Non-equilibrium chemistry and dust formation in AGB stars as probed by SiO line emission

We have performed high spatial resolution observations of SiO line emission for a sample of 11 AGB stars using the ATCA, VLA and SMA interferometers. Detailed radiative transfer modelling suggests that there are steep chemical gradients of SiO in their circumstellar envelopes. The emerging picture is one where the radial SiO abundance distribution starts at an initial high abundance, in the case of M-stars consistent with LTE chemistry, that drastically decreases at a radius of ~1E15 cm. This is consistent with a scenario where SiO freezes out onto dust grains. The region of the wind with low abundance is much more extended, typically ~1E16 cm, and limited by photodissociation. The surpisingly high SiO abundances found in carbon stars requires non-equilibrium chemical processes.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure. To be published in the proceedings of the conference "Why Galaxies Care about AGB Stars", held in Vienna, August 7-11, 2006; F. Kerschbaum, C. Charbonnel, B. Wing eds, ASP Conf.Ser. in pres

Ground-state fidelity in one-dimensional gapless model

A general relation between quantum phase transitions and the second derivative of the fidelity (or the "fidelity susceptibility") is proposed. The validity and the limitation of the fidelity susceptibility in characterizing quantum phase transitions is thus established. Moreover, based on the bosonization method, general formulas of the fidelity and the fidelity susceptibility are obtained for a class of one-dimensional gapless systems known as the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid. Applying these formulas to the one-dimensional spin-1/2 $XXZ$ model, we find that quantum phase transitions, even of the Beresinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type, can be signaled by the fidelity susceptibility.Comment: 4+ pages, no figure, published versio

Supersymmetric Leptogenesis

We study leptogenesis in the supersymmetric standard model plus the seesaw. We identify important qualitative differences that characterize supersymmetric leptogenesis with respect to the non-supersymmetric case. The lepton number asymmetries in fermions and scalars do not equilibrate, and are related via a non-vanishing gaugino chemical potential. Due to the presence of new anomalous symmetries, electroweak sphalerons couple to winos and higgsinos, and QCD sphalerons couple to gluinos, thus modifying the corresponding chemical equilibrium conditions. A new constraint on particles chemical potentials corresponding to an exactly conserved $R$-charge, that also involves the number density asymmetry of the heavy sneutrinos, appears. These new ingredients determine the $3\times 4$ matrices that mix up the density asymmetries of the lepton flavours and of the heavy sneutrinos. We explain why in all temperature ranges the particle thermodynamic system is characterized by the same number of independent quantities. Numerical differences with respect to usual treatment remain at the ${\cal O}(1)$ level.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures. Typos corrected, one reference added. Version published in JCA

Low-energy renormalization of the electron dispersion of high-Tc_c superconductors

High-resolution ARPES studies in cuprates have detected low-energy changes in the dispersion and absorption of quasi-particles at low temperatures, in particular, in the superconducting state. Based on a new 1/N expansion of the t-J-Holstein model, which includes collective antiferromagnetic fluctuations already in leading order, we argue that the observed low-energy structures are mainly caused by phonons and not by spin fluctuations, at least, in the optimal and overdoped regime.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

White learning methodology: a case study of cancer-related disease factors analysis in real-time PACS environment

Bayesian network is a probabilistic model of which the prediction accuracy may not be one of the highest in the machine learning family. Deep learning (DL) on the other hand possess of higher predictive power than many other models. How reliable the result is, how it is deduced, how interpretable the prediction by DL mean to users, remain obscure. DL functions like a black box. As a result, many medical practitioners are reductant to use deep learning as the only tool for critical machine learning application, such as aiding tool for cancer diagnosis. In this paper, a framework of white learning is being proposed which takes advantages of both black box learning and white box learning. Usually, black box learning will give a high standard of accuracy and white box learning will provide an explainable direct acyclic graph. According to our design, there are 3 stages of White Learning, loosely coupled WL, semi coupled WL and tightly coupled WL based on degree of fusion of the white box learning and black box learning. In our design, a case of loosely coupled WL is tested on breast cancer dataset. This approach uses deep learning and an incremental version of Naïve Bayes network. White learning is largely defied as a systemic fusion of machine learning models which result in an explainable Bayes network which could find out the hidden relations between features and class and deep learning which would give a higher accuracy of prediction than other algorithms. We designed a series of experiments for this loosely coupled WL model. The simulation results show that using WL compared to standard black-box deep learning, the levels of accuracy and kappa statistics could be enhanced up to 50%. The performance of WL seems more stable too in extreme conditions such as noise and high dimensional data. The relations by Bayesian network of WL are more concise and stronger in affinity too. The experiments results deliver positive signals that WL is possible to output both high classification accuracy and explainable relations graph between features and class. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Neutron Scattering and the B_{1g} Phonon in the Cuprates

