Baryon formation and dissociation in dense hadronic and quark matter

We study the formation of baryons as composed of quarks and diquarks in hot and dense hadronic matter in a Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL)--type model. We first solve the Dyson-Schwinger equation for the diquark propagator and then use this to solve the Dyson-Schwinger equation for the baryon propagator. We find that stable baryon resonances exist only in the phase of broken chiral symmetry. In the chirally symmetric phase, we do not find a pole in the baryon propagator. In the color-superconducting phase, there is a pole, but is has a large decay width. The diquark does not need to be stable in order to form a stable baryon, a feature typical for so-called Borromean states. Varying the strength of the diquark coupling constant, we also find similarities to the properties of an Efimov states.Comment: ReVTex 4, 8 pages, 7 figures; accepted version in Phys. Lett.

A common brain network among state, trait, and pathological anxiety from whole-brain functional connectivity

Anxiety is one of the most common mental states of humans. Although it drives us to avoid frightening situations and to achieve our goals, it may also impose significant suffering and burden if it becomes extreme. Because we experience anxiety in a variety of forms, previous studies investigated neural substrates of anxiety in a variety of ways. These studies revealed that individuals with high state, trait, or pathological anxiety showed altered neural substrates. However, no studies have directly investigated whether the different dimensions of anxiety share a common neural substrate, despite its theoretical and practical importance. Here, we investigated a brain network of anxiety shared by different dimensions of anxiety in a unified analytical framework using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We analyzed different datasets in a single scale, which was defined by an anxiety-related brain network derived from whole brain. We first conducted the anxiety provocation task with healthy participants who tended to feel anxiety related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in their daily life. We found a common state anxiety brain network across participants (1585 trials obtained from 10 participants). Then, using the resting-state fMRI in combination with the participants' behavioral trait anxiety scale scores (879 participants from the Human Connectome Project), we demonstrated that trait anxiety shared the same brain network as state anxiety. Furthermore, the brain network between common to state and trait anxiety could detect patients with OCD, which is characterized by pathological anxiety-driven behaviors (174 participants from multi-site datasets). Our findings provide direct evidence that different dimensions of anxiety have a substantial biological inter-relationship. Our results also provide a biologically defined dimension of anxiety, which may promote further investigation of various human characteristics, including psychiatric disorders, from the perspective of anxiety

Convenient modular method for affinity labeling (MoAL method) based on a catalytic amidation

金沢大学医薬保健研究域薬学系A modular methodology for affinity labeling, in which three essential elements generally constituting affinity probes are prepared separately as individual molecules, has been developed based on a catalytic amidation. © 2009 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Josephson Effect between Condensates with Different Internal Structures

A general formula for Josephson current in a wide class of hybrid junctions between different internal structures is derived on the basis of the Andreev picture. The formula extends existing formulae and also enables us to analyze novel B-phase/A-phase/B-phase (BAB) junctions in superfluid helium three systems, which are accessible to experiments. It is predicted that BAB junctions will exhibit two types of current-phase relations associated with different internal symmetries. A ``pseudo-magnetic interface effect'' inherent in the system is also revealed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Optical coherence tomography and optical coherence tomography angiography: essential tools for detecting glaucoma and disease progression

Early diagnosis and detection of disease progression are critical to successful therapeutic intervention in glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique that allows objective quantification in vivo of key glaucomatous structural changes in the retina and the optic nerve head (ONH). Advances in OCT technology have increased the scan speed and enhanced image quality, contributing to early glaucoma diagnosis and monitoring, as well as the visualization of critically important structures deep within the ONH, such as the lamina cribrosa. OCT angiography (OCTA) is a dye-free technique for noninvasively assessing ocular microvasculature, including capillaries within each plexus serving the macula, peripapillary retina and ONH regions, as well as the deeper vessels of the choroid. This layer-specific assessment of the microvasculature has provided evidence that retinal and choroidal vascular impairments can occur during early stages of glaucoma, suggesting that OCTA-derived measurements could be used as biomarkers for enhancing detection of glaucoma and its progression, as well as to reveal novel insights about pathophysiology. Moreover, these innovations have demonstrated that damage to the macula, a critical region for the vision-related quality of life, can be observed in the early stages of glaucomatous eyes, leading to a paradigm shift in glaucoma monitoring. Other advances in software and hardware, such as artificial intelligence-based algorithms, adaptive optics, and visible-light OCT, may further benefit clinical management of glaucoma in the future. This article reviews the utility of OCT and OCTA for glaucoma diagnosis and disease progression detection, emphasizes the importance of detecting macula damage in glaucoma, and highlights the future perspective of OCT and OCTA. We conclude that the OCT and OCTA are essential glaucoma detection and monitoring tools, leading to clinical and economic benefits for patients and society

Josephson current in s-wave superconductor / Sr_2RuO_4 junctions

The Josephson current between an s-wave and a spin-triplet superconductor Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ (SRO) is studied theoretically. In spin-singlet / spin-triplet superconductor junctions, there is no Josephson current proportional to $\sin \phi$ in the absence of the spin-flip scattering near junction interfaces, where $\phi$ is a phase-difference across junctions. Thus a dominant term of the Josephson current is proportional to $\sin 2\phi$ . The spin-orbit scattering at the interfaces gives rise to the Josephson current proportional to $\cos\phi$, which is a direct consequence of the chiral paring symmetry in SRO

On the relative importance of thermal and chemical buoyancy in regular and impact-induced melting in a Mars-like planet

We ran several series of two-dimensional numerical mantle convection simulations representing in idealized form the thermochemical evolution of a Mars-like planet. In order to study the importance of compositional buoyancy of melting mantle, the models were set up in pairs of one including all thermal and compositional contributions to buoyancy and one accounting only for the thermal contributions. In several of the model pairs, single large impacts were introduced as causes of additional strong local anomalies, and their evolution in the framework of the convecting mantle was tracked. The models confirm that the additional buoyancy provided by the depletion of the mantle by regular melting can establish a global stable stratification of the convecting mantle and throttle crust production. Furthermore, the compositional buoyancy is essential in the stabilization and preservation of local compositional anomalies directly beneath the lithosphere and offers a possible explanation for the existence of distinct, long-lived reservoirs in the martian mantle. The detection of such anomalies by geophysical means is probably difficult, however; they are expected to be detected by gravimetry rather than by seismic or heat flow measurements. The results further suggest that the crustal thickness can be locally overestimated by up to ~20 km if impact-induced density anomalies in the mantle are neglected.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure