Gluon Chain Model of the Confining Force

We develop a picture of the QCD string as a chain of constituent gluons, bound by attractive nearest-neighbor forces which may be treated perturbatively. This picture accounts for both Casimir scaling at large N, and the asymptotic center dependence of the static quark potential. We discuss the relevance, to the gluon-chain picture, of recent three-loop results for the static quark potential. A variational framework is presented for computing the minimal energy and wavefunction of a long gluon chain, which enables us to derive both the logarithmic broadening of the QCD flux tube (``roughening''), and the existence of a Luscher -c/R term in the potential.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, latex2

Coherent states for exactly solvable potentials

A general algebraic procedure for constructing coherent states of a wide class of exactly solvable potentials e.g., Morse and P{\"o}schl-Teller, is given. The method, {\it a priori}, is potential independent and connects with earlier developed ones, including the oscillator based approaches for coherent states and their generalizations. This approach can be straightforwardly extended to construct more general coherent states for the quantum mechanical potential problems, like the nonlinear coherent states for the oscillators. The time evolution properties of some of these coherent states, show revival and fractional revival, as manifested in the autocorrelation functions, as well as, in the quantum carpet structures.Comment: 11 pages, 4 eps figures, uses graphicx packag

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives