Inclusive decays and lifetimes of doubly charmed baryons

The analysis of singly charmed hadrons has been extended to the case of doubly charmed baryons, $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$, $\Xi_{cc}^{+}$ and $\Omega_{cc}^{+}$. Doubly charmed baryons are described as a system containing a heavy $cc$-diquark and a light quark, similarly as in a heavy-light meson. This leads to preasymptotic effects in semileptonic and nonleptonic decays which are essentially proportional to the meson wave function. Interplay between preasymptotic effects in semileptonic and/or nonleptonic decay rates leads to very clear predictions for semileptonic branching ratios and lifetimes of doubly charmed baryons.Comment: 14 pages latex file, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Wikipedias: Collaborative web-based encyclopedias as complex networks

Wikipedia is a popular web-based encyclopedia edited freely and collaboratively by its users. In this paper we present an analysis of Wikipedias in several languages as complex networks. The hyperlinks pointing from one Wikipedia article to another are treated as directed links while the articles represent the nodes of the network. We show that many network characteristics are common to different language versions of Wikipedia, such as their degree distributions, growth, topology, reciprocity, clustering, assortativity, path lengths and triad significance profiles. These regularities, found in the ensemble of Wikipedias in different languages and of different sizes, point to the existence of a unique growth process. We also compare Wikipedias to other previously studied networks.Comment: v3: 9 pages, 12 figures, Change of title, few paragraphs and two figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Dark energy transition between quintessence and phantom regimes - an equation of state analysis

The dark energy transition between quintessence ($w>-1$) and phantom ($w<-1$) regimes (the crossing of the cosmological constant boundary) is studied using the dark energy equation of state. Models characterized by this type of transition are explicitly constructed and their equation of state is found to be {\em implicitly} defined. The behavior of the more general models with the implicitly defined equation of state, obtained by the generalization of the explicitly constructed models, is studied to gain insight into the necessary conditions for the occurrence of the transition, as well as to investigate the mechanism behind the transition. It is found that the parameters of the generalized models need to satisfy special conditions for the transition to happen and that the mechanism behind the transition is the cancellation of the contribution of the cosmological constant boundary. The aspects of the behavior of the generalized models which are not related to the transition are briefly discussed and the role of the implicitly defined dark energy equation of state in the description of the dark energy evolution is emphasized.Comment: v1: 9 pages, 6 figures. v2: references added. v3: minor changes. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

"Expansion" around the vacuum: how far can we go from Lambda?

The cosmological constant ($\Lambda$), i.e., the energy density stored in the true vacuum state of all existing fields in the Universe, is the simplest and the most natural possibility to describe the current cosmic acceleration. However, despite its observational successes, such a possibility exacerbates the well known $\Lambda$ problem, requiring a natural explanation for its small, but nonzero, value. In this paper we discuss how different our Universe may be from the $\Lambda$CDM model by studying observational aspects of a kind of "expansion" around the vacuum given by the equation of (EOS) $p_{d}=-\rho_{d} - A \rho_{d}^{\alpha}$. In different parameter regimes such a parametrization is capable of describing both quintessence-like and phantom-like dark energy, transient acceleration, and various (non)singular possibilities for the final destiny of the Universe, including singularities at finite values of the scale factor, the so-called "Big Rip", as well as sudden future singularities. By using some of the most recent cosmological observations we show that if the functional form of the dark energy EOS has additional parameters very little can be said about their values from the current observational results, which postpones, until the arrival of more precise observational data, a definitive answer to the question posed above.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Properties of singularities in (phantom) dark energy universe

The properties of future singularities are investigated in the universe dominated by dark energy including the phantom-type fluid. We classify the finite-time singularities into four classes and explicitly present the models which give rise to these singularities by assuming the form of the equation of state of dark energy. We show the existence of a stable fixed point with an equation of state $w<-1$ and numerically confirm that this is actually a late-time attractor in the phantom-dominated universe. We also construct a phantom dark energy scenario coupled to dark matter that reproduces singular behaviors of the Big Rip type for the energy density and the curvature of the universe. The effect of quantum corrections coming from conformal anomaly can be important when the curvature grows large, which typically moderates the finite-time singularities.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, references are added, version to appear in Physical Review

Solving for Micro- and Macro- Scale Electrostatic Configurations Using the Robin Hood Algorithm

We present a novel technique by which highly-segmented electrostatic configurations can be solved. The Robin Hood method is a matrix-inversion algorithm optimized for solving high density boundary element method (BEM) problems. We illustrate the capabilities of this solver by studying two distinct geometry scales: (a) the electrostatic potential of a large volume beta-detector and (b) the field enhancement present at surface of electrode nano-structures. Geometries with elements numbering in the O(10^5) are easily modeled and solved without loss of accuracy. The technique has recently been expanded so as to include dielectrics and magnetic materials.Comment: 40 pages, 20 figure

The final state and thermodynamics of dark energy universe

As it follows from the classical analysis, the typical final state of the dark energy universe where dominant energy condition is violated is finite time, sudden future singularity (Big Rip). For a number of dark energy universes (including scalar phantom and effective phantom theories as well as specific quintessence model) we demonstrate that quantum effects play the dominant role near Big Rip, driving the universe out of future singularity (or, at least, making it milder). As a consequence, the entropy bounds with quantum corrections become well-defined near Big Rip. Similarly, black holes mass loss due to phantom accretion is not so dramatic as it was expected: masses do not vanish to zero due to transient character of phantom evolution stage. Some examples of cosmological evolution for negative, time-dependent equation of state are also considered with the same conclusions. The application of negative entropy (or negative temparature) occurence in the phantom thermodynamics is briefly discussed.Comment: LaTeX file 36 pages, version to appear in PR