Should the Pomeron and imaginary parts be modelled by two gluons and real quarks?

We illustrate that solution of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the gluon propagator in QCD does not support an infrared softened behaviour, but only an infrared enhancement. This has consequences for the modelling of the Pomeron in terms of dressed gluon exchange. It highlights that an understanding of the Pomeron within QCD must take account of the bound state nature of hadrons.Comment: 7 pages, latex, 2 figures, replaced ~\epsfig... by \mbox{\epsfig...

Two Optimal One-Error-Correcting Codes of Length 13 That Are Not Doubly Shortened Perfect Codes

The doubly shortened perfect codes of length 13 are classified utilizing the classification of perfect codes in [P.R.J. \"Osterg{\aa}rd and O. Pottonen, The perfect binary one-error-correcting codes of length 15: Part I - Classification, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, to appear]; there are 117821 such (13,512,3) codes. By applying a switching operation to those codes, two more (13,512,3) codes are obtained, which are then not doubly shortened perfect codes.Comment: v2: a correction concerning shortened codes of length 1

Kac-Moody algebras in perturbative string theory

The conjecture that M-theory has the rank eleven Kac-Moody symmetry e11 implies that Type IIA and Type IIB string theories in ten dimensions possess certain infinite dimensional perturbative symmetry algebras that we determine. This prediction is compared with the symmetry algebras that can be constructed in perturbative string theory, using the closed string analogues of the DDF operators. Within the limitations of this construction close agreement is found. We also perform the analogous analysis for the case of the closed bosonic string.Comment: 31 pages, harvmac (b), 4 eps-figure

Sugawara-type constraints in hyperbolic coset models

In the conjectured correspondence between supergravity and geodesic models on infinite-dimensional hyperbolic coset spaces, and E10/K(E10) in particular, the constraints play a central role. We present a Sugawara-type construction in terms of the E10 Noether charges that extends these constraints infinitely into the hyperbolic algebra, in contrast to the truncated expressions obtained in arXiv:0709.2691 that involved only finitely many generators. Our extended constraints are associated to an infinite set of roots which are all imaginary, and in fact fill the closed past light-cone of the Lorentzian root lattice. The construction makes crucial use of the E10 Weyl group and of the fact that the E10 model contains both D=11 supergravity and D=10 IIB supergravity. Our extended constraints appear to unite in a remarkable manner the different canonical constraints of these two theories. This construction may also shed new light on the issue of `open constraint algebras' in traditional canonical approaches to gravity.Comment: 49 page

Longitudinal metabolic and gut bacterial profiling of pregnant women with previous bariatric surgery

Objective Due to the global increase in obesity rates and success of bariatric surgery in weight reduction, an increasing number of women now present pregnant with a previous bariatric procedure. This study investigates the extent of bariatric-associated metabolic and gut microbial alterations during pregnancy and their impact on fetal development. Design A parallel metabonomic (molecular phenotyping based on proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and gut bacterial (16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing) profiling approach was used to determine maternal longitudinal phenotypes associated with malabsorptive/mixed (n=25) or restrictive (n=16) procedures, compared with women with similar early pregnancy body mass index but without bariatric surgery (n=70). Metabolic profiles of offspring at birth were also analysed. Results Previous malabsorptive, but not restrictive, procedures induced significant changes in maternal metabolic pathways involving branched-chain and aromatic amino acids with decreased circulation of leucine, isoleucine and isobutyrate, increased excretion of microbial-associated metabolites of protein putrefaction (phenylacetlyglutamine, p-cresol sulfate, indoxyl sulfate and p-hydroxyphenylacetate), and a shift in the gut microbiota. The urinary concentration of phenylacetylglutamine was significantly elevated in malabsorptive patients relative to controls (p=0.001) and was also elevated in urine of neonates born from these mothers (p=0.021). Furthermore, the maternal metabolic changes induced by malabsorptive surgery were associated with reduced maternal insulin resistance and fetal/birth weight. Conclusion Metabolism is altered in pregnant women with a previous malabsorptive bariatric surgery. These alterations may be beneficial for maternal outcomes, but the effect of elevated levels of phenolic and indolic compounds on fetal and infant health should be investigated further

