146 research outputs found
Simultaneous congruence of convex compact sets of Hermitian matrices with constant rank
AbstractLet S be a compact convex set of n × n hermitian matrices (n ⩾ 2). Suppose every member of S is nonsingular and has exactly one negative eigenvalue. Let (ε1,…,εn) be any ordered n-tuple from the set {- 1, 1}. One of our main results is that a nonsingular matrix X exists such that, for every A in S and every 1 ⩽ j ⩽ n, the (j, j) entry of X∗AX has sign εj. A similar result, with only negative εj allowed, is proved also for a compact convex set S of n × n hermitian matrices such that every member of S has the same rank and exactly one negative eigenvalue
Virtual Effects of Split SUSY in Higgs Productions at Linear Colliders
In split supersymmetry the gauginos and higgsinos are the only supersymmetric
particles possibly accessible at foreseeable colliders like the CERN Large
Hadron Collider (LHC) and the International Linear Collider (ILC). In order to
account for the cosmic dark matter measured by WMAP, these gauginos and
higgsinos are stringently constrained and could be explored at the colliders
through their direct productions and/or virtual effects in some processes. The
clean environment and high luminosity of the ILC render the virtual effects of
percent level meaningful in unraveling the new physics effects. In this work we
assume split supersymmetry and calculate the virtual effects of the
WMAP-allowed gauginos and higgsinos in Higgs productions e+e- -> Z h and e+e-
-> \nu_e \bar_\nu_e h through WW fusion at the ILC. We find that the production
cross section of e+e- -> Zh can be altered by a few percent in some part of the
WMAP-allowed parameter space, while the correction to the WW-fusion process
e+e- -> \nu_e \bar_\nu_e h is below 1%. Such virtual effects are correlated
with the cross sections of chargino pair productions and can offer
complementary information in probing split supersymmetry at the colliders.Comment: more discussions added (7 pages, 10 figs
Higgs-mediated leptonic decays of B_s and B_d mesons as probes of supersymmetry
If tan(beta) is large, down-type quark mass matrices and Yukawa couplings
cannot be simultaneously diagonalized, and flavour violating couplings of the
neutral Higgs bosons are induced at the 1-loop level. These couplings lead to
Higgs-mediated contributions to the decays B_s -> mu+ mu- and B_d -> tau+ tau-,
at a level that might be of interest for the current Tevatron run, or possibly,
at B-factories. We evaluate the branching ratios for these decays within the
framework of minimal gravity-, gauge- and anomaly-mediated SUSY breaking
models, and also in SU(5) supergravity models with non-universal gaugino mass
parameters at the GUT scale. We find that the contribution from gluino loops,
which seems to have been left out in recent phenomenological analyses, is
significant. We explore how the branching fraction varies in these models,
emphasizing parameter regions consistent with other observations.Comment: Revised to accommodate minor changes in original text and update
reference
Herbivorous turtle ants obtain essential nutrients from a conserved nitrogen-recycling gut microbiome.
Nitrogen acquisition is a major challenge for herbivorous animals, and the repeated origins of herbivory across the ants have raised expectations that nutritional symbionts have shaped their diversification. Direct evidence for N provisioning by internally housed symbionts is rare in animals; among the ants, it has been documented for just one lineage. In this study we dissect functional contributions by bacteria from a conserved, multi-partite gut symbiosis in herbivorous Cephalotes ants through in vivo experiments, metagenomics, and in vitro assays. Gut bacteria recycle urea, and likely uric acid, using recycled N to synthesize essential amino acids that are acquired by hosts in substantial quantities. Specialized core symbionts of 17 studied Cephalotes species encode the pathways directing these activities, and several recycle N in vitro. These findings point to a highly efficient N economy, and a nutritional mutualism preserved for millions of years through the derived behaviors and gut anatomy of Cephalotes ants
Probing the Environment with Galaxy Dynamics
I present various projects to study the halo dynamics of elliptical galaxies.
