3,583 research outputs found
Energy Density of Vortices in the Schroedinger Picture
The one-loop energy density of an infinitely thin static magnetic vortex in
SU(2) Yang-Mills theory is evaluated using the Schroedinger picture. Both the
gluonic fluctuations as well as the quarks in the vortex background are
included. The energy density of the magnetic vortex is discussed as a function
of the magnetic flux. The center vortices correspond to local minima in the
effective potential. These minima are degenerated with the perturbative vacuum
if the fermions are ignored. Inclusion of fermions lifts this degeneracy,
raising the vortex energy above the energy of the perturbative vacuum.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure
Writhe of center vortices and topological charge -- an explicit example
The manner in which continuum center vortices generate topological charge
density is elucidated using an explicit example. The example vortex
world-surface contains one lone self-intersection point, which contributes a
quantum 1/2 to the topological charge. On the other hand, the surface in
question is orientable and thus must carry global topological charge zero due
to general arguments. Therefore, there must be another contribution, coming
from vortex writhe. The latter is known for the lattice analogue of the example
vortex considered, where it is quite intuitive. For the vortex in the
continuum, including the limit of an infinitely thin vortex, a careful analysis
is performed and it is shown how the contribution to the topological charge
induced by writhe is distributed over the vortex surface.Comment: 33 latex pages, 10 figures incorporating 14 ps files. Furthermore,
the time evolution of the vortex line discussed in this work can be viewed as
a gif movie, available for download by following the PostScript link below --
watch for the cute feature at the self-intersection poin
Dissection of the amyloid formation pathway in AL amyloidosis
In antibody light chain (AL) amyloidosis, overproduced light chain (LC) fragments accumulate as fibrils in organs and tissues of patients. In vitro, AL fibril formation is a slow process, characterized by a pronounced lag phase. The events occurring during this lag phase are largely unknown. We have dissected the lag phase of a patient-derived LC truncation and identified structural transitions that precede fibril formation. The process starts with partial unfolding of the V-L domain and the formation of small amounts of dimers. This is a prerequisite for the formation of an ensemble of oligomers, which are the precursors of fibrils. During oligomerization, the hydrophobic core of the LC domain rearranges which leads to changes in solvent accessibility and rigidity. Structural transitions from an anti-parallel to a parallel beta-sheet secondary structure occur in the oligomers prior to amyloid formation. Together, our results reveal a rate-limiting multi-step mechanism of structural transitions prior to fibril formation in AL amyloidosis, which offers, in the long run, opportunities for therapeutic intervention. AL amyloidosis is caused by the accumulation of overproduced light chain (LC) fragments as fibrils in patient organs and it is the most prevalent systemic amyloidosis. Here, the authors combine biochemical and biophysical experiments to characterise the lag phase of a patient-derived truncated LC and they identify structural transitions that precede fibril formation
Topological Susceptibility of Yang-Mills Center Projection Vortices
The topological susceptibility induced by center projection vortices
extracted from SU(2) lattice Yang-Mills configurations via the maximal center
gauge is measured. Two different smoothing procedures, designed to eliminate
spurious ultraviolet fluctuations of these vortices before evaluating the
topological charge, are explored. They result in consistent estimates of the
topological susceptibility carried by the physical thick vortices
characterizing the Yang-Mills vacuum in the vortex picture. This susceptibility
is comparable to the one obtained from the full lattice Yang-Mills
configurations. The topological properties of the SU(2) Yang-Mills vacuum can
thus be accounted for in terms of its vortex content.Comment: 12 revtex pages, 6 ps figures included using eps
Low temperature magnetization and the excitation spectrum of antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin rings
Accurate results are obtained for the low temperature magnetization versus
magnetic field of Heisenberg spin rings consisting of an even number N of
intrinsic spins s = 1/2, 1, 3/2, 2, 5/2, 3, 7/2 with nearest-neighbor
antiferromagnetic (AF) exchange by employing a numerically exact quantum Monte
Carlo method. A straightforward analysis of this data, in particular the values
of the level-crossing fields, provides accurate results for the lowest energy
eigenvalue E(N,S,s) for each value of the total spin quantum number S. In
particular, the results are substantially more accurate than those provided by
the rotational band approximation. For s <= 5/2, data are presented for all
even N <= 20, which are particularly relevant for experiments on finite
magnetic rings. Furthermore, we find that for s > 1 the dependence of E(N,S,s)
on s can be described by a scaling relation, and this relation is shown to hold
well for ring sizes up to N = 80 for all intrinsic spins in the range 3/2 <= s
<= 7/2. Considering ring sizes in the interval 8 <= N <= 50, we find that the
energy gap between the ground state and the first excited state approaches zero
proportional to 1/N^a, where a = 0.76 for s = 3/2 and a = 0.84 for s = 5/2.
Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of our present results for E(N,S,s) by
examining the Fe12 ring-type magnetic molecule, leading to a new, more accurate
estimate of the exchange constant for this system than has been obtained
heretofore.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review B, 10 pages, 10 figure
Vortex waistlines and long range fluctuations
We examine the manner in which a linear potential results from fluctuations
due to vortices linked with the Wilson loop. Our discussion is based on exact
relations and inequalities between the Wilson loop and the vortex and electric
flux order parameters. We show that, contrary to the customary naive picture,
only vortex fluctuations of thickness of the order of the spatial linear size
of the loop are capable of producing a strictly linear potential. An effective
theory of these long range fluctuations emerges naturally in the form of a
strongly coupled Z(N) lattice gauge theory. We also point out that dynamical
fermions introduced in this medium undergo chiral symmetry breaking.Comment: 17 pages, LaTex file with 7 eps figures, revised references, minor
comments adde
The band structure of BeTe - a combined experimental and theoretical study
Using angle-resolved synchrotron-radiation photoemission spectroscopy we have
determined the dispersion of the valence bands of BeTe(100) along ,
i.e. the [100] direction. The measurements are analyzed with the aid of a
first-principles calculation of the BeTe bulk band structure as well as of the
photoemission peaks as given by the momentum conserving bulk transitions.
Taking the calculated unoccupied bands as final states of the photoemission
process, we obtain an excellent agreement between experimental and calculated
spectra and a clear interpretation of almost all measured bands. In contrast,
the free electron approximation for the final states fails to describe the BeTe
bulk band structure along properly.Comment: 21 pages plus 4 figure
ProbCD: enrichment analysis accounting for categorization uncertainty
As in many other areas of science, systems biology makes extensive use of statistical association and significance estimates in contingency tables, a type of categorical data analysis known in this field as enrichment (also over-representation or enhancement) analysis. In spite of efforts to create probabilistic annotations, especially in the Gene Ontology context, or to deal with uncertainty in high throughput-based datasets, current enrichment methods largely ignore this probabilistic information since they are mainly based on variants of the Fisher Exact Test. We developed an open-source R package to deal with probabilistic categorical data analysis, ProbCD, that does not require a static contingency table. The contingency table for
the enrichment problem is built using the expectation of a Bernoulli Scheme stochastic process given the categorization probabilities. An on-line interface was created to allow usage by non-programmers and is available at: http://xerad.systemsbiology.net/ProbCD/. We present an analysis framework and software tools to address the issue of uncertainty in categorical data analysis. In particular, concerning the enrichment analysis, ProbCD can accommodate: (i) the stochastic nature of the high-throughput experimental techniques and (ii) probabilistic gene annotation
A Precision Measurement of pp Elastic Scattering Cross Sections at Intermediate Energies
We have measured differential cross sections for \pp elastic scattering with
internal fiber targets in the recirculating beam of the proton synchrotron
COSY. Measurements were made continuously during acceleration for projectile
kinetic energies between 0.23 and 2.59 GeV in the angular range deg. Details of the apparatus and the data analysis are
given and the resulting excitation functions and angular distributions
presented. The precision of each data point is typically better than 4%, and a
relative normalization uncertainty of only 2.5% within an excitation function
has been reached. The impact on phase shift analysis as well as upper bounds on
possible resonant contributions in lower partial waves are discussed.Comment: 23 pages 29 figure
- …