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A Status Report On A Planet Search Around White Dwarf Stars
We have continued monitoring a pilot sample of 15 isolated, pulsating DA white dwarfs for center-of-mass motion caused by a planetary companion. Roughly 7 years into our survey, we have preliminary evidence for periodic variations in pulse arrival times for at least two white dwarfs in our sample. The variations in these systems are unlikely to be caused by secular evolution and are possibly the result of motion of the white dwarf around a center of mass. We have yet to claim confirmation of a planet. GD66 is a previously published candidate system, with a modulation in pulse arrival times that could be caused by a 2.0 M-J sin i planetary companion with an 8.3 year orbital period. Another candidate system, WD1354+0108, has a phase modulation consistent with a 0.7 M-J sin i planet at 2.3 AU (a 4.5 year orbit). We see similar behavior in two independent frequencies within this star, and while a sinusoid is currently a marginally better fit to the data than a straight line (as we might expect from cooling alone in a DAV), we are hesitant to over-interpret our results. Finally, we have a third system, WD0018+0031, that shows a change in pulse arrival times inconsistent with cooling alone; a 2.7 M-J planet at an orbit of about 5 AU could cause the observed trend. Observations of these candidate systems are ongoing in order to constrain any planetary companions that may be present.Astronom
What if Supersymmetry Breaking Unifies beyond the GUT Scale?
We study models in which soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters of the MSSM
become universal at some unification scale, , above the GUT scale,
\mgut. We assume that the scalar masses and gaugino masses have common
values, and respectively, at . We use the
renormalization-group equations of the minimal supersymmetric SU(5) GUT to
evaluate their evolutions down to \mgut, studying their dependences on the
unknown parameters of the SU(5) superpotential. After displaying some generic
examples of the evolutions of the soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters, we
discuss the effects on physical sparticle masses in some specific examples. We
note, for example, that near-degeneracy between the lightest neutralino and the
lighter stau is progressively disfavoured as increases. This has the
consequence, as we show in planes for several different values
of , that the stau coannihilation region shrinks as
increases, and we delineate the regions of the plane
where it is absent altogether. Moreover, as increases, the focus-point
region recedes to larger values of for any fixed and
. We conclude that the regions of the plane that are
commonly favoured in phenomenological analyses tend to disappear at large
.Comment: 24 pages with 11 eps figures; references added, some figures
corrected, discussion extended and figure added; version to appear in EPJ
Are the average gait speeds during the 10 meter and 6 minute walk tests redundant in Parkinson disease?
Published in final edited form as:
Gait Posture. 2017 February ; 52: 178–182. doi:10.1016/j.gaitpost.2016.11.033.We investigated the relationships between average gait speed collected with the 10Meter Walk Test (Comfortable and Fast) and 6Minute Walk Test (6MWT) in 346 people with Parkinson disease (PD) and how the relationships change with increasing disease severity. Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses determined relationships between 10Meter Walk Test and 6MWT gait speed values for the entire sample and for sub-samples stratified by Hoehn & Yahr (H&Y) stage I (n=53), II (n=141), III (n=135) and IV (n=17). We hypothesized that redundant tests would be highly and significantly correlated (i.e. r>0.70, p<0.05) and would have a linear regression model slope of 1 and intercept of 0. For the entire sample, 6MWT gait speed was significantly (p<0.001) related to the Comfortable 10 Meter Walk Test (r=0.75) and Fast 10Meter Walk Test (r=0.79) gait speed, with 56% and 62% of the variance in 6MWT gait speed explained, respectively. The regression model of 6MWT gait speed predicted by Comfortable 10 Meter Walk gait speed produced slope and intercept values near 1 and 0, respectively, especially for participants in H&Y stages II-IV. In contrast, slope and intercept values were further from 1 and 0, respectively, for the Fast 10Meter Walk Test. Comfortable 10 Meter Walk Test and 6MWT gait speeds appeared to be redundant in people with moderate to severe PD, suggesting the Comfortable 10 Meter Walk Test can be used to estimate 6MWT distance in this population.This study was funded by the Davis Phinney Foundation, the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health (R01 NS077959, K12 HD055931, UL1 TR000448). The funding sources had no input related to study design, data collection, or decision to submit for publication. (Davis Phinney Foundation; Parkinson's Disease Foundation; R01 NS077959 - National Institutes of Health; K12 HD055931 - National Institutes of Health; UL1 TR000448 - National Institutes of Health
Colliders and Cosmology
Dark matter in variations of constrained minimal supersymmetric standard
models will be discussed. Particular attention will be given to the comparison
between accelerator and direct detection constraints.Comment: Submitted for the SUSY07 proceedings, 15 pages, LaTex, 26 eps figure
QSO clustering and the AAT 2dF redshift survey
We review previous results on the clustering and environments of QSOs. We
show that the correlation length for QSOs derived from existing surveys is
