74,530 research outputs found
A Light Dilaton in Walking Gauge Theories
We analyze the existence of a dilaton in gauge theories with approximate
infrared conformal symmetry. To the extent that these theories are governed in
the infrared by an approximate fixed point (walking), the explicit breaking of
the conformal symmetry at these scales is vanishingly small. If confinement and
spontaneous chiral-symmetry breaking set in at some infrared scale, the
resultant breaking of the approximate conformal symmetry can lead to the
existence of a dilaton with mass parametrically small compared to the
confinement scale, and potentially observable at the LHC.Comment: 5 pages, references added, final version in PR
Anomalous Hall effect in the Co-based Heusler compounds CoFeSi and CoFeAl
The anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in the Heusler compounds CoFeSi and
CoFeAl is studied in dependence of the annealing temperature to achieve a
general comprehension of its origin. We have demonstrated that the crystal
quality affected by annealing processes is a significant control parameter to
tune the electrical resistivity as well as the anomalous Hall
resistivity . Analyzing the scaling behavior of in
terms of points to a temperature-dependent skew scattering as the
dominant mechanism in both Heusler compounds
Density Functional Calculations On First-Row Transition Metals
The excitation energies and ionization potentials of the atoms in the first
transition series are notoriously difficult to compute accurately. Errors in
calculated excitation energies can range from 1--4 eV at the Hartree-Fock
level, and errors as high as 1.5eV are encountered for ionization energies. In
the current work we present and discuss the results of a systematic study of
the first transition series using a spin-restricted Kohn-Sham
density-functional method with the gradient-corrected functionals of Becke and
Lee, Yang and Parr. Ionization energies are observed to be in good agreement
with experiment, with a mean absolute error of approximately 0.15eV; these
results are comparable to the most accurate calculations to date, the Quadratic
Configuration Interaction (QCISD(T)) calculations of Raghavachari and Trucks.
Excitation energies are calculated with a mean error of approximately 0.5eV,
compared with \sim 1\mbox{eV} for the local density approximation and 0.1eV
for QCISD(T). These gradient-corrected functionals appear to offer an
attractive compromise between accuracy and computational effort.Comment: Journal of Chemical Physics, 29, LA-UR-93-425
Two-Face(s): ionized and neutral gas winds in the local Universe
We present a comprehensive study of the Na I 5890, 5895 (Na I D)
resonant lines in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS, DR7) spectroscopic sample
to look for neutral gas outflows in the local galaxies. Individual galaxy
spectra are stacked in bins of M and SFR to investigate the dependence
of galactic wind occurrence and velocity as a function of the galaxy position
in the SFR- plane. In massive galaxies at the high SFR tail we find
evidence of a significant blue-shifted Na I D absorption, which we interpret as
evidence of neutral outflowing gas. The occurrence of the blue-shifted
absorption is observed at the same significance for purely SF galaxies, AGN and
composite systems at fixed SFR. In all classes of objects the blue-shift is the
largest and the Na I D equivalent width the smallest for face-on galaxies while
the absorption feature is at the systemic velocity for edge-on systems. This
indicates that the neutral outflow is mostly perpendicular or biconical with
respect to the galactic disk. We also compare the kinematics of the neutral gas
with the ionized gas phase as traced by the [OIII]5007, H,
[NII] and [NII] emission lines. Differently for the
neutral gas phase, all the emission lines show evidence of perturbed kinematics
only in galaxies with a significant level of nuclear activity and, they are
independent from the disk inclination. In conclusion, we find that, in the
local Universe, galactic winds show two faces which are related to two
different ejection mechanisms, namely the neutral outflowing gas phase related
to the SF activity along the galaxy disk and the ionized phase related to the
AGN feedback. In both the neutral and ionized gas phases, the observed wind
velocities suggest that the outflowing gas remains bound to the galaxy with no
definitive effect on the gas reservoir.Comment: Accepted to A&A, 13 pages, 9 figure
Effect of phospholipids and bile acids on cholesterol nucleation time and vesicular/micellar cholesterol in gallbladder bile of patients with cholesterol stones
Supersaturation and rapid nucleation of cholesterol in bile are of key importance in the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones. While the effects of bile acids and phospholipids on cholesterol saturation of bile have been extensively studied, their influence on the cholesterol nucleation time has not been compared. We, therefore, investigated whether increases of bile acid or phospholipid concentrations in bile by in vitro supplementation affect the cholesterol nucleation time. Bile samples were obtained at surgery from patients with cholesterol gallstones. Prior to the nucleation assay the bile samples were divided into 0.5-ml aliquots and supplemented with 1.25, 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 mumol/ml of different phosphatidylcholines (PC-dimyristoyl, PC- dipalmitoyl, PC-distearoyl, and extracted biliary PCs) or with 5.0, 10.0, and 20.0 mumol/ml of bile acids (glycine or taurine conjugates of cholic acid, deoxycholic acid, or chenodeoxycholic acid). The increase of phosphatidylcholine or bile acid concentration decreased the mean cholesterol saturation index to a similar extent (PC: 0.1-0.3; BA: 0.1- 0.2). Supplementations of bile with increasing amounts of synthetic or biliary PCs caused a marked prolongation of the nucleation time in bile from 1.5 +/- 0.2 up to > or = 21 days or 2.5 +/- 0.7 up to > or = 21 days. Concurrently, biliary cholesterol was shifted from vesicles to mixed micelles and the cholesterol/phospholipid ratio of the remaining vesicles was progressively lowered. In contrast, the addition of bile acids to gallbladder bile did not affect the cholesterol nucleation time (2.2 +/- 0.3 days), the percentage of vesicular cholesterol, or the cholesterol/phospholipid ratio of vesicles and micelles
Mitigation of artifacts due to isolated acoustic heterogeneities in photoacoustic computed tomography using a variable data truncation-based reconstruction method
Photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) is an emerging computed imaging
modality that exploits optical contrast and ultrasonic detection principles to
form images of the absorbed optical energy density within tissue. If the object
possesses spatially variant acoustic properties that are unaccounted for by the
reconstruction method, the estimated image can contain distortions. While
reconstruction methods have recently been developed to compensate for this
effect, they generally require the object's acoustic properties to be known a
priori. To circumvent the need for detailed information regarding an object's
acoustic properties, we previously proposed a half-time reconstruction method
for PACT. A half-time reconstruction method estimates the PACT image from a
data set that has been temporally truncated to exclude the data components that
have been strongly aberrated. However, this method can be improved upon when
the approximate sizes and locations of isolated heterogeneous structures, such
as bones or gas pockets, are known. To address this, we investigate PACT
reconstruction methods that are based on a variable data truncation (VDT)
approach. The VDT approach represents a generalization of the half-time
approach, in which the degree of temporal truncation for each measurement is
determined by the distance between the corresponding ultrasonic transducer
location and the nearest known bone or gas void location. Computer-simulated
and experimental data are employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the
approach in mitigating artifacts due to acoustic heterogeneities
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