9,401 research outputs found
Picosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectra of photosystem I and II in Chlorella pyrenoidosa
AbstractPicosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectra emitted from intact cells of the green alga Chlorella pyrenoidosa have been measured by means of a new detection technique using a microchannel-plate photomultiplier. A fluorescence band (F700) was observed at 690–730 nm in the initial time region (0–180 ps), in addition to the well-known spectrum (F685) of photosystem II (PS II)-chlorophyll a (Chla) with a peak at 685 nm. F700 decays rapidly with lifetime of 104 ps, while F685 decays much more slowly in bi-exponential form with lifetimes of 0.64 and 1.7 ns. Appearance of F700 is independent of closure of the reaction center II (RC II). F700 is thus assigned to the fluorescence from PS I-Chl a, whose decay is governed by a fast energy transfer process from the antenna Chl aof PS I to P700 of RC I
The Reionization History and Early Metal Enrichment inferred from the Gamma-Ray Burst Rate
Based on the gamma-ray burst (GRB) event rate at redshifts of , which is assessed by the spectral peak energy-to-luminosity relation
recently found by Yonetoku et al., we observationally derive the star formation
rate (SFR) for Pop III stars in a high redshift universe. As a result, we find
that Pop III stars could form continuously at . Using the
derived Pop III SFR, we attempt to estimate the ultraviolet (UV) photon
emission rate at in which redshift range no observational
information has been hitherto obtained on ionizing radiation intensity. We find
that the UV emissivity at can make a noticeable contribution
to the early reionization. The maximal emissivity is higher than the level
required to keep ionizing the intergalactic matter at .
However, if the escape fraction of ionizing photons from Pop III objects is
smaller than 10%, then the IGM can be neutralized at some redshift, which may
lead to the double reionization. As for the enrichment, the ejection of all
metals synthesized in Pop III objects is marginally consistent with the IGM
metallicity, although the confinement of metals in Pop III objects can reduce
the enrichment significantly.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, ApJL accepte
Neutrino Phenomenology in a 3+1+1 Framework
Evidence continues to grow in the MiniBooNE (MB) antineutrino mode supporting
a low-energy excess compatible with the MB neutrino mode and possibly also
confirming the results of the LSND experiment. At least one sterile neutrino is
required to explain the anomalies consistent with the observations of other
experiments. At the same time, there is a strong tension between the positive
signals of LSND and MB and the null results of nu_e and nu_mu disappearance
experiments. We explore a scenario, first proposed in \cite{Nelson:2010hz},
where the presence of an additional heavy sterile neutrino (with mass well
above an eV) can alleviate tension between LSND, MB and the null results of
disappearance experiments. We compare and contrast this 3+1+1 scenario with the
more standard 3+1 scenario and carry out global fits to all oscillation data
including new 2011 MB anti-nu data. We find that the tension can be somewhat
alleviated and that a phenomenologically viable window for the heavy neutrino,
consistent with rare decays and BBN constraints, can be found if the fifth
neutrino has a mass of order 0.3 - 10 GeV. We also find, however, that the 2011
MB anti-nu data exacerbates the tension with null experiments in both the 3+1
and 3+1+1 models when the lowest energy bins are included, resulting in little
improvement in the global fit. We also discuss the implications of an
additional neutrino for the reactor and gallium anomalies, and show that an
oscillation explanation of the anomalies is disfavored by cosmological
considerations, direct searches, and precision electroweak tests.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures; replaced to reflect journal versio
Emergent Calabi-Yau Geometry
We show how the smooth geometry of Calabi-Yau manifolds emerges from the
thermodynamic limit of the statistical mechanical model of crystal melting
defined in our previous paper arXiv:0811.2801. In particular, the thermodynamic
partition function of molten crystals is shown to be equal to the classical
limit of the partition function of the topological string theory by relating
the Ronkin function of the characteristic polynomial of the crystal melting
model to the holomorphic 3-form on the corresponding Calabi-Yau manifold.Comment: 4 pages; v2: revised discussion on wall crossing; v3: typos
corrected, published versio
Virtual light-by-light scattering and the g factor of a bound electron
The contribution of the light-by-light diagram to the g factor of electron
and muon bound in Coulomb field is obtained. For electron in a ground state,
our results are in good agreement with the results of other authors obtained
numerically for large Z. For relatively small Z our results have essentially
higher accuracy as compared to the previous ones. For muonic atoms, the
contribution is obtained for the first time with the high accuracy in whole
region of Z.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, RevTe
Direct Observation of the Hyperfine Transition of the Ground State Positronium
We report the first direct measurement of the hyperfine transition of the
ground state positronium. The hyperfine structure between ortho-positronium and
para-positronium is about 203 GHz. We develop a new optical system to
accumulate about 10 kW power using a gyrotron, a mode converter, and a
Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity. The hyperfine transition has been observed with a
significance of 5.4 standard deviations. The transition probability is measured
to be s for the first time, which
is in good agreement with the theoretical value of
s
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