Approximate Sum Rules of CKM Matrix Elements from Quasi-Democratic Mass Matrices

To extract sum rules of CKM matrix elements, eigenvalue problems for quasi-democratic mass matrices are solved in the first order perturbation approximation with respect to small deviations from the democratic limit. Mass spectra of up and down quark sectors and the CKM matrix are shown to have clear and distinctive hierarchical structures. Numerical analysis shows that the absolute values of calculated CKM matrix elements fit the experimental data quite well. The order of the magnitude of the Jarlskog parameter is estimated by the relation $|J| \approx \sqrt{2}(m_c/m_t + m_s/m_b)|V_{us}|^2|V_{cb}|/4$.Comment: Latex, 15 pages, no figure

Casimir interaction among heavy fermions in the BCS-BEC crossover

We investigate a two-species Fermi gas with a large mass ratio interacting by an interspecies short-range interaction. Using the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, we determine the interaction energy of two heavy fermions immersed in the Fermi sea of light fermions as a function of the s-wave scattering length. In the BCS limit, we recover the perturbative calculation of the effective interaction between heavy fermions. The p-wave projection of the effective interaction is attractive in the BCS limit while it turns out to be repulsive near the unitarity limit. We find that the p-wave attraction reaches its maximum between the BCS and unitarity limits, where the maximal p-wave pairing of heavy minority fermions is expected. We also investigate the case where the heavy fermions are confined in two dimensions and the p-wave attraction between them is found to be stronger than that in three dimensions.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

COHEN-MACAULAY MODULES AND HOLONOMIC MODULES OVER FILTERED RINGS

We study Gorenstein dimension and grade of a module M over a filtered ring whose associated graded ring is a commutative Noetherian ring. An equality or an inequality between these invariants of a filtered module and its associated graded module is the most valuable property for an investigation of filtered rings. We prove an inequality G-dimM <= G-dim grM and an equality grade M = grade grM, whenever Gorenstein dimension of grM is finite (Theorems 2.3 and 2.8). We would say that the use of G-dimension adds a new viewpoint for studying filtered rings and modules. We apply these results to a filtered ring with a Cohen-Macaulay or Gorenstein associated graded ring and study a Cohen-Macaulay, perfect, or holonomic module.ArticleCommunications in Algebra. 37(2):406-430 (2009)journal articl

Single crystal MgB2 with anisotropic superconducting properties

The discovery of superconductor in magnesium diboride MgB2 with high Tc (39 K) has raised some challenging issues; whether this new superconductor resembles a high temperature cuprate superconductor(HTS) or a low temperature metallic superconductor; which superconducting mechanism, a phonon- mediated BCS or a hole superconducting mechanism or other new exotic mechanism may account for this superconductivity; and how about its future for applications. In order to clarify the above questions, experiments using the single crystal sample are urgently required. Here we have first succeeded in obtaining the single crystal of this new MgB2 superconductivity, and performed its electrical resistance and magnetization measurements. Their experiments show that the electronic and magnetic properties depend on the crystallographic direction. Our results indicate that the single crystal MgB2 superconductor shows anisotropic superconducting properties and thus can provide scientific basis for the research of its superconducting mechanism and its applications.Comment: 7 pages pdf fil

The extinct tree fern Tempskya Corda from the Albian of Spain: Palaeophytogeographical and palaeoenvironmental implications

New evidence of the extinct tree fern of the genus Tempskya Corda from Albian deposits in western Eurasia (northeastern Spain) is presented. These plant fossil remains consist of several silicified false trunks measuring up to 1.20m long, some of which still preserve the apex. Rhizomes and petioles are more abundant in the apical zone of the false trunk. Some false trunks preserve charcoalified tissues that can be interpreted as evidence that palaeo-wildfires affected the false trunks several times from mostly the same direction. Sedimentological evidence suggests that the fern habitat was close to coastal, tidally influenced environments. These new fossils from the Albian of Spain fill the chronological and distributional gap of Tempskya that existed in Eurasia during the Early Cretaceous. Temporal and spatial changes in Tempskya distributions are proposed on several palaeogeographical maps

Visual wetness perception based on image color statistics

Color vision provides humans and animals with the abilities to discriminate colors based on the wavelength composition of light and to determine the location and identity of objects of interest in cluttered scenes (e.g., ripe fruit among foliage). However, we argue that color vision can inform us about much more than color alone. Since a trichromatic image carries more information about the optical properties of a scene than a monochromatic image does, color can help us recognize complex material qualities. Here we show that human vision uses color statistics of an image for the perception of an ecologically important surface condition (i.e., wetness). Psychophysical experiments showed that overall enhancement of chromatic saturation, combined with a luminance tone change that increases the darkness and glossiness of the image, tended to make dry scenes look wetter. Theoretical analysis along with image analysis of real objects indicated that our image transformation, which we call the wetness enhancing transformation, is consistent with actual optical changes produced by surface wetting. Furthermore, we found that the wetness enhancing transformation operator was more effective for the images with many colors (large hue entropy) than for those with few colors (small hue entropy). The hue entropy may be used to separate surface wetness from other surface states having similar optical properties. While surface wetness and surface color might seem to be independent, there are higher order color statistics that can influence wetness judgments, in accord with the ecological statistics. The present findings indicate that the visual system uses color image statistics in an elegant way to help estimate the complex physical status of a scene

Distribution of Introns in Fungal Histone Genes

Saccharomycotina and Taphrinomycotina lack intron in their histone genes, except for an intron in one of histone H4 genes of Yarrowia lipolytica. On the other hand, Basidiomycota and Perizomycotina have introns in their histone genes. We compared the distributions of 81, 47, 79, and 98 introns in the fungal histone H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 genes, respectively. Based on the multiple alignments of the amino acid sequences of histones, we identified 19, 13, 31, and 22 intron insertion sites in the histone H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 genes, respectively. Surprisingly only one hot spot of introns in the histone H2A gene is shared between Basidiomycota and Perizomycotina, suggesting that most of introns of Basidiomycota and Perizomycotina were acquired independently. Our findings suggest that the common ancestor of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota maybe had a few introns in the histone genes. In the course of fungal evolution, Saccharomycotina and Taphrinomycotina lost the histone introns; Basidiomycota and Perizomycotina acquired other introns independently. In addition, most of the introns have sequence similarity among introns of phylogenetically close species, strongly suggesting that horizontal intron transfer events between phylogenetically distant species have not occurred recently in the fungal histone genes

On the experiments of Surfatron concept with use of capillary plasma.

In the middle of 1980th, the VpxB concept for accelerating electrons are found by Nishida et al, with the use of plasma wave excited by high power microwave in the interaction with weakly magnetized plasma. This acceleration concept was called “Surfatron effect” in the relativistic regime. However, there is no experimental evidence so far in the relativistic regime, although the acceleration efficiency is highest in all of the concepts based on the plasma wave acceleration scheme, and we are now under experiments. In order to make longer the acceleration distances, there are several ideas including 1)ducting of the electromagnetic waves (EM wave) in the preformed plasma, 2)selfchanneling of the EM waves, and others. In this paper, the experimental results are shown on the ducting phenomena by using strong microwave for simulating the laser ducting, and on the capillary plasma scheme

Megabits secure key rate quantum key distribution

Quantum cryptography (QC) can provide unconditional secure communication between two authorized parties based on the basic principles of quantum mechanics. However, imperfect practical conditions limit its transmission distance and communication speed. Here we implemented the differential phase shift (DPS) quantum key distribution (QKD) with up-conversion assisted hybrid photon detector (HPD) and achieved 1.3 M bits per second secure key rate over a 10-km fiber, which is tolerant against the photon number splitting (PNS) attack, general collective attacks on individual photons, and any other known sequential unambiguous state discrimination (USD) attacks.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure