Curved Tails in Polymerization-Based Bacterial Motility

The curved actin ``comet-tail'' of the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is a visually striking signature of actin polymerization-based motility. Similar actin tails are associated with Shigella flexneri, spotted-fever Rickettsiae, the Vaccinia virus, and vesicles and microspheres in related in vitro systems. We show that the torque required to produce the curvature in the tail can arise from randomly placed actin filaments pushing the bacterium or particle. We find that the curvature magnitude determines the number of actively pushing filaments, independent of viscosity and of the molecular details of force generation. The variation of the curvature with time can be used to infer the dynamics of actin filaments at the bacterial surface.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Latex2

Sensorimotor Predictors of Post-Landing Functional Task Performance

Spaceflight drives adaptive changes in healthy individuals appropriate for sensorimotor function in a microgravity environment. These changes are maladaptive for return to earth's gravity. The inter-individual variability of sensorimotor decrements is striking, although poorly understood. The goal of this study is to identify a set of behavioral, neuroimaging and genetic measures that can potentially be used to predict early performance following G-transitions such as return to Earth on a set of sensorimotor tasks. Astronauts are being recruited who previously participated in sensorimotor field tests and/or dynamic posturography (MedB) within R+1 days following long-duration spaceflight

Search for charged Higgs decays of the top quark using hadronic tau decays

We present the result of a search for charged Higgs decays of the top quark, produced in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\surd s =$ 1.8 TeV. When the charged Higgs is heavy and decays to a tau lepton, which subsequently decays hadronically, the resulting events have a unique signature: large missing transverse energy and the low-charged-multiplicity tau. Data collected in the period 1992-1993 at the Collider Detector at Fermilab, corresponding to 18.7$\pm$0.7~pb$^{-1}$, exclude new regions of combined top quark and charged Higgs mass, in extensions to the standard model with two Higgs doublets.Comment: uuencoded, gzipped tar file of LaTeX and 6 Postscript figures; 11 pp; submitted to Phys. Rev.

Inclusive jet cross section in pˉp{\bar p p} collisions at s=1.8\sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV

The inclusive jet differential cross section has been measured for jet transverse energies, $E_T$, from 15 to 440 GeV, in the pseudorapidity region 0.1$\leq | \eta| \leq$0.7. The results are based on 19.5 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the CDF collaboration at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The data are compared with QCD predictions for various sets of parton distribution functions. The cross section for jets with $E_T>200$ GeV is significantly higher than current predictions based on O($\alpha_s^3$) perturbative QCD calculations. Various possible explanations for the high-$E_T$ excess are discussed.Comment: 8 pages with 2 eps uu-encoded figures Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Observation of Hadronic W Decays in t-tbar Events with the Collider Detector at Fermilab

We observe hadronic W decays in t-tbar -> W (-> l nu) + >= 4 jet events using a 109 pb-1 data sample of p-pbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). A peak in the dijet invariant mass distribution is obtained that is consistent with W decay and inconsistent with the background prediction by 3.3 standard deviations. From this peak we measure the W mass to be 77.2 +- 4.6 (stat+syst) GeV/c^2. This result demonstrates the presence of two W bosons in t-tbar candidates in the W (-> l nu) + >= 4 jet channel.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Measurement of Rapidity Distribution for High Mass Drell-Yan ee Pairs at CDF

We report on the first measurement of the rapidity distribution dsigma/dy over nearly the entire kinematic region of rapidity for e^+e^- pairs in the Z-boson region of 66116 GeV/c^2. The data sample consists of 108 pb^{-1} of ppbar collisions at \sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV taken by the Collider Detector at Fermilab during 1992--1995. The total cross section in the $Z$-boson region is measured to be 252 +- 11 pb. The measured total cross section and d\sigma/dy are compared with quantum chromodynamics calculations in leading and higher orders.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Measurement of J/Psi and Psi(2S) Polarization in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV

We have measured the polarization of J/Psi and Psi(2S) mesons produced in p\bar{p} collisions at \sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV, using data collected at CDF during 1992-95. The polarization of promptly produced J/Psi [Psi(2S)] mesons is isolated from those produced in B-hadron decay, and measured over the kinematic range 4[5.5] < P_T < 20 GeV/c and |y| < 0.6. For P_T \gessim 12 GeV/c we do not observe significant polarization in the prompt component.Comment: Revised version, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the Helicity of W Bosons in Top Quark Decays

We use the transverse momentum spectrum of leptons in the decay chain t-->bW with W-->l nu to measure the helicity of the W bosons in the top quark rest frame. Our measurement uses a ttbar sample isolated in 106 +/- 4 inverse picobarns of data collected in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV with the CDF detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. Assuming a standard V--A weak decay, we find that the fraction of W's with zero helicity in the top rest frame is F_0 = 0.91 +/- 0.37 (stat) +/- 0.13 (syst), consistent with the standard model prediction of F_0=0.70 for a top mass of 175 GeV/c**2.Comment: Submitted to PRL. 8 pages, 2 figure

Production of Y(1S) Mesons from chib Decays in pp(bar) Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV

We have reconstructed the radiative decays $\chi_{b}(1P) \to \Upsilon(1S) \gamma$ and $\chi_{b}(2P) \to \Upsilon(1S) \gamma$ in $p \bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.8$ TeV, and measured the fraction of $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons that originate from these decays. For $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons with $p^{\Upsilon}_{T}>8.0$ GeV/$c$, the fractions that come from $\chi_{b}(1P)$ and $\chi_{b}(2P)$ decays are $(27.1\pm6.9(stat)\pm4.4(sys))$ and $(10.5\pm4.4(stat)\pm1.4(sys))$, respectively. We have derived the fraction of directly produced $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons to be $(50.9\pm8.2(stat)\pm9.0(sys))$.Comment: 13 Pages, 2 figure

Measurement of Dijet Angular Distributions at CDF

We have used 106 pb^-1 of data collected in proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV by the Collider Detector at Fermilab to measure jet angular distributions in events with two jets in the final state. The angular distributions agree with next to leading order (NLO) predictions of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in all dijet invariant mass regions. The data exclude at 95% confidence level (CL) a model of quark substructure in which only up and down quarks are composite and the contact interaction scale is Lambda_ud(+) < 1.6 TeV or Lambda_ud(-) < 1.4 TeV. For a model in which all quarks are composite the excluded regions are Lambda(+) < 1.8 TeV and Lambda(-) < 1. 6 TeV.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, LaTex, using epsf.sty. Submitted to Physical Review Letters on September 17, 1996. Postscript file of full paper available at http://www-cdf.fnal.gov/physics/pub96/cdf3773_dijet_angle_prl.p