5,119 research outputs found
Solar Neutrinos: Spin Flavour Precession and LMA
The time dependence that appears to be hinted by the data from the first 13
years of the solar neutrino Gallium experiments is viewed as resulting from a
partial conversion of active neutrinos to light sterile ones through the
resonant interaction between the magnetic moment of the neutrino and a varying
solar field. A summary of the model and its predictions are presented for the
forthcoming experiments Borexino and LENS.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, contribution to 12th Lomonosov Conference in
Elementary Particle Physics, Moscow, Aug 24-31 (2005
Remarks on non-gaussian fluctuations of the inflaton and constancy of \zeta outside the horizon
We point out that the non-gaussianity arising from cubic self interactions of
the inflaton field is proportional to \xi N_e where \xi ~ V"' and N_e is the
number of e-foldings from horizon exit till the end of inflation. For scales of
interest N_e = 60, and for models of inflation such as new inflation, natural
inflation and running mass inflation \xi is large compared to the slow roll
parameter \epsilon ~ V'^{2}. Therefore the contribution from self interactions
should not be outrightly ignored while retaining other terms in the
non-gaussianity parameter f_{NL}. But the N_e dependent term seems to imply the
growth of non-gaussianities outside the horizon. Therefore we briefly discuss
the issue of the constancy of correlations of the curvature perturbation \zeta
outside the horizon. We then calculate the 3-point function of the inflaton
fluctuations using the canonical formalism and further obtain the 3-point
function of \zeta_k. We find that the N_e dependent contribution to f_{NL} from
self interactions of the inflaton field is cancelled by contributions from
other terms associated with non-linearities in cosmological perturbation
theory.Comment: 16 pages, Minor changes, matches the published version. v3: Minor
typo correcte
Mossbauer neutrinos in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory
We demonstrate the correspondence between quantum mechanical and quantum
field theoretical descriptions of Mossbauer neutrino oscillations. First, we
compute the combined rate of Mossbauer neutrino emission, propagation,
and detection in quantum field theory, treating the neutrino as an internal
line of a tree level Feynman diagram. We include explicitly the effect of
homogeneous line broadening due to fluctuating electromagnetic fields in the
source and detector crystals and show that the resulting formula for
is identical to the one obtained previously (Akhmedov et al., arXiv:0802.2513)
for the case of inhomogeneous line broadening. We then proceed to a quantum
mechanical treatment of Mossbauer neutrinos and show that the oscillation,
coherence, and resonance terms from the field theoretical result can be
reproduced if the neutrino is described as a superposition of Lorentz-shaped
wave packet with appropriately chosen energies and widths. On the other hand,
the emission rate and the detection cross section, including localization and
Lamb-Mossbauer terms, cannot be predicted in quantum mechanics and have to be
put in by hand.Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages, 1 figure; v2: typos corrected; matches published
versio
Effect of small mapping population sizes on reliability of quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping
A limitation of quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping is that accuracy of determining QTL position and effects are largely determined by population size. Despite the importance of this concept, known as the "Beavis effect there has generally been a lack of understanding by molecular geneticists and breeders. One possible explanation for this may be that this concept has been explored by using computer simulations and that these findings may not be clearly understood. In this study, we demonstrated the effect of population size on the accuracy of determining QTL positions and effects in a simple and concise manner. Simulated data was generated for extremely large mapping populations (n = 1000) and smaller mapping populations (n = 94 or n = 190) were obtained by random sampling. Populations were defined to segregate for either three or five QTLs with heritabilities of h2 = 0.75 or h2 = 0.50. When small populations were used, errors were detected in determining QTL positions, and in some cases, QTLs were not detected (that is, false negatives) especially when h2 = 0.50. More importantly, R2 values were overestimated or underestimated. Composite interval mapping was more reliable for detecting QTLs compared to simple interval mapping. These findings have important implications for QTLs which are selected in breeding programs via marker-assisted selection.Key words: Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, Beavis effect, population size, confidence intervals, marker-assisted selection
Conserving the endangered mahseers (tor spp.) of india: The positive role of recreational fisheries
Nonhomologous DNA End Joining in Cell-Free Extracts
Among various DNA damages, double-strand breaks (DSBs) are considered as most deleterious, as they may lead to chromosomal rearrangements and cancer when unrepaired. Nonhomologous DNA end joining (NHEJ) is one of the major DSB repair pathways in higher organisms. A large number of studies on NHEJ are based on in vitro systems using cell-free extracts. In this paper, we summarize the studies on NHEJ performed by various groups in different cell-free repair systems
Molecular mechanism of Endosulfan action in mammals
Endosulfan is a broad-spectrum organochlorine pesticide, speculated to be detrimental to human health in areas of active exposure. However, the molecular insights to its mechanism of action remain poorly understood. In two recent studies, our group investigated the physiological and molecular aspects of endosulfan action using in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo analyses. The results showed that apart from reducing fertility levels in male animals, Endosulfan induced DNA damage that triggers compromised DNA damage response leading to undesirable processing of broken DNA ends. In this review, pesticide use especially of Endosulfan in the Indian scenario is summarized and the importance of our findings, especially the rationalized use of pesticides in the future, is emphasized
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