Fixed Charge Ensembles and Parity Breaking Terms

Recently derived results for the exact induced parity-breaking term in 2+1 dimensions at finite temperature are shown to be relevant to the determination of the free energy for fixed-charge ensembles. The partition functions for fixed total charge corresponding to massive fermions in the presence of Abelian and non-Abelian magnetic fields are discussed. We show that the presence of the induced Chern-Simons term manifests itself in that the free energy depends strongly on the relation between the external magnetic flux and the value of the fixed charge.Comment: 10 pages, Revte

Speed of Light in Non--Trivial Vacua

We unify all existing results on the change of the speed of low--energy photons due to modifications of the vacuum, finding that it is given by a universal constant times the quotient of the difference of energy densities between the usual and modified vacua over the mass of the electron to the fourth power. Whether photons move faster or slower than $c$ depends only on the lower or higher energy density of the modified vacuum, respectively. Physically, a higher energy density is characterized by the presence of additional particles (real or virtual) in the vacuum whereas a lower one stems from the absence of some virtual modes. We then carry out a systematic study of the speed of propagation of massless particles for several field theories up to two loops on a thermal vacuum. Only low--energy massless particles corresponding to a massive theory show genuine modifications of their speed while remaining massless. All other modifications are mass-related, or running mass-related. We also develop a formalism for the Casimir vacuum which parallels the thermal one and check that photons travel faster than $c$ between plates.Comment: 24 p., plain te

Dynamical Symmetry Breaking in Planar QED

We investigate (2+1)-dimensional QED coupled with Dirac fermions both at zero and finite temperature. We discuss in details two-components (P-odd) and four-components (P-even) fermion fields. We focus on P-odd and P-even Dirac fermions in presence of an external constant magnetic field. In the spontaneous generation of the magnetic condensate survives even at infinite temperature. We also discuss the spontaneous generation of fermion mass in presence of an external magnetic field.Comment: 34 pages, 8 postscript figures, final version to appear on J. Phys.

The Discrete Frenet Frame, Inflection Point Solitons And Curve Visualization with Applications to Folded Proteins

We develop a transfer matrix formalism to visualize the framing of discrete piecewise linear curves in three dimensional space. Our approach is based on the concept of an intrinsically discrete curve, which enables us to more effectively describe curves that in the limit where the length of line segments vanishes approach fractal structures in lieu of continuous curves. We verify that in the case of differentiable curves the continuum limit of our discrete equation does reproduce the generalized Frenet equation. As an application we consider folded proteins, their Hausdorff dimension is known to be fractal. We explain how to employ the orientation of $C_\beta$ carbons of amino acids along a protein backbone to introduce a preferred framing along the backbone. By analyzing the experimentally resolved fold geometries in the Protein Data Bank we observe that this $C_\beta$ framing relates intimately to the discrete Frenet framing. We also explain how inflection points can be located in the loops, and clarify their distinctive r\^ole in determining the loop structure of foldel proteins.Comment: 14 pages 12 figure

The Exotic Statistics of Leapfrogging Smoke Rings

The leapfrogging motion of smoke rings is a three dimensional version of the motion that in two dimensions leads to exotic exchange statistics. The statistical phase factor can be computed using the hydrodynamical Euler equation, which is a universal law for describing the properties of a large class of fluids. This suggests that three dimensional exotic exchange statistics is a common property of closed vortex loops in a variety of quantum liquids and gases, from helium superfluids to Bose-Einstein condensed alkali gases, metallic hydrogen in its liquid phases and maybe even nuclear matter in extreme conditions.Comment: 9 pages 1 figur

A pathologic twoâ way street: how innate immunity impacts lung fibrosis and fibrosis impacts lung immunity

Lung fibrosis is characterised by the accumulation of extracellular matrix within the lung and is secondary to both known and unknown aetiologies. This accumulation of scar tissue limits gas exchange causing respiratory insufficiency. The pathogenesis of lung fibrosis is poorly understood, but immunologicâ based treatments have been largely ineffective. Despite this, accumulating evidence suggests that innate immune cells and receptors play important modulatory roles in the initiation and propagation of the disease. Paradoxically, while innate immune signalling may be important for the pathogenesis of fibrosis, there is also evidence to suggest that innate immune function against pathogens may be impaired, leading to dysregulated and/or impaired host defence. This review summarises the evidence for this pathologic twoâ way street, highlights new concepts of pathogenesis and recommends future directions for research emphasis.Innate immunity has been shown to promote the development of lung injury and fibrosis through a myriad of mechanisms. New information also suggests that the fibrotic milieu can impair the function of innate immune cells, leading to further infection, dysbiosis and fibrotic progression.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149765/1/cti21065.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149765/2/cti21065_am.pd

THERMAL EFFECTS ON THE CATALYSIS BY A MAGNETIC FIELD

We show that the formation of condensates in the presence of a constant magnetic field in 2+1 dimensions is extremely unstable. It disappears as soon as a heat bath is introduced with or without a chemical potential. We point out some new nonanalytic behavior that develops in this system at finite temperature.Comment: 10 pages, plain Te

On the Point-Splitting Method of the Commutator Anomaly of the Gauss Law Operators

We analyze the generalized point-splitting method and Jo's result for the commutator anomaly. We find that certain classes of general regularization kernels satisfying integral conditions provide a unique result, which, however differs from Faddeev's cohomological result.Comment: 16 pages, RevTex, 1 figure + 1 table, uses psbox.te

Induced Parity Breaking Term at Finite Temperature

We compute the exact induced parity-breaking part of the effective action for 2+1 massive fermions in $QED_3$ at finite temperature by calculating the fermion determinant in a particular background. The result confirms that gauge invariance of the effective action is respected even when large gauge transformations are considered.Comment: to be published in Physical Review Letters. 5 pages, Revtex, no figure