666 research outputs found
Promoting creativity and innovation in biotechnology
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Proton polarizability contribution to the hyperfine splitting in muonic hydrogen
The contribution of the proton polarizability to the ground state hyperfine
splitting in muonic hydrogen is evaluated on the basis of modern experimental
and theoretical results on the proton polarized structure functions. The value
of this correction is equal to 4.6(8)\cdot 10^{-4} times the Fermi splitting
E_F.Comment: 10 pages (revtex), 5 figure
Adolescents' Understanding of Smoking and Vaping Risk Language: Cognitive Interviews to Inform Scale Development
Introduction: Perceived message effectiveness (PME) is a common metric to understand receptivity to tobacco prevention messages, yet most measures have been developed with adults. We examined adolescents' interpretation of language within candidate items for a new youth-targeted PME measure using cognitive interviewing. We sought to understand the meaning adolescents assigned to our candidate PME items to improve item wording. Aims and Methods: Participants were 20 adolescents, ages 13-17 years from the United States. Cognitive interviews used a structured guide to elicit feedback on comprehension, answer retrieval, and language regarding a set of Reasoned Action Approach-based survey items that assessed the PME of smoking and vaping prevention ads. We employed thematic analysis to synthesize findings from the interviews. Results: Interviews identified three main issues related to survey items: ambiguity of language, word choice (risk and other terminology), and survey item phrasing. Adolescents preferred direct, definitive language over more ambiguous phrasing which they saw as less serious (eg, "will"instead of "could"). For risk terminology, they preferred terms such as "harmful"and "dangerous"over "risky,"which was viewed as easy to discount. The term "negative effects"was interpreted as encompassing a broader set of tobacco harms than "health effects."Adolescents said that the term "vape"was preferable to "e-cigarette,"and identified ways to simplify item wording for greater clarity. Conclusions: Tobacco risk terms that appear similar differ in meaning to adolescents, and more direct and unambiguous language is preferred. Our findings informed changes to the PME scale items to improve clarity and reduce measurement error. Implications: This study adds to the literature on how adolescents interpret tobacco prevention language. Adolescents may interpret terminology differently than adults, which could lead to ambiguity in meaning and thus measurement error. Through cognitive interviewing, we identified and improved the language in a youth-focused PME measure for tobacco and vaping prevention
Today's View on Strangeness
There are several different experimental indications, such as the
pion-nucleon sigma term and polarized deep-inelastic scattering, which suggest
that the nucleon wave function contains a hidden s bar s component. This is
expected in chiral soliton models, which also predicted the existence of new
exotic baryons that may recently have been observed. Another hint of hidden
strangeness in the nucleon is provided by copious phi production in various N
bar N annihilation channels, which may be due to evasions of the
Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule. One way to probe the possible polarization of hidden s
bar s pairs in the nucleon may be via Lambda polarization in deep-inelastic
scattering.Comment: 8 pages LaTeX, 10 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the
International Conference on Parity Violation and Hadronic Structure,
Grenoble, June 200
Potential-driven Galileon inflation
For the models of inflation driven by the potential energy of an inflaton
field , the covariant Galileon Lagrangian
generally works to slow down the evolution of the field. On the other hand, if
the Galileon self-interaction is dominant relative to the standard kinetic
term, we show that there is no oscillatory regime of inflaton after the end of
inflation. This is typically accompanied by the appearance of the negative
propagation speed squared of a scalar mode, which leads to the
instability of small-scale perturbations. For chaotic inflation and natural
inflation we clarify the parameter space in which inflaton oscillates
coherently during reheating. Using the WMAP constraints of the scalar spectral
index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio as well, we find that the self coupling
of the potential is constrained to be very
much smaller than 1 and that the symmetry breaking scale of natural
inflation cannot be less than the reduced Planck mass . We also
show that, in the presence of other covariant Galileon Lagrangians, there are
some cases in which inflaton oscillates coherently even for the self coupling
of the order of 0.1, but still the instability associated with
negative is generally present.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figure
Neutral weak currents in pion electroproduction on the nucleon
Parity violating asymmetry in inclusive scattering of longitudinally
polarized electrons by unpolarized protons with or meson
production, is calculated as a function of the momentum transfer squared
and the total energy of the -system. This asymmetry, which is
induced by the interference of the one-photon exchange amplitude with the
parity-odd part of the -exchange amplitude, is calculated for the
processes ( is a virtual photon and
a virtual Z-boson) considering the -contribution in the channel,
the standard Born contributions and vector meson ( and )
exchanges in the channel. Taking into account the known isotopic properties
of the hadron electromagnetic and neutral currents, we show that the P-odd term
is the sum of two contributions. The main term is model independent and it can
be calculated exactly in terms of fundamental constants. It is found to be
linear in . The second term is a relatively small correction which is
determined by the isoscalar component of the electromagnetic current. Near
threshold and in the -region, this isoscalar part is much smaller (in
absolute value) than the isovector one: its contribution to the asymmetry
depend on the polarization state (longitudinal or transverse) of the virtual
photon.Comment: 30 pages 9 figure
Azimuthal asymmetries in lepton-pair production at a fixed-target experiment using the LHC beams (AFTER)
A multi-purpose fixed-target experiment using the proton and lead-ion beams
of the LHC was recently proposed by Brodsky, Fleuret, Hadjidakis and Lansberg,
and here we concentrate our study on some issues related to the spin physics
part of this project (referred to as AFTER). We study the nucleon spin
structure through and processes with a fixed-target experiment using
the LHC proton beams, for the kinematical region with 7 TeV proton beams at the
energy in center-of-mass frame of two nucleons GeV. We calculate
and estimate the azimuthal asymmetries of unpolarized and
dilepton production processes in the Drell--Yan continuum region and at the
-pole. We also calculate the , and
azimuthal asymmetries of and dilepton production
processes with the target proton and deuteron longitudinally or transversally
polarized in the Drell--Yan continuum region and around resonances region.
