621 research outputs found
EFFECTS OF TAI CHI PRACTICE ON POSTURAL SWAY DURING STANDING BALANCE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Tai Chi practice on postural sway during standing. Thirty-eight older people participated during COVID-19 extended restrictions, a Tai Chi group (n=18, more than five years’ experience) and a Control group (n=20, no Tai Chi experience). Postural sway was quantified under four different conditions:1) eyes open (EO); 2) eyes closed (EC); 3) eyes open and cross step with right leg forward (ER) and 4) cross step with left leg forward (EL). Significantly less postural sway was observed in Tai Chi group, particularly during EO and EL conditions. The findings of this study support the positive effects of Tai Chi practice on balance control. During the COVID-19, although older people in the nursing home limited their outdoor mobility, Tai Chi practice maintained their physical function during standing balance
Charm meson scattering cross sections by pion and rho meson
Using the local flavor SU(4) gauge invariance in the limit of vanishing
vector meson masses, we extend our previous study of charm meson scattering
cross sections by pion and rho meson, which is based only on the
pseudoscalar-pseudoscalar-vector meson couplings, to include also contributions
from the couplings among three vector mesons and among four particles. We find
that diagrams with light meson exchanges usually dominate the cross sections.
For the processes considered previously, the additional interactions lead only
to diagrams involving charm meson exchanges and contact interactions, and the
cross sections for these processes are thus not much affected. Nevertheless,
these additional interactions introduce new processes with light meson
exchanges and increase significantly the total scattering cross sections of
charm mesons by pion and rho meson.Comment: 14 pages, revtex, 6 figures, added a figure on the effects of
on-shell divergence, final version to appear in Nucl. Phys.
Color confinement and dual superconductivity of the vacuum. III
It is demonstrated that monopole condensation in the confined phase of SU(2)
and SU(3) gauge theories is independent of the specific Abelian projection used
to define the monopoles. Hence the dual excitations which condense in the
vacuum to produce confinement must have magnetic U(1) charge in all the Abelian
projections. Some physical implications of this result are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 5 postscript figure
The SKA and "High-Resolution" Science
"High-resolution", or "long-baseline", science with the SKA and its
precursors covers a broad range of topics in astrophysics. In several research
areas, the coupling between improved brightness sensitivity of the SKA and a
sub-arcsecond resolution would uncover truly unique avenues and opportunities
for studying extreme states of matter, vicinity of compact relativistic
objects, and complex processes in astrophysical plasmas. At the same time, long
baselines would secure excellent positional and astrometric measurements with
the SKA and critically enhance SKA image fidelity at all scales. The latter
aspect may also have a substantial impact on the survey speed of the SKA, thus
affecting several key science projects of the instrument.Comment: JENAM-2010: Invited talk at JENAM session S7: The Square Kilometre
Array: Paving the way for the new 21st century radio astronomy paradigm; 9
page
Very High Resolution Solar X-ray Imaging Using Diffractive Optics
This paper describes the development of X-ray diffractive optics for imaging
solar flares with better than 0.1 arcsec angular resolution. X-ray images with
this resolution of the \geq10 MK plasma in solar active regions and solar
flares would allow the cross-sectional area of magnetic loops to be resolved
and the coronal flare energy release region itself to be probed. The objective
of this work is to obtain X-ray images in the iron-line complex at 6.7 keV
observed during solar flares with an angular resolution as fine as 0.1 arcsec -
over an order of magnitude finer than is now possible. This line emission is
from highly ionized iron atoms, primarily Fe xxv, in the hottest flare plasma
at temperatures in excess of \approx10 MK. It provides information on the flare
morphology, the iron abundance, and the distribution of the hot plasma.
Studying how this plasma is heated to such high temperatures in such short
times during solar flares is of critical importance in understanding these
powerful transient events, one of the major objectives of solar physics. We
describe the design, fabrication, and testing of phase zone plate X-ray lenses
with focal lengths of \approx100 m at these energies that would be capable of
achieving these objectives. We show how such lenses could be included on a
two-spacecraft formation-flying mission with the lenses on the spacecraft
closest to the Sun and an X-ray imaging array on the second spacecraft in the
focal plane \approx100 m away. High resolution X-ray images could be obtained
when the two spacecraft are aligned with the region of interest on the Sun.
Requirements and constraints for the control of the two spacecraft are
discussed together with the overall feasibility of such a formation-flying
mission
Active Galaxies in the UV
In this article we present different aspects of AGN studies demonstrating the
importance of the UV spectral range. Most important diagnostic lines for
studying the general physical conditions as well as the metalicities in the
central broad line region in AGN are emitted in the UV. The UV/FUV continuum in
AGN excites not only the emission lines in the immediate surrounding but it is
responsible for the ionization of the intergalactic medium in the early stages
of the universe. Variability studies of the emission line profiles of AGN in
the UV give us information on the structure and kinematics of the immediate
surrounding of the central supermassive black hole as well as on its mass
itself.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, Ap&SS in pres
Local Commutativity and Causality in Interacting PP-wave String Field Theory
In this paper, we extend our previous study of causality and local
commutativity of string fields in the pp-wave lightcone string field theory to
include interaction. Contrary to the flat space case result of Lowe,
Polchinski, Susskind, Thorlacius and Uglum, we found that the pp-wave
interaction does not affect the local commutativity condition. Our results show
that the pp-wave lightcone string field theory is not continuously connected
with the flat space one. We also discuss the relation between the condition of
local commutativity and causality. While the two notions are closely related in
a point particle theory, their relation is less clear in string theory. We
suggest that string local commutativity may be relevant for an operational
defintion of causality using strings as probes.Comment: Latex, JHEP3.cls, 18 pages, no figures. v2: add comments about the
UV-IR mixing effect displayed in our result. version to appear in JHE
Self-similar solutions of viscous and resistive ADAFs with thermal conduction
We have studied the effects of thermal conduction on the structure of viscous
and resistive advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs). The importance of
thermal conduction on hot accretion flow is confirmed by observations of hot
gas that surrounds Sgr A and a few other nearby galactic nuclei. In this
research, thermal conduction is studied by a saturated form of it, as is
appropriated for weakly-collisional systems. It is assumed the viscosity and
the magnetic diffusivity are due to turbulence and dissipation in the flow. The
viscosity also is due to angular momentum transport. Here, the magnetic
diffusivity and the kinematic viscosity are not constant and vary by position
and -prescription is used for them. The govern equations on system have
been solved by the steady self-similar method. The solutions show the radial
velocity is highly subsonic and the rotational velocity behaves sub-Keplerian.
The rotational velocity for a specific value of the thermal conduction
coefficient becomes zero. This amount of conductivity strongly depends on
magnetic pressure fraction, magnetic Prandtl number, and viscosity parameter.
Comparison of energy transport by thermal conduction with the other energy
mechanisms implies that thermal conduction can be a significant energy
mechanism in resistive and magnetized ADAFs. This property is confirmed by
non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Ap&S
Fixed twist dynamics of SO(3) gauge theory
We perform a throughout study of 3+1 dim. SO(3) LGT for any fixed-twist
background. We concentrate in particular on the physically significant trivial
and 1-twist sectors. Introducing a Z(2) monopole chemical potential the 1st
order bulk transition is moved down in the strong coupling region and weakened
to 2nd order in the 4-dim Ising model universality class. In this extended
phase diagram we gain access to a confined phase in every fixed twist sector of
the theory. The Pisa disorder operator is employed together with the Polyakov
loop to study the confinement-deconfinement transition in each sector. Due to
the specific properties of both operators, most results can be used to gain
insight in the ergodic theory, where all twist sectors should be summed upon.
An explicit mapping of each fixed twist theory to effective positive plaquette
models with fixed twisted boundary conditions is applied to better establish
their properties in the different phases.Comment: 20 pages, 11 Figures. Minor changes in text and figures, to appear in
Eur.Phys.J.
The monopole mass in the three-dimensional Georgi-Glashow model
We study the three-dimensional Georgi-Glashow model to demonstrate how
magnetic monopoles can be studied fully non-perturbatively in lattice Monte
Carlo simulations, without any assumptions about the smoothness of the field
configurations. We examine the apparent contradiction between the conjectured
analytic connection of the `broken' and `symmetric' phases, and the
interpretation of the mass (i.e., the free energy) of the fully quantised 't
Hooft-Polyakov monopole as an order parameter to distinguish the phases. We use
Monte Carlo simulations to measure the monopole free energy and its first
derivative with respect to the scalar mass. On small volumes we compare this to
semi-classical predictions for the monopole. On large volumes we show that the
free energy is screened to zero, signalling the formation of a confining
monopole condensate. This screening does not allow the monopole mass to be
interpreted as an order parameter, resolving the paradox.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, uses revtex. Minor changes made to the text to
match with the published version at
http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v65/e12500
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