The momentum dependent lineshape of the out-of-phase oxygen vibration as measured in recent neutron scattering measurements is investigated. Starting from a microscopic coupling of the phonon vibration to a local crystal field, the phonon lineshift and broadening is calculated as a function of transfered momentum in the superconducting state of YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7}$. It is shown that the anisotropy of the density of states, superconducting energy gap, and the electron-phonon coupling are all crucial in order to explain these experiments.Comment: new figures and discussio

Differential Uptake of Gold Nanoparticles by 2 Species of Tadpole, the Wood Frog (Lithobates Sylvaticus) and the Bullfrog (Lithobates Catesbeianus)

Engineered nanoparticles are aquatic contaminants of emerging concern that exert ecotoxicological effects on a wide variety of organisms. We exposed cetyltrimethylammonium bromide–capped spherical gold nanoparticles to wood frog and bullfrog tadpoles with conspecifics and in combination with the other species continuously for 21 d, then measured uptake and localization of gold. Wood frog tadpoles alone and in combination with bullfrog tadpoles took up significantly more gold than bullfrogs. Bullfrog tadpoles in combination with wood frogs took up significantly more gold than controls. The rank order of weight-normalized gold uptake was wood frogs in combination \u3e wood frogs alone \u3e bullfrogs in combination \u3e bullfrogs alone \u3e controls. In all gold-exposed groups of tadpoles, gold was concentrated in the anterior region compared with the posterior region of the body. The concentration of gold nanoparticles in the anterior region of wood frogs both alone and in combination with bullfrogs was significantly higher than the corresponding posterior regions. We also measured depuration time of gold in wood frogs. After 21 d in a solution of gold nanoparticles, tadpoles lost \u3e83% of internalized gold when placed in gold-free water for 5 d. After 10 d in gold-free water, tadpoles lost 94% of their gold. After 15 d, gold concentrations were below the level of detection. Our finding of differential uptake between closely related species living in similar habitats with overlapping geographical distributions argues against generalizing toxicological effects of nanoparticles for a large group of organisms based on measurements in only one species

The distribution of H13CN in the circumstellar envelope around IRC+10216

H13CN J=8-7 sub-millimetre line emission produced in the circumstellar envelope around the extreme carbon star IRC+10216 has been imaged at sub-arcsecond angular resolution using the SMA. Supplemented by a detailed excitation analysis the average fractional abundance of H13CN in the inner wind (< 5E15 cm) is estimated to be about 4E-7, translating into a total HCN fractional abundance of 2E-5 using the isotopic ratio 12C/13C=50. Multi-transitional single-dish observations further requires the H13CN fractional abundance to remain more or less constant in the envelope out to a radius of about 4E16 cm, where the HCN molecules are effectively destroyed, most probably, by photodissociation. The large amount of HCN present in the inner wind provides effective line cooling that can dominate over that generated from CO line emission. It is also shown that great care needs to be taken in the radiative transfer modelling where non-local, and non-LTE, effects are important and where the radiation field from thermal dust grains plays a major role in exciting the HCN molecules. The amount of HCN present in the circumstellar envelope around IRC+10216 is consistent with predicted photospheric values based on equilibrium chemical models and indicates that any non-equilibrium chemistry occurring in the extended pulsating atmosphere has no drastic net effect on the fractional abundance of HCN molecules that enters the outer envelope. It further suggests that few HCN molecules are incorporated into dust grains.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 20 pages, 7 figure

Effect of Nonmagnetic Impurities on the Magnetic Resonance Peak in YBa2Cu3O7

The magnetic excitation spectrum of a YBa_2 Cu_3 O_7 crystal containing 0.5% of nonmagnetic (Zn) impurities has been determined by inelastic neutron scattering. Whereas in the pure system a sharp resonance peak at E ~ 40 meV is observed exclusively below the superconducting transition temperature T_c, the magnetic response in the Zn-substituted system is broadened significantly and vanishes at a temperature much higher than T_c. The energy-integrated spectral weight observed near q = (pi,pi) increases with Zn substitution, and only about half of the spectral weight is removed at T_c