334 research outputs found
Towards the Theory of Cosmological Phase Transitions
We discuss recent progress (and controversies) in the theory of finite
temperature phase transitions. This includes the structure of the effective
potential at a finite temperature, the infrared problem in quantum statistics
of gauge fields, the theory of formation of critical and subcritical bubbles
and the theory of bubble wall propagation.Comment: 50 p
Some Two-Loop Corrections to the Finite Temperature Effective Potential in the Electroweak Theory
Perturbation theory at finite temperature suffers from well-known infrared
problems. In the standard model, as a result, one cannot calculate the
effective potential for arbitrarily small values of , the Higgs
expectation value. Because the Higgs field is now known not to be extremely
light, it is necessary to determine whether perturbation theory is a reliable
guide to properties of the weak phase transition. In this note, we evaluate the
most singular contributions to the potential at two loops as well as the
leading strong interaction contributions. Above the critical temperature, the
strong interaction corrections are reasonably small, while the weak corrections
are about 10\%, even for rather small values of the Higgs field. At the
critical temperature, the weak corrections have a more substantial effect,
rendering the transition significantly more first order, but not significantly
changing the upper bound on the Higgs mass required for baryogenesis.Comment: 13 pages, figures available on request, SCIPP 92/4
Inflation at the Electroweak Scale
We present a simple model for slow-rollover inflation where the vacuum energy
that drives inflation is of the order of ; unlike most models, the
conversion of vacuum energy to radiation (``reheating'') is moderately
efficient. The scalar field responsible for inflation is a standard-model
singlet, develops a vacuum expectation value of the order of 4\times
10^6\GeV, has a mass of order 1\GeV, and can play a role in electroweak
phenomena.Comment: 14 page
Boltzmann brains and the scale-factor cutoff measure of the multiverse
To make predictions for an eternally inflating "multiverse", one must adopt a
procedure for regulating its divergent spacetime volume. Recently, a new test
of such spacetime measures has emerged: normal observers - who evolve in pocket
universes cooling from hot big bang conditions - must not be vastly outnumbered
by "Boltzmann brains" - freak observers that pop in and out of existence as a
result of rare quantum fluctuations. If the Boltzmann brains prevail, then a
randomly chosen observer would be overwhelmingly likely to be surrounded by an
empty world, where all but vacuum energy has redshifted away, rather than the
rich structure that we observe. Using the scale-factor cutoff measure, we
calculate the ratio of Boltzmann brains to normal observers. We find the ratio
to be finite, and give an expression for it in terms of Boltzmann brain
nucleation rates and vacuum decay rates. We discuss the conditions that these
rates must obey for the ratio to be acceptable, and we discuss estimates of the
rates under a variety of assumptions.Comment: 32 pp, 2 figs. Modified to conform to the version accepted by Phys.
Rev. D. The last paragraph of Sec. V-A, about Boltzmann brains in Minkowski
space, has been significantly enlarged. Two sentences were added to the
introduction concerning the classical approximation and the hope of finding a
motivating principle for the measure. Several references were adde
Signatures of Planck-scale interactions in the cosmic microwave background?
Based on a rather general low-energy effective action (interacting quantum
fields in classical curved space-times), we calculate potential signatures of
new physics (such as quantum gravity) at ultra-high energies (presumably the
Planck scale) in the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background. These
Planck-scale interactions create non-Gaussian contributions, where special
emphasis is laid on the three-point function as the most promising observable,
which also allows the discrimination between models violating and those obeying
Lorentz invariance. PACS: 98.80.Cq, 04.62.+v, 98.70.Vc, 98.80.Qc.Comment: 4 page
The role of positively charged amino acids and electrostatic interactions in the complex of U1A protein and U1 hairpin II RNA
Previous kinetic investigations of the N-terminal RNA recognition motif (RRM) domain of spliceosomal protein U1A, interacting with its RNA target U1 hairpin II, provided experimental evidence for a ‘lure and lock’ model of binding in which electrostatic interactions first guide the RNA to the protein, and close range interactions then lock the two molecules together. To further investigate the ‘lure’ step, here we examined the electrostatic roles of two sets of positively charged amino acids in U1A that do not make hydrogen bonds to the RNA: Lys20, Lys22 and Lys23 close to the RNA-binding site, and Arg7, Lys60 and Arg70, located on ‘top’ of the RRM domain, away from the RNA. Surface plasmon resonance-based kinetic studies, supplemented with salt dependence experiments and molecular dynamics simulation, indicate that Lys20 predominantly plays a role in association, while nearby residues Lys22 and Lys23 appear to be at least as important for complex stability. In contrast, kinetic analyses of residues away from the RNA indicate that they have a minimal effect on association and stability. Thus, well-positioned positively charged residues can be important for both initial complex formation and complex maintenance, illustrating the multiple roles of electrostatic interactions in protein–RNA complexes