We conclude that it is feasible to measure these azimuthal asymmetries,
consequently the three-dimensional or transverse momentum dependent parton
distribution functions (3dPDFs or TMDs), at this new AFTER facility.Comment: 15 pages, 40 figures. Version accepted for publication in EPJ
Lifetime distributions in the methods of non-equilibrium statistical operator and superstatistics
A family of non-equilibrium statistical operators is introduced which differ
by the system age distribution over which the quasi-equilibrium (relevant)
distribution is averaged. To describe the nonequilibrium states of a system we
introduce a new thermodynamic parameter - the lifetime of a system.
Superstatistics, introduced in works of Beck and Cohen [Physica A \textbf{322},
(2003), 267] as fluctuating quantities of intensive thermodynamical parameters,
are obtained from the statistical distribution of lifetime (random time to the
system degeneracy) considered as a thermodynamical parameter. It is suggested
to set the mixing distribution of the fluctuating parameter in the
superstatistics theory in the form of the piecewise continuous functions. The
distribution of lifetime in such systems has different form on the different
stages of evolution of the system. The account of the past stages of the
evolution of a system can have a substantial impact on the non-equilibrium
behaviour of the system in a present time moment.Comment: 18 page
Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions
We review the most important experimental results from the first three years
of nucleus-nucleus collision studies at RHIC, with emphasis on results from the
STAR experiment, and we assess their interpretation and comparison to theory.
The theory-experiment comparison suggests that central Au+Au collisions at RHIC
produce dense, rapidly thermalizing matter characterized by: (1) initial energy
densities above the critical values predicted by lattice QCD for establishment
of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP); (2) nearly ideal fluid flow, marked by
constituent interactions of very short mean free path, established most
probably at a stage preceding hadron formation; and (3) opacity to jets. Many
of the observations are consistent with models incorporating QGP formation in
the early collision stages, and have not found ready explanation in a hadronic
framework. However, the measurements themselves do not yet establish
unequivocal evidence for a transition to this new form of matter. The
theoretical treatment of the collision evolution, despite impressive successes,
invokes a suite of distinct models, degrees of freedom and assumptions of as
yet unknown quantitative consequence. We pose a set of important open
questions, and suggest additional measurements, at least some of which should
be addressed in order to establish a compelling basis to conclude definitively
that thermalized, deconfined quark-gluon matter has been produced at RHIC.Comment: 101 pages, 37 figures; revised version to Nucl. Phys.
How generic is cosmic string formation in SUSY GUTs
We study cosmic string formation within supersymmetric grand unified
theories. We consider gauge groups having a rank between 4 and 8. We examine
all possible spontaneous symmetry breaking patterns from the GUT down to the
standard model gauge group. Assuming standard hybrid inflation, we select all
the models which can solve the GUT monopole problem, lead to baryogenesis after
inflation and are consistent with proton lifetime measurements. We conclude
that in all acceptable spontaneous symmetry breaking schemes, cosmic string
formation is unavoidable. The strings which form at the end of inflation have a
mass which is proportional to the inflationary scale. Sometimes, a second
network of strings form at a lower scale. Models based on gauge groups which
have rank greater than 6 can lead to more than one inflationary era; they all
end by cosmic string formation.Comment: 31 pages, Latex, submitted to PR
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