Euclidean Dynamical Symmetry in Nuclear Shape Phase Transitions

The Euclidean dynamical symmetry hidden in the critical region of nuclear shape phase transitions is revealed by a novel algebraic F(5) description. With a nonlinear projection, it is shown that the dynamics in the critical region of the spherical--axial deformed and the spherical--$\gamma$ soft shape phase transitions can indeed be manifested by this description, which thus provides a unified symmetry--based interpretation of the critical phenomena in the region.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Mitochondrial metagenomics: letting the genes out of the bottle

‘Mitochondrial metagenomics’ (MMG) is a methodology for shotgun sequencing of total DNA from specimen mixtures and subsequent bioinformatic extraction of mitochondrial sequences. The approach can be applied to phylogenetic analysis of taxonomically selected taxa, as an economical alternative to mitogenome sequencing from individual species, or to environmental samples of mixed specimens, such as from mass trapping of invertebrates. The routine generation of mitochondrial genome sequences has great potential both for systematics and community phylogenetics. Mapping of reads from low-coverage shotgun sequencing of environmental samples also makes it possible to obtain data on spatial and temporal turnover in whole-community phylogenetic and species composition, even in complex ecosystems where species-level taxonomy and biodiversity patterns are poorly known. In addition, read mapping can produce information on species biomass, and potentially allows quantification of within-species genetic variation. The success of MMG relies on the formation of numerous mitochondrial genome contigs, achievable with standard genome assemblers, but various challenges for the efficiency of assembly remain, particularly in the face of variable relative species abundance and intra-specific genetic variation. Nevertheless, several studies have demonstrated the power of mitogenomes from MMG for accurate phylogenetic placement, evolutionary analysis of species traits, biodiversity discovery and the establishment of species distribution patterns; it offers a promising avenue for unifying the ecological and evolutionary understanding of species diversity

The entropy puzzle and the quark combination model

We use two available methods, the Duhem-Gibbs relation and the entropy formula in terms of particle phase space distributions, to calculate the entropy in a quark combination model. The entropy of the system extracted from the Duhem-Gibbs relation is found to increase in hadronization if the average temperature of the hadronic phase is lower than that of the quark phase. The increase of the entropy can also be confirmed from the entropy formula if the volume of the hadronic phase is larger than 2.5-3.0 times that of the quark phase. So whether the entropy increases or decreases during combination depends on the temperature before and after combination and on how much expansion the system undergoes during combination. The current study provides an example to shed light on the entropy issue in the quark combination model.Comment: RevTex 4, 4 pages, 2 tables, 4 figures, discussions and references added, to appear in PR

Critical point symmetries in deformed odd-A nuclei

A scheme that elucidates the nature of critical point symmetries in deformed odd-A nuclei by linking them to critical point symmetries of neighboring even-even nuclei is introduced. Specifically, a new symmetry, called SX(3), is advanced that shows primary characteristics of an assumed strong-coupling limit for odd-A systems. It is found that the SX(3) symmetry can be used to identify the soft collective structures in odd-A system. A preliminary application of the new scheme to describe the lowest positive parity bands of 193Ir is also shown. © 2011 American Physical Society

A Peculiar Flaring Episode of Cygnus X-1

Recent monitoring of Cyg X-1 with {\em RXTE} revealed a period of intense flaring, which started in October of 2000 and lasted until March of 2001. The source exhibited some quite unusual behaviors during this period. The soft X-ray flux of the source went up and down three times on a timescale of about one month, as discovered by the ASM aboard RXTE, before finally returning to the normal level (of the hard state). The observed spectral and temporal X-ray properties of Cyg X-1 are mostly intermediate between the canonical hard and soft states. This is known previously for strong X-ray flares, however, we show that the source did enter a period that resembles, in many ways, a sustained soft state during the last of the three flares. We make detailed comparisons between this flare and the 1996 state transition, in terms of the observed X-ray properties, such as flux--hardness correlation, X-ray spectrum, and power density spectrum. We point out the similarities and differences, and discuss possible implications of the results on our understanding of the phenomena of flares and state transitions associated with Cyg X-1.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Theoretical Study on Rotational Bands and Shape Coexistence of 183,185,187^{183,185,187}{Tl} in the Particle Triaxial-Rotor Model

By taking the particle triaxial-rotor model with variable moment of inertia, we investigate the energy spectra, the deformations and the single particle configurations of the nuclei $^{183,185,187}$Tl systemically. The calculated energy spectra agree with experimental data quite well. The obtained results indicate that the aligned bands observed in $^{183,185,187}$Tl originate from the $[530]{{1/2}}^{-}$, $[532]{{3/2}}^{-}$, $[660]{{1/2}}^{+}$ proton configuration coupled to a prolate deformed core, respectively. Whereas, the negative parity bands built upon the ${{9/2}}^{-}$ isomeric states in $^{183,185,187}$Tl are formed by a proton with the $[505]{{9/2}}^{-}$ configuration coupled to a core with triaxial oblate deformation, and the positive parity band on the ${{13/2}}^{+}$ isomeric state in $^{187}$Tl is generated by a proton with configuration $[606]{{13/2}}^{+}$ coupled to a triaxial oblate core.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Physical Review

A new parametric equation of state and quark stars

It is still a matter of debate to understand the equation of state of cold supra-nuclear matter in compact stars because of unknown on-perturbative strong interaction between quarks. Nevertheless, it is speculated from an astrophysical view point that quark clusters could form in cold quark matter due to strong coupling at realistic baryon densities. Although it is hard to calculate this conjectured matter from first principles, one can expect the inter-cluster interaction to share some general features to nucleon-nucleon interaction. We adopt a two-Gaussian component soft-core potential with these general features and show that quark clusters can form stable simple cubic crystal structure if we assume Gaussian form wave function. With this parameterizing, Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation is solved with reasonable constrained parameter space to give mass-radius relation of crystalline solid quark star. With baryon densities truncated at 2 times nuclear density at surface and range of interaction fixed at 2fm we can reproduce similar mass-radius relation to that obtained with bag model equations of state. The maximum mass ranges from about 0.5 to 3 solar mass. Observed maximum pulsar mass (about 2 solar mass) is then used to constrain parameters of this simple interaction potential.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

γ -rigid solution of the Bohr Hamiltonian for the critical point description of the spherical to γ -rigidly deformed shape phase transition

The γ-rigid solution of the Bohr Hamiltonian with the β-soft potential and 0 ≤γ≤30 is worked out. The resulting model, called T(4), provides a natural dynamical connection between the X(4) and the Z(4) critical-point symmetries, which thus serves as the critical-point symmetry of the spherical to γ-rigidly deformed shape phase transition. This point is further justified through comparing the model dynamics with those of the interacting boson model. As a preliminary test, the low-lying structures of Er158 are taken to compare the theoretical calculations, and the results indicate that this nucleus could be considered as the candidate of the T(4) model with an intermediate γ deformation