73 research outputs found
Pentaquark as Kaon-Nucleon Resonance
Several recent experiments have reported evidence for a narrow feature in the
K(+)-neutron system, an apparent resonant state ~ 100 MeV above threshold and
with a width < 25 MeV. This state has been labelled as Theta(+) (previously as
Z(*)), and because of the implied inclusion of a anti-strange quark, is
referred to as a pentaquark, that is, five quarks within a single bag. We
present an alternative explanation for such a structure, as a higher angular
momentum resonance in the isospin zero K(+) -N system. One might call this an
exit channel or a molecular resonance. In a non-relativistic potential model we
find a possible candidate for the kaon-nucleon system with relative angular
momentum L=3, while L=1 and 2 states possess centrifugal barriers too low to
confine the kaon and nucleon in a narrow state at an energy so high above
threshold. A rather strong state-dependence in the potential is essential,
however, for eliminating an observable L=2 resonance at lower energies.Comment: 4 page
A Naturally Narrow Positive Parity Theta^+
We present a consistent color-flavor-spin-orbital wave function for a
positive parity Theta^+ that naturally explains the observed narrowness of the
state. The wave function is totally symmetric in its flavor-spin part and
totally antisymmetric in its color-orbital part. If flavor-spin interactions
dominate, this wave function renders the positive parity Theta^+ lighter than
its negative parity counterpart. We consider decays of the Theta^+ and compute
the overlap of this state with the kinematically allowed final states. Our
results are numerically small. We note that dynamical correlations between
quarks are not necessary to obtain narrow pentaquark widths.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, Revtex4, two-column format, version to be
published in Phys. Rev. D, includes numerical estimates of decay width
Z^* Resonances: Phenomenology and Models
We explore the phenomenology of, and models for, the Z^* resonances, the
lowest of which is now well established, and called the Theta. We provide an
overview of three models which have been proposed to explain its existence
and/or its small width, and point out other relevant predictions, and potential
problems, for each. The relation to what is known about KN scattering,
including possible resonance signals in other channels, is also discussed.Comment: 29 pages, uses RevTeX4; expanded version (published form
Massively parallel simulations for disordered systems
Simulations of systems with quenched disorder are extremely demanding,
suffering from the combined effect of slow relaxation and the need of
performing the disorder average. As a consequence, new algorithms, improved
implementations, and alternative and even purpose-built hardware are often
instrumental for conducting meaningful studies of such systems. The ensuing
demands regarding hardware availability and code complexity are substantial and
sometimes prohibitive. We demonstrate how with a moderate coding effort leaving
the overall structure of the simulation code unaltered as compared to a CPU
implementation, very significant speed-ups can be achieved from a parallel code
on GPU by mainly exploiting the trivial parallelism of the disorder samples and
the near-trivial parallelism of the parallel tempering replicas. A combination
of this massively parallel implementation with a careful choice of the
temperature protocol for parallel tempering as well as efficient cluster
updates allows us to equilibrate comparatively large systems with moderate
computational resources.Comment: accepted for publication in EPJB, Topical issue - Recent advances in
the theory of disordered system
Association of Spinal Cord Atrophy and Brain Paramagnetic Rim Lesions With Progression Independent of Relapse Activity in People With MS.
Progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA) is a crucial determinant of overall disability accumulation in multiple sclerosis (MS). Accelerated brain atrophy has been shown in patients experiencing PIRA. In this study, we assessed the relation between PIRA and neurodegenerative processes reflected by (1) longitudinal spinal cord atrophy and (2) brain paramagnetic rim lesions (PRLs). Besides, the same relationship was investigated in progressive MS (PMS). Last, we explored the value of cross-sectional brain and spinal cord volumetric measurements in predicting PIRA.
From an ongoing multicentric cohort study, we selected patients with MS with (1) availability of a susceptibility-based MRI scan and (2) regular clinical and conventional MRI follow-up in the 4 years before the susceptibility-based MRI. Comparisons in spinal cord atrophy rates (explored with linear mixed-effect models) and PRL count (explored with negative binomial regression models) were performed between: (1) relapsing-remitting (RRMS) and PMS phenotypes and (2) patients experiencing PIRA and patients without confirmed disability accumulation (CDA) during follow-up (both considering the entire cohort and the subgroup of patients with RRMS). Associations between baseline MRI volumetric measurements and time to PIRA were explored with multivariable Cox regression analyses.
In total, 445 patients with MS (64.9% female; mean [SD] age at baseline 45.0 [11.4] years; 11.2% with PMS) were enrolled. Compared with patients with RRMS, those with PMS had accelerated cervical cord atrophy (mean difference in annual percentage volume change [MD-APC] -1.41; p = 0.004) and higher PRL load (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.93; p = 0.005). Increased spinal cord atrophy (MD-APC -1.39; p = 0.0008) and PRL burden (IRR 1.95; p = 0.0008) were measured in patients with PIRA compared with patients without CDA; such differences were also confirmed when restricting the analysis to patients with RRMS. Baseline volumetric measurements of the cervical cord, whole brain, and cerebral cortex significantly predicted time to PIRA (all p ≤ 0.002).
Our results show that PIRA is associated with both increased spinal cord atrophy and PRL burden, and this association is evident also in patients with RRMS. These findings further point to the need to develop targeted treatment strategies for PIRA to prevent irreversible neuroaxonal loss and optimize long-term outcomes of patients with MS
The theta^+ baryon in soliton models: large Nc QCD and the validity of rigid-rotor quantization
A light collective theta+ baryon state (with strangeness +1) was predicted
via rigid-rotor collective quantization of SU(3) chiral soliton models. This
paper explores the validity of this treatment. A number of rather general
analyses suggest that predictions of exotic baryon properties based on this
approximation do not follow from large Nc QCD. These include an analysis of the
baryon's width, a comparison of the predictions with general large Nc
consistency conditions of the Gervais-Sakita-Dashen-Manohar type; an
application of the technique to QCD in the limit where the quarks are heavy; a
comparison of this method with the vibration approach of Callan and Klebanov;
and the 1/Nc scaling of the excitation energy. It is suggested that the origin
of the problem lies in an implicit assumption in the that the collective motion
is orthogonal to vibrational motion. While true for non-exotic motion, the
Wess-Zumino term induces mixing at leading order between collective and
vibrational motion with exotic quantum numbers. This suggests that successful
phenomenological predictions of theta+ properties based on rigid-rotor
quantization were accidental.Comment: 19 pages; A shorter more readable versio
Influência de fatores ambientais na distribuição de famílias de insetos aquáticos em rios no sul do Brasil
Global maps of soil temperature.
Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km <sup>2</sup> resolution for 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km <sup>2</sup> pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications
Oxidative metabolism and muscle biochemical profile of polo horses supplemented with an ADE vitamin complex
Parenteral administration of vitamins A, D and E on the oxidative metabolism and function of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in swine
- …