Eight-quark interactions as a chiral thermometer

A NJL Lagrangian extended to six and eight quark interactions is applied to study temperature effects (SU(3) flavor limit, massless case), and (realistic massive case). The transition temperature can be considerably reduced as compared to the standard approach, in accordance with recent lattice calculations. The mesonic spectra built on the spontaneously broken vacuum induced by the 't Hooft interaction strength, as opposed to the commonly considered case driven by the four-quark coupling, undergoes a rapid crossover to the unbroken phase, with a slope and at a temperature which is regulated by the strength of the OZI violating eight-quark interactions. This strength can be adjusted in consonance with the four-quark coupling and leaves the spectra unchanged, except for the sigma meson mass, which decreases. A first order transition behavior is also a possible solution within the present approach.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, prepared for the proceedings of Quark Matter 2008 - 20th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus Nucleus Collisions, February 4-10, Jaipur (India

Thermodynamic potential with correct asymptotics for PNJL model

An attempt is made to resolve certain incongruities within the Nambu - Jona-Lasinio (NJL) and Polyakov loop extended NJL models (PNJL) which currently are used to extract the thermodynamic characteristics of the quark-gluon system. It is argued that the most attractive resolution of these incongruities is the possibility to obtain the thermodynamic potential directly from the corresponding extremum conditions (gap equations) by integrating them, an integration constant being fixed in accordance with the Stefan-Boltzmann law. The advantage of the approach is that the regulator is kept finite both in divergent and finite valued integrals at finite temperature and chemical potential. The Pauli-Villars regularization is used, although a standard 3D sharp cutoff can be applied as well.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, extended version, title change

The accuracy of merging approximation in generalized St. Petersburg games

Merging asymptotic expansions of arbitrary length are established for the distribution functions and for the probabilities of suitably centered and normalized cumulative winnings in a full sequence of generalized St. Petersburg games, extending the short expansions due to Cs\"org\H{o}, S., Merging asymptotic expansions in generalized St. Petersburg games, \textit{Acta Sci. Math. (Szeged)} \textbf{73} 297--331, 2007. These expansions are given in terms of suitably chosen members from the classes of subsequential semistable infinitely divisible asymptotic distribution functions and certain derivatives of these functions. The length of the expansion depends upon the tail parameter. Both uniform and nonuniform bounds are presented.Comment: 30 pages long version (to appear in Journal of Theoretical Probability); some corrected typo

A catalytic asymmetric total synthesis of (-)-perophoramidine

We report a catalytic asymmetric total synthesis of the ascidian natural product perophoramidine. The synthesis employs a molybdenum-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation of an oxindole nucleophile and a monosubstituted allylic electrophile as a key asymmetric step. The enantioenriched oxindole product from this transformation contains vicinal quaternary and tertiary stereocenters, and is obtained in high yield along with high levels of regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivity. To install the second quaternary stereocenter in the target, the route utilizes a novel regio- and diastereoselective allylation of a cyclic imino ether to deliver an allylated imino ether product in near quantitative yield and with complete regio- and diastereocontrol. Oxidative cleavage and reductive amination are used as final steps to access the natural product.John Stauffer Memorial FellowshipStanford Graduate Fellowshi

The Selection of Computed Tomography Scanning Schemes for Lengthy Symmetric Objects

The article describes the basic computed tomography scan schemes for lengthy symmetric objects: continuous (discrete) rotation with a discrete linear movement; continuous (discrete) rotation with discrete linear movement to acquire 2D projection; continuous (discrete) linear movement with discrete rotation to acquire one–dimensional projection and continuous (discrete) rotation to acquire of 2D projection. The general method to calculate the scanning time is discussed in detail. It should be extracted the comparison principle to select a scanning scheme. This is because data are the same for all scanning schemes: the maximum energy of the X–ray radiation; the power of X–ray radiation source; the angle of the X-ray cone beam; the transverse dimension of a single detector; specified resolution and the maximum time, which is need to form one point of the original image and complies the number of registered photons). It demonstrates the possibilities of the above proposed method to compare the scanning schemes. Scanning object was a cylindrical object with the mass thickness is 4 g/cm2, the effective atomic number is 15 and length is 1300 mm. It analyzes data of scanning time and concludes about the efficiency of scanning schemes. It examines the productivity of all schemes and selects the effective one

Light Quark Masses in Multi-Quark Interactions

We suggest and discuss in detail a multi-quark three flavor Lagrangian of the Nambu -- Jona-Lasinio type, which includes a set of effective interactions proportional to the current quark masses. It is shown that within the dynamical chiral symmetry breaking regime, the masses of the pseudo Goldstone bosons and their chiral partners, members of the low lying scalar nonet, are in perfect agreement with current phenomenological expectations. The role of the new interactions is analyzed.Comment: 8 pages, published versio

Extracting topological features from dynamical measures in networks of Kuramoto oscillators

The Kuramoto model for an ensemble of coupled oscillators provides a paradigmatic example of non-equilibrium transitions between an incoherent and a synchronized state. Here we analyze populations of almost identical oscillators in arbitrary interaction networks. Our aim is to extract topological features of the connectivity pattern from purely dynamical measures, based on the fact that in a heterogeneous network the global dynamics is not only affected by the distribution of the natural frequencies, but also by the location of the different values. In order to perform a quantitative study we focused on a very simple frequency distribution considering that all the frequencies are equal but one, that of the pacemaker node. We then analyze the dynamical behavior of the system at the transition point and slightly above it, as well as very far from the critical point, when it is in a highly incoherent state. The gathered topological information ranges from local features, such as the single node connectivity, to the hierarchical structure of functional clusters, and even to the entire adjacency matrix.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure