Scaling Law for Baryon Coupling to its Current and its possible applications

The baryon- coupling to its current ($\lambda_{B}$), in conventional QCD sum rule calculations (QCDSR), is shown to scale as the cubic power of the baryon mass, $M_B$. Some theoretical justification for it comes from a simple light-cone model and also general scaling arguments for QCD. But more importantly, taken as a phenomenological ansatz for the present, this may find very good use in current explorations of possible applications of QCDSR to baryon physics both at temperature $T = 0$, $T \ne 0$ and/or density $\rho = 0$, $\rho \ne 0$.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 1 tex picture and 1 ps pictur

Phase transition between non-extremal and extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes

We discuss the phase transition between non-extremal and extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. This transition is considered as the $T \to 0$ limit of the transition between the non-extremal and near-extremal black holes. We show that an evaporating process from non-extremal black hole to extremal one is possible to occur, but its reverse process is not possible to occur because of the presence of the maximum temperature. Furthermore, it is shown that the Hawking-Page phase transition between small and large black holes unlikely occurs in the AdS Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, version to appear in MPL

Incompressibility of strange matter

Strange stars calculated from a realistic equation of state (EOS), that incorporate chiral symmetry restoration as well as deconfinement at high density show compact objects in the mass radius curve. We compare our calculations of incompressibility for this EOS with that of nuclear matter. One of the nuclear matter EOS has a continuous transition to ud-matter at about five times normal density. Another nuclear matter EOS incorporates density dependent coupling constants. From a look at the consequent velocity of sound, it is found that the transition to ud-matter seems necessary.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys Lett

The role of the immune system in brain metastasis

Metastatic brain tumors are the most common brain tumors in adults. With numerous successful advancements in systemic treatment of most common cancer types, brain metastasis is becoming increasingly important in the overall prognosis of cancer patients. Brain metastasis of peripheral tumor is the result of complex interplay of primary tumor, immune system and central nervous system microenvironment. Once formed, brain metastases hide behind the blood brain barrier and become inaccessible to chemotherapies that are otherwise successful in targeting systemic cancer. The approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors for several common cancers such as advanced melanoma and lung cancers brings with it the opportunity and obligation to further understand the mechanisms of immunosuppression by tumors that spread to the brain as well as the interaction between the brain environment and tumor microenvironment. In this review paper we define the central role of the immune system in the development of brain metastases. We performed a comprehensive review of the literature to outline the molecular mechanisms of immunosuppression used by tumors and how the immune system interacts with the central nervous system to facilitate brain metastasis. In particular we discuss the tumor-type-specific mechanisms of metastasis of cancers that preferentially metastasize to the brain as well as the therapies that effectively modulate the immune response, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors and vaccines

A Channel Coding Perspective of Collaborative Filtering

We consider the problem of collaborative filtering from a channel coding perspective. We model the underlying rating matrix as a finite alphabet matrix with block constant structure. The observations are obtained from this underlying matrix through a discrete memoryless channel with a noisy part representing noisy user behavior and an erasure part representing missing data. Moreover, the clusters over which the underlying matrix is constant are {\it unknown}. We establish a sharp threshold result for this model: if the largest cluster size is smaller than $C_1 \log(mn)$ (where the rating matrix is of size $m \times n$), then the underlying matrix cannot be recovered with any estimator, but if the smallest cluster size is larger than $C_2 \log(mn)$, then we show a polynomial time estimator with diminishing probability of error. In the case of uniform cluster size, not only the order of the threshold, but also the constant is identified.Comment: 32 pages, 1 figure, Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Signatures of two-step impurity mediated vortex lattice melting in Bose-Einstein Condensates

We simulate a rotating 2D BEC to study the melting of a vortex lattice in presence of random impurities. Impurities are introduced either through a protocol in which vortex lattice is produced in an impurity potential or first creating the vortex lattice in the absence of random pinning and then cranking up the (co-rotating) impurity potential. We find that for a fixed strength, pinning of vortices at randomly distributed impurities leads to the new states of vortex lattice. It is unearthed that the vortex lattice follow a two-step melting via loss of positional and orientational order. Also, the comparisons between the states obtained in two protocols show that the vortex lattice states are metastable states when impurities are introduced after the formation of an ordered vortex lattice. We also show the existence of metastable states which depend on the history of how the vortex lattice is created.Comment: Accepted in Euro. Phys. Let

Born-Infeld black holes coupled to a massive scalar field

Born-Infeld black holes in the Scalar-Tensor Theories of Gravity, in the case of massless scalar field, have been recently obtained. The aim of the current paper is to study the effect from the inclusion of a potential for the scalar field in the theory, through a combination of analytical techniques and numerical methods. The black holes coupled to a massive scalar field have richer causal structure in comparison to the massless scalar field case. In the latter case, the black holes may have a second, inner horizon. The presence of potential for the scalar field allows the existence of extremal black holes for certain values of the mass of the scalar field and the magnetic (electric) charge of the black hole. The linear stability against spherically symmetric perturbations is studied. Arguments in favor of the general stability of the solutions coming from the application of the "turning point" method are also presented.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figure