r~5/h Mpc, similar to the observed correlation length for field galaxies at the
present epoch. The galaxy environment for z<1 radio-quiet QSOs is also
consistent with field galaxies. The evolution of the QSO correlation length
with redshift is currently uncertain, largely due to the small numbers of QSOs
(~2000) in surveys suitable for clustering analysis. We report on intial
progress with the AAT 2dF QSO redshift survey, which, once completed will
comprise almost 30000 QSOs. With over 1000 QSOs already observed, it is already
the largest single homogeneous QSO survey. We discuss prospects for deriving
limits on cosmological parameters from this survey, and on the evolution of
large-scale structure in the Universe.Comment: Invited talk at RS meeting on 'Large Scale Structure in the Universe'
held at the Royal Society on 25-26 March 1998 14 pages, 11 figre
Constrained Supersymmetric Flipped SU(5) GUT Phenomenology
We explore the phenomenology of the minimal supersymmetric flipped SU(5) GUT
model (CFSU(5)), whose soft supersymmetry-breaking (SSB) mass parameters are
constrained to be universal at some input scale, , above the GUT scale,
. We analyze the parameter space of CFSU(5) assuming that the lightest
supersymmetric particle (LSP) provides the cosmological cold dark matter,
paying careful attention to the matching of parameters at the GUT scale. We
first display some specific examples of the evolutions of the SSB parameters
that exhibit some generic features. Specifically, we note that the relationship
between the masses of the lightest neutralino and the lighter stau is sensitive
to , as is the relationship between the neutralino mass and the masses
of the heavier Higgs bosons. For these reasons, prominent features in generic
planes such as coannihilation strips and rapid-annihilation
funnels are also sensitive to , as we illustrate for several cases with
tan(beta)=10 and 55. However, these features do not necessarily disappear at
large , unlike the case in the minimal conventional SU(5) GUT. Our
results are relatively insensitive to neutrino masses.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; (v2) added explanations and corrected typos,
version to appear in EPJ
Gravitino Dark Matter Scenarios with Massive Metastable Charged Sparticles at the LHC
We investigate the measurement of supersymmetric particle masses at the LHC
in gravitino dark matter (GDM) scenarios where the next-to-lightest
supersymmetric partner (NLSP) is the lighter scalar tau, or stau, and is stable
on the scale of a detector. Such a massive metastable charged sparticle would
have distinctive Time-of-Flight (ToF) and energy-loss () signatures. We
summarise the documented accuracies expected to be achievable with the ATLAS
detector in measurements of the stau mass and its momentum at the LHC. We then
use a fast simulation of an LHC detector to demonstrate techniques for
reconstructing the cascade decays of supersymmetric particles in GDM scenarios,
using a parameterisation of the detector response to staus, taus and jets based
on full simulation results. Supersymmetric pair-production events are selected
with high redundancy and efficiency, and many valuable measurements can be made
starting from stau tracks in the detector. We recalibrate the momenta of taus
using transverse-momentum balance, and use kinematic cuts to select
combinations of staus, taus, jets and leptons that exhibit peaks in invariant
masses that correspond to various heavier sparticle species, with errors often
comparable with the jet energy scale uncertainty.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, updated to version published in JHE
BEHAVIOR OF SANDHILL CRANES HARNESSED WITH DIFFERENT SATELLITE TRANSMITTERS
The effectiveness of various attachment methods and designs of platform transmitting terminals (PIT\u27s) was tested on captive sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland, during 1989-91. Combinations of attachment and transmitter designs included neoprene cord harness with batteries separate from the transmitter (2 harness designs), Teflon ribbon harness with batteries incorporated into the transmitter package (4 transmitter models), and a package attached directly to the bird with epoxy glue only. Physical effects seen on cranes wearing PTT\u27s ranged from skin lacerations (caused by rubbing of harness material) to no observed effects (other than feather wear). The most successful harness material and design utilized a Teflon ribbon harness with the 4 ribbon ends from the transmitter forming a neck loop and a body loop joined at the sternum. Time spent by sandhill cranes performing most activities did not change after transmitter attachment using this harness method
Classification of phase transitions and ensemble inequivalence, in systems with long range interactions
Systems with long range interactions in general are not additive, which can
lead to an inequivalence of the microcanonical and canonical ensembles. The
microcanonical ensemble may show richer behavior than the canonical one,
including negative specific heats and other non-common behaviors. We propose a
classification of microcanonical phase transitions, of their link to canonical
ones, and of the possible situations of ensemble inequivalence. We discuss
previously observed phase transitions and inequivalence in self-gravitating,
two-dimensional fluid dynamics and non-neutral plasmas. We note a number of
generic situations that have not yet been observed in such systems.Comment: 42 pages, 11 figures. Accepted in Journal of Statistical Physics.
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