Performance of an acousto-optic Bragg cell under ion microbeam irradiation

An acousto optic (AO) deflector composed of PbMoO{sub 4} was exposed to 4 MeV protons while operating under Bragg angle conditions. An ion beam in air of 1 mm width was directed normal to the crystal face and laser beam. Between exposures, the approximately 13 mm x 8.5 mm AO deflector was mechanically translated in two dimensions in front of the fixed ion beam. The AO diffraction efficiency was mapped and was observed to change as a function of ion beam location and dose rate. These effects are attributed to the induced change in the temperature distribution of the crystal, which changed the sonic velocity and refractive index. Similar effects were observed when the ion beam was directed at the acoustic transducer

Jack superpolynomials with negative fractional parameter: clustering properties and super-Virasoro ideals

The Jack polynomials P_\lambda^{(\alpha)} at \alpha=-(k+1)/(r-1) indexed by certain (k,r,N)-admissible partitions are known to span an ideal I^{(k,r)}_N of the space of symmetric functions in N variables. The ideal I^{(k,r)}_N is invariant under the action of certain differential operators which include half the Virasoro algebra. Moreover, the Jack polynomials in I^{(k,r)}_N admit clusters of size at most k: they vanish when k+1 of their variables are identified, and they do not vanish when only k of them are identified. We generalize most of these properties to superspace using orthogonal eigenfunctions of the supersymmetric extension of the trigonometric Calogero-Moser-Sutherland model known as Jack superpolynomials. In particular, we show that the Jack superpolynomials P_{\Lambda}^{(\alpha)} at \alpha=-(k+1)/(r-1) indexed by certain (k,r,N)-admissible superpartitions span an ideal {\mathcal I}^{(k,r)}_N of the space of symmetric polynomials in N commuting variables and N anticommuting variables. We prove that the ideal {\mathcal I}^{(k,r)}_N is stable with respect to the action of the negative-half of the super-Virasoro algebra. In addition, we show that the Jack superpolynomials in {\mathcal I}^{(k,r)}_N vanish when k+1 of their commuting variables are equal, and conjecture that they do not vanish when only k of them are identified. This allows us to conclude that the standard Jack polynomials with prescribed symmetry should satisfy similar clustering properties. Finally, we conjecture that the elements of {\mathcal I}^{(k,2)}_N provide a basis for the subspace of symmetric superpolynomials in N variables that vanish when k+1 commuting variables are set equal to each other.Comment: 36 pages; the main changes in v2 are : 1) in the introduction, we present exceptions to an often made statement concerning the clustering property of the ordinary Jack polynomials for (k,r,N)-admissible partitions (see Footnote 2); 2) Conjecture 14 is substantiated with the extensive computational evidence presented in the new appendix C; 3) the various tests supporting Conjecture 16 are reporte

Right ventricular dysfunction in patients with COVID-19 pneumonitis whose lungs are mechanically ventilated: a multicentre prospective cohort study

Cardiovascular complications due to COVID-19, such as right ventricular dysfunction, are common. The combination of acute respiratory distress syndrome, invasive mechanical ventilation, thromboembolic disease and direct myocardial injury creates conditions where right ventricular dysfunction is likely to occur. We undertook a prospective, multicentre cohort study in 10 Scottish intensive care units of patients with COVID-19 pneumonitis whose lungs were mechanically ventilated. Right ventricular dysfunction was defined as the presence of severe right ventricular dilation and interventricular septal flattening. To explore the role of myocardial injury, high-sensitivity troponin and N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide plasma levels were measured in all patients. We recruited 121 patients and 118 (98%) underwent imaging. It was possible to determine the primary outcome in 112 (91%). Severe right ventricular dilation was present in 31 (28%), with interventricular septal flattening present in nine (8%). Right ventricular dysfunction (the combination of these two parameters) was present in seven (6%, 95%CI 3–13%). Thirty-day mortality was 86% in those with right ventricular dysfunction as compared with 45% in those without (p = 0.051). Patients with right ventricular dysfunction were more likely to have: pulmonary thromboembolism (p < 0.001); higher plateau airway pressure (p = 0.048); lower dynamic compliance (p = 0.031); higher plasma N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide levels (p = 0.006); and raised plasma troponin levels (p = 0.048). Our results demonstrate a prevalence of right ventricular dysfunction of 6%, which was associated with increased mortality (86%). Associations were also observed between right ventricular dysfunction and aetiological domains of: acute respiratory distress syndrome; ventilation; thromboembolic disease; and direct myocardial injury, implying a complex multifactorial pathophysiology

