Evidence for Intergalactic Absorption in the TeV Gamma-Ray Spectrum of Mkn 501

The recent HEGRA observations of the blazar Mkn 501 show strong curvature in the very high energy gamma-ray spectrum. Applying the gamma-ray opacity derived from an empirically based model of the intergalactic infrared background radiation field (IIRF), to these observations, we find that the intrinsic spectrum of this source is consistent with a power-law: dN/dE~ E^-alpha with alpha=2.00 +/- 0.03 over the range 500 GeV - 20 TeV. Within current synchrotron self-Compton scenarios, the fact that the TeV spectral energy distribution of Mkn 501 does not vary with luminosity, combined with the correlated, spectrally variable emission in X-rays, as observed by the BeppoSAX and RXTE instruments, also independently implies that the intrinsic spectrum must be close to alpha=2. Thus, the observed curvature in the spectrum is most easily understood as resulting from intergalactic absorption.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, accepted in ApJ Letters 1999 April

Thermal Stabilization of the HCP Phase in Titanium

We have used a tight-binding model that is fit to first-principles electronic-structure calculations for titanium to calculate quasi-harmonic phonons and the Gibbs free energy of the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) and omega crystal structures. We show that the true zero-temperature ground-state is the omega structure, although this has never been observed experimentally at normal pressure, and that it is the entropy from the thermal population of phonon states which stabilizes the hcp structure at room temperature. We present the first completely theoretical prediction of the temperature- and pressure-dependence of the hcp-omega phase transformation and show that it is in good agreement with experiment. The quasi-harmonic approximation fails to adequately treat the bcc phase because the zero-temperature phonons of this structure are not all stable

INTEGRAL observations of the blazar Mrk 421 in outburst (Results of a multi-wavelength campaign)

We report the results of a multi-wavelength campaign on the blazar Mrk 421 during outburst. We observed four strong flares at X-ray energies that were not seen at other wavelengths (partially because of missing data). From the fastest rise in the X-rays, an upper limit could be derived on the extension of the emission region. A time lag between high-energy and low-energy X-rays was observed, which allowed an estimation of the magnetic-field strength. The spectral analysis of the X-rays revealed a slight spectral hardening of the low-energy (3 - 43 keV) spectral index. The hardness-ratio analysis of the Swift-XRT (0.2 - 10 keV) data indicated a small correlation with the intensity; i. e., a hard-to-soft evolution was observed. At the energies of IBIS/ISGRI (20 - 150 keV), such correlations are less obvious. A multiwavelength spectrum was composed and the X-ray and bolometric luminosities are calculated.Comment: 15 pages, 18 figures; accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic

Anomalous relaxation and self-organization in non-equilibrium processes

We study thermal relaxation in ordered arrays of coupled nonlinear elements with external driving. We find, that our model exhibits dynamic self-organization manifested in a universal stretched-exponential form of relaxation. We identify two types of self-organization, cooperative and anti-cooperative, which lead to fast and slow relaxation, respectively. We give a qualitative explanation for the behavior of the stretched exponent in different parameter ranges. We emphasize that this is a system exhibiting stretched-exponential relaxation without explicit disorder or frustration.Comment: submitted to PR

Metastable Dynamics of the Hard-Sphere System

The reformulation of the mode-coupling theory (MCT) of the liquid-glass transition which incorporates the element of metastability is applied to the hard-sphere system. It is shown that the glass transition in this system is not a sharp one at the special value of the density or the packing fraction, which is in contrast to the prediction by the conventional MCT. Instead we find that the slowing down of the dynamics occurs over a range of values of the packing fraction. Consequently, the exponents governing the sequence of time relaxations in the intermediate time regime are given as functions of packing fraction with one additional parameter which describes the overall scale of the metastable potential energy for defects in the hard-sphere system. Implications of the present model on the recent experiments on colloidal systems are also discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures (available upon request), RevTEX3.0, JFI Preprint

Premartensitic transition driven by magnetoelastic interaction in bcc ferromagnetic Ni2MnGaNi_{2}MnGa

We show that the magnetoelastic coupling between the magnetization and the amplitude of a short wavelength phonon enables the existence of a first order premartensitic transition from a bcc to a micromodulated phase in $Ni_{2}MnGa$. Such a magnetoelastic coupling has been experimentally evidenced by AC susceptibility and ultrasonic measurements under applied magnetic field. A latent heat around 9 J/mol has been measured using a highly sensitive calorimeter. This value is in very good agreement with the value predicted by a proposed model.Comment: 4 pages RevTex, 3 Postscript figures, to be published in Physical Review Letter

Molecular dynamic simulation of a homogeneous bcc -> hcp transition

We have performed molecular dynamic simulations of a Martensitic bcc->hcp transformation in a homogeneous system. The system evolves into three Martensitic variants, sharing a common nearest neighbor vector along a bcc direction, plus an fcc region. Nucleation occurs locally, followed by subsequent growth. We monitor the time-dependent scattering S(q,t) during the transformation, and find anomalous, Brillouin zone-dependent scattering similar to that observed experimentally in a number of systems above the transformation temperature. This scattering is shown to be related to the elastic strain associated with the transformation, and is not directly related to the phonon response.Comment: 11 pages plus 8 figures (GIF format); to appear in Phys. Rev.

Inflammatory and metabolic responses to high-fat meals with and without dairy products in men.

Postprandial inflammation is an important factor for human health since chronic low-grade inflammation is associated with chronic diseases. Dairy products have a weak but significant anti-inflammatory effect on postprandial inflammation. The objective of the present study was to compare the effect of a high-fat dairy meal (HFD meal), a high-fat non-dairy meal supplemented with milk (HFM meal) and a high-fat non-dairy control meal (HFC meal) on postprandial inflammatory and metabolic responses in healthy men. A cross-over study was conducted in nineteen male subjects. Blood samples were collected before and 1, 2, 4 and 6 h after consumption of the test meals. Plasma concentrations of insulin, glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, TAG and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured at each time point. IL-6, TNF-α and endotoxin concentrations were assessed at baseline and endpoint (6 h). Time-dependent curves of these metabolic parameters were plotted, and the net incremental AUC were found to be significantly higher for TAG and lower for CRP after consumption of the HFM meal compared with the HFD meal; however, the HFM and HFD meals were not different from the HFC meal. Alterations in IL-6, TNF-α and endotoxin concentrations were not significantly different between the test meals. The results suggest that full-fat milk and dairy products (cheese and butter) have no significant impact on the inflammatory response to a high-fat meal

Metastable Dynamics above the Glass Transition

The element of metastability is incorporated in the fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamic description of the mode coupling theory (MCT) of the liquid-glass transition. This is achieved through the introduction of the defect density variable $n$ into the set of slow variables with the mass density $\rho$ and the momentum density ${\bf g}$. As a first approximation, we consider the case where motions associated with $n$ are much slower than those associated with $\rho$. Self-consistently, assuming one is near a critical surface in the MCT sense, we find that the observed slowing down of the dynamics corresponds to a certain limit of a very shallow metastable well and a weak coupling between $\rho$ and $n$. The metastability parameters as well as the exponents describing the observed sequence of time relaxations are given as smooth functions of the temperature without any evidence for a special temperature. We then investigate the case where the defect dynamics is included. We find that the slowing down of the dynamics corresponds to the system arranging itself such that the kinetic coefficient $\gamma_v$ governing the diffusion of the defects approaches from above a small temperature-dependent value $\gamma^c_v$.Comment: 38 pages, 14 figures (6 figs. are included as a uuencoded tar- compressed file. The rest is available upon request.), RevTEX3.0+eps