Jet Quenching: the medium modification of the single and double fragmentation functions

The physics of the quenching of hard jets in dense matter is briefly reviewed. This is presented within the framework of the partonic medium modification of the fragmentation functions. Modifications in both deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off large nuclei and high-energy heavy-ion collisions are presented.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the First Meeting of the APS Topical Group on Hadronic Physics, Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, Oct 24-26, 200

Cellular glutathione content in the organ of Corti and its role during ototoxicity.

Glutathione (GSH) is the major scavenger of reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside cells. We used live confocal imaging in order to clarify the role of GSH in the biology of the organ of Corti, the sensory epithelium of the cochlea, before, during and after the onset of hearing and in ~1 year old mice. GSH content was measured using monochlorobimane (MCB), a non-fluorescent cell permeant bimane that reacts with GSH, forming a fluorescent adduct through a reaction catalyzed by glutathione-S-transferase. GSH content increased significantly in inner hair cells during maturation in young adult animals, whereas there was no significant change in the outer hair cells. However, the GSH content in inner hair cells was significantly reduced in ~1 year old mice. The GSH content of supporting cells was comparatively stable over these ages. To test whether the GSH content played a significant protective role during ototoxicity, GSH synthesis was inhibited by buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) in organotypic cochlear explant cultures from immature mice. BSO treatment alone, which reduced GSH by 65 and 85% in inner hair cells and outer hair cells respectively, did not cause any significant cell death. Surprisingly, GSH depletion had no significant effect on hair cell survival even during exposure to the ototoxic aminoglycoside neomycin. These data suggest that the involvement of ROS during aminoglycoside-induced hair cell death is less clear than previously thought and requires further investigation

Jet modification in three dimensional fluid dynamics at next-to-leading twist

The modification of the single inclusive spectrum of high transverse momentum ($p_T$) pions emanating from an ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collision is investigated. The deconfined sector is modelled using a full three dimensional (3-D) ideal fluid dynamics simulation. Energy loss of high $p_T$ partons and the ensuing modification of their fragmentation is calculated within perturbative QCD at next-to-leading twist, where the magnitude of the higher twist contribution is modulated by the entropy density extracted from the 3-D fluid dynamics simulation. The nuclear modification factor ($R_{AA}$) for pions with a $p_T \geq 8$ GeV as a function of centrality as well as with respect to the reaction plane is calculated. The magnitude of contributions to the differential $R_{AA}$ within small angular ranges, from various depths in the dense matter is extracted from the calculation and demonstrate the correlation of the length integrated density and the $R_{AA}$ from a given depth. The significance of the mixed and hadronic phase to the overall magnitude of energy loss are explored.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Revte

Ethnic populations of India as seen from an evolutionary perspective

It is now widely accepted that (i) modern humans,Homo sapiens sapiens, evolved in Africa, (ii) migrated out of Africa and replaced archaic humans in other parts of the world, and (iii) one of the first waves of out-of-Africa migration came into India. India, therefore, served as a major corridor for dispersal of modern humans. By studying variation at DNA level in contemporary human populations of India, we have provided evidence that mitochondrial DNA haplotypes based on RFLPs are strikingly similar across ethnic groups of India, consistent with the hypothesis that a small number of females entered India during the initial process of the peopling of India. We have also provided evidence that there may have been dispersal of humans from India to southeast Asia. In conjunction with haplotype data, nucleotide sequence data of a hypervariable segment (HVS-1) of the mitochondrial genome indicate that the ancestors of the present austro-asiatic tribal populations may have been the most ancient inhabitants of India. Based on Y-chromosomal RFLP and STRP data, we have also been able to trace footprints of human movements from west and central Asia into India

Southward Ho!

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Indian caste origins: genomic insights and future outlook

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Signals of spinodal hadronization: strangeness trapping

If the deconfinement phase transformation of strongly interacting matter is of first-order and the expanding chromodynamic matter created in a high-energy nuclear collision enters the corresponding region of phase coexistence, a spinodal phase separation might occur. The matter would then condense into a number of separate blobs, each having a particular net strangeness that would remain approximately conserved during the further evolution. We investigate the effect that such `strangeness trapping' may have on strangeness-related hadronic observables. The kaon multiplicity fluctuations are significantly enhanced and thus provide a possible tool for probing the nature of the phase transition experimentally.Comment: 15 pages, 11 eps figure

High Pt hadron-hadron correlations

We propose the formulation of a dihadron fragmentation function in terms of parton matrix elements. Under the collinear factorization approximation and facilitated by the cut-vertex technique, the two hadron inclusive cross section at leading order (LO) in e+ e- annihilation is shown to factorize into a short distance parton cross section and the long distance dihadron fragmentation function. We also derive the DGLAP evolution equation of this function at leading log. The evolution equation for the non-singlet and singlet quark fragmentation function and the gluon fragmentation function are solved numerically with the initial condition taken from event generators. Modifications to the dihadron fragmentation function from higher twist corrections in DIS off nuclei are computed. Results are presented for cases of physical interest.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Latex, Proceedings of Hot Quarks 2004, July 18-24, Taos, New Mexic

Dissecting the genetics of cardiomyopathy in India: a tale of ten steps

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Baryon number and strangeness: signals of a deconfined antecedent

The correlation between baryon number and strangeness is used to discern the nature of the deconfined matter produced at vanishing chemical potential in high-energy nuclear collisions at the BNL RHIC. Comparisons of results of various phenomenological models with correlations extracted from lattice QCD calculations suggest that a quasi-particle picture applies. At finite baryon densities, such as those encountered at the CERN SPS, it is demonstrated that the presence of a first-order phase transition and the accompanying development of spinodal decomposition would significantly enhance the number of strangeness carriers and the associated fluctuations.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, latex, to appear in the proceedings of the Workshop on Correlations and Fluctuations in Relativistic Nuclear collisions, (MIT, April 21-23,2005