New Physics from High Energy Tops

Precision measurements of high energy top quarks at the LHC constitute a powerful probe of new physics. We study the effect of four fermion operators involving two tops and two light quarks on the high energy tail of the $t\bar t$ invariant mass distribution. We use existing measurements at a center of mass energy of 13 TeV, and state of the art calculations of the Standard Model contribution, to derive bounds on the coefficients of these operators. We estimate the projected reach of the LHC at higher luminosities and discuss the validity of these limits within the Effective Field Theory description. We find that current measurements constrain the mass scale of these operators to be larger than about 1-2 TeV, while we project that future LHC data will be sensitive to mass scales of about 3-4 TeV. We apply our bounds to constrain composite Higgs models with partial compositeness and models with approximate flavor symmetries. We find our limits to be most relevant to flavor non-universal models with a moderately large coupling of the heavy new physics states to third generation quarks.Comment: 13 pages, 2 appendices, 5 figures, references adde

Mosca de las riberas (Diptera: Ephydridae) asociadas a plantines de lechuga en invernaderos

Mosca de las riberas (Diptera: Ephydridae) asociadas a plantines de lechuga en invernaderosFil: Lietti, Marcela. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentin

Exponentially Light Dark Matter from Coannihilation

Dark matter may be a thermal relic whose abundance is set by mutual annihilations among multiple species. Traditionally, this coannihilation scenario has been applied to weak scale dark matter that is highly degenerate with other states. We show that coannihilation among states with split masses points to dark matter that is exponentially lighter than the weak scale, down to the keV scale. We highlight the regime where dark matter does not participate in the annihilations that dilute its number density. In this "sterile coannihilation" limit, the dark matter relic density is independent of its couplings, implying a broad parameter space of thermal relic targets for future experiments. Light dark matter from coannihilation evades stringent bounds from the cosmic microwave background, but will be tested by future direct detection, fixed target, and long-lived particle experiments.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figure

Astrometric Weak Lensing with Gaia DR3 and Future Catalogs: Searches for Dark Matter Substructure

Small-scale dark matter structures lighter than a billion solar masses are an important probe of primordial density fluctuations and dark matter microphysics. Due to their lack of starlight emission, their only guaranteed signatures are gravitational in nature. We report on results of a search for astrometric weak lensing by compact dark matter subhalos in the Milky Way with Gaia DR3 data. Using a matched-filter analysis to look for correlated imprints of time-domain lensing on the proper motions of background stars in the Magellanic Clouds, we exclude order-unity substructure fractions in halos with masses $M_{l}$ between $10^{7} \, M_{\odot}$ and $10^{9} \, M_{\odot}$ and sizes of one parsec or smaller. We forecast that a similar approach based on proper accelerations across the entire sky with data from Gaia DR4 may be sensitive to substructure fractions of $f_{l} \gtrsim 10^{-3}$ in the much lower mass range of $10 \, M_{\odot} \lesssim M_{l} \lesssim 3 \times 10^{3} \, M_{\odot}$. We further propose an analogous technique for stacked star-star lensing events in the regime of large impact parameters. Our first implementation is not yet sufficiently sensitive but serves as a useful diagnostic and calibration tool; future data releases should enable average stellar mass measurements using this stacking method.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

First Report of Diplodia seriata, Diplodia mutila, and Dothiorella omnivora Associated with Apple Cankers and Dieback in Rio Negro, Argentina

Apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) is an important fruit crop in Río Negro, Argentina. In recent years, the frequency of canker and dieback symptoms have increased affecting different apple cultivars. In September 2014, a higher occurrence of cankers (29%) and dieback (9%) was observed in a commercial orchard of 10-year-old apple trees (n=210) cv ʻItal Redʼ in General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina (39°2´36.73"S ? 67°32´44.55"W). Symptoms initially appeared as necrotic bark lesions on tree trunks and branches often associated with pruning wounds. Superficially, papyrus detachment of the bark and cracked bark were observed on the affected area. When the bark was removed, the diseased wood showed dark brown color. Cross sections of diseased branches revealed necrotic lesions that progress to branch death. Samples were collected from different symptomatic trees (n=30) and were superficially disinfected with 70% ethanol. Internal tissues (0.5 cm2) were excised from the advance margin of the necrotic lesions, plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA), and incubated at 22°C. Pycnidia were induced on sterilised pine needles overlaid on 2% water agar under near-UV light. Optimum temperature of culture growth on PDA was studied. According to their morpho-cultural characteristics, three different morphotypes were identified. The first, showed optimum growth at 30°C, had moderately dense white aerial mycelia and turned dark gray after 7 d. Conidia were ovoid, mostly aseptate, 20.8-25.6 × 8-11.4 µm (n=50) and hyaline to brown. The second, exhibited optimum growth from 25 to 30°C, was white to gray, with sparse to moderate aerial mycelium that turned dark olive green. Conidia were ovoid, 1-septate, 17.6-22.4 × 8.1-11.2 µm (n=50) and brown. Finally, the third showed optimum growth at 25°C, mycelium was grey to dark olive green. Conidia were oblong to ovoid with both ends rounded, aseptate and 1-septate at maturity, 20.8-24 × 11.2-14.4 µm (n=50), hyaline turned brown. Genomic DNA was extracted from one representative isolate of each morphotype and the ITS and EF1-α loci were amplified with the primer sets ITS1/ITS4 (White et al., 1990) and EF1-728F/EF1-986R (Carbone and Kohn, 1999), respectively. The nucleotide sequences indicated ≥99% identity to D. seriata (CBS 114796 and CBS 112555), D. mutila (CBS 302.36 and CBS 112553), and D. juglandis (CBS 188.87), reclassified as Dothiorella omnivora (Linaldeddu et al., 2016), for both DNA regions. The sequences were deposited in the GenBank database (MW596418, MW598375; MH665432, MK955889; MH665413, MK937229). To confirm pathogenicity, healthy 1-year-old twigs of adult apple trees were pruned and wounds of attached twigs immediately inoculated with 20 μL of conidial suspension (103 conidia.mL-1, n=9 per isolate) or sterile distilled water (control, n=9), and wrapped with Parafilm. The experimental design was randomized, and the experiment was repeated once. After 90 d, the area of lesion on all twigs inoculated was determined. D. mutila and Do. omnivora produced mean canker areas (65 and 73 mm2, respectively) significantly larger (p < 0.005) than D. seriata (48 mm2). No lesion occurred in the negative controls. Fulfilling Koch?s postulates, fungi were reisolated from all inoculated twigs and no fungus was recovered from controls. To our knowledge, this is the first report of D. seriata, D. mutila, and Do. omnivora associated with apple canker and dieback in Argentina, which shows the need of study the role of these fungi in orchard health.Fil: Lódolo, X. V.. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biotecnología Agropecuaria del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Lutz, M. C.. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biotecnología Agropecuaria del Comahue; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Centro de Investigaciones en Toxicología Ambiental y Agrobiotecnología del Comahue. Instituto de Biotecnología Agropecuaria del Comahue | Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Centro de Investigaciones en Toxicología Ambiental y Agrobiotecnología del Comahue. Instituto de Biotecnología Agropecuaria del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Mondino, P.. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Oussett, J.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Centro de Investigaciones en Toxicología Ambiental y Agrobiotecnología del Comahue. Instituto de Biotecnología Agropecuaria del Comahue | Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Centro de Investigaciones en Toxicología Ambiental y Agrobiotecnología del Comahue. Instituto de Biotecnología Agropecuaria del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Sosa, María Cristina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Cs.agrarias. Departamento de Biología Aplicada. Cátedra de Fitopatologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Centro de Investigaciones en Toxicología Ambiental y Agrobiotecnología del Comahue. Instituto de Biotecnología Agropecuaria del Comahue | Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Centro de Investigaciones en Toxicología Ambiental y Agrobiotecnología del Comahue. Instituto de Biotecnología Agropecuaria del Comahue; Argentin

Dark photon superradiance: Electrodynamics and multimessenger signals

We study the electrodynamics of a kinetically mixed dark photon cloud that forms through superradiance around a spinning black hole, and design strategies to search for the resulting multimessenger signals. A dark photon superradiance cloud sources a rotating dark electromagnetic field which, through kinetic mixing, induces a rotating visible electromagnetic field. Standard model charged particles entering this field initiate a transient phase of particle production that populates a plasma inside the cloud and leads to a system which shares qualitative features with a pulsar magnetosphere. We study the electrodynamics of the dark photon cloud with resistive magnetohydrodynamics methods applicable to highly magnetized plasma, adapting techniques from simulations of pulsar magnetospheres. We identify turbulent magnetic field reconnection as the main source of dissipation and electromagnetic emission, and compute the peak luminosity from clouds around solar-mass black holes to be as large as $10^{43}$ erg/s for open dark photon parameter space. The emission is expected to have a significant X-ray component and is potentially periodic, with period set by the dark photon mass. The luminosity is comparable to the brightest X-ray sources in the Universe, allowing for searches at distances of up to hundreds of Mpc with existing telescopes. We discuss observational strategies, including targeted electromagnetic follow-ups of solar-mass black hole mergers and targeted continuous gravitational wave searches of anomalous pulsars.Comment: 56 pages, 27 figures, updated to the journal versio

Características sensoriales y preferencia en cultivares de alcaucil (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus L.), producidos en el Cinturón Hortícola de Rosario, Argentina

El Cinturón Hortícola de Rosario (Argentina) tiene larga tradición en la producción de alcaucil. Actualmente se han incorporado distintas tecnologías para la producción, como el riego por goteo y el uso de materiales propagados por semillas, con características diferenciales en cuanto a forma, color, textura y sabor. Sin embargo, estas diferencias no son claramente identificadas por los consumidores quienes a menudo no tienen conocimiento de esta especie y su forma de consumo. El análisis sensorial permite encontrar los atributos de valor importantes para los consumidores. Este trabajo tuvo como objetivo determinar las características de calidad sensorial de los alcauciles producidos en el Cinturón Hortícola de Rosario y evaluar su preferencia por los consumidores locales. El trabajo se realizó con capítulos de alcauciles de los híbridos Opal y Madrigal (Nunhems) y de la variedad Romanesco (Francés), de reproducción asexual, cosechados durante septiembre y octubre de 2017. Para la evaluación sensorial se utilizó el método llamado CATA (check all that apply), participaron de la prueba 50 personas entre estudiantes y docentes de escuelas de cocina de Rosario. Los resultados se analizaron mediante estadística multivariada, aplicando la metodología de Análisis por Correspondencia (CA). Los datos se evaluaron mediante R-project. Los descriptores de forma (chato y compacto), de sabor (amargo y dulce) y de textura (fibrosa y tierna) fueron los elementos que diferenciaron las muestras. Romanesco fue el más dulce, tierno y compacto; a diferencia de Opal, que fue descripto como amargo y fibroso. Madrigal tuvo características intermedias entre ambos materiales. Respecto a la forma todos los capítulos fueron descriptos como ovoides y con sabor herbáceo. Romanesco obtuvo la mejor calificación al ser ponderado por los participantes, fue el preferido por el 48,6%, mientras que Madrigal y Opal obtuvieron el 27,0% y el 24,3% de las preferencias, respectivamente. En síntesis, Romanesco tiene consumidores que lo aprecian, aunque también tiene detractores; Madrigal es más homogéneo, al igual que Opal, pero este último tiene más apreciaciones negativas. El método CATA permitió obtener información sobre las características sensoriales de los tres materiales de alcaucil evaluados, diferenciándolos y asociándolos a una calificación hedónica de preferencia. Esto indica que esta nueva metodología del análisis sensorial permite aportar información preliminar sobre diversos alimentos. Los consumidores prefirieron alcauciles dulces y tiernos, particularidades logradas por Romanesco. Esta información permitirá orientar la producción para ofrecer materiales que reúnan estas características.The Horticultural Belt of Rosario (Argentina) has a long tradition in globe artichoke production. At present, different production technologies have been introduced, such as drip irrigation and seed propagated cultivars, with different characteristics in terms of shape, color, texture and taste. However, such differences are not clearly identified by consumers, who are often unaware of this species and its consumption mode. Sensorial analysis becomes a very useful tool, since it allows the identification of important value attributes for consumers. This work aimed to determine the sensory quality characteristics of artichokes produced in the Rosario Horticultural Belt, and to evaluate local consumer’s preferences. The work was carried out with globe artichoke heads of hybrids Opal and Madrigal, and the asexually propagated Romanesco (French) variety, harvested during September and October 2017. Check All That Apply (CATA) method was used for sensory evaluation. Fifty people participated in the test among students and teachers of culinary schools. Data were analyzed using multivariate statistics, applying the Correspondence Analysis (CA) methodology by R-project. The descriptors of shape “flat” and “compact”, of taste “bitter” and “sweet” and of texture “fibrous” and “tender” were the terms that differentiated the samples. Romanesco and Madrigal were described as the sweetest, most tender and most compact, unlike Opal, described as the bitterest and most fibrous. Madrigal had intermediate. Regarding shape, all were described as ovoid and with herbs aroma. Romanesco obtained the best rating. It was preferred by 48.6%, while Madrigal and Opal obtained 27.0% and 24.3% of preferences, respectively. In short, Romanesco has consumers who appreciate it but it also has detractors; Madrigal is more homogenous, and Opal has the most negative comments. Participants preferred tender and sweet artichokes, characteristics offered by Romanesco. The CATA allowed obtaining information about the sensorial characteristics of the three evaluated globe artichoke cultivars, differentiating and associating them with consumer preferences. It proved to be an important tool for consumer market research. This information will guide the production strategies to offer cultivars that meet these characteristics.EEA OliverosFil: Gatti, María Bernardita. Universidad del Centro Educativo Latinoamericano; ArgentinaFil: Mondino, Maria Cristina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Oliveros. Agencia de Extensión Rural Arroyo Seco; Argentina.Fil: García, Stella Maris. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Cátedra de Sistemas de Cultivos Intensivos; ArgentinaFil: Ciappini, María Cristina. Universidad del Centro Educativo Latinoamericano; Argentin

FasR regulates fatty acid biosynthesis and is essential for virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiologic agent of human tuberculosis, is the world’s leading cause of death from an infectious disease. One of the main features of this pathogen is the complex and dynamic lipid composition of the cell envelope, which adapts to the variable host environment and defines the fate of infection by actively interacting with and modulating immune responses. However, while much has been learned about the enzymes of the numerous lipid pathways, little knowledge is available regarding the proteins and metabolic signals regulating lipid metabolism during M. tuberculosis infection. In this work, we constructed and characterized a FasR-deficient mutant in M. tuberculosis and demonstrated that FasR positively regulates fas and acpS expression. Lipidomic analysis of the wild type and mutant strains revealed complete rearrangement of most lipid components of the cell envelope, with phospholipids, mycolic acids, sulfolipids, and phthiocerol dimycocerosates relative abundance severely altered. As a consequence, replication of the mutant strain was impaired in macrophages leading to reduced virulence in a mouse model of infection. Moreover, we show that the fasR mutant resides in acidified cellular compartments, suggesting that the lipid perturbation caused by the mutation prevented M. tuberculosis inhibition of phagolysosome maturation. This study identified FasR as a novel factor involved in regulation of mycobacterial virulence and provides evidence for the essential role that modulation of lipid homeostasis plays in the outcome of M. tuberculosis infection.Instituto de BiotecnologíaFil: Mondino, Sonia. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Actinomycetes; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Cristina Lourdes. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Cabruja, Matias. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Actinomycetes; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Sala, Claudia. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Global Health Institute; SuizaFil: Cazenave-Gassiot, Amaury. National University of Singapore. Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Department of Biochemistry. Singapore Lipidomics Incubator; SingapurFil: Blanco, Federico Carlos. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Wenk, Markus R. National University of Singapore. Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Department of Biochemistry. Singapore Lipidomics Incubator; SingapurFil: Bigi, Fabiana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Cole, Stewart T. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Global Health Institute; SuizaFil: Gramajo, Hugo. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Actinomycetes; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gago, Gabriela. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Actinomycetes; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin