644 research outputs found
A Chimeric Nucleobase - Phenylazo Derivative as an Intrinsic Nucleobase Quencher
Molecular beacons are important bioanalytical probes which are most often
constructed from a single-stranded oligonucleotide which has been labeled at
opposite termini with a fluorophore and a quencher. When the fluorophore and
quencher are in close proximity, no fluorescence is observed due to FRET
(Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer). DABCYL (4-dimethylaminoazobenzene-
4\u27-carboxylic acid) has been used as a quencher in the molecular beacon to absorbs
excitation energy from a fluorophore and to dissipate the energy as heat. However,
DABCYL is unable to form a base-pair and is conventionally placed as an overhanging
residue. This produces a derivative wherein the chromophore has substantial mobility
and limits the types of other conjugates that can be prepared. In order to overcome
these limitations, we have embarked on the synthesis of deoxyribonucleoside and
peptide nucleic acid (PNA) analogue possessing DMPAU (5-[(4-dimethylaminophenyl)
diazenyl]uracil) as the nucleobase. DMPAU has DABCYL-like properties due to the
installation of an azo moiety at the 5-position of the uracil base. This base is designed
to have the ability to form a complementary base pair with adenosine by canonical
hydrogen bonding and also to quench the fluorescence emission in a molecular
beacon construct. Both DMPAUridine and DMPAU PNA analogue are determined to
have same UV-Vis absorbance ranges as DABCYL and reasonable quenching effect
to the fluorophore
Lepton non-universality at LEP and charged Higgs
A recent analysis of the LEP data shows an interesting deviation from lepton
universality in W boson decays. An excess at the level of 2.8 sigma is found in
the tau mode branching ratio with respect to the other two modes. It is
suggested that this seeming lepton non-universality might stem from pair
production of charged Higgs bosons almost degenerate with W, that
preferentially decay to heavy fermions. It is shown that the deviation can be
reduced to 1.4 sigma in two Higgs doublet model I without any conflict with the
existing direct or indirect constraints. This conclusion is largely independent
of tan beta, the ratio of Higgs vacuum expectation values. This scenario can be
tested at the forthcoming international linear collider.Comment: 16 pages, published version with minor change
Renormalized Path Integral for the Two-Dimensional Delta-Function Interaction
A path-integral approach for delta-function potentials is presented.
Particular attention is paid to the two-dimensional case, which illustrates the
realization of a quantum anomaly for a scale invariant problem in quantum
mechanics. Our treatment is based on an infinite summation of perturbation
theory that captures the nonperturbative nature of the delta-function bound
state. The well-known singular character of the two-dimensional delta-function
potential is dealt with by considering the renormalized path integral resulting
from a variety of schemes: dimensional, momentum-cutoff, and real-space
regularization. Moreover, compatibility of the bound-state and scattering
sectors is shown.Comment: 26 pages. The paper was significantly expanded and numerous equations
were added for the sake of clarity; the main results and conclusions are
unchange
The Phonon Drag Effect in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
A variational solution of the coupled electron-phonon Boltzmann equations is
used to calculate the phonon drag contribution to the thermopower in a 1-D
system. A simple formula is derived for the temperature dependence of the
phonon drag in metallic, single-walled carbon nanotubes. Scattering between
different electronic bands yields nonzero values for the phonon drag as the
Fermi level varies.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Mesoscopic interplay of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in ultra-small metallic grains
We review the effects of electron-electron interactions on the ground-state
spin and the transport properties of ultra-small chaotic metallic grains. Our
studies are based on an effective Hamiltonian that combines a superconducting
BCS-like term and a ferromagnetic Stoner-like term. Such terms originate in
pairing and spin exchange correlations, respectively. This description is valid
in the limit of a large dimensionless Thouless conductance. We present the
ground-state phase diagram in the fluctuation-dominated regime where the
single-particle mean level spacing is comparable to the bulk BCS pairing gap.
This phase diagram contains a regime in which pairing and spin exchange
correlations coexist in the ground-state wave function. We discuss the
calculation of the tunneling conductance for an almost-isolated grain in the
Coulomb-blockade regime, and present measurable signatures of the competition
between superconductivity and ferromagnetism in the mesoscopic fluctuations of
the conductance.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, To be published in the proceedings of the NATO
Advance Research Workshop "Recent Advances in Nonlinear Dynamics and Complex
System Physics.
Green functions for generalized point interactions in 1D: A scattering approach
Recently, general point interactions in one dimension has been used to model
a large number of different phenomena in quantum mechanics. Such potentials,
however, requires some sort of regularization to lead to meaningful results.
