6,192 research outputs found
Atomic transition frequencies, isotope shifts, and sensitivity to variation of the fine structure constant for studies of quasar absorption spectra
Theories unifying gravity with other interactions suggest spatial and
temporal variation of fundamental "constants" in the Universe. A change in the
fine structure constant, alpha, could be detected via shifts in the frequencies
of atomic transitions in quasar absorption systems. Recent studies using 140
absorption systems from the Keck telescope and 153 from the Very Large
Telescope, suggest that alpha varies spatially. That is, in one direction on
the sky alpha seems to have been smaller at the time of absorption, while in
the opposite direction it seems to have been larger.
To continue this study we need accurate laboratory measurements of atomic
transition frequencies. The aim of this paper is to provide a compilation of
transitions of importance to the search for alpha variation. They are E1
transitions to the ground state in several different atoms and ions, with
wavelengths ranging from around 900 - 6000 A, and require an accuracy of better
than 10^{-4} A. We discuss isotope shift measurements that are needed in order
to resolve systematic effects in the study. The coefficients of sensitivity to
alpha-variation (q) are also presented.Comment: Includes updated version of the "alpha line" lis
Parafermionic Liouville field theory and instantons on ALE spaces
In this paper we study the correspondence between the
coset conformal field
theories and SU(n) gauge theories on
. Namely we check the correspondence between the
SU(2) Nekrasov partition function on and the
conformal blocks of the parafermion algebra (in and modules).
We find that they are equal up to the U(1)-factor as it was in all cases of
AGT-like relations. Studying the structure of the instanton partition function
on we also find some evidence that this
correspondence with arbitrary takes place up to the U(1)-factor.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, misprints corrected, references added, version
to appear in JHE
Theoretical Uncertainties in Electroweak Boson Production Cross Sections at 7, 10, and 14 TeV at the LHC
We present an updated study of the systematic errors in the measurements of
the electroweak boson cross-sections at the LHC for various experimental cuts
for a center of mass energy of 7, 10 and 14 TeV. The size of both electroweak
and NNLO QCD contributions are estimated, together with the systematic error
from the parton distributions. The effects of new versions of the MSTW, CTEQ,
and NNPDF PDFs are considered.Comment: PDFLatex with JHEP3.cls. 22 pages, 43 figures. Version 2 adds the
CT10W PDF set to analysis and updates the final systematic error table and
conclusions, plus several citations and minor wording changes. Version 3 adds
some references on electroweak and mixed QED/QCD corrections. Version 4 adds
more references and acknowledgement
Manipulation of drugs to achieve the required dose is intrinsic to paediatric practice but is not supported by guidelines or evidence
Background: A lack of age-appropriate formulations can make it difficult to administer medicines to children. A manipulation of the dosage form may be required to achieve the required dose. This study aimed to describe medicines that are manipulated to achieve the required dose in paediatric practice.Method: A structured, undisguised observational study and postal survey. The observational study investigated drug manipulations occurring in clinical practice across three sites. The questionnaire, administered to a sample of paediatric nurses throughout the UK, surveyed manipulations conducted and nurses' experiences and views.Results: The observational study identified 310 manipulations, of which 62% involved tablets, 21% were intravenous drugs and 10% were sachets. Of the 54 observed manipulations 40 involved tablets with 65% of the tablets being cut and 30% dispersed to obtain a smaller dose. 188 manipulations were reported by questionnaire respondents, of these 46% involved tablets, 12% were intravenous drugs, and 12% were nebuliser solutions. Manipulations were predominantly, but not exclusively, identified in specialist clinical areas with more highly dependent patients. Questionnaire respondents were concerned about the accuracy of the dose achieved following manipulations and the lack of practice guidance.Conclusion: Manipulations to achieve the required dose occur throughout paediatric in-patient settings. The impact of manipulations on the efficacy of the drugs, the accuracy of the dose and any adverse effects on patients is not known. There is a need to develop evidence-based guidance for manipulations of medicines in children
Combination of electroweak and QCD corrections to single W production at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN LHC
Precision studies of the production of a high-transverse momentum lepton in
association with missing energy at hadron colliders require that electroweak
and QCD higher-order contributions are simultaneously taken into account in
theoretical predictions and data analysis. Here we present a detailed
phenomenological study of the impact of electroweak and strong contributions,
as well as of their combination, to all the observables relevant for the
various facets of the p\smartpap \to {\rm lepton} + X physics programme at
hadron colliders, including luminosity monitoring and Parton Distribution
Functions constraint, precision physics and search for new physics signals.
We provide a theoretical recipe to carefully combine electroweak and strong
corrections, that are mandatory in view of the challenging experimental
accuracy already reached at the Fermilab Tevatron and aimed at the CERN LHC,
and discuss the uncertainty inherent the combination. We conclude that the
theoretical accuracy of our calculation can be conservatively estimated to be
about 2% for standard event selections at the Tevatron and the LHC, and about
5% in the very high transverse mass/lepton transverse momentum tails. We
also provide arguments for a more aggressive error estimate (about 1% and 3%,
respectively) and conclude that in order to attain a one per cent accuracy: 1)
exact mixed corrections should be computed in
addition to the already available NNLO QCD contributions and two-loop
electroweak Sudakov logarithms; 2) QCD and electroweak corrections should be
coherently included into a single event generator.Comment: One reference added. Final version to appear in JHE
Hopf algebras, coproducts and symbols: an application to Higgs boson amplitudes
We show how the Hopf algebra structure of multiple polylogarithms can be used
to simplify complicated expressions for multi-loop amplitudes in perturbative
quantum field theory and we argue that, unlike the recently popularized
symbol-based approach, the coproduct incorporates information about the zeta
values. We illustrate our approach by rewriting the two-loop helicity
amplitudes for a Higgs boson plus three gluons in a simplified and compact form
involving only classical polylogarithms.Comment: 46 page
Lorentzian and Euclidean Quantum Gravity - Analytical and Numerical Results
We review some recent attempts to extract information about the nature of
quantum gravity, with and without matter, by quantum field theoretical methods.
More specifically, we work within a covariant lattice approach where the
individual space-time geometries are constructed from fundamental simplicial
building blocks, and the path integral over geometries is approximated by
summing over a class of piece-wise linear geometries. This method of
``dynamical triangulations'' is very powerful in 2d, where the regularized
theory can be solved explicitly, and gives us more insights into the quantum
nature of 2d space-time than continuum methods are presently able to provide.
It also allows us to establish an explicit relation between the Lorentzian- and
Euclidean-signature quantum theories. Analogous regularized gravitational
models can be set up in higher dimensions. Some analytic tools exist to study
their state sums, but, unlike in 2d, no complete analytic solutions have yet
been constructed. However, a great advantage of our approach is the fact that
it is well-suited for numerical simulations. In the second part of this review
we describe the relevant Monte Carlo techniques, as well as some of the
physical results that have been obtained from the simulations of Euclidean
gravity. We also explain why the Lorentzian version of dynamical triangulations
is a promising candidate for a non-perturbative theory of quantum gravity.Comment: 69 pages, 16 figures, references adde
Ocean warming enhances respiration and carbon demand of coastal microbial plankton
Abstract The increase of anthropogenic CO 2 during this century is expected to cause warming of large regions of the ocean. Microbes lead the biological role in the CO 2 balance of marine ecosystems, their activity is known to be influenced by temperature, and it is important to constrain and quantify these effects on bacterial carbon use. Furthermore, if warming were to enhance the carbon demand (production 1 respiration) of planktonic microbes but would maintain their efficiency low (as it generally is), then most carbon consumed would end up respired. We designed a strategy in which we measured bacterial production and respiration throughout a seasonal cycle in a coastal Mediterranean site, and determined experimentally the effects of ca. 2.5 1C on these processes. We show that warming will increase nearly 20% the total carbon demand of coastal microbial plankton without any effect on their (commonly low) growth efficiency, which could generate a positive feedback between coastal warming and CO 2 production
Instanton partition functions in N=2 SU(N) gauge theories with a general surface operator, and their W-algebra duals
We write down an explicit conjecture for the instanton partition functions in
4d N=2 SU(N) gauge theories in the presence of a certain type of surface
operator. These surface operators are classified by partitions of N, and for
each partition there is an associated partition function. For the partition N=N
we recover the Nekrasov formalism, and when N=1+...+1 we reproduce the result
of Feigin et. al. For the case N=1+(N-1) our expression is consistent with an
alternative formulation in terms of a restricted SU(N)xSU(N) instanton
partition function. When N=1+...+1+2 the partition functions can also be
obtained perturbatively from certain W-algebras known as quasi-superconformal
algebras, in agreement with a recent general proposal.Comment: 20 page
Theoretical study of the insulating oxides and nitrides: SiO2, GeO2, Al2O3, Si3N4, and Ge3N4
An extensive theoretical study is performed for wide bandgap crystalline
oxides and nitrides, namely, SiO_{2}, GeO_{2}, Al_{2}O_{3}, Si_{3}N_{4}, and
Ge_{3}N_{4}. Their important polymorphs are considered which are for SiO_{2}:
-quartz, - and -cristobalite and stishovite, for
GeO_{2}: -quartz, and rutile, for Al_{2}O_{3}: -phase, for
Si_{3}N_{4} and Ge_{3}N_{4}: - and -phases. This work
constitutes a comprehensive account of both electronic structure and the
elastic properties of these important insulating oxides and nitrides obtained
with high accuracy based on density functional theory within the local density
approximation. Two different norm-conserving \textit{ab initio}
pseudopotentials have been tested which agree in all respects with the only
exception arising for the elastic properties of rutile GeO_{2}. The agreement
with experimental values, when available, are seen to be highly satisfactory.
The uniformity and the well convergence of this approach enables an unbiased
assessment of important physical parameters within each material and among
different insulating oxide and nitrides. The computed static electric
susceptibilities are observed to display a strong correlation with their mass
densities. There is a marked discrepancy between the considered oxides and
nitrides with the latter having sudden increase of density of states away from
the respective band edges. This is expected to give rise to excessive carrier
scattering which can practically preclude bulk impact ionization process in
Si_{3}N_{4} and Ge_{3}N_{4}.Comment: Published version, 10 pages, 8 figure
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