359 research outputs found
Quantum Mechanics on Manifolds Embedded in Euclidean Space
Quantum particles confined to surfaces in higher dimensional spaces are acted
upon by forces that exist only as a result of the surface geometry and the
quantum mechanical nature of the system. The dynamics are particularly rich
when confinement is implemented by forces that act normal to the surface. We
review this confining potential formalism applied to the confinement of a
particle to an arbitrary manifold embedded in a higher dimensional Euclidean
space. We devote special attention to the geometrically induced gauge potential
that appears in the effective Hamiltonian for motion on the surface. We
emphasize that the gauge potential is only present when the space of states
describing the degrees of freedom normal to the surface is degenerate. We also
distinguish between the effects of the intrinsic and extrinsic geometry on the
effective Hamiltonian and provide simple expressions for the induced scalar
potential. We discuss examples including the case of a 3-dimensional manifold
embedded in a 5-dimensional Euclidean space.Comment: 12 pages, LaTe
Closed forms and multi-moment maps
We extend the notion of multi-moment map to geometries defined by closed
forms of arbitrary degree. We give fundamental existence and uniqueness results
and discuss a number of essential examples, including geometries related to
special holonomy. For forms of degree four, multi-moment maps are guaranteed to
exist and are unique when the symmetry group is (3,4)-trivial, meaning that the
group is connected and the third and fourth Lie algebra Betti numbers vanish.
We give a structural description of some classes of (3,4)-trivial algebras and
provide a number of examples.Comment: 36 page
M-theory on eight-manifolds revisited: N=1 supersymmetry and generalized Spin(7) structures
The requirement of supersymmetry for M-theory backgrounds of the
form of a warped product , where is an eight-manifold
and is three-dimensional Minkowski or AdS space, implies the
existence of a nowhere-vanishing Majorana spinor on . lifts to a
nowhere-vanishing spinor on the auxiliary nine-manifold , where
is a circle of constant radius, implying the reduction of the structure
group of to . In general, however, there is no reduction of the
structure group of itself. This situation can be described in the language
of generalized structures, defined in terms of certain spinors of
. We express the condition for supersymmetry
in terms of differential equations for these spinors. In an equivalent
formulation, working locally in the vicinity of any point in in terms of a
`preferred' structure, we show that the requirement of
supersymmetry amounts to solving for the intrinsic torsion and all irreducible
flux components, except for the one lying in the of , in
terms of the warp factor and a one-form on (not necessarily
nowhere-vanishing) constructed as a bilinear; in addition, is
constrained to satisfy a pair of differential equations. The formalism based on
the group is the most suitable language in which to describe
supersymmetric compactifications on eight-manifolds of structure,
and/or small-flux perturbations around supersymmetric compactifications on
manifolds of holonomy.Comment: 24 pages. V2: introduction slightly extended, typos corrected in the
text, references added. V3: the role of Spin(7) clarified, erroneous
statements thereof corrected. New material on generalized Spin(7) structures
in nine dimensions. To appear in JHE
Methane Flux in Cropland and Adjacent Riparian Buff ers with Different Vegetation Covers
While water quality functions of conservation buffers established adjacent to cropped fields have been widely documented, the relative contribution of these re-established perennial plant systems to greenhouse gases has not been completely documented. In the case of methane (CH(4)), these systems have the potential to serve as sinks of CH(4) or may provide favorable conditions for CH(4) production. This study quantifies CH(4) flux from soils of riparian buffer systems comprised of three vegetation types and compares these fluxes with those of adjacent crop fields. We measured soil properties and diel and seasonal variations of CH(4) flux in 7 to 17 yr-old re-established riparian forest buffers, warm-season and cool-season grass filters, and an adjacent crop field located in the Bear Creek watershed in central Iowa. Forest buffer and grass filter soils had significantly lower bulk density (P \u3c 0.01); and higher pH (P \u3c 0.01), total carbon (TC) (P \u3c 0.01), and total nitrogen (TN) (P \u3c 0.01) than crop field soils. There was no significant relationship between CH(4) flux and soil moisture or soil temperature among sites within the range of conditions observed. Cumulative CH(4) flux was -0.80 kg CH(4)-C ha(-1) yr(-1) in the cropped field, -0.46 kg CH(4)-C ha(-1) yr(-1) within the forest buffers, and 0.04 kg CH(4)-C ha(-1) yr(-1) within grass filters, but difference among vegetation covers was not significant. Results suggest that CH(4) flux was not changed after establishment of perennial vegetation on cropped soils, despite significant changes in soil properties
How the west was once: vegetation change in south-west Queensland from 1930 to 1995
Conflicting perceptions of past and present rangeland condition and limited historical data have led to debate regarding the management of vegetation in pastoral landscapes both internationally and in Australia. In light of this controversy we have sought to provide empirical evidence to determine the trajectory of vegetational change in a semi-arid rangeland for a significant portion of the 20th century using a suite of proxy measures. Ambathala Station, approximately 780 km west of Brisbane, in the semi-arid rangelands of south-western Queensland, Australia. We excavated stratified deposits of sheep manure which had accumulated beneath a shearing shed between the years 1930 and 1995. Multi-proxy data, including pollen and leaf cuticle analyses and analysis of historical aerial photography were coupled with a fine resolution radiocarbon chronology to generate a near annual history of vegetation on the property and local area. Aerial photography indicates that minor (< 5%) increases in the density of woody vegetation took place between 1951 and 1994 in two thirds of the study area not subjected to clearing. Areas that were selectively or entirely cleared prior to the 1950s (approximately 16% of the study area) had recovered to almost 60% of their original cover by the 1994 photo period. This slight thickening is only partially evident from pollen and leaf cuticle analyses of sheep faeces. Very little change in vegetation is revealed over the nearly 65 years based on the relative abundances of pollen taxonomic groups. Microhistological examination of sheep faeces provides evidence of dramatic changes in sheep diet. The majority of dietary changes are associated with climatic events of sustained above-average rainfall or persistent drought. Most notable in the dietary analysis is the absence of grass during the first two decades of the record. In contrast to prevailing perceptions and limited research into long-term vegetation change in the semi-arid areas of eastern Australia, the record of vegetation change at the Ambathala shearing shed indicates only a minor increase in woody vegetation cover and no decrease in grass cover on the property over the 65 years of pastoral activity covered by the study. However, there are marked changes in the abundance of grass cuticles in sheep faeces. The appearance and persistence of grass in sheep diets from the late 1940s can be attributed to the effects of periods of high rainfall and possibly some clearing and thinning of vegetation. Lower stock numbers may have allowed grass to persist through later drought years. The relative abundances of major groups of plant pollen have not changed significantly over the past 65 years
Action of mouthwashes on Staphylococcus spp: isolated in the saliva of community and hospitalized individuals
Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost
universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade.
Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this
time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of
available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the
modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of
multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed
galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major
ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay
between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models,
and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic
measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting
can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies,
such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and
metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet
there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in
a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the
influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The
challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the
observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will
be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where
the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the
text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics &
Space Scienc
Pion, kaon, proton and anti-proton transverse momentum distributions from p+p and d+Au collisions at GeV
Identified mid-rapidity particle spectra of , , and
from 200 GeV p+p and d+Au collisions are reported. A
time-of-flight detector based on multi-gap resistive plate chamber technology
is used for particle identification. The particle-species dependence of the
Cronin effect is observed to be significantly smaller than that at lower
energies. The ratio of the nuclear modification factor () between
protons and charged hadrons () in the transverse momentum
range GeV/c is measured to be
(stat)(syst) in minimum-bias collisions and shows little
centrality dependence. The yield ratio of in minimum-bias d+Au
collisions is found to be a factor of 2 lower than that in Au+Au collisions,
indicating that the Cronin effect alone is not enough to account for the
relative baryon enhancement observed in heavy ion collisions at RHIC.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. We extended the pion spectra from
transverse momentum 1.8 GeV/c to 3. GeV/
Demonstration of the temporal matter-wave Talbot effect for trapped matter waves
We demonstrate the temporal Talbot effect for trapped matter waves using
ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We investigate the phase evolution of an
array of essentially non-interacting matter waves and observe matter-wave
collapse and revival in the form of a Talbot interference pattern. By using
long expansion times, we image momentum space with sub-recoil resolution,
allowing us to observe fractional Talbot fringes up to 10th order.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure
Single Spin Asymmetry in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at GeV
We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin
asymmetry at the center of mass energy GeV in elastic
proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The was measured
in the four-momentum transfer squared range \GeVcSq, the region of a significant interference between the
electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of
and its -dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip
amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single
spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated
by the Pomeron amplitude at this , we conclude that this measurement
addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the
Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
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