A hermeneutic inquiry into user-created personas in different Namibian locales

Persona is a tool broadly used in technology design to support communicational interactions between designers and users. Different Persona types and methods have evolved mostly in the Global North, and been partially deployed in the Global South every so often in its original User-Centred Design methodology. We postulate persona conceptualizations are expected to differ across cultures. We demonstrate this with an exploratory-case study on user-created persona co-designed with four Namibian ethnic groups: ovaHerero, Ovambo, ovaHimba and Khoisan. We follow a hermeneutic inquiry approach to discern cultural nuances from diverse human conducts. Findings reveal diverse self-representations whereby for each ethnic group results emerge in unalike fashions, viewpoints, recounts and storylines. This paper ultimately argues User-Created Persona as a potentially valid approach for pursuing cross-cultural depictions of personas that communicate cultural features and user experiences paramount to designing acceptable and gratifying technologies in dissimilar locales

Correcting low-frequency noise with continuous measurement

Low-frequency noise presents a serious source of decoherence in solid-state qubits. When combined with a continuous weak measurement of the eigenstates, the low-frequency noise induces a second-order relaxation between the qubit states. Here we show that the relaxation provides a unique approach to calibrate the low-frequency noise in the time-domain. By encoding one qubit with two physical qubits that are alternatively calibrated, quantum logic gates with high fidelity can be performed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, submitte

DsJD_{sJ}(2317) meson production at RHIC

Production of $D_{sJ}$(2317) mesons in relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC is studied. Using the quark coalescence model, we first determine the initial number of $D_{sJ}$(2317) mesons produced during hadronization of created quark-gluon plasma. The predicted $D_{sJ}$(2317) abundance depends sensitively on the quark structure of the $D_{sJ}$(2317) meson. An order-of-magnitude larger yield is obtained for a conventional two-quark than for an exotic four-quark $D_{sJ}$(2317) meson. To include the hadronic effect on the $D_{sJ}$(2317) meson yield, we have evaluated the absorption cross sections of the $D_{sJ}$(2317) meson by pion, rho, anti-kaon, and vector anti-kaon in a phenomenological hadronic model. Taking into consideration the absorption and production of $D_{sJ}$(2317) mesons during the hadronic stage of heavy ion collisions via a kinetic model, we find that the final yield of $D_{sJ}$(2317) mesons remains sensitive to its initial number produced from the quark-gluon plasma, providing thus the possibility of studying the quark structure of the $D_{sJ}$(2317) meson and its production mechanism in relativistic heavy ion collisions.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Generalized dual symmetry of nonabelian theories, monopoles and dyons

In the present talk we present an investigation of nonabelian SU(N) gauge theories, describing a system of fields with non--dual g and dual \tilde g charges and revealing the generalized dual symmetry. The Zwanziger type action is suggested. The renormalization group equations for pure nonabelian theories, in particular for pure SU(3)\times\widetilde{SU(3)} gauge theory (as an example) are analysed. We consider not only monopoles, but also dyons. The behaviour of the QCD total beta--function is investigated. It was shown that this beta--function is antisymmetric under the interchange \alpha\leftrightarrow\frac 1\alpha (here \alpha\equiv\alpha_s), and has zero ("fixed point") at \alpha = 1. Monopoles, or dyons, are responsible for the phase transition. Considering critical points at \alpha_1\approx 0.4 and \alpha_2\approx 2.5, we give an explanation of the freezing of \alpha_s.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, Presented at the 12th Lomonosov Conference on Elementary Particle Physics, Moscow State University, Moscow, 25-31 August, 200

The Fundamental-Weak Scale Hierarchy in the Standard Model

The multiple point principle, according to which several vacuum states with the same energy density exist, is put forward as a fine-tuning mechanism predicting the ratio between the fundamental and electroweak scales in the Standard Model (SM). It is shown that this ratio is exponentially huge: $\sim e^{40}$. Using renormalisation group equations for the SM, we obtain the effective potential in the 2-loop approximation and investigate the existence of its postulated second minimum at the fundamental scale. The investigation of the evolution of the top quark Yukawa coupling constant in the 2-loop approximation shows that, with initial values of the top Yukawa coupling in the interval $h(M_t)=0.95\pm 0.03$ (here $M_t$ is the top quark pole mass), a second minimum of the SM effective potential can exist in the region $\phi_{min2}\approx 10^{16}-10^{22}$ GeV. A prediction is made of the existence of a new bound state of 6 top quarks and 6 anti-top quarks, formed due to Higgs boson exchanges between pairs of quarks/anti-quarks. This bound state is supposed to condense in a new phase of the SM vacuum. This gives rise to the possibility of having a phase transition between vacua with and without such a condensate. The existence of three vacuum states (new, electroweak and fundamental) solves the hierarchy problem in the SM.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures; to be published in Phys. Atom. Nuc

Diphoton decay of the Higgs boson and new bound states of top and anti-top quarks

We consider the constraints, provided by the LHC results on Higgs boson decay into 2 photons and its production via gluon fusion, on the previously proposed Standard Model (SM) strongly bound state $S$ of 6 top quarks and 6 anti-top quarks. A correlation is predicted between the ratios $\kappa_{\gamma}$ and $\kappa_g$ of the Higgs diphoton decay and gluon production amplitudes respectively to their SM values. We estimate the contribution to these amplitudes from one loop diagrams involving the 12 quark bound state $S$ and related excited states using an atomic physics based model. We find two regions of parameter space consistent with the ATLAS and CMS data on ($\kappa_{\gamma}$, $\kappa_g$) at the 3 sigma level: a region close to the SM values ($\kappa_{\gamma}=1$, $\kappa_g =1$) with the mass of the bound state $m_S > 400$ GeV and a region with ($\kappa_{\gamma} \sim 3/2$, $\kappa_g \sim -3/4$) corresponding to a bound state mass of $m_S \sim 220$ GeV.Comment: 27 pages and 4 figure

F(750), We Miss You as a Bound State of 6 Top and 6 Antitop Quarks, Multiple Point Principle

We review our speculation, that in the pure Standard Model the exchange of Higgses, including also the ones "eaten by $W^{\pm}$ and Z", and of gluons together make a bound state of 6 top plus 6 anti top quarks bind so strongly that its mass gets down to about 1/3 of the mass of the collective mass 12 $m_t$ of the 12 constituent quarks. The true importance of this speculated bound state is that it makes it possible to uphold, even inside the Standard Mode, our proposal for what is really a new law of nature saying that there are several phases of empty space, vacua, all having very small energy densities (of the order of the present energy density in the universe). The reason suggested for believing in this new law called the "Multiple (Criticality) Point Principle" is, that estimating the mass of the speculated bound state using the "Multiple Point Principle" leads to two consistent mass-values; and they even agree with a crude bag-model like estimate of the mass of this bound state. Very, unfortunately, the statistical fluctuation so popular last year, when interpreted as the digamma resonance F(750), turned out not to be a real resonance, because our estimated bound state mass is just around the mass of 750 GeV.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, Corfu Summer Institute 2016 "School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity", 31 August - 23 September, 2016, Corfu, Greec