Invariant Regularization of Supersymmetric Chiral Gauge Theory

We formulate a manifestly supersymmetric gauge covariant regularization of supersymmetric chiral gauge theories. In our scheme, the effective action in the superfield background field method above one-loop is always supersymmetric and gauge invariant. The gauge anomaly has a covariant form and can emerge only in one-loop diagrams with all the external lines being the background gauge superfield. We also present several illustrative applications in the one-loop approximation: the self-energy part of the chiral multiplet and of the gauge multiplet; the super-chiral anomaly and the superconformal anomaly; as the corresponding anomalous commutators, the Konishi anomaly and an anomalous supersymmetric transformation law of the supercurrent (the ``central extension'' of N=1 supersymmetry algebra) and of the R-current.Comment: 43 pages, PHYZZX. Final version to appear in Prog. Theor. Phy

Isolation of a Mutant ofArabidopsis thalianaCarrying Two Simultaneous Mutations Affecting Tobacco Mosaic Virus Multiplication within a Single Cell

AbstractTobacco mosaic virus strain Cg (TMV-Cg) infectsA. thalianasystemically. In order to identify host factors involved in the multiplication of TMV-Cg, we isolated a mutant ofA. thalianafrom an M2 population mutagenized by fast neutron irradiation, in which the accumulation of the coat protein in upper systemic leaves was reduced to low levels. The phenotype of the mutant, YS241, was controlled primarily by a single nuclear recessive mutation namedtom2-1,which was distinct fromtom1, a separate mutation which also affects TMV-Cg multiplication. Thetom2-1mutation affected the accumulation of TMV-related RNAs in protoplasts in a tobamovirus-specific manner, suggesting that the wild-typeTOM2gene product is necessary for efficient amplification of TMV-related RNAs within a single cell, through specific interaction with virus-coded factors. Furthermore, we found that YS241 contained a single dominant modifier namedttm1,which increased the efficiency of multiplication of TMV-Cg and a tomato strain of TMV in atom2-1genetic background, both in plants and in protoplasts. We propose that thettm1element might be a translocated form of theTOM2gene

Remark on the Consistent Gauge Anomaly in Supersymmetric Theories

We present a direct field theoretical calculation of the consistent gauge anomaly in the superfield formalism, on the basis of a definition of the effective action through the covariant gauge current. The scheme is conceptually and technically simple and the gauge covariance in intermediate steps reduces calculational labors considerably. The resultant superfield anomaly, being proportional to the anomaly d^{abc}=\tr T^a\{T^b,T^c\}, is minimal without supplementing any counterterms. Our anomaly coincides with the anomaly obtained by Marinkovi\'c as the solution of the Wess-Zumino consistency condition.Comment: uses PHYZZX, 17 pages, the result of SUSY anomaly in the Wess-Zumino gauge adde

Discovery of Negative Superhumps during a Superoutburst of January 2011 in ER Ursae Majoris

We report on a discovery of "negative" superhumps during the 2011 January superoutburst of ER UMa. During the superoutburst which started on 2011 January 16, we detected negative superhumps having a period of 0.062242(9) d, shorter than the orbital period by 2.2%. No evidence of positive superhumps was detected during this observation. This finding indicates that the disk exhibited retrograde precession during this superoutburst, contrary to all other known cases of superoutbursts. The duration of this superoutburst was shorter than those of ordinary superoutbursts and the intervals of normal outbursts were longer than ordinary ones. We suggest a possibility that such unusual outburst properties are likely a result of the disk tilt, which is supposed to be a cause of negative superhumps: the tilted disk could prevent the disk from being filled with materials in the outmost region which is supposed to be responsible for long-duration superoutbursts in ER UMa-type dwarf novae. The discovery signifies the importance of the classical prograde precession in sustaining long-duration superoutbursts. Furthermore, the presence of pronounced negative superhumps in this system with a high mass-transfer rate favors the hypothesis that hydrodynamical lift is the cause of the disk tilt.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in PASJ Lette

Discovery of short pseudogenes derived from messenger RNAs

More than 40% of the human genome is generated by retrotransposition, a series of in vivo processes involving reverse transcription of RNA molecules and integration of the transcripts into the genomic sequence. The mechanism of retrotransposition, however, is not fully understood, and additional genomic elements generated by retrotransposition may remain to be discovered. Here, we report that the human genome contains many previously unidentified short pseudogenes generated by retrotransposition of mRNAs. Genomic elements generated by non-long terminal repeat retrotransposition have specific sequence signatures: a poly-A tract that is immediately downstream and a pair of duplicated sequences, called target site duplications (TSDs), at either end. Using a new computer program, TSDscan, that can accurately detect pseudogenes based on the presence of the poly-A tract and TSDs, we found 654 short (≤300 bp), previously unknown pseudogenes derived from mRNAs. Comprehensive analyses of the pseudogenes that we identified and their parent mRNAs revealed that the pseudogene length depends on the parent mRNA length: long mRNAs generate more short pseudogenes than do short mRNAs. To explain this phenomenon, we hypothesize that most long mRNAs are truncated before they are reverse transcribed. Truncated mRNAs would be rapidly degraded during reverse transcription, resulting in the generation of short pseudogenes