On the massless contributions to the vacuum polarization of heavy quarks

Recently Groote and Pivovarov have given notice of a possible fault in the use of sum rules involving two-point correlation functions to extract information on heavy quark parameters, due to the presence of massless contributions that invalidate the construction of moments of the spectral densities. Here we show how to circumvent this problem through a new definition of the moments, providing an infrared safe and consistent procedure.Comment: 1+9 pages, 3 figures. Discussion on QCD sum rules applications added. Conclusions unchanged. Version to be published in Journal of Physics

Towards efficient use of noble metals : via exsolution exemplified for CO oxidation

Many catalysts and in particular automotive exhaust catalysts usually consist of noble metal nanoparticles dispersed on metal oxide supports. While highly active, such catalysts are expensive and prone to deactivation by sintering and thus alternative methods for their production are being sought to ensure more efficient use of noble metals. Exsolution has been shown to be an approach to produce confined nanoparticles, which in turn are more stable against agglomeration, and, at the same time strained, displaying enhanced activity. While exsolution has been extensively investigated for relatively high metal loadings, it has yet to be explored for dilute loadings which is expected to be more challenging but more suitable for application of noble metals. Here we explore the substitution of Rh into an A-site deficient perovskite titante aiming to investigate the possibility of exsolving from dilute amounts of noble metal substituted perovskites. We show that this is possible and in spite of certain limitations, they still compete well against conventionally prepared samples with higher apparent surface loading when applied for CO oxidation

Form Factors in the radiative pion decay

We perform an analysis of the form factors that rule the structure-dependent amplitude in the radiative pion decay. The resonance contributions to pion -> e nu_e gamma decays are computed through the proper construction of the vector and axial-vector form factors by setting the QCD driven asymptotic properties of the three-point Green functions VVP and VAP, and by demanding the smoothing of the form factors at high transfer of momentum. A comparison between theoretical and experimental determinations of the form factors is also carried out. We also consider and evaluate the role played by a non-standard tensor form factor. We conclude that, at present and due to the hadronic incertitudes, the search for New Physics in this process is not feasible.Comment: 14 pages, no figures. Typos corrected. Accepted for publication in The European Physical Journal

The vector form factor of the pion from unitarity and analyticity: a model-independent approach

We study a model-independent parameterization of the vector pion form factor that arises from the constraints of analyticity and unitarity. Our description should be suitable up to sqrt(s) ~ 1.2 GeV and allows a model-independent determination of the mass of the rho(770) resonance, M(rho) = (775.1 +- 0.5) MeV. We analyse the experimental data on tau(-) -> pion(-) pion(0) neutrino(tau), in this framework, and its consequences on the low-energy observables worked out by chiral perturbation theory. An evaluation of the two-pion contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, a_muon, and to the fine structure constant, alpha(M(Z)^2), is also performed.Comment: 1+15 pages, 2 figure

Odd-intrinsic-parity processes within the Resonance Effective Theory of QCD

We analyse the most general odd-intrinsic-parity effective Lagrangian of QCD valid for processes involving one pseudoscalar with vector mesons described in terms of antisymmetric tensor fields. Substantial information on the odd-intrinsic-parity couplings is obtained by constructing the vector-vector-pseudoscalar Green's three-point function, at leading order in 1/Nc, and demanding that its short-distance behaviour matches the corresponding OPE result. The QCD constraints thus enforced allow us to predict the decay amplitude omega -> pion gamma, and the O(p^6) corrections to pion -> gamma gamma. Noteworthy consequences concerning the vector meson dominance assumption in the decay omega -> 3 pions are also extracted from the previous analysis.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

The <SPP> Green function and SU(3) breaking in Kl3 decays

Using the 1=/N-C expansion scheme and truncating the hadronic spectrum to the lowest-lying resonances, we match a meromorphic approximation to the Green function onto QCD by imposing the correct large-momentum falloff, both off- shell and on the relevant hadron mass shells. In this way we determine a number of chiral low-energy constants of O(p(6)), in particular the ones governing SU(3) breaking in the K-l3 vector form factor at zero momentum transfer. The main result of our matching procedure is that the known loop contributions largely dominate the corrections of O(p(6)) to f(+)(0). We discuss the implications of our final value f(+)(K0 pi-) (0) = 0.984 +/- 0.012 for the extraction of V-us from K-l3 decays

Improving power and accuracy of genome-wide association studies via a multi-locus mixed linear model methodology

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been widely used in genetic dissection of complex traits. However, common methods are all based on a fixed-SNP-effect mixed linear model (MLM) and single marker analysis, such as efficient mixed model analysis (EMMA). These methods require Bonferroni correction for multiple tests, which often is too conservative when the number of markers is extremely large. To address this concern, we proposed a random-SNP-effect MLM (RMLM) and a multi-locus RMLM (MRMLM) for GWAS. The RMLM simply treats the SNP-effect as random, but it allows a modified Bonferroni correction to be used to calculate the threshold p value for significance tests. The MRMLM is a multi-locus model including markers selected from the RMLM method with a less stringent selection criterion. Due to the multi-locus nature, no multiple test correction is needed. Simulation studies show that the MRMLM is more powerful in QTN detection and more accurate in QTN effect estimation than the RMLM, which in turn is more powerful and accurate than the EMMA. To demonstrate the new methods, we analyzed six flowering time related traits in Arabidopsis thaliana and detected more genes than previous reported using the EMMA. Therefore, the MRMLM provides an alternative for multi-locus GWAS

The sound of geological targets on Mars from the absolute intensity of laser-induced sparks shock waves

Inspection of geological material is one of the main goals of the Perseverance rover during its journey across the landscape of the Jezero crater in Mars. NASA's rover integrates SuperCam, an instrument capable of performing standoff characterization of samples using a variety of techniques. Among those tools, SuperCam can perform laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) studies to elucidate the chemical composition of the targets of interest. Data from optical spectroscopy can be supplemented by simultaneously-produced laser-produced plasma acoustics in order to expand the information acquired from the probed rocks thanks to the SuperCam's microphone (MIC) as it can be synchronized with the LIBS laser. Herein, we report cover results from LIBS and MIC during Perseverance's first 380 sols on the Martian surface. We study the correlation between both recorded signals, considering the main intrasample and environmental sources of variation for each technique, to understand their behavior and how they can be interpreted together towards complimenting LIBS with acoustics. We find that louder and more stable acoustic signals are recorded from rock with compact surfaces, i.e., low presence loose particulate material, and harder mineral phases in their composition. Reported results constitute the first description of the evolution of the intensity in the time domain of shockwaves from laser-produced plasmas on geological targets recorded in Mars. These signals are expected contain physicochemical signatures pertaining to the inspected sampling positions. As the dependence of the acoustic signal recorded on the sample composition, provided by LIBS, is unveiled, the sound from sparks become a powerful tool for the identification of mineral phases with similar optical emission spectra.Many people helped with this project in addition to the co-authors, including hardware and operation teams, and we are most grateful for their support. This project was supported in the USA by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and in France is conducted under the authority of CNES. Research funded by projects UMA18-FEDERJA-272 from Junta de Andalucía and PID2020-119185GB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, of Spain. P.P. is grateful to the European Union’s Next Generation EU (NGEU) plan and the Spanish Ministerio de Universidades for his Margarita Salas fellowship under the program ′′Ayudas para la Recualificacion del Sistema Universitario Español′′. RCW was funded by JPL contract 1681089. A.U was funded by NASA Mars 2020 Participating Scientist program 80NSSC21K0330. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Zeros of the W_L Z_L -> W_L Z_L amplitude: where vector resonances stand

A Higgsless electroweak theory may be populated by spin-1 resonances around E ~ 1TeV as a consequence of a new strong interacting sector, frequently proposed as a tool to smear the high-energy behaviour of scattering amplitudes, for instance, elastic gauge boson scattering. Information on those resonances, if they exist, must be contained in the low-energy couplings of the electroweak chiral effective theory. Using the facts that: i) the scattering of longitudinal gauge bosons, W_L, Z_L, can be well described in the high-energy region E >> M_W by the scattering of the corresponding Goldstone bosons (equivalence theorem) and ii) the zeros of the scattering amplitude carry the information on the heavier spectrum that has been integrated out; we employ the O(p^4) electroweak chiral Lagrangian to identify the parameter space region of the low-energy couplings where vector resonances may arise. An estimate of their masses is also provided by our method.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

The Functional Interplay between Protein Kinase CK2 and CCA1 Transcriptional Activity Is Essential for Clock Temperature Compensation in Arabidopsis

Circadian rhythms are daily biological oscillations driven by an endogenous mechanism known as circadian clock. The protein kinase CK2 is one of the few clock components that is evolutionary conserved among different taxonomic groups. CK2 regulates the stability and nuclear localization of essential clock proteins in mammals, fungi, and insects. Two CK2 regulatory subunits, CKB3 and CKB4, have been also linked with the Arabidopsis thaliana circadian system. However, the biological relevance and the precise mechanisms of CK2 function within the plant clockwork are not known. By using ChIP and Double–ChIP experiments together with in vivo luminescence assays at different temperatures, we were able to identify a temperature-dependent function for CK2 modulating circadian period length. Our study uncovers a previously unpredicted mechanism for CK2 antagonizing the key clock regulator CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED 1 (CCA1). CK2 activity does not alter protein accumulation or subcellular localization but interferes with CCA1 binding affinity to the promoters of the oscillator genes. High temperatures enhance the CCA1 binding activity, which is precisely counterbalanced by the CK2 opposing function. Altering this balance by over-expression, mutation, or pharmacological inhibition affects the temperature compensation profile, providing a mechanism by which plants regulate circadian period at changing temperatures. Therefore, our study establishes a new model demonstrating that two opposing and temperature-dependent activities (CCA1-CK2) are essential for clock temperature compensation in Arabidopsis