Charge Symmetry Violation Corrections to Determination of the Weinberg Angle in Neutrino Reactions

We show that the correction to the Paschos-Wolfenstein relation associated with charge symmetry violation in the valence quark distributions is essentially model independent. It is proportional to a ratio of quark momenta that is independent of Q^2. This result provides a natural explanation of the surprisingly good agreement found between our earlier estimates within several different models. When applied to the recent NuTeV measurement, this effect significantly reduces the discrepancy with other determinations of the Weinberg angle.Comment: 7 pages, no figures; expanded discussion of N.ne.Z correction

Potential loss of nutrients from different rearing strategies for fattening pigs on pasture

Nutrient load and distribution on pasture were investigated with fattening pigs that: 1) spend a proportion of or their entire life on pasture, 2) were fed either restrictively or ad libitum, and 3) were weaned at different times of the year. The N and P retention in pigs decreased the longer they were kept on pasture. The contents of soil inorganic N and exchangeable K were significantly raised compared to the soil outside the enclosures but with no differences between treatments. Pig grazing did not affect extractable soil P. Regular moving of huts, feeding and water troughs was effective in ensuring that nutrients were more evenly distributed on the paddocks. Grass cover, as determined by spectral reflectance, was not related to the experimental treatments but only to time of year. During spring and summer, grass was present in parts of the paddocks, whereas during autumn and winter the pigs kept grass cover below 10%. Fattening pigs on pasture carries a high risk of nutrient loss and it is concluded that the most environmentally acceptable way of keeping fattening pigs on pasture involves a combination of reduced dietary N intake, reduced stocking rate and seasonal rather than all year production

Charge Symmetry Breaking in the Valence Quark Distributions of the Nucleon

Using a quark model, we study the effect of charge symmetry breaking on the valence quark distributions of the nucleon. The effect due to quark mass differences and the Coulomb interaction of the electrically charged quarks is calculated and, in contrast to recent claims, found to be small. In addition, we investigate the effect of charge symmetry breaking in the confining interaction, and in the perturbative evolution equations used to relate the quark model distributions to experiment. We find that both these effects are small, and that the strong charge symmetry breaking effect included in the scalar confining interactions may be distinguishable from that generated by quark mass differences.Comment: 10 pages, LaTEX, 5 Postscript figure

Dark Heritage

Peer reviewe

Charge symmetry violation in the parton distributions of the nucleon

We point out that charge symmetry violation in both the valence and sea quark distributions of the nucleon has a non-perturbative source. We calculate this non-perturbative charge symmetry violation using the meson cloud model, which has earlier been successfully applied to both the study of SU(2) flavour asymmetry in the nucleon sea and quark-antiquark asymmetry in the nucleon. We find that the charge symmetry violation in the valence quark distribution is well below 1%, which is consistent with most low energy tests but significantly smaller than the quark model prediction about 5%-10%. Our prediction for the charge symmetry violation in the sea quark distribution is also much smaller than the quark model calculation.Comment: RevTex, 26 pages, 6 PostScript figure

Shadowing in neutrino deep inelastic scattering and the determination of the strange quark distribution

We discuss shadowing corrections to the structure function $F_2$ in neutrino deep-inelastic scattering on heavy nuclear targets. In particular, we examine the role played by shadowing in the comparison of the structure functions $F_2$ measured in neutrino and muon deep inelastic scattering. The importance of shadowing corrections in the determination of the strange quark distributions is explained.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

Probing Charge-Symmetry-Violating Quark Distributions in Semi-Inclusive Leptoproduction of Hadrons

Recent experiments by the HERMES group at HERA are measuring semi-inclusive electroproduction of pions from deuterium. We point out that by comparing the production of $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ from an isoscalar target, it is possible, in principle, to measure charge symmetry violation in the valence quark distributions of the nucleons. It is also possible in the same experiments to obtain an independent measurement of the quark fragmentation functions. We review the information which can be deduced from such experiments and show the ``signature'' for charge symmetry violation in such experiments. Finally, we predict the magnitude of the charge symmetry violation, from both the valence quark distributions and the pion fragmentation function, which might be expected in these experiments.Comment: 19 pages plus 5 figures, used eps

Evidence for charge symmetry violation in parton distributions

By comparing structure functions measured in neutrino and charged lepton deep inelastic scattering, one can test the validity of parton charge symmetry. New experiments allow us to make such tests, which set rather tight upper limits on parton charge symmetry violation (CSV) for intermediate Bjorken x, but which appear to show sizable CSV effects at small x. We show that neither nuclear shadowing nor contributions from strange and antistrange quark distributions can account for the experimentally observed difference between the two structure functions. We are therefore forced to consider the possibility of a large CSV effect in the nucleon sea quark distributions. We discuss the consequences of this effect for other observables, and we propose an experiment which could detect a large CSV component in the nucleon sea.C. Boros; J. T. Londergan; A. W. Thoma

The Micronemal Plasmodium Proteins P36 and P52 Act in Concert to Establish the Replication-Permissive Compartment Within Infected Hepatocytes

Within the liver, Plasmodium sporozoites traverse cells searching for a “suitable” hepatocyte, invading these cells through a process that results in the formation of a parasitophorous vacuole (PV), within which the parasite undergoes intracellular replication as a liver stage. It was previously established that two members of the Plasmodium s48/45 protein family, P36 and P52, are essential for productive invasion of host hepatocytes by sporozoites as their simultaneous deletion results in growth-arrested parasites that lack a PV. Recent studies point toward a pathway of entry possibly involving the interaction of P36 with hepatocyte receptors EphA2, CD81, and SR-B1. However, the relationship between P36 and P52 during sporozoite invasion remains unknown. Here we show that parasites with a single P52 or P36 gene deletion each lack a PV after hepatocyte invasion, thereby pheno-copying the lack of a PV observed for the P52/P36 dual gene deletion parasite line. This indicates that both proteins are equally important in the establishment of a PV and act in the same pathway. We created a Plasmodium yoelii P36mCherry tagged parasite line that allowed us to visualize the subcellular localization of P36 and found that it partially co-localizes with P52 in the sporozoite secretory microneme organelles. Furthermore, through co-immunoprecipitation studies in vivo, we determined that P36 and P52 form a protein complex in sporozoites, indicating a concerted function for both proteins within the PV formation pathway. However, upon sporozoite stimulation, only P36 was released as a secreted protein while P52 was not. Our results support a model in which the putatively glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored P52 may serve as a scaffold to facilitate the interaction of secreted P36 with the host cell during sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes