278 research outputs found
Lorentz violation effects in asymmetric two brane models: a nonperturbative analysis
We consider the case of bulk photons in a Lorentz violating brane background,
with an asymmetric warping between space and time warp factors. A perturbative
analysis, in a previous work, gave an energy dependent phase (or group)
velocity of light: ,
which was derived up to second order of time independent perturbation theory.
In this paper, we go beyond the perturbative result and we study the
nonperturbative behavior of the phase velocity for larger energies, by solving
numerically an eigenvalue problem for the wave function of the zero mode (4D
photon). In particular we see that is in general a
monotonically decreasing function which tends asymptotically to a final value
. We compare with the results of perturbation theory and we
obtain a very good agreement in the range of small energies. We also present a
wave function analysis and we see that in the nonperturbative sector of the
theory (very high energies), the zero mode and the massive KK modes tend to
decouple from matter localized on the TeV brane.Comment: 19 pages, 9 eps figure
Associations of maternal and paternal blood pressure patterns and hypertensive disorders during pregnancy with childhood blood pressure
Background-Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy may affect the cardiovascular risk of offspring. We examined the associations of maternal blood pressure throughout pregnancy and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy with childhood blood pressure of offspring. Specific focus was on the comparison with paternal blood pressure effects, the identification of critical periods, and the role of birth outcomes and childhood body mass index in the observed associations. Methods and Results-This study was embedded in a population-based prospective cohort study among 5310 mothers and fathers and their children. We measured maternal blood pressure in each trimester of pregnancy and paternal blood pressure once. Information about hypertensive disorders in pregnancy was obtained from medical records. We measured childhood blood pressure at the median age of 6.0 years (95% range 5.7-8.0 years). Both maternal and paternal blood pressure were positively associated with childhood blood pressure (all P < 0.05), with similar effect estimates. Conditional regression analyses showed that early, mid-, and late-pregnancy maternal blood pressure levels were all independent and positively associated with childhood blood pressure, with the strongest effect estimates for early pregnancy. Compared with children of mothers without hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, children of mothers with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy had higher diastolic blood pressure by a standard deviation score of 0.13 (95% CI 0.05-0.21). The observed associations were not materially affected by birth outcomes and childhood body mass index. Conclusions-Both maternal and paternal blood pressure affects childhood blood pressure, independent of fetal and childhood growth measures, with the strongest effect of maternal blood pressure in early pregnancy
Derivation of a Vacuum Refractive Index in a Stringy Space-Time Foam Model
It has been suggested that energetic photons propagating in vacuo should
experience a non-trivial refractive index due to the foamy structure of
space-time induced by quantum-gravitational fluctuations. The sensitivity of
recent astrophysical observations, particularly of AGN Mk501 by the MAGIC
Collaboration, approaches the Planck scale for a refractive index depending
linearly on the photon energy. We present here a new derivation of this
quantum-gravitational vacuum refraction index, based on a stringy analogue of
the interaction of a photon with internal degrees of freedom in a conventional
medium. We model the space-time foam as a gas of D-particles in the bulk
space-time of a higher-dimensional cosmology where the observable Universe is a
D3-brane. The interaction of an open string representing a photon with a
D-particle stretches and excites the string, which subsequently decays and
re-emits the photon with a time delay that increases linearly with the photon
energy and is related to stringy uncertainty principles. We relate this
derivation to other descriptions of the quantum-gravitational refractive index
in vacuo.Comment: 8 pages, 3 eps figure
Hybridization-induced superconductivity from the electron repulsion on a tetramer lattice having a disconnected Fermi surface
Plaquette lattices with each unit cell containing multiple atoms are good
candidates for disconnected Fermi surfaces, which are shown by Kuroki and Arita
to be favorable for spin-flucutation mediated superconductivity from electron
repulsion. Here we find an interesting example in a tetramer lattice where the
structure within each unit cell dominates the nodal structure of the gap
function. We trace its reason to the way in which a Cooper pair is formed
across the hybridized molecular orbitals, where we still end up with a T_c much
higher than usual.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Probing a Possible Vacuum Refractive Index with Gamma-Ray Telescopes
We have used a stringy model of quantum space-time foam to suggest that the
vacuum may exhibit a non-trivial refractive index depending linearly on
gamma-ray energy: eta -1 ~ E_gamma/M_QG1, where M_QG1 is some mass scale
typical of quantum gravity that may be ~ 10^18 GeV: see Phys. Lett. B 665, 412
(2008) and references therein. The MAGIC, HESS and Fermi gamma-ray telescopes
have recently probed the possible existence of such an energy-dependent vacuum
refractive index. All find indications of time-lags for higher-energy photons,
but cannot exclude the possibility that they are due to intrinsic delays at the
sources. However, the MAGIC and HESS observations of time-lags in emissions
from AGNs Mkn 501 and PKS 2155-304 are compatible with each other and a
refractive index depending linearly on the gamma-ray energy, with M_QG1 ~ 10^18
GeV. We combine their results to estimate the time-lag Delta t to be expected
for the highest-energy photon from GRB 080916c measured by the Fermi telescope,
which has an energy ~ 13.2 GeV, assuming the redshift z = 4.2 \pm 0.3 measured
by GROND. In the case of a refractive index depending linearly on the gamma-ray
energy we predict Delta t = 25 \pm 11 s. This is compatible with the time-lag
Delta t <= 16.5 s reported by the Fermi Collaboration, whereas the time-lag
would be negligible in the case of a refractive index depending quadratically
on the gamma-ray energy. We suggest a strategy for future observations that
could distinguish between a quantum-gravitational effect and other
interpretations of the time-lags observed by the MAGIC, HESS and Fermi
gamma-ray telescopes.Comment: 6 pages, Addendum to `Derivation of a Vacuum Refractive Index in a
Stringy Space-Time Foam Model', Phys. Lett. B 665, 412 (2008
Particle Acceleration in Cosmic Sites - Astrophysics Issues in our Understanding of Cosmic Rays
Laboratory experiments to explore plasma conditions and stimulated particle
acceleration can illuminate aspects of the cosmic particle acceleration
process. Here we discuss the cosmic-ray candidate source object variety, and
what has been learned about their particle-acceleration characteristics. We
identify open issues as discussed among astrophysicists. -- The cosmic ray
differential intensity spectrum is a rather smooth power-law spectrum, with two
kinks at the "knee" (~10^15 eV) and at the "ankle" (~3 10^18 eV). It is unclear
if these kinks are related to boundaries between different dominating sources,
or rather related to characteristics of cosmic-ray propagation. We believe that
Galactic sources dominate up to 10^17 eV or even above, and the extragalactic
origin of cosmic rays at highest energies merges rather smoothly with Galactic
contributions throughout the 10^15--10^18 eV range. Pulsars and supernova
remnants are among the prime candidates for Galactic cosmic-ray production,
while nuclei of active galaxies are considered best candidates to produce
ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays of extragalactic origin. Acceleration processes
are related to shocks from violent ejections of matter from energetic sources
such as supernova explosions or matter accretion onto black holes. Details of
such acceleration are difficult, as relativistic particles modify the structure
of the shock, and simple approximations or perturbation calculations are
unsatisfactory. This is where laboratory plasma experiments are expected to
contribute, to enlighten the non-linear processes which occur under such
conditions.Comment: accepted for publication in EPJD, topical issue on Fundamental
physics and ultra-high laser fields. From review talk at "Extreme Light
Infrastructure" workshop, Sep 2008. Version-2 May 2009: adjust some wordings
and references at EPJD proofs stag
Probing quantum gravity using photons from a flare of the active galactic nucleus Markarian 501 observed by the MAGIC telescope
We analyze the timing of photons observed by the MAGIC telescope during a
flare of the active galactic nucleus Mkn 501 for a possible correlation with
energy, as suggested by some models of quantum gravity (QG), which predict a
vacuum refractive index \simeq 1 + (E/M_{QGn})^n, n = 1,2. Parametrizing the
delay between gamma-rays of different energies as \Delta t =\pm\tau_l E or
\Delta t =\pm\tau_q E^2, we find \tau_l=(0.030\pm0.012) s/GeV at the 2.5-sigma
level, and \tau_q=(3.71\pm2.57)x10^{-6} s/GeV^2, respectively. We use these
results to establish lower limits M_{QG1} > 0.21x10^{18} GeV and M_{QG2} >
0.26x10^{11} GeV at the 95% C.L. Monte Carlo studies confirm the MAGIC
sensitivity to propagation effects at these levels. Thermal plasma effects in
the source are negligible, but we cannot exclude the importance of some other
source effect.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, Phys. Lett. B, reflects published versio
Epidemic centrality - is there an underestimated epidemic impact of network peripheral nodes?
In the study of disease spreading on empirical complex networks in SIR model,
initially infected nodes can be ranked according to some measure of their
epidemic impact. The highest ranked nodes, also referred to as
"superspreaders", are associated to dominant epidemic risks and therefore
deserve special attention. In simulations on studied empirical complex
networks, it is shown that the ranking depends on the dynamical regime of the
disease spreading. A possible mechanism leading to this dependence is
illustrated in an analytically tractable example. In systems where the
allocation of resources to counter disease spreading to individual nodes is
based on their ranking, the dynamical regime of disease spreading is frequently
not known before the outbreak of the disease. Therefore, we introduce a
quantity called epidemic centrality as an average over all relevant regimes of
disease spreading as a basis of the ranking. A recently introduced concept of
phase diagram of epidemic spreading is used as a framework in which several
types of averaging are studied. The epidemic centrality is compared to
structural properties of nodes such as node degree, k-cores and betweenness.
There is a growing trend of epidemic centrality with degree and k-cores values,
but the variation of epidemic centrality is much smaller than the variation of
degree or k-cores value. It is found that the epidemic centrality of the
structurally peripheral nodes is of the same order of magnitude as the epidemic
centrality of the structurally central nodes. The implications of these
findings for the distributions of resources to counter disease spreading are
discussed
Predictions of total and total reaction cross sections for nucleon-nucleus scattering up to 300 MeV
Total reaction cross sections are predicted for nucleons scattering from various nuclei. Projectile energies to 300 MeV are considered. So also are mass variations of those cross sections at selected energies. All predictions have been obtained from coordinate space optical potentials formed by full folding effective two-nucleon (NN) interactions with one body density matrix elements (OBDME) of the nuclear ground states. Good comparisons with data result when effective NN interactions defined by medium modification of free NN t matrices are used. Coupled with analyses of differential cross sections, these results are sensitive to details of the model ground states used to describe nuclei
Novel Genetic Variants for Cartilage Thickness and Hip Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is one of the most frequent and disabling diseases of the elderly. Only few genetic variants have been identified for osteoarthritis, which is partly due to large phenotype heterogeneity. To reduce heterogeneity, we here examined cartilage thickness, one of the structural components of joint health. We conducted a genome-wide association study of minimal joint space width (mJSW), a proxy for cartilage thickness, in a discovery set of 13,013 participants from five different cohorts and replication in 8,227 individuals from seven independent cohorts. We identified five genome-wide significant (GWS, Pâ€5·0Ă10â8) SNPs annotated to four distinct loci. In addition, we found two additional loci that were significantly replicated, but results of combined meta-analysis fell just below the genome wide significance threshold. The four novel associated genetic loci were located in/near TGFA (rs2862851), PIK3R1 (rs10471753), SLBP/FGFR3 (rs2236995), and TREH/DDX6 (rs49654
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