High precision fundamental constants at the TeV scale

This report summarizes the proceedings of the 2014 Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics (MITP) scientific program on "High precision fundamental constants at the TeV scale". The two outstanding parameters in the Standard Model dealt with during the MITP scientific program are the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$ and the top-quark mass $m_t$. Lacking knowledge on the value of those fundamental constants is often the limiting factor in the accuracy of theoretical predictions. The current status on $\alpha_s$ and $m_t$ has been reviewed and directions for future research have been identified.Comment: 57 pages, 24 figures, pdflate

Coupling of alpha(1)-Adrenoceptors to ERK1/2 in the Human Prostate

Introduction: alpha(1)-Adrenoceptors are considered critical for the regulation of prostatic smooth muscle tone. However, previous studies suggested further alpha(1)-adrenoceptor functions besides contraction. Here, we investigated whether alpha(1)-adrenoceptors in the human prostate may activate extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2). Methods: Prostate tissues from patients undergoing radical prostatectomy were stimulated in vitro. Activation of ERK1/2 was assessed by Western blot analysis. Expression of ERK1/2 was studied by immunohistochemistry. The effect of ERK1/2 inhibition by U0126 on phenylephrine-induced contraction was studied in organ-bath experiments. Results: Stimulation of human prostate tissue with noradrenaline (30 mu M) or phenylephrine (10 mu M) resulted in ERK activation. This was reflected by increased levels of phosphorylated ERK1/2. Expression of ERK1/2 in the prostate was observed in smooth muscle cells. Incubation of prostate tissue with U0126 (30 mu M) resulted in ERK1/2 inhibition. Dose-dependent phenylephrine-induced contraction of prostate tissue was not modulated by U0126. Conclusions: alpha(1)-Adrenoceptors in the human prostate are coupled to ERK1/2. This may partially explain previous observations suggesting a role of alpha(1)-adrenoceptors in the regulation of prostate growth. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

Growing a ‘cosmic beast’: observations and simulations of MACS J0717.5+3745

We present a gravitational lensing and X-ray analysis of a massive galaxy cluster and its surroundings. The core of MACS J0717.5+3745 (M(R < 1 Mpc) ∼ 2 × 1015 M, z = 0.54) is already known to contain four merging components. We show that this is surrounded by at least seven additional substructures with masses ranging 3.8−6.5 × 1013 M, at projected radii 1.6–4.9 Mpc. We compare MACS J0717 to mock lensing and X-ray observations of similarly rich clusters in cosmological simulations. The low gas fraction of substructures predicted by simulations turns out to match our observed values of 1–4 per cent. Comparing our data to three similar simulated haloes, we infer a typical growth rate and substructure infall velocity. That suggests MACS J0717 could evolve into a system similar to, but more massive than, Abell 2744 by z = 0.31, and into a ∼ 1016 M supercluster by z = 0. The radial distribution of infalling substructure suggests that merger events are strongly episodic; however, we find that the smooth accretion of surrounding material remains the main source of mass growth even for such massive clusters

Massive amplitudes on the Coulomb branch of N=4 SYM

We initiate a systematic study of amplitudes with massive external particles on the Coulomb-branch of N=4 super Yang Mills theory: 1) We propose that (multi-)soft-scalar limits of massless amplitudes at the origin of moduli space can be used to determine Coulomb-branch amplitudes to leading order in the mass. This is demonstrated in numerous examples. 2) We find compact explicit expressions for several towers of tree-level amplitudes, including scattering of two massive W-bosons with any number of positive helicity gluons, valid for all values of the mass. 3) We present the general structure of superamplitudes on the Coulomb branch. For example, the n-point "MHV-band" superamplitude is proportional to a Grassmann polynomial of mixed degree 4 to 12, which is uniquely determined by supersymmetry. We find explicit tree-level superamplitudes for this MHV band and for other simple sectors of the theory. 4) Dual conformal generators are constructed, and we explore the dual conformal properties of the simplest massive amplitudes. Our compact expressions for amplitudes and superamplitudes should be of both theoretical and phenomenological interest; in particular the tree-level results carry over to truncations of the theory with less supersymmetry.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figur

Identification of Mendel's White Flower Character

BACKGROUND: The genetic regulation of flower color has been widely studied, notably as a character used by Mendel and his predecessors in the study of inheritance in pea. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used the genome sequence of model legumes, together with their known synteny to the pea genome to identify candidate genes for the A and A2 loci in pea. We then used a combination of genetic mapping, fast neutron mutant analysis, allelic diversity, transcript quantification and transient expression complementation studies to confirm the identity of the candidates. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have identified the pea genes A and A2. A is the factor determining anthocyanin pigmentation in pea that was used by Gregor Mendel 150 years ago in his study of inheritance. The A gene encodes a bHLH transcription factor. The white flowered mutant allele most likely used by Mendel is a simple G to A transition in a splice donor site that leads to a mis-spliced mRNA with a premature stop codon, and we have identified a second rare mutant allele. The A2 gene encodes a WD40 protein that is part of an evolutionarily conserved regulatory complex

The Extraordinary Amount of Substructure in the Hubble Frontier Fields Cluster Abell 2744

