Forgetful maps between Deligne-Mostow ball quotients

We study forgetful maps between Deligne-Mostow moduli spaces of weighted points on P^1, and classify the forgetful maps that extend to a map of orbifolds between the stable completions. The cases where this happens include the Livn\'e fibrations and the Mostow/Toledo maps between complex hyperbolic surfaces. They also include a retraction of a 3-dimensional ball quotient onto one of its 1-dimensional totally geodesic complex submanifolds

Dietary iron intakes based on food composition data may underestimate the contribution of potentially exchangeable contaminant iron from soil

Iron intakes calculated from one-day weighed records were compared with those from same day analyzed duplicate diet composites collected from 120 Malawian women living in two rural districts with contrasting soil mineralogy and where threshing may contaminate cereals with soil iron. Soils and diet composites from the two districts were then subjected to a simulated gastrointestinal digestion and iron availability in the digests measured using a Caco-2 cell model. Median analyzed iron intakes (mg/d) were higher (p < 0.001) than calculated intakes in both Zombwe (16.6 vs. 10.1 mg/d) and Mikalango (29.6 vs. 19.1 mg/d), attributed to some soil contaminant iron based on high Al and Ti concentrations in diet composites. A small portion of iron in acidic soil from Zombwe, but not Mikalango calcareous soil, was bioavailable, as it induced ferritin expression in the cells, and may have contributed to higher plasma ferritin and total body iron for the Zombwe women reported earlier, despite lower iron intakes. In conclusion, iron intakes calculated from food composition data were underestimated, highlighting the importance of analyzing duplicate diet composites where extraneous contaminant iron from soil is likely. Acidic contaminant soil may make a small but useful contribution to iron nutrition

Grafting and Poisson structure in (2+1)-gravity with vanishing cosmological constant

We relate the geometrical construction of (2+1)-spacetimes via grafting to phase space and Poisson structure in the Chern-Simons formulation of (2+1)-dimensional gravity with vanishing cosmological constant on manifolds of topology $R\times S_g$, where $S_g$ is an orientable two-surface of genus $g>1$. We show how grafting along simple closed geodesics \lambda is implemented in the Chern-Simons formalism and derive explicit expressions for its action on the holonomies of general closed curves on S_g. We prove that this action is generated via the Poisson bracket by a gauge invariant observable associated to the holonomy of $\lambda$. We deduce a symmetry relation between the Poisson brackets of observables associated to the Lorentz and translational components of the holonomies of general closed curves on S_g and discuss its physical interpretation. Finally, we relate the action of grafting on the phase space to the action of Dehn twists and show that grafting can be viewed as a Dehn twist with a formal parameter $\theta$ satisfying $\theta^2=0$.Comment: 43 pages, 10 .eps figures; minor modifications: 2 figures added, explanations added, typos correcte

Geometrical (2+1)-gravity and the Chern-Simons formulation: Grafting, Dehn twists, Wilson loop observables and the cosmological constant

We relate the geometrical and the Chern-Simons description of (2+1)-dimensional gravity for spacetimes of topology $R\times S_g$, where $S_g$ is an oriented two-surface of genus $g>1$, for Lorentzian signature and general cosmological constant and the Euclidean case with negative cosmological constant. We show how the variables parametrising the phase space in the Chern-Simons formalism are obtained from the geometrical description and how the geometrical construction of (2+1)-spacetimes via grafting along closed, simple geodesics gives rise to transformations on the phase space. We demonstrate that these transformations are generated via the Poisson bracket by one of the two canonical Wilson loop observables associated to the geodesic, while the other acts as the Hamiltonian for infinitesimal Dehn twists. For spacetimes with Lorentzian signature, we discuss the role of the cosmological constant as a deformation parameter in the geometrical and the Chern-Simons formulation of the theory. In particular, we show that the Lie algebras of the Chern-Simons gauge groups can be identified with the (2+1)-dimensional Lorentz algebra over a commutative ring, characterised by a formal parameter $\Theta_\Lambda$ whose square is minus the cosmological constant. In this framework, the Wilson loop observables that generate grafting and Dehn twists are obtained as the real and the $\Theta_\Lambda$-component of a Wilson loop observable with values in the ring, and the grafting transformations can be viewed as infinitesimal Dehn twists with the parameter $\Theta_\Lambda$.Comment: 50 pages, 6 eps figure

A quantum Monte Carlo study of the one-dimensional ionic Hubbard model

Quantum Monte Carlo methods are used to study a quantum phase transition in a 1D Hubbard model with a staggered ionic potential (D). Using recently formulated methods, the electronic polarization and localization are determined directly from the correlated ground state wavefunction and compared to results of previous work using exact diagonalization and Hartree-Fock. We find that the model undergoes a thermodynamic transition from a band insulator (BI) to a broken-symmetry bond ordered (BO) phase as the ratio of U/D is increased. Since it is known that at D = 0 the usual Hubbard model is a Mott insulator (MI) with no long-range order, we have searched for a second transition to this state by (i) increasing U at fixed ionic potential (D) and (ii) decreasing D at fixed U. We find no transition from the BO to MI state, and we propose that the MI state in 1D is unstable to bond ordering under the addition of any finite ionic potential. In real 1D systems the symmetric MI phase is never stable and the transition is from a symmetric BI phase to a dimerized BO phase, with a metallic point at the transition

Isotopic composition of fragments in multifragmentation of very large nuclear systems: effects of the chemical equilibrium

Studies on the isospin of fragments resulting from the disassembly of highly excited large thermal-like nuclear emitting sources, formed in the ^{197}Au + ^{197}Au reaction at 35 MeV/nucleon beam energy, are presented. Two different decay systems (the quasiprojectile formed in midperipheral reactions and the unique source coming from the incomplete fusion of projectile and target in the most central collisions) were considered; these emitting sources have the same initial N/Z ratio and excitation energy (E^* ~= 5--6 MeV/nucleon), but different size. Their charge yields and isotopic content of the fragments show different distributions. It is observed that the neutron content of intermediate mass fragments increases with the size of the source. These evidences are consistent with chemical equilibrium reached in the systems. This fact is confirmed by the analysis with the statistical multifragmentation model.Comment: 9 pages, 4 ps figure

Quantum Monte Carlo and variational approaches to the Holstein model

Based on the canonical Lang-Firsov transformation of the Hamiltonian we develop a very efficient quantum Monte Carlo algorithm for the Holstein model with one electron. Separation of the fermionic degrees of freedom by a reweighting of the probability distribution leads to a dramatic reduction in computational effort. A principal component representation of the phonon degrees of freedom allows to sample completely uncorrelated phonon configurations. The combination of these elements enables us to perform efficient simulations for a wide range of temperature, phonon frequency and electron-phonon coupling on clusters large enough to avoid finite-size effects. The algorithm is tested in one dimension and the data are compared with exact-diagonalization results and with existing work. Moreover, the ideas presented here can also be applied to the many-electron case. In the one-electron case considered here, the physics of the Holstein model can be described by a simple variational approach.Comment: 18 pages, 11 Figures, v2: one typo correcte

Delineating morbillivirus entry, dissemination and airborne transmission by studying in vivo competition of multicolor canine distemper viruses in ferrets

Identification of cellular receptors and characterization of viral tropism in animal models have vastly improved our understanding of morbillivirus pathogenesis. However, specific aspects of viral entry, dissemination and transmission remain difficult to recapitulate in animal models. Here, we used three virologically identical but phenotypically