no
significant difference between the quenched and results. For the decay
constants, our results suggest that sea quark effects may be large. We find
that increases by approximately 25% between and .Comment: 49 pages, 16 figures, revtex, the discussion of systematic errors and
the comparison of the pseudoscalar decay constant at nf=0 and nf=2 has been
expande
Scaling of the B and D meson spectrum in lattice QCD
We give results for the and the meson spectrum using NRQCD on the
lattice in the quenched approximation. The masses of radially and orbitally
excited states are calculated as well as -wave hyperfine and -wave fine
structure. Radially excited -states are observed for the first time. Radial
and orbital excitation energies match well to experiment, as does the
strange-non-strange -wave splitting. We compare the light and heavy quark
mass dependence of various splittings to experiment. Our -results cover a
range in lattice spacings of more than a factor of two. Our -results are
from a single lattice spacing and we compare them to numbers in the literature
from finer lattices using other methods. We see no significant dependence of
physical results on the lattice spacing.
PACS: 11.15.Ha 12.38.Gc 14.40.Lb 14.40.NdComment: 78 pages, 29 tables, 30 figures Revised version. Minor corrections to
spelling and wordin
The Cosmic Microwave Background in an Inhomogeneous Universe - why void models of dark energy are only weakly constrained by the CMB
The dimming of Type Ia supernovae could be the result of Hubble-scale
inhomogeneity in the matter and spatial curvature, rather than signaling the
presence of a dark energy component. A key challenge for such models is to fit
the detailed spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We present a
detailed discussion of the small-scale CMB in an inhomogeneous universe,
focusing on spherically symmetric `void' models. We allow for the dynamical
effects of radiation while analyzing the problem, in contrast to other work
which inadvertently fine tunes its spatial profile. This is a surprisingly
important effect and we reach substantially different conclusions. Models which
are open at CMB distances fit the CMB power spectrum without fine tuning; these
models also fit the supernovae and local Hubble rate data which favours a high
expansion rate. Asymptotically flat models may fit the CMB, but require some
extra assumptions. We argue that a full treatment of the radiation in these
models is necessary if we are to understand the correct constraints from the
CMB, as well as other observations which rely on it, such as spectral
distortions of the black body spectrum, the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect
or the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations.Comment: 23 pages with 14 figures. v2 has considerably extended discussion and
analysis, but the basic results are unchanged. v3 is the final versio
Cosmological constraints on the generalized holographic dark energy
We use the Markov ChainMonte Carlo method to investigate global constraints
on the generalized holographic (GH) dark energy with flat and non-flat universe
from the current observed data: the Union2 dataset of type supernovae Ia
(SNIa), high-redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), the observational Hubble data
(OHD), the cluster X-ray gas mass fraction, the baryon acoustic oscillation
(BAO), and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. The most stringent
constraints on the GH model parameter are obtained. In addition, it is found
that the equation of state for this generalized holographic dark energy can
cross over the phantom boundary wde =-1.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: significant text overlap with
arXiv:1105.186
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