Deuteron Magnetic Quadrupole Moment From Chiral Effective Field Theory

We calculate the magnetic quadrupole moment (MQM) of the deuteron at leading order in the systematic expansion provided by chiral effective field theory. We take into account parity and time-reversal violation which, at the quark-gluon level, results from the QCD vacuum angle and dimension-six operators that originate from physics beyond the Standard Model. We show that the deuteron MQM can be expressed in terms of five low-energy constants that appear in the parity- and time-reversal-violating nuclear potential and electromagnetic current, four of which also contribute to the electric dipole moments of light nuclei. We conclude that the deuteron MQM has an enhanced sensitivity to the QCD vacuum angle and that its measurement would be complementary to the proposed measurements of light-nuclear EDMs

Pair Correlations, Short Range Order and Dispersive Excitations in the Quasi-Kagome Quantum Magnet Volborthite

We present spatial and dynamic information on the s=1/2 distorted kagome antiferromagnet volborthite, Cu3V2O7(OD)2.2D2O, obtained by polarized and inelastic neutron scattering. The instantaneous structure factor, S(Q), is dominated by nearest neighbor pair correlations, with short range order at wave vectors Q1=0.65(3) {\AA}^-1 and Q2=1.15(5) {\AA}^-1 emerging below 5 K. The excitation spectrum, S(Q,{\omega}), reveals two steep branches dispersing from Q1 and Q2, and a flat mode at {\omega}=5.0(2) meV. The results allow us to identify the cross-over at T*=1 K in 51V NMR and specific heat measurements as the build-up of correlations at Q_1. We compare our data to theoretical models proposed for volborthite, and demonstrate that the excitation spectrum can be explained by spin-wave-like excitations with anisotropic exchange parameters, as also suggested by recent local density calculations.Comment: Rewritten article resubmitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. 021

Scaling of polymers in aligned rods

We study the behavior of self avoiding polymers in a background of vertically aligned rods that are either frozen into random positions or free to move horizontally. We find that in both cases the polymer chains are highly elongated, with vertical and horizontal size exponents that differ by a factor of 3. Though these results are different than previous predictions, our results are confirmed by detailed computer simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Field-Dependent Tilt and Birefringence of Electroclinic Liquid Crystals: Theory and Experiment

An unresolved issue in the theory of liquid crystals is the molecular basis of the electroclinic effect in the smectic-A phase. Recent x-ray scattering experiments suggest that, in a class of siloxane-containing liquid crystals, an electric field changes a state of disordered molecular tilt in random directions into a state of ordered tilt in one direction. To investigate this issue, we measure the optical tilt and birefringence of these liquid crystals as functions of field and temperature, and we develop a theory for the distribution of molecular orientations under a field. Comparison of theory and experiment confirms that these materials have a disordered distribution of molecular tilt directions that is aligned by an electric field, giving a large electroclinic effect. It also shows that the net dipole moment of a correlated volume of molecules, a key parameter in the theory, scales as a power law near the smectic-A--smectic-C transition.Comment: 18 pages, including 9 postscript figures, uses REVTeX 3.0 and epsf.st

Trehalose is required for the acquisition of tolerance to a variety of stresses in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans

Trehalose is a non-reducing disaccharide found at high concentrations in Aspergillus nidulans conidia and rapidly degraded upon induction of conidial germination. Furthermore, trehalose is accumulated in response to a heat shock or to an oxidative shock. The authors have characterized the A. nidulans tpsA gene encoding trehalose-6-phosphate synthase, which catalyses the first step in trehalose biosynthesis. Expression of tpsA in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae tps1 mutant revealed that the tpsA gene product is a functional equivalent of the yeast Tps1 trehalose-6-phosphate synthase. The A. nidulans tpsA-null mutant does not produce trehalose during conidiation or in response to various stress conditions. While germlings of the tpsA mutant show an increased sensitivity to moderate stress conditions (growth at 45 °C or in the presence of 2 mM H2O2), they display a response to severe stress (60 min at 50 °C or in the presence of 100 mM H2O2) similar to that of wild-type germlings. Furthermore, conidia of the tpsA mutant show a rapid loss of viability upon storage. These results are consistent with a role of trehalose in the acquisition of stress tolerance. Inactivation of the tpsA gene also results in increased steady-state levels of sugar phosphates but does not prevent growth on rapidly metabolizable carbon sources (glucose, fructose) as seen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This suggests that trehalose 6-phosphate is a physiological inhibitor of hexokinase but that this control is not essential for proper glycolytic flux in A. nidulans. Interestingly, tpsA transcription is not induced in response to heat shock or during conidiation, indicating that trehalose accumulation is probably due to a post-translational activation process of the trehalose 6-phosphate synthase

Faint, Evolving Radio AGN in SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies

We detect and study the properties of faint radio AGN in Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). The LRG sample comprises 760,000 objects from a catalog of LRG photometric redshifts constructed from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging data, and 65,000 LRGs from the SDSS spectroscopic sample. These galaxies have typical 1.4 GHz flux densities in the 10s-100s of microJy, with the contribution from a low-luminosity AGN dominating any contribution from star formation. To probe the radio properties of such faint objects, we employ a stacking technique whereby FIRST survey image cutouts at each optical LRG position are sorted by the parameter of interest and median-combined within bins. We find that median radio luminosity scales with optical luminosity (L_opt) as L_1.4 GHz ~ L_opt^(beta), where beta appears to decrease from beta ~ 1 at z = 0.4 to beta ~ 0 at z = 0.7, a result which could be indicative of AGN cosmic downsizing. We also find that the overall LRG population, which is dominated by low-luminosity AGN, experiences significant cosmic evolution between z = 0.2 and z = 0.7. This implies a considerable increase in total AGN heating for these massive ellipticals with redshift. By matching against the FIRST catalog, we investigate the incidence and properties of LRGs associated with double-lobed (FR I/II) radio galaxies. (Abridged)Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by A

Tests of Lorentz and CPT symmetry with hadrons and nuclei

We explore the breaking of Lorentz and CPT invariance in strong interactions at low energy in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. Starting from the set of Lorentz-violating operators of mass-dimension five with quark and gluon fields, we construct the effective chiral Lagrangian with hadronic and electromagnetic interactions induced by these operators. We develop the power-counting scheme and discuss loop diagrams and the one-pion-exchange nucleon-nucleon potential. The effective chiral Lagrangian is the basis for calculations of low-energy observables with hadronic degrees of freedom. As examples, we consider clock-comparison experiments with nuclei and spin-precession experiments with nucleons in storage rings. We derive strict limits on the dimension-five tensors that quantify Lorentz and CPT violation

Star Formation in Bright Rimmed Clouds. I. Millimeter and Submillimeter Molecular Line Surveys

We present the results of the first detailed millimeter and submillimeter molecular line survey of bright rimmed clouds, observed at FCRAO in the CO (J=1-0), C18O (J=1-0), HCO+ (J=1-0), H13CO+ (J=1-0), and N2H+ (J=1-0) transitions, and at the HHT in the CO (J=2-1), HCO+ (J=3-2), HCO+ (J=4-3), H13CO+ (J=3-2), and H13CO+ (J=4-3) molecular line transitions. The source list is composed of a selection of bright rimmed clouds from the catalog of such objects compiled by Sugitani et al. (1991). We also present observations of three Bok globules done for comparison with the bright rimmed clouds. We find that the appearance of the millimeter CO and HCO+ emission is dominated by the morphology of the shock front in the bright rimmed clouds. The HCO+ (J=1-0) emission tends to trace the swept up gas ridge and overdense regions which may be triggered to collapse as a result of sequential star formation. Five of the seven bright rimmed clouds we observe seem to have an outflow, however only one shows the spectral line blue-asymmetric signature that is indicative of infall, in the optically thick HCO+ emission. We also present evidence that in bright rimmed clouds the nearby shock front may heat the core from outside-in thereby washing out the normally observed line infall signatures seen in isolated star forming regions. We find that the derived core masses of these bright rimmed clouds are similar to other low and intermediate mass star forming regions.Comment: 67 pages, including 35 figures and 6 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Version with embedded full-resolution figures available at http://www.astro.umass.edu/~devries/brc1

Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations of A≤6A\leq6 Nuclei

The energies of $^{3}H$, $^{3}He$, and $^{4}He$ ground states, the ${\frac{3}{2}}^{-}$ and ${\frac{1}{2}}^{-}$ scattering states of $^{5}He$, the ground states of $^{6}He$, $^{6}Li$, and $^{6}Be$ and the $3^{+}$ and $0^{+}$ excited states of $^{6}Li$ have been accurately calculated with the Green's function Monte Carlo method using realistic models of two- and three-nucleon interactions. The splitting of the $A=3$ isospin $T=\frac{1}{2}$ and $A=6$ isospin $T=1$, $J^{\pi} = 0^{+}$ multiplets is also studied. The observed energies and radii are generally well reproduced, however, some definite differences between theory and experiment can be identified.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur

Supersymmetric Dark Matter after LHC Run 1

Different mechanisms operate in various regions of the MSSM parameter space to bring the relic density of the lightest neutralino, neutralino_1, assumed here to be the LSP and thus the Dark Matter (DM) particle, into the range allowed by astrophysics and cosmology. These mechanisms include coannihilation with some nearly-degenerate next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) such as the lighter stau (stau_1), stop (stop_1) or chargino (chargino_1), resonant annihilation via direct-channel heavy Higgs bosons H/A, the light Higgs boson h or the Z boson, and enhanced annihilation via a larger Higgsino component of the LSP in the focus-point region. These mechanisms typically select lower-dimensional subspaces in MSSM scenarios such as the CMSSM, NUHM1, NUHM2 and pMSSM10. We analyze how future LHC and direct DM searches can complement each other in the exploration of the different DM mechanisms within these scenarios. We find that the stau_1 coannihilation regions of the CMSSM, NUHM1, NUHM2 can largely be explored at the LHC via searches for missing E_T events and long-lived charged particles, whereas their H/A funnel, focus-point and chargino_1 coannihilation regions can largely be explored by the LZ and Darwin DM direct detection experiments. We find that the dominant DM mechanism in our pMSSM10 analysis is chargino_1 coannihilation: {parts of its parameter space can be explored by the LHC, and a larger portion by future direct DM searches.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure