Barrier and internal wave contributions to the quantum probability density and flux in light heavy-ion elastic scattering

We investigate the properties of the optical model wave function for light heavy-ion systems where absorption is incomplete, such as $\alpha + ^{40}$Ca and $\alpha + ^{16}$O around 30 MeV incident energy. Strong focusing effects are predicted to occur well inside the nucleus, where the probability density can reach values much higher than that of the incident wave. This focusing is shown to be correlated with the presence at back angles of a strong enhancement in the elastic cross section, the so-called ALAS (anomalous large angle scattering) phenomenon; this is substantiated by calculations of the quantum probability flux and of classical trajectories. To clarify this mechanism, we decompose the scattering wave function and the associated probability flux into their barrier and internal wave contributions within a fully quantal calculation. Finally, a calculation of the divergence of the quantum flux shows that when absorption is incomplete, the focal region gives a sizeable contribution to nonelastic processes.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures. RevTeX file. To appear in Phys. Rev. C. The figures are only available via anonynous FTP on ftp://umhsp02.umh.ac.be/pub/ftp_pnt/figscat

The Halo Beaming Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts

We consider a model for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from high-velocity neutron stars in the galactic halo. In this model, bursters are born in the galactic disk with large recoil velocities V_r, and GRBs are beamed to within emission cones of half-angle \phi centered on V_r. We describe scenarios for magnetically -channeled GRBs that have such beaming characteristics. We then make detailed comparisons of this halo beaming model (HBM) to BATSE and PVO data for GRB intensity & angular position distributions. Acceptable fits to observations of over 1000 bursts are obtained for \phi = 15 - 30 degrees and for a BATSE sampling depth ~ 180 kpc. Present data favor a truly isotropic (cosmological) model over the HBM, but not by a statistically compelling margin. Bursters born in nearby external galaxies, such as M31, are almost entirely undetectable in the HBM because of misdirected beaming. We analyze several refinements of the basic HBM: gamma-ray intensities that vary with angle from the beam axis; non-standard-candle GRB luminosity functions; and models including a subset of bursters that do not escape from the galaxy. We also discuss the energy budgets for the bursters, the origins of their recoils, and the physics of burst beaming and alignment. One possible physical model is based on the magnetar model of soft gamma repeaters (SGRs). Empirical bounds on the rate of formation and peculiar velocities of SGRs imply that there exist ~ 10^4 to ~ 10^7 aged SGRs in the galactic halo within a distance of 100 kpc. The HBM gives an acceptable fit to observations only if it satisfies certain conditions (e.g. \phi ~ 20 deg) which are possible, but for which there exist no clear & compelling theoretical justifications. The cosmological burster hypothesis is more generic and thus more attractive in this sense. (Abbreviated Abstract).Comment: ApJ accepted, 9 figures, AASTE

Analysis of host responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens in a multi-site study of subjects with different TB and HIV infection states in sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global health threat with 9 million new cases and 1.4 million deaths per year. In order to develop a protective vaccine, we need to define the antigens expressed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), which are relevant to protective immunity in high-endemic areas. METHODS: We analysed responses to 23 Mtb antigens in a total of 1247 subjects with different HIV and TB status across 5 geographically diverse sites in Africa (South Africa, The Gambia, Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda). We used a 7-day whole blood assay followed by IFN-γ ELISA on the supernatants. Antigens included PPD, ESAT-6 and Ag85B (dominant antigens) together with novel resuscitation-promoting factors (rpf), reactivation proteins, latency (Mtb DosR regulon-encoded) antigens, starvation-induced antigens and secreted antigens. RESULTS: There was variation between sites in responses to the antigens, presumably due to underlying genetic and environmental differences. When results from all sites were combined, HIV- subjects with active TB showed significantly lower responses compared to both TST(-) and TST(+) contacts to latency antigens (Rv0569, Rv1733, Rv1735, Rv1737) and the rpf Rv0867; whilst responses to ESAT-6/CFP-10 fusion protein (EC), PPD, Rv2029, TB10.3, and TB10.4 were significantly higher in TST(+) contacts (LTBI) compared to TB and TST(-) contacts fewer differences were seen in subjects with HIV co-infection, with responses to the mitogen PHA significantly lower in subjects with active TB compared to those with LTBI and no difference with any antigen. CONCLUSIONS: Our multi-site study design for testing novel Mtb antigens revealed promising antigens for future vaccine development. The IFN-γ ELISA is a cheap and useful tool for screening potential antigenicity in subjects with different ethnic backgrounds and across a spectrum of TB and HIV infection states. Analysis of cytokines other than IFN-γ is currently on-going to determine correlates of protection, which may be useful for vaccine efficacy trials

Solar-like oscillations in distant stars as seen by CoRoT : the special case of HD 42618, a solar sister

We report the observations of a main-sequence star, HD 42618 (T[SUB]eff[/SUB] = 5765 K, G3V) by the space telescope CoRoT. This is the closest star to the Sun ever observed by CoRoT in term of its fundamental parameters. Using a preliminary version of CoRoT light curves of HD 42618, p modes are detected around 3.2 mHz associated to l = 0, 1 and 2 modes with a large spacing of 142 μHz. Various methods are then used to derive the mass and radius of this star (scaling relations from solar values as well as comparison between theoretical and observationnal frequencies) giving values in the range of (0.80 - 1.02)M[SUB]solar[/SUB] and (0.91 - 1.01)R[SUB]solar[/SUB]. A preliminary analysis of l = 0 and 1 modes allows us also to study the amount of penetrative convection at the base of the convective envelope

Hydrodynamic instabilities in a highly radiative environment

In this paper, we present the effects of a radiative shock (RS) on the morphology of jet-like objects subjected to hydrodynamic instabilities. To this end, we used an experimental platform developed to create RSs on high energy laser facilities such as LULI2000 and GEKKO XII. Here, we employed modulated targets to initiate Richtmyer–Meshkov and Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) growth in the presence of an RS. The RS is obtained by generating a strong shock in a dense pusher that expands into a low-density xenon gas. With our design, only a limited RTI growth occurs in the absence of radiative effects. A strongly radiative shock has opposite effects on RTI growth. While its deceleration enhances the instability growth, the produced radiations tend to stabilize the interfaces. Our indirect experimental observations suggest a lower instability growth despite the interface deceleration. In addition, the jets, produced during the experiment, are relevant to astrophysical structures such as Herbig–Haro objects or other radiatively cooling jets

Detectability of Strange Matter in Heavy Ion Experiments

We discuss the properties of two distinct forms of hypothetical strange matter, small lumps of strange quark matter (strangelets) and of hyperon matter (metastable exotic multihypernuclear objects: MEMOs), with special emphasis on their relevance for present and future heavy ion experiments. The masses of small strangelets up to A = 40 are calculated using the MIT bag model with shell mode filling for various bag parameters. The strangelets are checked for possible strong and weak hadronic decays, also taking into account multiple hadron decays. It is found that strangelets which are stable against strong decay are most likely highly negative charged, contrary to previous findings. Strangelets can be stable against weak hadronic decay but their masses and charges are still rather high. This has serious impact on the present high sensitivity searches in heavy ion experiments at the AGS and CERN facilities. On the other hand, highly charged MEMOs are predicted on the basis of an extended relativistic mean-field model. Those objects could be detected in future experiments searching for short-lived, rare composites. It is demonstrated that future experiments can be sensitive to a much wider variety of strangelets.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, uses RevTeX and epsf.st

Comparison of Isoscalar Vector Meson Production Cross Sections in Proton-Proton Collisions

The reaction $pp\to pp\bf \omega$ was investigated with the TOF spectrometer, which is an external experiment at the accelerator COSY (Forschungszentrum J\"ulich, Germany). Total as well as differential cross sections were determined at an excess energy of $93 MeV$ ($p_{beam}=2950 MeV/c$). Using the total cross section of $(9.0\pm 0.7 \pm1.1) \mu b$ for the reaction $pp\to pp\omega$ determined here and existing data for the reaction $pp\to pp\bf \phi$, the ratio $\mathcal{R}_{\phi/\omega}=\sigma_\phi/\sigma_\omega$ turns out to be significantly larger than expected by the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka (OZI) rule. The uncertainty of this ratio is considerably smaller than in previous determinations. The differential distributions show that the $\omega$ production is still dominated by S-wave production at this excess energy, however higher partial waves clearly contribute. A comparison of the measured angular distributions for $\omega$ production to published distributions for $\phi$ production at $83 MeV$ shows that the data are consistent with an identical production mechanism for both vector mesons

Predicting cell types and genetic variations contributing to disease by combining GWAS and epigenetic data

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are enriched in individuals suffering from a given disease. Most disease-associated SNPs fall into non-coding regions, so that it is not straightforward to infer phenotype or function; moreover, many SNPs are in tight genetic linkage, so that a SNP identified as associated with a particular disease may not itself be causal, but rather signify the presence of a linked SNP that is functionally relevant to disease pathogenesis. Here, we present an analysis method that takes advantage of the recent rapid accumulation of epigenomics data to address these problems for some SNPs. Using asthma as a prototypic example; we show that non-coding disease-associated SNPs are enriched in genomic regions that function as regulators of transcription, such as enhancers and promoters. Identifying enhancers based on the presence of the histone modification marks such as H3K4me1 in different cell types, we show that the location of enhancers is highly cell-type specific. We use these findings to predict which SNPs are likely to be directly contributing to disease based on their presence in regulatory regions, and in which cell types their effect is expected to be detectable. Moreover, we can also predict which cell types contribute to a disease based on overlap of the disease-associated SNPs with the locations of enhancers present in a given cell type. Finally, we suggest that it will be possible to re-analyze GWAS studies with much higher power by limiting the SNPs considered to those in coding or regulatory regions of cell types relevant to a given disease

Spallation reactions. A successful interplay between modeling and applications

The spallation reactions are a type of nuclear reaction which occur in space by interaction of the cosmic rays with interstellar bodies. The first spallation reactions induced with an accelerator took place in 1947 at the Berkeley cyclotron (University of California) with 200 MeV deuterons and 400 MeV alpha beams. They highlighted the multiple emission of neutrons and charged particles and the production of a large number of residual nuclei far different from the target nuclei. The same year R. Serber describes the reaction in two steps: a first and fast one with high-energy particle emission leading to an excited remnant nucleus, and a second one, much slower, the de-excitation of the remnant. In 2010 IAEA organized a worskhop to present the results of the most widely used spallation codes within a benchmark of spallation models. If one of the goals was to understand the deficiencies, if any, in each code, one remarkable outcome points out the overall high-quality level of some models and so the great improvements achieved since Serber. Particle transport codes can then rely on such spallation models to treat the reactions between a light particle and an atomic nucleus with energies spanning from few tens of MeV up to some GeV. An overview of the spallation reactions modeling is presented in order to point out the incomparable contribution of models based on basic physics to numerous applications where such reactions occur. Validations or benchmarks, which are necessary steps in the improvement process, are also addressed, as well as the potential future domains of development. Spallation reactions modeling is a representative case of continuous studies aiming at understanding a reaction mechanism and which end up in a powerful tool.Comment: 59 pages, 54 figures, Revie