The usual ways to do so rely on technicalities which may hide important
physical aspects of the problem. In this work we present a new method to
calculate the exact Green functions for general point interactions in 1D. Our
approach differs from previous ones because it is based only on physical
quantities, namely, the scattering coefficients, and , to construct .
Renormalization or particular mathematical prescriptions are not invoked. The
simple formulation of the method makes it easy to extend to more general
contexts, such as for lattices of general point interactions; on a line; on
a half-line; under periodic boundary conditions; and confined in a box.Comment: Revtex, 9 pages, 3 EPS figures. To be published in PR
Functional determinants for general self-adjoint extensions of Laplace-type operators resulting from the generalized cone
In this article we consider the zeta regularized determinant of Laplace-type
operators on the generalized cone. For {\it arbitrary} self-adjoint extensions
of a matrix of singular ordinary differential operators modelled on the
generalized cone, a closed expression for the determinant is given. The result
involves a determinant of an endomorphism of a finite-dimensional vector space,
the endomorphism encoding the self-adjoint extension chosen. For particular
examples, like the Friedrich's extension, the answer is easily extracted from
the general result. In combination with \cite{BKD}, a closed expression for the
determinant of an arbitrary self-adjoint extension of the full Laplace-type
operator on the generalized cone can be obtained.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures; to appear in Manuscripta Mathematic
Kaluza-Klein gravitino production with a single photon at e^+ e^- colliders
In a supersymmetric large extra dimension scenario, the production of
Kaluza-Klein gravitinos accompanied by a photino at e^+ e^- colliders is
studied. We assume that a bulk supersymmetry is softly broken on our brane such
that the low-energy theory resembles the MSSM. Low energy supersymmetry
breaking is further assumed as in GMSB, leading to sub-eV mass shift in each KK
mode of the gravitino from the corresponding graviton KK mode. Since the
photino decays within a detector due to its sufficiently large inclusive decay
rate into a photon and a gravitino, the process e^+ e^- -> photino + gravitino
yields single photon events with missing energy. Even if the total cross
section can be substantial at sqrt(s)=500 GeV, the KK graviton background of
e^+ e^- -> photon + graviton is kinematically advantageous and thus much
larger. It is shown that the observable, sigma(e^-_L)-sigma(e^-_R), can
completely eliminate the KK graviton background but retain most of the KK
gravitino signal, which provides a unique and robust method to probe the
supersymmetric bulk.Comment: Reference added and typos correcte
Muon anomalous magnetic moment in the standard model with two Higgs doublets
The muon anomalous magnetic moment is investigated in the standard model with
two Higgs doublets (S2HDM) motivated from spontaneous CP violation. Thus all
the effective Yukawa couplings become complex. As a consequence of the non-zero
phase in the couplings, the one loop contribution from the neutral scalar
bosons could be positive and negative relying on the CP phases. The
interference between one and two loop diagrams can be constructive in a large
parameter space of CP-phases. This will result in a significant contribution to
muon anomalous magnetic moment even in the flavor conserving process with a
heavy neutral scalar boson ( 200 GeV) once the effective muon Yukawa
coupling is large (). In general, the one loop contributions
from lepton flavor changing scalar interactions become more important. In
particular, when all contributions are positive in a reasonable parameter space
of CP phases, the recently reported 2.6 sigma experiment vs. theory deviation
can be easily explained even for a heavy scalar boson with a relative small
Yukawa coupling in the S2HDM.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex file, 5 figures, published version Phys. Rev. D 54
(2001) 11501
Horizons, Constraints, and Black Hole Entropy
Black hole entropy appears to be ``universal''--many independent
calculations, involving models with very different microscopic degrees of
freedom, all yield the same density of states. I discuss the proposal that this
universality comes from the behavior of the underlying symmetries of the
classical theory. To impose the condition that a black hole be present, we must
partially break the classical symmetries of general relativity, and the
resulting Goldstone boson-like degrees of freedom may account for the
Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. In particular, I demonstrate that the imposition of
a ``stretched horizon'' constraint modifies the algebra of symmetries at the
horizon, allowing the use of standard conformal field theory techniques to
determine the asymptotic density of states. The results reproduce the
Bekenstein-Hawking entropy without any need for detailed assumptions about the
microscopic theory.Comment: 16 pages, talk given at the "Peyresq Physics 10 Meeting on Micro and
Macro structures of spacetime
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