This allows one to study the outer mass and orbital distributions of
ellipticals in different environments, and the inner distributions of groups
and clusters themselves.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figs, to appear in Proc. ESO Workshop, Groups of Galaxies
in the Nearby Universe (5-9 Dec 2005), eds. I. Saviane, V. Ivanov & J.
Borissova (Springer-Verlag
The effect of minor and major mergers on the evolution of low excitation radio galaxies
We use deep, μ r lesssim 28 mag arcsec−2, r-band imaging from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey to search for past, or ongoing, merger activity in a sample of 282 low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) at z 4σ excess of major mergers in the LERGs with M * lesssim 1011 M⊙, with 10 ± 1.5% of these active galactic nuclei involved in such large-scale interactions compared to 3.2 ± 0.4% of control galaxies. This excess of major mergers in LERGs decreases with increasing stellar mass, vanishing by M * > 1011.3 M⊙. These observations show that minor mergers do not fuel LERGs, and are consistent with typical LERGs being powered by accretion of matter from their halo. Where LERGs are associated with major mergers, these objects may evolve into more efficiently accreting active galactic nuclei as the merger progresses and more gas falls on to the central engine
Weak Isospin Violations in Charged and Neutral Higgs Couplings from SUSY Loop Corrections
Supersymmetric QCD and supersymmetric electroweak loop corrections to the
violations of weak isospin to Yukawa couplings are investigated. Specifically
it involves an analysis of the supersymmetric loop corrections to the Higgs
couplings to the third generation quarks and leptons. Here we analyze the SUSY
loop corrections to the charged Higgs couplings which are then compared with
the supersymmetric loop corrections to the neutral Higgs couplings previously
computed. It is found that the weak isospin violations can be quite
significant, i.e, as much as 40-50% or more of the total loop correction to the
Yukawa coupling. The effects of CP phases are also studied and it is found that
these effects can either enhance or suppress the weak isospin violations. We
also investigate the weak isospin violation effects on the branching ratio
and show that the effects
are sensitive to CP phases. Thus an accurate measurement of this branching
ratio along with the branching ratio of the neutral Higgs boson decays can
provide a measure of weak isospin violation along with providing a clue to the
presence of supersymmetry.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
Broad-spectrum in vitro activity of macrophage infectivity potentiator inhibitors against Gram-negative bacteria and Leishmania major
Background
The macrophage infectivity potentiator (Mip) protein, which belongs to the immunophilin superfamily, is a peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPIase) enzyme. Mip has been shown to be important for virulence in a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms. It has previously been demonstrated that small-molecule compounds designed to target Mip from the Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei bind at the site of enzymatic activity of the protein, inhibiting the in vitro activity of Mip.
Objectives
In this study, co-crystallography experiments with recombinant B. pseudomallei Mip (BpMip) protein and Mip inhibitors, biochemical analysis and computational modelling were used to predict the efficacy of lead compounds for broad-spectrum activity against other pathogens.
Methods
Binding activity of three lead compounds targeting BpMip was verified using surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. The determination of crystal structures of BpMip in complex with these compounds, together with molecular modelling and in vitro assays, was used to determine whether the compounds have broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against pathogens.
Results
Of the three lead small-molecule compounds, two were effective in inhibiting the PPIase activity of Mip proteins from Neisseria meningitidis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Leishmania major. The compounds also reduced the intracellular burden of these pathogens using in vitro cell infection assays.
Conclusions
These results indicate that Mip is a novel antivirulence target that can be inhibited using small-molecule compounds that prove to be promising broad-spectrum drug candidates in vitro. Further optimization of compounds is required for in vivo evaluation and future clinical applications
Pseudoscalar Higgs boson production associated with a single bottom quark at hadron colliders
We compute the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) SUSY-QCD corrections for
the associated production of a pseudoscalar Higgs boson with a bottom quark via
bottom-gluon fusion at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Fermilab
Tevatron. We find that the NLO QCD correction in the MSSM reaches
at the LHC and at the Tevatron in our chosen parameter space
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