Role of heavy-meson exchange in pion production near threshold

Recent calculations of $s$-wave pion production have severely underestimated the accurately known $pp\rightarrow pp\pi^0$\ total cross section near threshold. In these calculations, only the single-nucleon axial-charge operator is considered. We have calculated, in addition to the one-body term, the two-body contributions to this reaction that arise from the exchange of mesons. We find that the inclusion of the scalar $\sigma$-meson exchange current (and lesser contributions from other mesons) increases the cross section by about a factor of five, and leads to excellent agreement with the data. The results are neither very sensitive to changes in the distorting potential that generates the $NN$ wave function, nor to different choices for the meson-nucleon form factors. We argue that $pp\rightarrow pp\pi^0$\ data provide direct experimental evidence for meson-exchange contributions to the axial current.Comment: 28 Pages, IU-NTC #93-0

Use of waveform lidar and hyperspectral sensors to assess selected spatial and structural patterns associated with recent and repeat disturbance and the abundance of sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in a temperate mixed hardwood and conifer forest.

Abstract Waveform lidar imagery was acquired on September 26, 1999 over the Bartlett Experimental Forest (BEF) in New Hampshire (USA) using NASA\u27s Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS). This flight occurred 20 months after an ice storm damaged millions of hectares of forestland in northeastern North America. Lidar measurements of the amplitude and intensity of ground energy returns appeared to readily detect areas of moderate to severe ice storm damage associated with the worst damage. Southern through eastern aspects on side slopes were particularly susceptible to higher levels of damage, in large part overlapping tracts of forest that had suffered the highest levels of wind damage from the 1938 hurricane and containing the highest levels of sugar maple basal area and biomass. The levels of sugar maple abundance were determined through analysis of the 1997 Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) high resolution spectral imagery and inventory of USFS Northern Research Station field plots. We found a relationship between field measurements of stem volume losses and the LVIS metric of mean canopy height (r2 = 0.66; root mean square errors = 5.7 m3/ha, p \u3c 0.0001) in areas that had been subjected to moderate-to-severe ice storm damage, accurately documenting the short-term outcome of a single disturbance event

Are there asymmetries in the effects of training on the conditional male wage distribution?

Recent studies have used quantile regression (QR) techniques to estimate the impact of education on the location, scale and shape of the conditional wage distribution. In our paper we investigate the degree to which work-related training – another important form of human capital – affects the location, scale and shape of the conditional wage distribution. Using the first six waves of the European Community Household Panel, we utilise both ordinary least squares and QR techniques to estimate associations between work-related training and wages for private sector men in ten European Union countries. Our results show that, for the majority of countries, there is a fairly uniform association between training and hourly wages across the conditional wage distribution. However, there are considerable differences across countries in mean associations between training and wages

HumanMethylation450K array–identified biomarkers predict tumour recurrence/progression at initial diagnosis of high-risk non-muscle Invasive bladder cancer

Background: High-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (HR-NMIBC) is a clinically unpredictable disease. Despite clinical risk estimation tools, many patients are undertreated with intra-vesical therapies alone, whereas others may be over-treated with early radical surgery. Molecular biomarkers, particularly DNA methylation, have been reported as predictive of tumour/patient outcomes in numerous solid organ and haematologic malignancies; however, there are few reports in HR-NMIBC and none using genome-wide array assessment. We therefore sought to identify novel DNA methylation markers of HR-NMIBC clinical outcomes that might predict tumour behaviour at initial diagnosis and help guide patient management. Patients and methods: A total of 21 primary initial diagnosis HR-NMIBC tumours were analysed by Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip arrays and subsequently bisulphite Pyrosequencing. In all, 7 had not recurred at 1 year after resection and 14 had recurred and/or progressed despite intra-vesical BCG. A further independent cohort of 32 HR-NMIBC tumours (17 no recurrence and 15 recurrence and/ or progression despite BCG) were also assessed by bisulphite Pyrosequencing. Results: Array analyses identified 206 CpG loci that segregated non-recurrent HR-NMIBC tumours from clinically more aggressive recurrence/progression tumours. Hypermethylation of CpG cg11850659 and hypomethylation of CpG cg01149192 in combination predicted HRNMIBC recurrence and/or progression within 1 year of diagnosis with 83% sensitivity, 79% specificity, and 83% positive and 79% negative predictive values. Conclusions: This is the first genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of a unique HR-NMIBC tumour cohort encompassing known 1-year clinical outcomes. Our analyses identified potential novel epigenetic markers that could help guide individual patient management in this clinically unpredictable diseas

Gopakumar-Vafa invariants via vanishing cycles

In this paper, we propose an ansatz for defining Gopakumar-Vafa invariants of Calabi-Yau threefolds, using perverse sheaves of vanishing cycles. Our proposal is a modification of a recent approach of Kiem-Li, which is itself based on earlier ideas of Hosono-Saito-Takahashi. We conjecture that these invariants are equivalent to other curve-counting theories such as Gromov-Witten theory and Pandharipande-Thomas theory. Our main theorem is that, for local surfaces, our invariants agree with PT invariants for irreducible one-cycles. We also give a counter-example to the Kiem-Li conjectures, where our invariants match the predicted answer. Finally, we give examples where our invariant matches the expected answer in cases where the cycle is non-reduced, non-planar, or non-primitive.Comment: 63 pages, many improvements of the exposition following referee comments, final version to appear in Inventione

Formation of Cool Cores in Galaxy Clusters via Hierarchical Mergers

We present a new scenario for the formation of cool cores in rich galaxy clusters based on results from recent high spatial dynamic range, adaptive mesh Eulerian hydrodynamic simulations of large-scale structure formation. We find that cores of cool gas, material that would be identified as a classical cooling flow based on its X-ray luminosity excess and temperature profile, are built from the accretion of discrete, stable subclusters. Any ``cooling flow'' present is overwhelmed by the velocity field within the cluster - the bulk flow of gas through the cluster typically has speeds up to about 2,000 km s^-1 and significant rotation is frequently present in the cluster core. The inclusion of consistent initial cosmological conditions for the cluster within its surrounding supercluster environment is crucial when simulating the evolution of cool cores in rich galaxy clusters. This new model for the hierarchical assembly of cool gas naturally explains the high frequency of cool cores in rich galaxy clusters despite the fact that a majority of these clusters show evidence of substructure which is believed to arise from recent merger activity. Furthermore, our simulations generate complex cluster cores in concordance with recent X-ray observations of cool fronts, cool ``bullets'', and filaments in a number of galaxy clusters. Our simulations were computed with a coupled N-body, Eulerian, adaptive mesh refinement, hydrodynamics cosmology code that properly treats the effects of shocks and radiative cooling by the gas. We employ up to seven levels of refinement to attain a peak resolution of 15.6 h^-1 kpc within a volume 256 h-1 Mpc on a side and assume a standard LambdaCDM cosmology.Comment: To appear in ApJ, 41 pages, 20 Figures and 2 Tables. Full resolution figures are available at http://casa.colorado.edu/~motl/astro-p

Discovery of X-ray Pulsations from the Compact Central Source in the Supernova Remnant 3C 58

We report on high time resolution observations of the SNR 3C 58 using the High Resolution Camera on the Chandra X-ray Observatory. These data show a point-like central source, from which we detect 65.68 ms pulsations at 6.7 sigma significance. We interpret these pulsations as corresponding to a young rotation-powered pulsar (PSR J-205+6449) which is associated with, and powers, 3C 58. Analysis of archival RXTE data from three years earlier confirms these pulsations, and allows us to determine a spin-down rate of P-dot=1.93x10^-13 s/s. Assuming a magnetic dipole model for PSR J0205+6449, we infer a surface magnetic field of 3.6x10^12 G. The characteristic age for this pulsar is 5400 yr, indicating either that 3C 58 was not the supernova of 1181 CE, or that the pulsar's initial spin period was ~60 ms.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Design and construction of a carbon fiber gondola for the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope

We introduce the light-weight carbon fiber and aluminum gondola designed for the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope. SPIDER is designed to measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation with unprecedented sensitivity and control of systematics in search of the imprint of inflation: a period of exponential expansion in the early Universe. The requirements of this balloon-borne instrument put tight constrains on the mass budget of the payload. The SPIDER gondola is designed to house the experiment and guarantee its operational and structural integrity during its balloon-borne flight, while using less than 10% of the total mass of the payload. We present a construction method for the gondola based on carbon fiber reinforced polymer tubes with aluminum inserts and aluminum multi-tube joints. We describe the validation of the model through Finite Element Analysis and mechanical tests.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures. Presented at SPIE Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, June 23, 2014. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume 914

A comprehensive study of GRB 070125, a most energetic gamma ray burst

We present a comprehensive multiwavelength analysis of the bright, long duration gamma-ray burst GRB 070125, comprised of observations in $\gamma$-ray, X-ray, optical, millimeter and centimeter wavebands. Simultaneous fits to the optical and X-ray light curves favor a break on day 3.78, which we interpret as the jet break from a collimated outflow. Independent fits to optical and X-ray bands give similar results in the optical bands but shift the jet break to around day 10 in the X-ray light curve. We show that for the physical parameters derived for GRB 070125, inverse Compton scattering effects are important throughout the afterglow evolution. While inverse Compton scattering does not affect radio and optical bands, it may be a promising candidate to delay the jet break in the X-ray band. Radio light curves show rapid flux variations, which are interpreted as due to interstellar scintillation, and are used to derive an upper limit of $2.4 \times 10^{17}$ cm on the radius of the fireball in the lateral expansion phase of the jet. Radio light curves and spectra suggest a high synchrotron self absorption frequency indicative of the afterglow shock wave moving in a dense medium. Our broadband modeling favors a constant density profile for the circumburst medium over a wind-like profile ($R^{-2}$). However, keeping in mind the uncertainty of the parameters, it is difficult to unambiguously distinguish between the two density profiles. Our broadband fits suggest that \event is a burst with high radiative efficiency ($> 60$).Comment: 50 pages, 33 figures, sty file included, Appeared in 20 Aug 2008 edition of Astrophysical Journa