N-body Efimov states from two-particle noise

The ground state energies of universal N-body clusters tied to Efimov trimers, for N even, are shown to be encapsulated in the statistical distribution of two particles interacting with a background auxiliary field at large Euclidean time when the interaction is tuned to the unitary point. Numerical evidence that this distribution is log-normal is presented, allowing one to predict the ground-state energies of the N-body system.Comment: Extended discussion of results; published versio

A Tidally-Disrupted Asteroid Around the White Dwarf G29-38

The infrared excess around the white dwarf G29-38 can be explained by emission from an opaque flat ring of dust with an inner radius 0.14 of the radius of the Sun and an outer radius approximately equal to the Sun's. This ring lies within the Roche region of the white dwarf where an asteroid could have been tidally destroyed, producing a system reminiscent of Saturn's rings. Accretion onto the white dwarf from this circumstellar dust can explain the observed calcium abundance in the atmosphere of G29-38. Either as a bombardment by a series of asteroids or because of one large disruption, the total amount of matter accreted onto the white dwarf may have been comparable to the total mass of asteroids in the Solar System, or, equivalently, about 1% of the mass in the asteroid belt around the main sequence star zeta Lep.Comment: ApJ Letters, in pres

Mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle contraction and the basis for pharmacologic treatment of smooth muscle disorders

The smooth muscle cell directly drives the contraction of the vascular wall and hence regulates the size of the blood vessel lumen. We review here the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which agonists, therapeutics, and diseases regulate contractility of the vascular smooth muscle cell and we place this within the context of whole body function. We also discuss the implications for personalized medicine and highlight specific potential target molecules that may provide opportunities for the future development of new therapeutics to regulate vascular function.Accepted manuscrip

Local ecosystem feedbacks and critical transitions in the climate

Global and regional climate models, such as those used in IPCC assessments, are the best tools available for climate predictions. Such models typically account for large-scale land-atmosphere feedbacks. However, these models omit local vegetationenvironment 5 feedbacks that are crucial for critical transitions in ecosystems. Here, we reveal the hypothesis that, if the balance of feedbacks is positive at all scales, local vegetation-environment feedbacks may trigger a cascade of amplifying effects, propagating from local to large scale, possibly leading to critical transitions in the largescale climate. We call for linking local ecosystem feedbacks with large-scale land10 atmosphere feedbacks in global and regional climate models in order to yield climate predictions that we are more confident about

Critical behavior of repulsive linear kk-mers on triangular lattices

Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and finite-size scaling analysis have been carried out to study the critical behavior in a submonolayer two-dimensional gas of repulsive linear $k$-mers on a triangular lattice at coverage $k/(2k+1)$. A low-temperature ordered phase, characterized by a repetition of alternating files of adsorbed $k$-mers separated by $k+1$ adjacent empty sites, is separated from the disordered state by a order-disorder phase transition occurring at a finite critical temperature, $T_c$. The MC technique was combined with the recently reported Free Energy Minimization Criterion Approach (FEMCA), [F. Rom\'a et al., Phys. Rev. B, 68, 205407, (2003)], to predict the dependence of the critical temperature of the order-disorder transformation. The dependence on $k$ of the transition temperature, $T_c(k)$, observed in MC is in qualitative agreement with FEMCA. In addition, an accurate determination of the critical exponents has been obtained for adsorbate sizes ranging between $k=1$ and $k=3$. For $k>1$, the results reveal that the system does not belong to the universality class of the two-dimensional Potts model with $q=3$ ($k=1$, monomers). Based on symmetry concepts, we suggested that the behavior observed for $k=1, 2$ and 3 could be generalized to include larger particle sizes ($k \geq 2$).Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure

Amplitude dependent frequency, desynchronization, and stabilization in noisy metapopulation dynamics

The enigmatic stability of population oscillations within ecological systems is analyzed. The underlying mechanism is presented in the framework of two interacting species free to migrate between two spatial patches. It is shown that that the combined effects of migration and noise cannot account for the stabilization. The missing ingredient is the dependence of the oscillations' frequency upon their amplitude; with that, noise-induced differences between patches are amplified due to the frequency gradient. Migration among desynchronized regions then stabilizes a "soft" limit cycle in the vicinity of the homogenous manifold. A simple model of diffusively coupled oscillators allows the derivation of quantitative results, like the functional dependence of the desynchronization upon diffusion strength and frequency differences. The oscillations' amplitude is shown to be (almost) noise independent. The results are compared with a numerical integration of the marginally stable Lotka-Volterra equations. An unstable system is extinction-prone for small noise, but stabilizes at larger noise intensity