On the Behavior of the Effective QCD Coupling alpha_tau(s) at Low Scales

The hadronic decays of the tau lepton can be used to determine the effective charge alpha_tau(m^2_tau') for a hypothetical tau-lepton with mass in the range 0 < m_tau' < m_tau. This definition provides a fundamental definition of the QCD coupling at low mass scales. We study the behavior of alpha_tau at low mass scales directly from first principles and without any renormalization-scheme dependence by looking at the experimental data from the OPAL Collaboration. The results are consistent with the freezing of the physical coupling at mass scales s = m^2_tau' of order 1 GeV^2 with a magnitude alpha_tau ~ 0.9 +/- 0.1.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review D, added references, some text added, no results nor figures change

Relativistic Calculation of the Meson Spectrum: a Fully Covariant Treatment Versus Standard Treatments

A large number of treatments of the meson spectrum have been tried that consider mesons as quark - anti quark bound states. Recently, we used relativistic quantum "constraint" mechanics to introduce a fully covariant treatment defined by two coupled Dirac equations. For field-theoretic interactions, this procedure functions as a "quantum mechanical transform of Bethe-Salpeter equation". Here, we test its spectral fits against those provided by an assortment of models: Wisconsin model, Iowa State model, Brayshaw model, and the popular semi-relativistic treatment of Godfrey and Isgur. We find that the fit provided by the two-body Dirac model for the entire meson spectrum competes with the best fits to partial spectra provided by the others and does so with the smallest number of interaction functions without additional cutoff parameters necessary to make other approaches numerically tractable. We discuss the distinguishing features of our model that may account for the relative overall success of its fits. Note especially that in our approach for QCD, the resulting pion mass and associated Goldstone behavior depend sensitively on the preservation of relativistic couplings that are crucial for its success when solved nonperturbatively for the analogous two-body bound-states of QED.Comment: 75 pages, 6 figures, revised content

A Unified Algebraic Approach to Few and Many-Body Correlated Systems

The present article is an extended version of the paper {\it Phys. Rev.} {\bf B 59}, R2490 (1999), where, we have established the equivalence of the Calogero-Sutherland model to decoupled oscillators. Here, we first employ the same approach for finding the eigenstates of a large class of Hamiltonians, dealing with correlated systems. A number of few and many-body interacting models are studied and the relationship between their respective Hilbert spaces, with that of oscillators, is found. This connection is then used to obtain the spectrum generating algebras for these systems and make an algebraic statement about correlated systems. The procedure to generate new solvable interacting models is outlined. We then point out the inadequacies of the present technique and make use of a novel method for solving linear differential equations to diagonalize the Sutherland model and establish a precise connection between this correlated system's wave functions, with those of the free particles on a circle. In the process, we obtain a new expression for the Jack polynomials. In two dimensions, we analyze the Hamiltonian having Laughlin wave function as the ground-state and point out the natural emergence of the underlying linear $W_{1+\infty}$ symmetry in this approach.Comment: 18 pages, Revtex format, To appear in Physical Review

Light-Front Holography, Light-Front Wavefunctions, and Novel QCD Phenomena

Light-Front Holography, a remarkable feature of the AdS/CFT correspondence, maps amplitudes in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time. The model leads to an effective confining light-front QCD Hamiltonian and a single-variable light-front Schrodinger equation which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons for general spin and orbital angular momentum. The coordinate z in AdS space is identified with a Lorentz-invariant coordinate zeta which measures the separation of the constituents within a hadron at equal light-front time and determines the off-shell dynamics of the bound-state wavefunctions and the fall-off in the invariant mass of the constituents. The soft-wall holographic model, modified by a positive-sign dilaton metric, leads to a remarkable one-parameter description of nonperturbative hadron dynamics -- a semi-classical frame-independent first approximation to the spectra and light-front wavefunctions of meson and baryons. The model predicts a Regge spectrum of linear trajectories with the same slope in the leading orbital angular momentum L of hadrons and the radial quantum number n. The hadron eigensolutions projected on the free Fock basis provides the complete set of valence and non-valence light-front Fock state wavefunctions which describe the hadron's momentum and spin distributions needed to compute measures of hadron structure at the quark and gluon level. The effective confining potential also creates quark- antiquark pairs. The AdS/QCD model can be systematically improved by using its complete orthonormal solutions to diagonalize the full QCD light-front Hamiltonian or by applying the Lippmann-Schwinger method to systematically include the QCD interaction terms. A new perspective on quark and gluon condensates is also presented.Comment: Presented at LIGHTCONE 2011, 23 - 27 May, 2011, Dallas, T