We present a joint optical/X-ray analysis of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744 (z=0.308). Our strong- and weak-lensing analysis within the central region of the cluster, i.e., at R < 1 Mpc from the brightest cluster galaxy, reveals eight substructures, including the main core. All of these dark-matter halos are detected with a significance of at least 5σ and feature masses ranging from 0.5 to 1.4× 1014M⊙ within R < 150 kpc. Merten et al. (2011) and Medezinski et al. (2016) substructures are also detected by us. We measure a slightly higher mass for the main core component than reported previously and attribute the discrepancy to the inclusion of our tightly constrained strong-lensing mass model built on Hubble Frontier Fields data. X-ray data obtained by XMM-Newton reveal four remnant cores, one of them a new detection, and three shocks. Unlike Merten et al. (2011), we find all cores to have both dark and luminous counterparts. A comparison with clusters of similar mass in the MXXL simulations yields no objects with as many massive substructures as observed in Abell 2744, confirming that Abell 2744 is an extreme system. We stress that these properties still do not constitute a challenge to ΛCDM, as caveats apply to both the simulation and the observations: for instance, the projected mass measurements from gravitational lensing and the limited resolution of the sub-haloes finders. We discuss implications of Abell 2744 for the plausibility of different dark-matter candidates and, finally, measure a new upper limit on the self-interaction cross-section of dark matter of σDM < 1.28 cm2g−1(68% CL), in good agreement with previous results from Harvey et al. (2015)

Testing the theory of immune selection in cancers that break the rules of transplantation

Modification of cancer cells likely to reduce their immunogenicity, including loss or down-regulation of MHC molecules, is now well documented and has become the main support for the concept of immune surveillance. The evidence that these modifications, in fact, result from selection by the immune system is less clear, since the possibility that they may result from reorganized metabolism associated with proliferation or from cell de-differentiation remains. Here, we (a) survey old and new transplantation experiments that test the possibility of selection and (b) survey how transmissible tumours of dogs and Tasmanian devils provide naturally evolved tests of immune surveillance

NLL soft and Coulomb resummation for squark and gluino production at the LHC

We present predictions of the total cross sections for pair production of squarks and gluinos at the LHC, including the stop-antistop production process. Our calculation supplements full fixed-order NLO predictions with resummation of threshold logarithms and Coulomb singularities at next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy, including bound-state effects. The numerical effect of higher-order Coulomb terms can be as big or larger than that of soft-gluon corrections. For a selection of benchmark points accessible with data from the 2010-2012 LHC runs, resummation leads to an enhancement of the total inclusive squark and gluino production cross section in the 15-30 % range. For individual production processes of gluinos, the corrections can be much larger. The theoretical uncertainty in the prediction of the hard-scattering cross sections is typically reduced to the 10 % level.Comment: 45 pages, 16 Figures, LaTex. v2: published version. Grids with numerical results for the NLL cross sections for squark and gluino production at the 7/8 TeV LHC are included in the submission and are also available at http://omnibus.uni-freiburg.de/~cs1010/susy.htm

A systems approach to identifying correlated gene targets for the loss of colour pigmentation in plants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The numerous diverse metabolic pathways by which plant compounds can be produced make it difficult to predict how colour pigmentation is lost for different tissues and plants. This study employs mathematical and <it>in silico </it>methods to identify correlated gene targets for the loss of colour pigmentation in plants from a whole cell perspective based on the full metabolic network of <it>Arabidopsis</it>. This involves extracting a self-contained flavonoid subnetwork from the AraCyc database and calculating feasible metabolic routes or elementary modes (EMs) for it. Those EMs leading to anthocyanin compounds are taken to constitute the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway (ABP) and their interplay with the rest of the EMs is used to study the minimal cut sets (MCSs), which are different combinations of reactions to block for eliminating colour pigmentation. By relating the reactions to their corresponding genes, the MCSs are used to explore the phenotypic roles of the ABP genes, their relevance to the ABP and the impact their eliminations would have on other processes in the cell.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Simulation and prediction results of the effect of different MCSs for eliminating colour pigmentation correspond with existing experimental observations. Two examples are: i) two MCSs which require the simultaneous suppression of genes DFR and ANS to eliminate colour pigmentation, correspond to observational results of the same genes being co-regulated for eliminating floral pigmentation in <it>Aquilegia </it>and; ii) the impact of another MCS requiring CHS suppression, corresponds to findings where the suppression of the early gene CHS eliminated nearly all flavonoids but did not affect the production of volatile benzenoids responsible for floral scent.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>From the various MCSs identified for eliminating colour pigmentation, several correlate to existing experimental observations, indicating that different MCSs are suitable for different plants, different cells, and different conditions and could also be related to regulatory genes. Being able to correlate the predictions with experimental results gives credence to the use of these mathematical and <it>in silico </it>analyses methods in the design of experiments. The methods could be used to prioritize target enzymes for different objectives to achieve desired outcomes, especially for less understood pathways.</p

Methods for modelling and analysis of bendable photovoltaic modules on irregularly curved surfaces

Most photovoltaic modules are planar and as a result, research on panel layout for photovoltaic systems typically uses planar panels. However, the increased availability of thin-film photovoltaic modules opens up possibilities for the application of flexible solar panels on irregularly curved surfaces, including the integration of photovoltaic panels on building roofs with double curvature. In order to efficiently arrange photovoltaic panels on such surfaces, geometric CAD tools as well as radiation analysis tools are needed. This paper introduces a method to generate geometry for flexible photovoltaic modules on curved surfaces, as well as a method to arrange multiple of such modules on a surface. By automating the generation of possible photovoltaic panel arrangements and linking the geometric tools to solar analysis software, large numbers of design options can be analysed in a relatively short time. This combination of geometry generation and solar analysis provides data that is important for electrical design of photovoltaic systems. The merits of the methods we introduce are illustrated with a case study, for which hundreds of design configurations have been explored in an automated manner. Based on analysis of the numeric data generated for each of the configurations, the effects of panel dimensions and orientation on solar insolation potential and panel curvature have been established. The quantitative and qualitative conclusions resulting from this analysis have informed the design of the photovoltaic system in the case study project.ISSN:2251-6832ISSN:2008-916