Brane superpotential and local Calabi-Yau manifolds

We briefly report on some recent progress in the computation of B-brane superpotentials for Type II strings compactified on Calabi-Yau manifolds, obtained by using a parametrization of tubular neighborhoods of complex submanifolds, also known as local spaces. In particular, we propose a closed expression for the superpotential of a brane on a genus-g curve in a Calabi-Yau threefold in the case in which there exists a holomorphic projection from the local space around the curve to the curve itself.Comment: 3 pages, contribution to the proceedings of the workshop "Progress of String Theory and Quantum Field Theory", Osaka City University, December 200

Streamwise-traveling waves of spanwise wall velocity for turbulent drag reduction

Waves of spanwise velocity imposed at the walls of a plane turbulent channel flow are studied by Direct Numerical Simulations. We consider sinusoidal waves of spanwise velocity which vary in time and are modulated in space along the streamwise direction. The phase speed may be null, positive or negative, so that the waves may be either stationary or traveling forward or backward in the direction of the mean flow. Such a forcing includes as particular cases two known techniques for reducing friction drag: the oscillating wall technique (a traveling wave with infinite phase speed) and the recently proposed steady distribution of spanwise velocity (a wave with zero phase speed). The traveling waves alter the friction drag significantly. Waves which slowly travel forward produce a large reduction of drag, that can relaminarize the flow at low values of the Reynolds number. Faster waves yield a totally different outcome, i.e. drag increase. Even faster waves produce a drag reduction effect again. Backward-traveling waves instead lead to drag reduction at any speed. The traveling waves, when they reduce drag, operate in similar fashion to the oscillating wall, with an improved energetic efficiency. Drag increase is observed when the waves travel at a speed comparable with that of the convecting near-wall turbulence structures. A diagram illustrating the different flow behaviors is presented

Proton and neutron polarized structure functions from low to high Q**2

Phenomenological parameterizations of proton and neutron polarized structure functions, g1p and g1n, are developed for x > 0.02 using deep inelastic data up to ~ 50 (GeV/c)**2 as well as available experimental results on photo- and electro-production of nucleon resonances. The generalized Drell-Hearn-Gerasimov sum rules are predicted from low to high values of Q**2 and compared with proton and neutron data. Furthermore, the main results of the power correction analysis carried out on the Q**2-behavior of the polarized proton Nachtmann moments, evaluated using our parameterization of g1p, are briefly summarized.Comment: Proceedings of the II International Symposium on the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule and the spin structure of the nucleon, Genova (Italy), July 3-6, 200

Neutron structure function moments at leading twist

The experimental data on F2 structure functions of the proton and deuteron were used to construct their moments. In particular, recent measurements performed with CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab allowed to extend our knowledge of structure functions in the large-x region. The phenomenological analysis of these experimental moments in terms of the Operator Product Expansion permitted to separate the leading and higher twist contributions. Applying nuclear corrections to extracted deuteron moments we obtained the contribution of the neutron. Combining leading twist moments of the neutron and proton we found d/u ratio at x->1 approaching 0, although 1/5 value could not be excluded. The twist expansion analysis suggests that the contamination of higher twists influences the extraction of the d/u ratio at x->1 even at Q2-scale as large as 12 (GeV/c)^2.Comment: To appear in proceedings of Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum VII Conference, Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 2-7 September 200

Possible evidence of extended objects inside the proton

Recent experimental determinations of the Nachtmann moments of the inelastic structure function of the proton F2p(x, Q**2), obtained at Jefferson Lab, are analyzed for values of the squared four-momentum transfer Q**2 ranging from ~ 0.1 to ~ 2 (GeV/c)**2. It is shown that such inelastic proton data exhibit a new type of scaling behavior and that the resulting scaling function can be interpreted as a constituent form factor consistent with the elastic nucleon data. These findings suggest that at low momentum transfer the inclusive proton structure function originates mainly from the elastic coupling with extended objects inside the proton. We obtain a constituent size of ~ 0.2 - 0.3 fm.Comment: 1 reference adde

Comment on "Nucleon elastic form factors and local duality"

We comment on the papers "Nucleon elastic form factors and local duality" [Phys. Rev. {\bf D62}, 073008 (2000)] and "Experimental verification of quark-hadron duality" [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 85}, 1186 (2000)]. Our main comment is that the reconstruction of the proton magnetic form factor, claimed to be obtained from the inelastic scaling curve thanks to parton-hadron local duality, is affected by an artifact.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.

Self-tuning high-voltage and high-frequency sinusoidal power supply for dielectric barrier discharge plasma generation

In this paper a high-voltage sinusoidal power supply controlled by Arduino DUE micro-controller is described. This generator can feed a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) load with sinusoidal voltages up to 20 kV peak and frequencies in the range 10\u201360 kHz, with a maximum output power of 200 W. Output voltage can be produced either in a continuous mode, or with on/off modulation cycles, according to treatment/application requirements. This power source is equipped with on-board diagnostics used to measure the output voltage and the charge delivered to the load. With a sample frequency of 500 kHz, Arduino DUE allows to evaluate both the high voltage and the average power feeding the discharge without the use of an expensive external measurement setup. Lissajous techniques are utilized to calculate discharge average power in a quasi-real-time manner. When a load is connected to high-voltage terminals, a self-tuning procedure is carried out to obtain the best working frequency. This parameter allows to minimize power-electronic component stress and to maximize generator efficiency

The proton structure function F2 in the resonance region

Unique measurement of the proton structure function F2 in a wide two-dimensional region of x and Q**2 has been reported. The accessible kinematics covers entire resonance region up to W=2.5 GeV in the Q**2 interval from 0.1 to 4.5 GeV**2. Obtained data allowed for the first time an evaluation of moments of the structure function F2 directly from experimental data as well as an intensive study of the Bloom-Gilman duality phenomenon.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of GDH2002 Conference, 3-6 July 2002, Genova, Italy, to be published in World Scientifi