672 research outputs found
Leptogenesis, neutrino masses and gauge unification
Leptogenesis is considered in its natural context where Majorana neutrinos
fit in a gauge unification scheme and therefore couple to some extra gauge
bosons. The masses of some of these gauge bosons are expected to be similar to
those of the heavy Majorana particles, and this can have important consequences
for leptogenesis. In fact, the effect can go both ways. Stricter bounds are
obtained on one hand due to the dilution of the CP-violating effect by new
decay and scattering channels, while, in a re-heating scheme, the presence of
gauge couplings facilitates the re-population of the Majorana states. The
latter effect allows in particular for smaller Dirac couplings.Comment: 11pages, 7 figures. v2: definition of the lepton asymmetry corrected,
small numerical changes for the baryon number, conclusion does not change;
typos corrected and references adde
Detecting respiratory bacterial communities of wild dolphins: Implications for animal health
Infectious diseases contribute to the vulnerable status of marine mammals, including respiratory illnesses. This study aimed to capture exhaled breath condensate (blow) for microbial identification from wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins Tursiops aduncus. Individual dolphins were sampled by holding a funnel connected to a 50 ml centrifuge tube over the blowhole of the animal near shore in Shark Bay (SB), Western Australia. Four individuals were sampled on 2 occasions along with seawater samples. Comparative blow and pool water samples were collected from 4 individual common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus housed in the National Aquarium (NA), Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Bacteria were identified using the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene from extracted DNA. We identified bacteria independent of seawater in SB dolphins, which included the classes Alphaproteobacteria (26.1%) and Gammaproteobacteria (25.8%); the phyla Bacteroidetes (15.6%) and Fusobacteria (7.2%); and the genera Pseudomonas (11.5%), Pedomicrobium (4.5%), Streptobacillus (3.7%), Phenylobacterium (2.2%) and Sphingomonas (2.1%). There were broad similarities in phyla between SB and NA dolphins yet there were differences between lower taxonomic groups. A number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were shared between dolphin individuals, which may be a result of their genetic lineage (siblings or parentage), shared living and social interactions. A number of genera were observed in SB dolphins which have species known to be infectious in marine mammals such as Pseudomonas, Mycoplasma and Streptococcus. This study successfully characterised bacteria from DNA captured in blow from wild dolphins. The ability to capture these communities from individuals in the wild provides a novel health indicator
D-term inflation and neutrino mass
We study a -term inflation scenario in a model extended from the minimal
supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) by two additional abelian factor groups
focussing on its particle physics aspects. Condensates of the fields related to
the inflation can naturally give a possible solution to both the -problem
in the MSSM and the neutrino mass through their nonrenormalizable couplings to
the MSSM fields. Mixings between neutrinos and neutralinos are also induced by
some of these condensates. Small neutrino masses are generated by a weak scale
seesaw mechanism as a result of these mixings. Moreover, the decay of the
condensates may be able to cause the leptogenesis. Usually known discrepancy
between both values of a Fayet-Iliopoulos -term which are predicted by the
COBE normalization and also by an anomalous U(1) in the weakly-coupled
superstring might be reconciled.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, small modifications, one reference adde
Interactions between Simulant Vitrified Nuclear Wastes and high pH solutions: A Natural Analogue Approach
This study details the characterization of a glass sample exposed to hyperalkaline water and calcium-rich sediment for an extended time period (estimated as 2-70 years) at a lime (CaO) waste site in the UK. We introduce this site, known as Peak Dale, in reference to its use as a natural analogue for nuclear waste glass dissolution in the high pH environment of a cementitious engineered barrier of a geological disposal facility. In particular, a preliminary assessment of alteration layer chemistry and morphology is described and the initiation of a long-term durability assessment is outlined
Electron correlation energy in confined two-electron systems
Radial, angular and total correlation energies are calculated for four
