The use of computer-generated color graphic images for transient thermal analysis

Color computer graphics techniques were investigated as a means of rapidly scanning and interpreting large sets of transient heating data. The data presented were generated to support the conceptual design of a heat-sink thermal protection system (TPS) for a hypersonic research airplane. Color-coded vector and raster displays of the numerical geometry used in the heating calculations were employed to analyze skin thicknesses and surface temperatures of the heat-sink TPS under a variety of trajectory flight profiles. Both vector and raster displays proved to be effective means for rapidly identifying heat-sink mass concentrations, regions of high heating, and potentially adverse thermal gradients. The color-coded (raster) surface displays are a very efficient means for displaying surface-temperature and heating histories, and thereby the more stringent design requirements can quickly be identified. The related hardware and software developments required to implement both the vector and the raster displays for this application are also discussed

Neutrinos, Axions and Conformal Symmetry

We demonstrate that radiative breaking of conformal symmetry (and simultaneously electroweak symmetry) in the Standard Model with right-chiral neutrinos and a minimally enlarged scalar sector induces spontaneous breaking of lepton number symmetry, which naturally gives rise to an axion-like particle with some unusual features. The couplings of this `axion' to Standard Model particles, in particular photons and gluons, are entirely determined (and computable) via the conformal anomaly, and their smallness turns out to be directly related to the smallness of the masses of light neutrinos.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, expanded version, to be published in EPJ

Crystallographic disorder and electron scattering on structural two-level systems in ZrAs1.4Se0.5

Single crystals of ZrAs1.4Se0.5 (PbFCl type structure) were grown by chemical vapour transport. While their thermodynamic and transport properties are typical for ordinary metals, the electrical resistivity exhibits a shallow minimum at low temperatures. Application of strong magnetic fields does not influence this anomaly. The minimum of the resistivity in ZrAs1.4Se0.5 apparently originates from interaction between the conduction electrons and structural two-level systems. Significant disorder in the As-Se substructure is inferred from X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe studies

Estudo de prevalência do Cassava Commom Mosaic Vírus (CsCMV) e do Cassava Vein Mosaic Virus (CsVMV) na região produtora do Estado da Bahia.

A mandioca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) é uma das principais fontes de energia na dieta humana dos países tropicais. Por ser propagada vegetativamente, através de partes caulinares (ramas ou manivas) (RODRIGUES et al., 2008), a dispersão de doenças sistêmicas, como as causadas por viroses, podem levar a degenerescência das manivas (COSTA; KITAJIMA, 1972). Em relação aos vírus de maior importância econômica no Brasil, destacam-se o mosaico das nervuras - Cassava vein mosaic virus (CsVMV), e o mosaico comum - Cassava common mosaic virus CsCMV (CHUMBINHO et al, 2010). Trabalho realizados no início da década passada consideram o mosaico das nervuras, CsVMV, como sendo um vírus de ampla abrangência geográfica, sendo prevalente, principalmente, no ecossistema do semiárido nordestino. Esse efeito não está somente associado às severas manifestações produzidas, mas também pela influência negativa na qualidade dos produtos obtidos (CHIGERU et al., 2003). Além da transmissão por material propagativo, o CsVMV é transmitido por ferramentas utilizadas para o corte das manivas. Observações de campo têm indicado que a manifestação severa da doença em variedades suscetíveis pode causar perdas de produção que variam de 10 a 20%, prejudicando a qualidade do produto, devido à redução de 10 a 50% nos teores de amido (FUKUDA, 1993). Os sintomas caracterizam-se pela presença de cloroses intensas entre as nervuras primárias e secundárias, nas plantas afetadas. Em casos severos da doença é comum observar um forte retorcimento do limbo foliar (OTSUBO et al., 2003). O CsCMV, mosaico comum, pertencente a família Flexiviridae e gênero Potexvirus (SOARES et al., 2009), não possui vetor conhecido, logo entende-se que sua disseminação ocorre mecanicamente (COLARICCIO et al., 2009). O Cassava common mosaic vírus - CsCMV é classificado como uma Potexvirus e possui uma partícula semiflexuosa de 15 nm × 495 nm (Kitajima et al., 1965). O genoma é constituído de uma fita única de RNA senso positiva (ssRNA) de 2 × 106 Da, com capsídio constituído por uma única proteína de 21 kDa de massa molecular (Nolt et al.,1991). Os sintomas apresentados em mandiocas infectadas por esse vírus são de mosaico no limbo foliar, presença de áreas cloróticas que são muitas vezes limitados pela as veias e a doença pode causar perdas de rendimento em mais de 30%. Por essa razão, alguns trabalhos apontam para a importância do cuidado que se deve ter na seleção do material de plantio, pois essas medidas podem ajudar a erradicar ou reduzir a doença a um nível econômico significativamente secundário. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi detectar, avaliar e identificar a prevalência do CsCMV e do CsVMV em diversas variedades de mandioca cultivadas nas principais regiões produtoras de mandioca do estado da Bahia

Exact One Loop Running Couplings in the Standard Model

Taking the dominant couplings in the standard model to be the quartic scalar coupling, the Yukawa coupling of the top quark, and the SU(3) gauge coupling, we consider their associated running couplings to one loop order. Despite the non-linear nature of the differential equations governing these functions, we show that they can be solved exactly. The nature of these solutions is discussed and their singularity structure is examined. It is shown that for a sufficiently small Higgs mass, the quartic scalar coupling decreases with increasing energy scale and becomes negative, indicative of vacuum instability. This behavior changes for a Higgs mass greater than 168 GeV, beyond which this couplant increases with increasing energy scales and becomes singular prior to the ultraviolet (UV) pole of the Yukawa coupling. Upper and lower bounds on the Higgs mass corresponding to new physics at the TeV scale are obtained and compare favourably with the numerical results of the one-loop and two-loop analyses with inclusion of electroweak couplings.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX, additional references and further discussion in this version. Accepted for publication in Canadian Journal of Physic

Computing Black Hole entropy in Loop Quantum Gravity from a Conformal Field Theory perspective

Motivated by the analogy proposed by Witten between Chern-Simons and Conformal Field Theories, we explore an alternative way of computing the entropy of a black hole starting from the isolated horizon framework in Loop Quantum Gravity. The consistency of the result opens a window for the interplay between Conformal Field Theory and the description of black holes in Loop Quantum Gravity.Comment: 9 page

Radiative pion capture by a nucleon

The differential cross sections for $\pi^- p \to \gamma n$ and $\pi^+ n \to \gamma p$ are computed up to $O(p^3)$ in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT). The expressions at $O(p)$ and $O(p^2)$ have no free parameters. There are three unknown parameters at $O(p^3)$, low energy constants of the HBChPT Lagrangian, which are determined by fitting to experimental data. Two acceptable fits are obtained, which can be separated by comparing with earlier dispersion relation calculations of the inverse process. Expressions for the multipoles, with emphasis on the p-wave multipoles, are obtained and evaluated at threshold. Generally the results obtained from the best of the two fits are in good agreement with the dispersion relation predictions.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, using RevTe

One-loop effects of extra dimensions on the WW\gamma and WWZ vertices

The one-loop contribution of the excited Kaluza-Klein (KK) modes of the $SU_L(2)$ gauge group on the off-shell $WW\gamma$ and $WWZ$ vertices is calculated in the context of a pure Yang-Mills theory in five dimensions and its phenomenological implications discussed. The use of a gauge-fixing procedure for the excited KK modes that is covariant under the standard gauge transformations of the $SU_L(2)$ group is stressed. A gauge-fixing term and the Faddeev-Popov ghost sector for the KK gauge modes that are separately invariant under the standard gauge transformations of $SU_L(2)$ are presented. It is shown that the one-loop contributions of the KK modes to the off-shell $WW\gamma$ and $WWZ$ vertices are free of ultraviolet divergences and well-behaved at high energies. It is found that for a size of the fifth dimension of $R^{-1}\sim 1TeV$, the one-loop contribution of the KK modes to these vertices is about one order of magnitude lower than the corresponding standard model radiative correction. This contribution is similar to the one estimated for new gauge bosons contributions in other contexts. Tree-level effects on these vertices induced by operators of higher canonical dimension are also investigated. It is found that these effects are lower than those generated at the one-loop order by the KK gauge modes.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures. Some typos were correcte