Investigation of various factors on the germination of chia seeds sprouts (Salvia hispanica L.)

ArticleSalvia hispanica L. is capable to produce a large amount of green matter, which can be used as a source of biologically active substances. The purpose of this research was to select the optimal factors for the chia seed sprouts (Salvia hispanica L.) germination. Dark variety chia seeds (100 grains/sample) were investigated. The most significant factors for the process of sprouting were selected as the study factors, such as the water mass fraction, the temperature and the light exposure for seed germination. The output parameters of the experiment were seed germination energy, germination of seeds, speed of germination and seedling vigor. It was revealed that the mass fraction of added water had the greatest influence on the growing process of chia seed sprouts. The optimal amount of water for producing the chia seed sprouts was in the average of 4 mL/sample. As a result, it was noted that an insufficient or excessive amount of water had a negative effect on the chia seed sprouts germination. The optimum temperature for germination of chia seed sprouts was 25 °C. The optimal light factor was also determined; in particular light exposure peaks occur in the red spectrum with a wavelength of 660 nm and a blue spectrum with a wavelength of 450 nm

Ground state properties of the 2D disordered Hubbard model

We study the ground state of the two-dimensional (2D) disordered Hubbard model by means of the projector quantum Monte Carlo (PQMC) method. This approach allows us to investigate the ground state properties of this model for lattice sizes up to $10 \times 10$, at quarter filling, for a broad range of interaction and disorder strengths. Our results show that the ground state of this system of spin-1/2 fermions remains localised in the presence of the short-ranged Hubbard interaction.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Transition to an Insulating Phase Induced by Attractive Interactions in the Disordered Three-Dimensional Hubbard Model

We study numerically the interplay of disorder and attractive interactions for spin-1/2 fermions in the three-dimensional Hubbard model. The results obtained by projector quantum Monte Carlo simulations show that at moderate disorder, increasing the attractive interaction leads to a transition from delocalized superconducting states to the insulating phase of localized pairs. This transition takes place well within the metallic phase of the single-particle Anderson model.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, 3 figure

Analysis of the nature of the ϕ→γπη\phi\to\gamma\pi\eta and ϕ→γπ0π0\phi\to\gamma\pi^0\pi^0 decays

We study interference patterns in the $\phi\to(\gamma a_0+\pi^0\rho)\to\gamma\pi\eta$ and $\phi\to(\gamma f_0+\pi^0\rho)\to\gamma \pi^0\pi^0$ reactions. Taking into account the interference, we fit the experimental data and show that the background reaction does not distort the $\pi^0\eta$ spectrum in the decay $\phi\to\gamma\pi\eta$ everywhere over the energy region and does not distort the $\pi^0\pi^0$ spectrum in the decay $\phi\to\gamma\pi^0\pi^0$ in the wide region of the $\pi^0\pi^0$ system invariant mass, $m_{\pi\pi}>670$ MeV, or when the photon energy is less than 300 MeV. We discuss the details of the scalar meson production in the radiative decays and note that there are reasonable arguments in favor of the one-loop mechanism $\phi\to K^+K^-\to\gamma a_0$ and $\phi\to K^+K^-\to\gamma f_0$. We discuss also distinctions between the four-quark, molecular, and two-quark models and argue that the Novosibirsk data give evidence in favor of the four-quark nature of the scalar $a_0(980)$ and $f_0(980)$ mesons.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, title is changed, a few clarifying remarks are added, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Particle creation, classicality and related issues in quantum field theory: II. Examples from field theory

We adopt the general formalism, which was developed in Paper I (arXiv:0708.1233) to analyze the evolution of a quantized time-dependent oscillator, to address several questions in the context of quantum field theory in time dependent external backgrounds. In particular, we study the question of emergence of classicality in terms of the phase space evolution and its relation to particle production, and clarify some conceptual issues. We consider a quantized scalar field evolving in a constant electric field and in FRW spacetimes which illustrate the two extreme cases of late time adiabatic and highly non-adiabatic evolution. Using the time-dependent generalizations of various quantities like particle number density, effective Lagrangian etc. introduced in Paper I, we contrast the evolution in these two limits bringing out key differences between the Schwinger effect and evolution in the de Sitter background. Further, our examples suggest that the notion of classicality is multifaceted and any one single criterion may not have universal applicability. For example, the peaking of the phase space Wigner distribution on the classical trajectory \emph{alone} does not imply transition to classical behavior. An analysis of the behavior of the \emph{classicality parameter}, which was introduced in Paper I, leads to the conclusion that strong particle production is necessary for the quantum state to become highly correlated in phase space at late times.Comment: RevTeX 4; 27 pages; 18 figures; second of a series of two papers, the first being arXiv:0708.1233 [gr-qc]; high resolution figures available from the authors on reques

Dark Energy and Gravity

I review the problem of dark energy focusing on the cosmological constant as the candidate and discuss its implications for the nature of gravity. Part 1 briefly overviews the currently popular `concordance cosmology' and summarises the evidence for dark energy. It also provides the observational and theoretical arguments in favour of the cosmological constant as the candidate and emphasises why no other approach really solves the conceptual problems usually attributed to the cosmological constant. Part 2 describes some of the approaches to understand the nature of the cosmological constant and attempts to extract the key ingredients which must be present in any viable solution. I argue that (i)the cosmological constant problem cannot be satisfactorily solved until gravitational action is made invariant under the shift of the matter lagrangian by a constant and (ii) this cannot happen if the metric is the dynamical variable. Hence the cosmological constant problem essentially has to do with our (mis)understanding of the nature of gravity. Part 3 discusses an alternative perspective on gravity in which the action is explicitly invariant under the above transformation. Extremizing this action leads to an equation determining the background geometry which gives Einstein's theory at the lowest order with Lanczos-Lovelock type corrections. (Condensed abstract).Comment: Invited Review for a special Gen.Rel.Grav. issue on Dark Energy, edited by G.F.R.Ellis, R.Maartens and H.Nicolai; revtex; 22 pages; 2 figure

Dynamical complexity in the C.elegans neural network

We model the neuronal circuit of the C.elegans soil worm in terms of a Hindmarsh-Rose system of ordinary differential equa- tions, dividing its circuit into six communities which are determined via the Walktrap and Louvain methods. Using the numerical solution of these equations, we analyze important measures of dynamical com- plexity, namely synchronicity, the largest Lyapunov exponent, and the ?AR auto-regressive integrated information theory measure. We show that ?AR provides a useful measure of the information contained in the C.elegans brain dynamic network. Our analysis reveals that the C.elegans brain dynamic network generates more information than the sum of its constituent parts, and that attains higher levels of integrated information for couplings for which either all its communities are highly synchronized, or there is a mixed state of highly synchronized and de- synchronized communities

Dalitz plot analysis of e+ e- --> pi0 pi0 gamma events at SQRT(s) ~ M(phi) with the KLOE detector

We have studied the Dalitz plot of the e+ e- --> pi0 pi0 gamma events collected at SQRT(s) ~ M(phi) with the KLOE detector. In the dipion invariant mass (Mpp) region below 700 MeV, the process under study is dominated by the non-resonant process e+ e- --> omega pi0 with omega --> pi0 gamma whereas, for higher Mpp values, the radiative phi decay to the f0(980) is the dominant mechanism. Different theoretical models are used to fit the Dalitz plot, taking also into account a possible contribution of the sigma(600). For each model, we extract the f0(980) mass and its coupling to pipi, KKbar and to the phi.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, submitted to European Physics Journal

Magnetic Field Generation in Stars

Enormous progress has been made on observing stellar magnetism in stars from the main sequence through to compact objects. Recent data have thrown into sharper relief the vexed question of the origin of stellar magnetic fields, which remains one of the main unanswered questions in astrophysics. In this chapter we review recent work in this area of research. In particular, we look at the fossil field hypothesis which links magnetism in compact stars to magnetism in main sequence and pre-main sequence stars and we consider why its feasibility has now been questioned particularly in the context of highly magnetic white dwarfs. We also review the fossil versus dynamo debate in the context of neutron stars and the roles played by key physical processes such as buoyancy, helicity, and superfluid turbulence,in the generation and stability of neutron star fields. Independent information on the internal magnetic field of neutron stars will come from future gravitational wave detections. Thus we maybe at the dawn of a new era of exciting discoveries in compact star magnetism driven by the opening of a new, non-electromagnetic observational window. We also review recent advances in the theory and computation of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence as it applies to stellar magnetism and dynamo theory. These advances offer insight into the action of stellar dynamos as well as processes whichcontrol the diffusive magnetic flux transport in stars.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures. Invited review chapter on on magnetic field generation in stars to appear in Space Science Reviews, Springe