Effective action of three-dimensional extended supersymmetric matter on gauge superfield background

We study the low-energy effective actions for gauge superfields induced by quantum N=2 and N=4 supersymmetric matter fields in three-dimensional Minkowski space. Analyzing the superconformal invariants in the N=2 superspace we propose a general form of the N=2 gauge invariant and superconformal effective action. The leading terms in this action are fixed by the symmetry up to the coefficients while the higher order terms with respect to the Maxwell field strength are found up to one arbitrary function of quasi-primary N=2 superfields constructed from the superfield strength and its covariant spinor derivatives. Then we find this function and the coefficients by direct quantum computations in the N=2 superspace. The effective action of N=4 gauge multiplet is obtained by generalizing the N=2 effective action.Comment: 1+27 pages; v2: minor corrections, references adde

Contact Terms, Unitarity, and F-Maximization in Three-Dimensional Superconformal Theories

We consider three-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories on a three-sphere and analyze their free energy F as a function of background gauge and supergravity fields. A crucial role is played by certain local terms in these background fields, including several Chern-Simons terms. The presence of these terms clarifies a number of subtle properties of F. This understanding allows us to prove the F-maximization principle. It also explains why computing F via localization leads to a complex answer, even though we expect it to be real in unitary theories. We discuss several corollaries of our results and comment on the relation to the F-theorem.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure; references added, minor change

Anti-inflammatory effects of antidepressant and atypical antipsychotic medication for the treatment of major depression and comorbid arthritis: a case report

Extent: 4p.Introduction: This case report describes the effects of psychotropic treatment, quetiapine in particular, on systemic inflammation, pain, general functioning and major depression in the treatment of a woman with arthritis. Case presentation: A 49-year-old Caucasian Australian woman with arthritis, pain and depression was treated with a course of escitalopram, mirtazapine and quetiapine. Pain levels, general functioning and degree of depressive symptoms were evaluated with a visual analogue scale. Systemic inflammation had been assessed by C-reactive protein serum levels since 2003. C-reactive protein levels, physical pain, symptoms of arthritis and depression decreased significantly during the past 12 months of treatment with quetiapine, while treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and mirtazapine remained the same. Conclusions: We suggest that the treatment particularly with quetiapine may have anti-inflammatory effects in arthritis and comorbid major depression, which eventually led to a remission of pain and depression and to normal general function.Bernhard T Baune, Harris Eyr

Rotating black hole entropy from M5-branes

We compute the superconformal index of 3d N = 2 superconformal field theories obtained from N M5-branes wrapped on a hyperbolic 3-manifold. Exploiting the 3d-3d correspondence, we use perturbative invariants of SL(N, \u2102) Chern-Simons theory to determine the superconformal index in the large N limit, including corrections logarithmic in N. The leading order partition function provides a microscopic foundation for the entropy function of the dual rotating asymptotically AdS4 black holes. We also verify that the supergravity one-loop contribution to the log N term coincides with the field theoretic result. We propose a 3d-3d formulation for the refined topologically twisted index, and provide strong evidence in support of its vanishing \u2014 which agrees with the fact that the expected dual rotating magnetically-charged black hole does not exist. This provides an interesting link between gravity and a tantalizing mathematical result

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

The First Cellular Models Based on Frataxin Missense Mutations That Reproduce Spontaneously the Defects Associated with Friedreich Ataxia

BACKGROUND:Friedreich ataxia (FRDA), the most common form of recessive ataxia, is due to reduced levels of frataxin, a highly conserved mitochondrial iron-chaperone involved in iron-sulfur cluster (ISC) biogenesis. Most patients are homozygous for a (GAA)(n) expansion within the first intron of the frataxin gene. A few patients, either with typical or atypical clinical presentation, are compound heterozygous for the GAA expansion and a micromutation. METHODOLOGY:We have developed a new strategy to generate murine cellular models for FRDA: cell lines carrying a frataxin conditional allele were used in combination with an EGFP-Cre recombinase to create murine cellular models depleted for endogenous frataxin and expressing missense-mutated human frataxin. We showed that complete absence of murine frataxin in fibroblasts inhibits cell division and leads to cell death. This lethal phenotype was rescued through transgenic expression of human wild type as well as mutant (hFXN(G130V) and hFXN(I154F)) frataxin. Interestingly, cells expressing the mutated frataxin presented a FRDA-like biochemical phenotype. Though both mutations affected mitochondrial ISC enzymes activities and mitochondria ultrastructure, the hFXN(I154F) mutant presented a more severe phenotype with affected cytosolic and nuclear ISC enzyme activities, mitochondrial iron accumulation and an increased sensitivity to oxidative stress. The differential phenotype correlates with disease severity observed in FRDA patients. CONCLUSIONS:These new cellular models, which are the first to spontaneously reproduce all the biochemical phenotypes associated with FRDA, are important tools to gain new insights into the in vivo consequences of pathological missense mutations as well as for large-scale pharmacological screening aimed at compensating frataxin deficiency