MINERvA: a dedicated neutrino scattering experiment at NuMI

MINERvA is a dedicated neutrino cross-section experiment planned for the near detector hall of the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. I summarize the detector design and physics capabilities of the experiment.Comment: Comments: to appear in the proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions in the Few-GeV Region (NuInt05

A faster pseudo-primality test

We propose a pseudo-primality test using cyclic extensions of $\mathbb Z/n \mathbb Z$. For every positive integer $k \leq \log n$, this test achieves the security of $k$ Miller-Rabin tests at the cost of $k^{1/2+o(1)}$ Miller-Rabin tests.Comment: Published in Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo Journal, Springe

Fractional Hamilton formalism within Caputo's derivative

In this paper we develop a fractional Hamiltonian formulation for dynamic systems defined in terms of fractional Caputo derivatives. Expressions for fractional canonical momenta and fractional canonical Hamiltonian are given, and a set of fractional Hamiltonian equations are obtained. Using an example, it is shown that the canonical fractional Hamiltonian and the fractional Euler-Lagrange formulations lead to the same set of equations.Comment: 8 page

Nuclear and nucleon transitions of the H di-baryon

We consider 3 types of processes pertinent to the phenomenology of an H di-baryon: conversion of two $\Lambda$'s in a doubly-strange hypernucleus to an H, decay of the H to two baryons, and -- if the H is light enough -- conversion of two nucleons in a nucleus to an H. We compute the spatial wavefunction overlap using the Isgur-Karl and Bethe-Goldstone wavefunctions, and treat the weak interactions phenomenologically. The observation of $\Lambda$ decays from doubly-strange hypernuclei puts a constraint on the H wavefunction which is plausibly satisfied. In this case the H is very long-lived as we calculate. An absolutely stable H is not excluded at present. SuperK can provide valuable limits

Clinical and molecular characterization of HER2 amplified-pancreatic cancer

<p>Background: Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal and molecularly diverse malignancies. Repurposing of therapeutics that target specific molecular mechanisms in different disease types offers potential for rapid improvements in outcome. Although HER2 amplification occurs in pancreatic cancer, it is inadequately characterized to exploit the potential of anti-HER2 therapies.</p> <p>Methods: HER2 amplification was detected and further analyzed using multiple genomic sequencing approaches. Standardized reference laboratory assays defined HER2 amplification in a large cohort of patients (n = 469) with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).</p> <p>Results: An amplified inversion event (1 MB) was identified at the HER2 locus in a patient with PDAC. Using standardized laboratory assays, we established diagnostic criteria for HER2 amplification in PDAC, and observed a prevalence of 2%. Clinically, HER2- amplified PDAC was characterized by a lack of liver metastases, and a preponderance of lung and brain metastases. Excluding breast and gastric cancer, the incidence of HER2-amplified cancers in the USA is >22,000 per annum.</p> <p>Conclusions: HER2 amplification occurs in 2% of PDAC, and has distinct features with implications for clinical practice. The molecular heterogeneity of PDAC implies that even an incidence of 2% represents an attractive target for anti-HER2 therapies, as options for PDAC are limited. Recruiting patients based on HER2 amplification, rather than organ of origin, could make trials of anti-HER2 therapies feasible in less common cancer types.</p&gt

Local Variational Principle

A generalization of the Gibbs-Bogoliubov-Feynman inequality for spinless particles is proven and then illustrated for the simple model of a symmetric double-well quartic potential. The method gives a pointwise lower bound for the finite-temperature density matrix and it can be systematically improved by the Trotter composition rule. It is also shown to produce groundstate energies better than the ones given by the Rayleigh-Ritz principle as applied to the groundstate eigenfunctions of the reference potentials. Based on this observation, it is argued that the Local Variational Principle performs better than the equivalent methods based on the centroid path idea and on the Gibbs-Bogoliubov-Feynman variational principle, especially in the range of low temperatures.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, one more section adde

Towards a formalism for mapping the spacetimes of massive compact objects: Bumpy black holes and their orbits

Observations have established that extremely compact, massive objects are common in the universe. It is generally accepted that these objects are black holes. As observations improve, it becomes possible to test this hypothesis in ever greater detail. In particular, it is or will be possible to measure the properties of orbits deep in the strong field of a black hole candidate (using x-ray timing or with gravitational-waves) and to test whether they have the characteristics of black hole orbits in general relativity. Such measurements can be used to map the spacetime of a massive compact object, testing whether the object's multipoles satisfy the strict constraints of the black hole hypothesis. Such a test requires that we compare against objects with the ``wrong'' multipole structure. In this paper, we present tools for constructing bumpy black holes: objects that are almost black holes, but that have some multipoles with the wrong value. The spacetimes which we present are good deep into the strong field of the object -- we do not use a large r expansion, except to make contact with weak field intuition. Also, our spacetimes reduce to the black hole spacetimes of general relativity when the ``bumpiness'' is set to zero. We propose bumpy black holes as the foundation for a null experiment: if black hole candidates are the black holes of general relativity, their bumpiness should be zero. By comparing orbits in a bumpy spacetime with those of an astrophysical source, observations should be able to test this hypothesis, stringently testing whether they are the black holes of general relativity. (Abridged)Comment: 16 pages + 2 appendices + 3 figures. Submitted to PR

Cooling Properties of Cloudy Bag Strange Stars

As the chiral symmetry is widely recognized as an important driver of the strong interaction dynamics, current strange stars models based on MIT bag models do not obey such symmetry. We investigate properties of bare strange stars using the Cloudy Bag Model, in which a pion cloud coupled to the quark-confining bag is introduced such that chiral symmetry is conserved. We find that in this model the decay of pions is a very efficient cooling way. In fact it can carry out most the thermal energy in a few milliseconds and directly convert them into 100MeV photons via pion decay. This may be a very efficient $\gamma$-ray burst mechanism. Furthermore, the cooling behavior may provide a possible way to distinguish a compact object between a neutron star, MIT strange star and Cloudy Bag strange star in observations.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physics, abstract appeared here has been shortene

Fractional conservation laws in optimal control theory

Using the recent formulation of Noether's theorem for the problems of the calculus of variations with fractional derivatives, the Lagrange multiplier technique, and the fractional Euler-Lagrange equations, we prove a Noether-like theorem to the more general context of the fractional optimal control. As a corollary, it follows that in the fractional case the autonomous Hamiltonian does not define anymore a conservation law. Instead, it is proved that the fractional conservation law adds to the Hamiltonian a new term which depends on the fractional-order of differentiation, the generalized momentum, and the fractional derivative of the state variable.Comment: The original publication is available at http://www.springerlink.com Nonlinear Dynamic