574 research outputs found
On symmetries of Chern-Simons and BF topological theories
We describe constructing solutions of the field equations of Chern-Simons and
topological BF theories in terms of deformation theory of locally constant
(flat) bundles. Maps of flat connections into one another (dressing
transformations) are considered. A method of calculating (nonlocal) dressing
symmetries in Chern-Simons and topological BF theories is formulated
Knockdown of Indy/CeNac2 extends Caenorhabditis elegans life span by inducing AMPK/aak-2
Reducing the expression of the Indy (Acronym for 'I'm Not Dead, Yet') gene in lower organisms promotes longevity and leads to a phenotype that resembles various aspects of caloric restriction. In C. elegans, the available data on life span extension is controversial. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the role of the C. elegans INDY homolog CeNAC2 in life span regulation and to delineate possible molecular mechanisms. siRNA against Indy/CeNAC2 was used to reduce expression of Indy/CeNAC2. Mean life span was assessed in four independent experiments, as well as whole body fat content and AMPK activation. Moreover, the effect of Indy/CeNAC2 knockdown in C. elegans with inactivating variants of AMPK (TG38) was studied. Knockdown of Indy/CeNAC2 increased life span by 22±3 % compared to control siRNA treated C. elegans, together with a decrease in whole body fat content by ~50%. Indy/CeNAC2 reduction also increased the activation of the intracellular energy sensor AMPK/aak2. In worms without functional AMPK/aak2, life span was not extended when Indy/CeNAC2 was reduced. Inhibition of glycolysis with deoxyglucose, an intervention known to increase AMPK/aak2 activity and life span, did not promote longevity when Indy/CeNAC2 was knocked down. Together, these data indicate that reducing the expression of Indy/CeNAC2 increases life span in C. elegans, an effect mediated at least in part by AMPK/aak2
Instability of vortex array and transitions to turbulent states in rotating helium II
We consider superfluid helium inside a container which rotates at constant
angular velocity and investigate numerically the stability of the array of
quantized vortices in the presence of an imposed axial counterflow. This
problem was studied experimentally by Swanson {\it et al.}, who reported
evidence of instabilities at increasing axial flow but were not able to explain
their nature. We find that Kelvin waves on individual vortices become unstable
and grow in amplitude, until the amplitude of the waves becomes large enough
that vortex reconnections take place and the vortex array is destabilized. The
eventual nonlinear saturation of the instability consists of a turbulent tangle
of quantized vortices which is strongly polarized. The computed results compare
well with the experiments. Finally we suggest a theoretical explanation for the
second instability which was observed at higher values of the axial flow
Areas of natural occurrence of melipona scutellaris Latreille, 1811(Hymenoptera: Apidae) in the state of Bahia, Brazil.
The bee Melipona scutellaris is considered the reared meliponine species with the largest distribution in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, with records from the state of Rio Grande do Norte down to the state of Bahia. Considering the importance of this species in the generation of income for family agriculture and in the preservation of areas with natural vegetation, this study aimed at providing knowledge on the distribution of natural colonies of M. scutellaris in the state of Bahia. Literature information, interviews with stinglessbee beekeepers, and expeditions were conducted to confirm the natural occurrence of the species. A total of 102 municipalities showed records for M. scutellaris, whose occurrence was observed in areas ranging from sea level up to 1,200-meter height. The occurrence of this species in the state of Bahia is considered to be restricted to municipalities on the coastal area and the Chapada Diamantina with its rainforests. Geographic coordinates, elevation, climate and vegetation data were obtained, which allowed a map to be prepared for the area of occurrence in order to support conservation and management policies for the species
Ellipticity in Cosmic Microwave Background as a Tracer of Large-Scale Universe
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 3-year data confirm the
ellipticity of anisotropies of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) maps, found
previously for Boomerang and WMAP 1-year high sensitivity maps. The low noise
level of the WMAP latter data enable also to show that, the ellipticity is a
property not described by the conventional cosmological model fitting the power
spectrum of CMB. As a large scale anomaly, the ellipticity characteristics are
consistent with the effect of geodesics mixing occurring in hyperbolic
Universe. Its relation to other large scale effects, i.e. to suppressed low
multipoles, as well as to dark energy if the latter is due to vacuum
fluctuations, is then an arising issue.Comment: to appear in Phys. Lett.
Generating vortex rings in Bose-Einstein condensates in the line-source approximation
We present a numerical method for generating vortex rings in Bose-Einstein
condensates confined in axially symmetric traps. The vortex ring is generated
using the line-source approximation for the vorticity, i.e., the rotational of
the superfluid velocity field is different from zero only on a circumference of
given radius located on a plane perpendicular to the symmetry axis and coaxial
with it. The particle density is obtained by solving a modified
Gross-Pitaevskii equation that incorporates the effect of the velocity field.
We discuss the appearance of density profiles, the vortex core structure and
the vortex nucleation energy, i.e., the energy difference between vortical and
ground-state configurations. This is used to present a qualitative description
of the vortex dynamics.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Quenched Lattice QCD with Domain Wall Fermions and the Chiral Limit
Quenched QCD simulations on three volumes, , and
and three couplings, , 5.85 and 6.0 using domain
wall fermions provide a consistent picture of quenched QCD. We demonstrate that
the small induced effects of chiral symmetry breaking inherent in this
formulation can be described by a residual mass (\mres) whose size decreases
as the separation between the domain walls () is increased. However, at
stronger couplings much larger values of are required to achieve a given
physical value of \mres. For and , we find
\mres/m_s=0.033(3), while for , and ,
\mres/m_s=0.074(5), where is the strange quark mass. These values are
significantly smaller than those obtained from a more naive determination in
our earlier studies. Important effects of topological near zero modes which
should afflict an accurate quenched calculation are easily visible in both the
chiral condensate and the pion propagator. These effects can be controlled by
working at an appropriately large volume. A non-linear behavior of in
the limit of small quark mass suggests the presence of additional infrared
subtlety in the quenched approximation. Good scaling is seen both in masses and
in over our entire range, with inverse lattice spacing varying between
1 and 2 GeV.Comment: 91 pages, 34 figure
Observation of Orbitally Excited B_s Mesons
We report the first observation of two narrow resonances consistent with
states of orbitally excited (L=1) B_s mesons using 1 fb^{-1} of ppbar
collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector at the
Fermilab Tevatron. We use two-body decays into K^- and B^+ mesons reconstructed
as B^+ \to J/\psi K^+, J/\psi \to \mu^+ \mu^- or B^+ \to \bar{D}^0 \pi^+,
\bar{D}^0 \to K^+ \pi^-. We deduce the masses of the two states to be m(B_{s1})
= 5829.4 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2 and m(B_{s2}^*) = 5839.7 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2.Comment: Version accepted and published by Phys. Rev. Let
Implementation of immobilization accessories for positioning of small animals for radiation therapy
High-field high-repetition-rate sources for the coherent THz control of matter
Ultrashort flashes of THz light with low photon energies of a few meV, but strong electric or magnetic field transients have recently been employed to prepare various fascinating nonequilibrium states in matter. Here we present a new class of sources based on superradiant enhancement of radiation from relativistic electron bunches in a compact electron accelerator that we believe will revolutionize experiments in this field. Our prototype source generates high-field THz pulses at unprecedented quasicontinuous-wave repetition rates up to the MHz regime. We demonstrate parameters that exceed state-of-the-art laser-based sources by more than 2 orders of magnitude. The peak fields and the repetition rates are highly scalable and once fully operational this type of sources will routinely provide 1 MV/cm electric fields and 0.3 T magnetic fields at repetition rates of few 100 kHz. We benchmark the unique properties by performing a resonant coherent THz control experiment with few 10 fs resolution
- …