4,165 research outputs found
Finite volume effects in a quenched lattice-QCD quark propagator
We investigate finite volume effects in the pattern of chiral symmetry
breaking. To this end we employ a formulation of the Schwinger-Dyson equations
on a torus which reproduces results from the corresponding lattice simulations
of staggered quarks and from the overlap action. Studying the volume dependence
of the quark propagator we find quantitative differences with the infinite
volume result at small momenta and small quark masses. We estimate the minimal
box length L below which chiral perturbation theory cannot be applied to be L
\simeq 1.6 fm. In the infinite volume limit we find a chiral condensate of
||_{\bar{MS}}^{2 GeV} = (253 \pm 5.0 MeV)^3, an up/down quark mass of
m_{\bar{MS}}^{2 GeV} = 4.1 \pm 0.3 MeV and a pion decay constant which is only
ten percent smaller than the experimental value.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. v2: minor clarifications added, version
published in PR
Quark Condensates: Flavour Dependence
We determine the q-bar q condensate for quark masses from zero up to that of
the strange quark within a phenomenologically successful modelling of continuum
QCD by solving the quark Schwinger-Dyson equation. The existence of multiple
solutions to this equation is the key to an accurate and reliable extraction of
this condensate using the operator product expansion. We explain why
alternative definitions fail to give the physical condensate.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, uses appolb.cls, LaTeX. Talk presented by R.
Williams at the EURIDICE Final Meeting, August 24-27th, 2006, Kazimierz,
Polan
Response of Fishes to Revetment Placement
Routine fish sampling with hoop nets was conducted monthly from April through December 1978 along natural and revetted riverbanks on the lower Mississippi River near Eudora, Arkansas, to monitor changes in fish populations affected by placement of new revetment for bank protection. Eighteen species of fish were collected with four species comprising over 75% of the total catch. During the months prior to revetment placement, freshwater drum, Aplodinotus grunniens, was the most abundant (32.7% of the catch) species collected. Following in abundance were the flathead catfish, Pylodictis olivaris, (9.8%), common carp, Cyprinus carpio, (7.8%), and blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, (3.3%). After revetment placement in August 1978, the freshwater drum was again the most abundant component, comprising 9.7% of the catch. Gizzard shad, Dorosoma cepedianum, flathead catfish, and blue catfish followed in abundance and comprised 8.9, 4.1, and 3.4% of the total catch, respectively. Catch per effort data indicated that fish were generally more abundant at natural bank stations than revetted bank stations but the difference was not significant. The study suggests that fish inhabiting natural riverbank habitat recover quite rapidly from bank perturbation caused by the placement of revetment
Human activity was a major driver of the mid-Holocene vegetation change in southern Cumbria: Implications for the elm decline in the British Isles
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.The dramatic decline in elm (Ulmus) across a large swathe of north-west Europe in the mid-Holocene has been ascribed to a number of possible factors, including climate change, human activity and/or pathogens. A major limitation for identifying the underlying cause(s) has been the limited number of high-resolution records with robust geochronological frameworks. Here, we report a multiproxy study of an upland (Blea Tarn) and lowland (Urswick Tarn) landscape in southern Cumbria (British Isles) to reconstruct vegetation change across the elm decline in an area with a rich and well-dated archaeological record to disentangle different possible controls. Here we find a two-stage decline in Ulmus taking place between 6350–6150 and 6050–5850 cal a BP, with the second phase coinciding with an intensification of human activity. The scale of the decline and associated human impact is more abrupt in the upland landscape. We consider it likely that a combination of human impact and disease drove the Ulmus decline within southern Cumbria.This work was funded by a studentship for MJG from the University of Exeter and Sir John Fisher Foundation. Additional funding for 14C dating was from the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (Clare Fell Bursary to MJG), and the Australian Research Council (FL100100195)
State and Local Anti-Predatory Lending Laws: The Effect of Legal Enforcement Mechanisms
Subprime mortgage lending has grown rapidly in recent years and with it, so have concerns about predatory lending. In response to evidence of predatory lending, most states have enacted new laws or expanded existing laws to address abuses in the subprime home loan market. The effect of these statutes is a matter of debate. This paper seeks to improve the understanding of this increasingly important issue and pays particular attention to the role that legal enforcement mechanisms play in this context. The results of the analysis are consistent with the view that anti-predatory lending laws influence subprime lending markets and that disaggregating the details of the overall legal framework into its component parts is essential for understanding subprime market dynamics. The restrictions, coverage, and enforcement components all have significant relationships with subprime market outcomes, with the coverage relationship found to be broadly consistent with the reverse lemons hypothesis put forward by Ho and Pennington-Cross (2007). The results also suggest that the newer mini-HOEPA laws have had an impact on the subprime market above and beyond the older preexisting laws, particularly for subprime originations. Broader coverage through these new laws is associated with higher origination likelihoods, while increased restrictions through the mini-HOEPA laws are associated with lower origination propensities
Aspects of quark mass generation on a torus
In this talk we report on recent results for the quark propagator on a
compact manifold. The corresponding Dyson-Schwinger equations on a torus are
solved on volumes similar to the ones used in lattice calculations. The
quark-gluon interaction is fixed such that the lattice results are reproduced.
We discuss both the effects in the infinite volume/continuum limit as well as
effects when the volume is small.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures; talk given by CF at QNP06, Madrid, June 200
The Impact of State Anti-Predatory Lending Laws: Policy Implications and Insights
The subprime mortgage market, which consists of high-cost loans designed for borrowers with weak credit, has grown tremendously over the past ten years. Between 1993 and 2005, the subprime market experienced an average annual growth rate of 26 percent. As this market emerged, so did allegations that subprime loans contained predatory features or were the result of predatory sales practices.3 In the worst cases, brokers deceived borrowers about the meaning of loan terms or falsely promised to assist them in obtaining future refinance loans with better terms. In other situations, borrowers entered into loans with low teaser rates, not aware how high their monthly payments could go when their interest rates reset
Numerical cancellation of photon quadratic divergence in the study of the Schwinger-Dyson equations in Strong Coupling QED
The behaviour of the photon renormalization function in strong coupling QED
has been recently studied by Kondo, Mino and Nakatani. We find that the sharp
decrease in its behaviour at intermediate photon momenta is an artefact of the
method used to remove the quadratic divergence in the vacuum polarization. We
discuss how this can be avoided in numerical studies of the Schwinger-Dyson
equations.Comment: 9 pages, Latex, 5 figures. Complete postscript file available from:
ftp://cpt1.dur.ac.uk/pub/preprints/dtp94/dtp94100/dtp94100.p
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