two-electron systems with atomic numbers Z=0-3 confined within an impenetrable
sphere of radius R. We report accurate results for the non-relativistic,
restricted Hartree-Fock and radial limit energies over a range of confinement
radii from 0.05 - 10 a0. At small R, the correlation energies approach limiting
values that are independent of Z while at intermediate R, systems with Z > 1
exhibit a characteristic maximum in the correlation energy resulting from an
increase in the angular correlation energy which is offset by a decrease in the
radial correlation energy
Variability in aerobic methane oxidation over the past 1.2 Myrs recorded in microbial biomarker signatures from Congo fan sediments
Methane (CH4) is a strong greenhouse gas known to have perturbed global climate in the past, especially when released in large quantities over short time periods from continental or marine sources. It is therefore crucial to understand and, if possible, quantify the individual and combined response of these variable methane sources to natural climate variability. However, past changes in the stability of greenhouse gas reservoirs remain uncertain and poorly constrained by geological evidence. Here, we present a record from the Congo fan of a highly specific bacteriohopanepolyol (BHP) biomarker for aerobic methane oxidation (AMO), 35-aminobacteriohopane-30,31,32,33,34-pentol (aminopentol), that identifies discrete periods of increased AMO as far back as 1.2 Ma. Fluctuations in the concentration of aminopentol, and other 35-aminoBHPs, follow a pattern that correlates with late Quaternary glacial-interglacial climate cycles, with highest concentrations during warm periods. We discuss possible sources of aminopentol, and the methane consumed by the precursor methanotrophs, within the context of the Congo River setting, including supply of methane oxidation markers from terrestrial watersheds and/or marine sources (gas hydrate and/or deep subsurface gas reservoir). Compound-specific carbon isotope values of −30‰ to −40‰ for BHPs in ODP 1075 and strong similarities between the BHP signature of the core and surface sediments from the Congo estuary and floodplain wetlands from the interior of the Congo River Basin, support a methanotrophic and likely terrigenous origin of the 35-aminoBHPs found in the fan sediments. This new evidence supports a causal connection between marine sediment BHP records of tropical deep sea fans and wetland settings in the feeding river catchments, and thus tropical continental hydrology. Further research is needed to better constrain the different sources and pathways of methane emission. However, this study identifies the large potential of aminoBHPs, in particular aminopentol, to trace and, once better calibrated and understood, quantify past methane sources and fluxes from terrestrial and potentially also marine sources
“The decontamination is not done”: a photovoice exploration of the lives of internally displaced people in Fukushima
Systematic Study of Fermion Masses and Mixing Angles in Horizontal SU(2) Gauge Theory
Despite its great success in explaining the basic interactions of nature, the
standard model suffers from an inability to explain the observed masses of the
fundamental particles and the weak mixing angles between them. We shall survey
a set of possible extensions to the standard model, employing an SU(2)
``horizontal'' gauge symmetry between the particle generations, to see what
light they can shed on this problem.Comment: 43 pages, 4 figures (available by postal mail on request), OZ-92/0
Detailed Analysis of Proton Decay Rate in the Minimal Supersymmetric SO(10) Model
We consider the minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model, where only one {\bf 10}
and one Higgs multiplets have Yukawa couplings with matter
multiplets. This model has the high predictive power for the Yukawa coupling
matrices consistent with the experimental data of the charged fermion mass
matrices, and all the Yukawa coupling matrices are completely determined once a
few parameters in the model are fixed. This feature is essential for definite
predictions to the proton decay rate through the dimension five operators. We
analyze the proton decay rate for the dominant decay modes by including as many free parameters as possible and varying them.
There are two free parameters in the Yukawa sector, while five in the Higgsino
sector. It is found that an allowed region exists when the free parameters in
the Higgs sector are tuned so as to cancel the proton decay amplitude. The
resultant proton lifetime is proportional to and the allowed
region eventually disappears as becomes large.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; the version to appear in JHE
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