Effects of the low lying Dirac modes on excited hadrons in lattice QCD

Chiral symmetry breaking in Quantum Chromodynamics is associated with the low lying spectral modes of the Dirac operator according to the Banks-Casher relation. Here we study how removal of a variable number of low lying modes from the valence quark sector affects the masses of the ground states and first excited states of baryons and mesons in two flavor lattice QCD.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to proceedings of "Excited QCD 2012", May 6-12, 2012, Peniche, Portuga

More effects of Dirac low-mode removal

In previous studies we have shown that hadrons, except for a pion, survive the removal of the lowest lying Dirac eigenmodes from the valence quark propagators. The low-modes are tied to the dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry and we found chiral symmetry to be restored by means of matching masses of chiral partners, like, e.g., the vector and axial vector currents. Here we investigate the influence of removing the lowest part of the Dirac spectrum on the locality of the Dirac operator. Moreover, we analyze the influence of low-mode truncation on the quark momenta and thereupon on the hadron spectrum and, finally, introduce a reweighting scheme to extend the truncation to the sea quark sector.Comment: 7pages, 4 figures. Proceedings of the 31st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 29 - August 3, 2013, Mainz, German

Symmetries of hadrons after unbreaking the chiral symmetry

We study hadron correlators upon artificial restoration of the spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. In a dynamical lattice simulation we remove the lowest lying eigenmodes of the Dirac operator from the valence quark propagators and study evolution of the hadron masses obtained. All mesons and baryons in our study, except for a pion, survive unbreaking the chiral symmetry and their exponential decay signals become essentially better. From the analysis of the observed spectroscopic patterns we conclude that confinement still persists while the chiral symmetry is restored. All hadrons fall into different chiral multiplets. The broken U(1)_A symmetry does not get restored upon unbreaking the chiral symmetry. We also observe signals of some higher symmetry that includes chiral symmetry as a subgroup. Finally, from comparison of the \Delta - N splitting before and after unbreaking of the chiral symmetry we conclude that both the color-magnetic and the flavor-spin quark-quark interactions are of equal importance.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures; final versio

Unbreaking chiral symmetry

In Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) the eigenmodes of the Dirac operator with small absolute eigenvalues have a close relationship to the dynamical breaking of the chiral symmetry. In a simulation with two dynamical quarks, we study the behavior of meson propagators when removing increasingly more of those modes in the valence sector, thus partially removing effects of chiral symmetry breaking. We find that some of the symmetry aspects are restored (e.g., the masses of $\rho$ and $a_1$ approach each other) while confining properties persist.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures (figure added, references updated

Melanosomes in pigmented epithelia maintain eye lens transparency during zebrafish embryonic development

Altered levels of trace elements are associated with increased oxidative stress that is eventually responsible for pathologic conditions. Oxidative stress has been proposed to be involved in eye diseases, including cataract formation. We visualized the distribution of metals and other trace elements in the eye of zebrafish embryos by micro X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) imaging. Many elements showed highest accumulation in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the zebrafish embryo. Knockdown of the zebrafish brown locus homologues tyrp1a/b eliminated accumulation of these elements in the RPE, indicating that they are bound by mature melanosomes. Furthermore, albino (slc45a2) mutants, which completely lack melanosomes, developed abnormal lens reflections similar to the congenital cataract caused by mutation of the myosin chaperon Unc45b, and an in situ spin trapping assay revealed increased oxidative stress in the lens of albino mutants. Finally transplanting a wildtype lens into an albino mutant background resulted in cataract formation. These data suggest that melanosomes in pigment epithelial cells protect the lens from oxidative stress during embryonic development, likely by buffering trace elements

An annotated checklist of bryophytes of Europe, Macaronesia and Cyprus

Introduction. Following on from work on the European bryophyte Red List, the taxonomically and nomenclaturally updated spreadsheets used for that project have been expanded into a new checklist for the bryophytes of Europe. Methods. A steering group of ten European bryologists was convened, and over the course of a year, the spreadsheets were compared with previous European checklists, and all changes noted. Recent literature was searched extensively. A taxonomic system was agreed, and the advice and expertise of many European bryologists sought. Key results. A new European checklist of bryophytes, comprising hornworts, liverworts and mosses, is presented. Fifteen new combinations are proposed. Conclusions. This checklist provides a snapshot of the current European bryophyte flora in 2019. It will already be out-of-date on publication, and further research, particularly molecular work, can be expected to result in many more changes over the next few years.Peer reviewe

Multicolour-banding fluorescence in situ hybridisation (mbanding-FISH) to identify recurrent chromosomal alterations in breast tumour cell lines

Recurrent chromosome breakpoints in tumour cells may point to cancer genes, but not many have been molecularly characterised. We have used multicolour-banding fluorescence in situ hybridisation (mbanding-FISH) on breast tumour cell lines to identify regions of chromosome break created by inversions, duplications, insertions and translocations on chromosomes 1, 5, 8, 12 and 17. We delineate a total of 136 regions of break, some of them occurring with high frequency. We further describe two examples of dual-colour FISH characterisation of breakpoints, which target the 1p36 and 5p11–12 regions. Both breaks involve genes whose function is unknown to date. The mbanding-FISH strategy constitutes an efficient first step in the search for potential cancer genes