Climate Change Affects Reproductive Phenology in Lianas of Australia’s Wet Tropics
Lianas are increasing in abundance in many tropical forests. This increase can alter forest structure and decrease both carbon storage and tree diversity via antagonistic relationships between lianas and their host trees. Climate change is postulated as an underlying driver of increasing liana abundances, via increases in dry-season length, forest-disturbance events, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations; all factors thought to favour lianas. However, the impact of climate change on liana reproductive phenology, an underlying determinant of liana abundance, has been little studied, particularly outside of Neotropical forests. Over a 15-year period (2000–2014), we examined the phenological patterns of a liana community in intact rainforests of the Wet Tropics bioregion of Australia; a World Heritage Area and hotspot of floral diversity. Specifically, we assessed (1) flowering and fruiting patterns of liana species; (2) potential climate drivers of flowering and fruiting activity; and (3) the influence of El Niño-related climatic disturbances on liana phenology. We found that flowering and fruiting of the studied liana species increased over time. Liana reproduction, moreover, rose in apparent response to higher temperatures and reduced rainfall. Finally, we found flowering and fruiting of the liana species increased following El Niño events. These results suggest that liana reproduction and abundance are likely to increase under predicted future climate regimes, with potentially important impacts on the survival, growth, and reproduction of resident trees and thus the overall health of Australian tropical rainforests
On the Production of Scalar and Tensor Perturbations in Inflationary Models
The amplitude and spectrum of the scalar and tensor perturbations depend upon
the shape of the inflationary potential in the small interval where the scalar
field responsible for inflation was between about 46 and 54 e-folds before the
end of inflation. By expanding the inflationary potential in a Taylor series in
this interval we show that the amplitude of the perturbations and the power-law
slope of their spectra can be expressed in terms of the value of the potential
50 e-folds before the end of inflation, , the steepness of the
potential, x_{50} \equiv \mpl V_{50}^\prime /V_{50}, and the rate of change
of the steepness, (prime denotes derivative with respect to the
scalar field).Comment: 32 pages FERMILAB-Pub-93/026-
Electromechanical reciprocity and arrhythmogenesis in long-QT syndrome and beyond.
An abundance of literature describes physiological and pathological determinants of cardiac performance, building on the principles of excitation-contraction coupling. However, the mutual influencing of excitation-contraction and mechano-electrical feedback in the beating heart, here designated 'electromechanical reciprocity', remains poorly recognized clinically, despite the awareness that external and cardiac-internal mechanical stimuli can trigger electrical responses and arrhythmia. This review focuses on electromechanical reciprocity in the long-QT syndrome (LQTS), historically considered a purely electrical disease, but now appreciated as paradigmatic for the understanding of mechano-electrical contributions to arrhythmogenesis in this and other cardiac conditions. Electromechanical dispersion in LQTS is characterized by heterogeneously prolonged ventricular repolarization, besides altered contraction duration and relaxation. Mechanical alterations may deviate from what would be expected from global and regional repolarization abnormalities. Pathological repolarization prolongation outlasts mechanical systole in patients with LQTS, yielding a negative electromechanical window (EMW), which is most pronounced in symptomatic patients. The electromechanical window is a superior and independent arrhythmia-risk predictor compared with the heart rate-corrected QT. A negative EMW implies that the ventricle is deformed-by volume loading during the rapid filling phase-when repolarization is still ongoing. This creates a 'sensitized' electromechanical substrate, in which inadvertent electrical or mechanical stimuli such as local after-depolarizations, after-contractions, or dyssynchrony can trigger abnormal impulses. Increased sympathetic-nerve activity and pause-dependent potentiation further exaggerate electromechanical heterogeneities, promoting arrhythmogenesis. Unraveling electromechanical reciprocity advances the understanding of arrhythmia formation in various conditions. Real-time image integration of cardiac electrophysiology and mechanics offers new opportunities to address challenges in arrhythmia management
The magnetic mass of transverse gluon, the B-meson weak decay vertex and the triality symmetry of octonion
With an assumption that in the Yang-Mills Lagrangian, a left-handed fermion
and a right-handed fermion both expressed as quaternion make an octonion which
possesses the triality symmetry, I calculate the magnetic mass of the
transverse self-dual gluon from three loop diagram, in which a heavy quark pair
is created and two self-dual gluons are interchanged.
The magnetic mass of the transverse gluon depends on the mass of the pair
created quarks, and in the case of charmed quark pair creation, the magnetic
mass becomes approximately equal to at MeV. A possible time-like magnetic gluon mass
from two self-dual gluon exchange is derived, and corrections in the B-meson
weak decay vertices from the two self-dual gluon exchange are also evaluated.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure
- …