Body Composition Profiling in the UK Biobank Imaging Study

Objective To investigate the value of imaging-based multivariable body composition profiling by describing its association with coronary heart disease (CHD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and metabolic health on individual and population levels. Methods The first 6,021 participants scanned by UK Biobank were included. Body composition profiles (BCPs) were calculated including abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), thigh muscle volume, liver fat, and muscle fat infiltration (MFI), determined using magnetic resonance imaging. Associations between BCP and metabolic status were investigated using matching procedures and multivariable statistical modelling. Results Matched control analysis showed higher VAT and MFI was associated with CHD and T2D (p<0.001). Higher liver fat was associated with T2D (p<0.001) and lower liver fat with CHD (p<0.05), matching on VAT. Multivariable modelling showed lower VAT and MFI was associated with metabolic health (p<0.001), liver fat was non-significant. Associations remained significant adjusting for sex, age, BMI, alcohol, smoking, and physical activity. Conclusions Body composition profiling enabled an intuitive visualization of body composition and showed the complexity of associations between fat distribution and metabolic status, stressing the importance of a multivariable approach. Different diseases were linked to different BCPs, which could not be described by a single fat compartment alone

QCD Down Under: Building Bridges

The strong coupling regime of QCD is responsible for 99% of hadronic phenomena. Though considerable progress has been made in solving QCD in this non-perturbative region, we nevertheless have to rely on a disparate range of models and approximations. If we are to gain an understanding of the underlying physics and not just have numerical answers from computing `` black'' boxes, we must build bridges between the parameter space where models and approximations are valid to the regime describing experiment, and between the different modellings of strong dynamics. We describe here how the Schwinger-Dyson/Bethe-Salpeter approach provides just such a bridge, linking physics, the lattice and experiment.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures. Opening talk at Workshop on QCD Down Under, March 2004, Barossa Valley and Adelaide (to be published in the Proceedings

Strings on conifolds from strong coupling dynamics, part I

A method to solve various aspects of the strong coupling expansion of the superconformal field theory duals of AdS_5 x X geometries from first principles is proposed. The main idea is that at strong coupling the configurations that dominate the low energy dynamics of the field theory compactified on a three sphere are given by certain non-trivial semi-classical configurations in the moduli space of vacua. We show that this approach is self-consistent and permits one to express most of the dynamics in terms of an effective N=4 SYM dynamics. This has the advantage that some degrees of freedom that move the configurations away from moduli space can be treated perturbatively, unifying the essential low energy dynamics of all of these theories. We show that with this formalism one can compute the energies of strings in the BMN limit in the Klebanov-Witten theory from field theory considerations, matching the functional form of results found using AdS geometry. This paper also presents various other technical results for the semiclassical treatment of superconformal field theories.Comment: 52 pages, JHEP3 styl

Pure type I supergravity and DE(10)

We establish a dynamical equivalence between the bosonic part of pure type I supergravity in D=10 and a D=1 non-linear sigma-model on the Kac-Moody coset space DE(10)/K(DE(10)) if both theories are suitably truncated. To this end we make use of a decomposition of DE(10) under its regular SO(9,9) subgroup. Our analysis also deals partly with the fermionic fields of the supergravity theory and we define corresponding representations of the generalized spatial Lorentz group K(DE(10)).Comment: 28 page

The three-dimensional structure of Saturn's E ring

Saturn's diffuse E ring consists of many tiny (micron and sub-micron) grains of water ice distributed between the orbits of Mimas and Titan. Various gravitational and non-gravitational forces perturb these particles' orbits, causing the ring's local particle density to vary noticeably with distance from the planet, height above the ring-plane, hour angle and time. Using remote-sensing data obtained by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005 and 2006, we investigate the E-ring's three-dimensional structure during a time when the Sun illuminated the rings from the south at high elevation angles (> 15 degrees). These observations show that the ring's vertical thickness grows with distance from Enceladus' orbit and its peak brightness density shifts from south to north of Saturn's equator plane with increasing distance from the planet. These data also reveal a localized depletion in particle density near Saturn's equatorial plane around Enceladus' semi-major axis. Finally, variations are detected in the radial brightness profile and the vertical thickness of the ring as a function of longitude relative to the Sun. Possible physical mechanisms and processes that may be responsible for some of these structures include solar radiation pressure, variations in the ambient plasma, and electromagnetic perturbations associated with Saturn's shadow.Comment: 42 Pages, 13 Figures, modified to include minor proof correction