77,006 research outputs found
Two-Loop Four-Gluon Amplitudes in N=4 Super-Yang-Mills
Using cutting techniques we obtain the two-loop N=4 super-Yang-Mills helicity
amplitudes for four-gluon scattering in terms of scalar integral functions. The
N=4 amplitudes are considerably simpler than corresponding QCD amplitudes and
therefore provide a testing ground for exploring two-loop amplitudes. The
amplitudes are constructed directly in terms of gauge invariant quantities and
therefore remain relatively compact throughout the calculation. We also present
a conjecture for the leading color four-gluon amplitudes to all orders in the
perturbative expansion.Comment: Latex, 13 pages, 9 figures, minor changes to signs in eq.(14
Study of interacting electrons in graphene under the renormalized-ring-diagram approximation
Using the tight-binding model with long-range Coulomb interactions between
electrons, we study some of the electronic properties of graphene. The Coulomb
interactions are treated with the renormalized-ring-diagram approximation. By
self-consistently solving the integral equations for the Green function, we
calculate the spectral density. The obtained result is in agreement with
experimental observation. In addition, we also compute the density of states,
the distribution functions, and the ground-state energy. Within the present
approximation, we find that the imaginary part of the self-energy fixed at the
Fermi momentum varies as quadratic in energy close to the chemical potential,
regardless the system is doped or not. This result appears to indicate that the
electrons in graphene always behave like a moderately correlated Fermi liquid.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure
Solid superheating observed in two-dimensional strongly-coupled dusty plasma
It is demonstrated experimentally that strongly-coupled plasma exhibits solid
superheating. A 2D suspension of microspheres in dusty plasma, initially
self-organized in a solid lattice, was heated and then cooled rapidly by
turning laser heating on and off. Particles were tracked using video
microscopy, allowing atomistic-scale observation during melting and
solidification. During rapid heating, the suspension remained in a solid
structure at temperatures above the melting point, demonstrating solid
superheating. Hysteresis diagrams did not indicate liquid supercooling in this
2D system.Comment: 9 pages text, 3 figures, in press Physical Review Letters 200
Microlensing of Sub-parsec Massive Binary Black Holes in Lensed QSOs: Light Curves and Size-Wavelength Relation
Sub-parsec binary massive black holes (BBHs) are long anticipated to exist in
many QSOs but remain observationally elusive. In this paper, we propose a novel
method to probe sub-parsec BBHs through microlensing of lensed QSOs. If a QSO
hosts a sub-parsec BBH in its center, it is expected that the BBH is surrounded
by a circum-binary disk, each component of the BBH is surrounded by a small
accretion disk, and a gap is opened by the secondary component in between the
circum-binary disk and the two small disks. Assuming such a BBH structure, we
generate mock microlensing light curves for some QSO systems that host BBHs
with typical physical parameters. We show that microlensing light curves of a
BBH QSO system at the infrared-optical-UV bands can be significantly different
from those of corresponding QSO system with a single massive black hole (MBH),
mainly because of the existence of the gap and the rotation of the BBH (and its
associated small disks) around the center of mass. We estimate the half-light
radii of the emission region at different wavelengths from mock light curves
and find that the obtained half-light radius vs. wavelength relations of BBH
QSO systems can be much flatter than those of single MBH QSO systems at a
wavelength range determined by the BBH parameters, such as the total mass, mass
ratio, separation, accretion rates, etc. The difference is primarily due to the
existence of the gap. Such unique features on the light curves and half-light
radius-wavelength relations of BBH QSO systems can be used to select and probe
sub-parsec BBHs in a large number of lensed QSOs to be discovered by current
and future surveys, including the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response
System (Pan-STARRS), the Large Synoptic Survey telescope (LSST) and Euclid.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Vocal learning promotes patterned inhibitory connectivity.
Skill learning is instantiated by changes to functional connectivity within premotor circuits, but whether the specificity of learning depends on structured changes to inhibitory circuitry remains unclear. We used slice electrophysiology to measure connectivity changes associated with song learning in the avian analog of primary motor cortex (robust nucleus of the arcopallium, RA) in Bengalese Finches. Before song learning, fast-spiking interneurons (FSIs) densely innervated glutamatergic projection neurons (PNs) with apparently random connectivity. After learning, there was a profound reduction in the overall strength and number of inhibitory connections, but this was accompanied by a more than two-fold enrichment in reciprocal FSI-PN connections. Moreover, in singing birds, we found that pharmacological manipulations of RA's inhibitory circuitry drove large shifts in learned vocal features, such as pitch and amplitude, without grossly disrupting the song. Our results indicate that skill learning establishes nonrandom inhibitory connectivity, and implicates this patterning in encoding specific features of learned movements
Elimination of IR/UV via Gravity in Noncommutative Field Theory
Models of particle physics with Noncommutative Geometry (NCG) generally
suffer from a manifestly non-Wilsonian coupling of infrared and ultraviolet
degrees of freedom known as the "IR/UV Problem" which would tend to compromise
their phenomenological relevance. In this Letter we explicitly show how one may
remedy this by coupling NCG to gravity. In the simplest scenario the Lagrangian
gets multiplied by a nonconstant background metric; in theory the
theorem that is no longer true
and the field propagator gets modified by a factor which depends on both NCG
and the variation of the metric. A suitable limit of this factor as the
propagating momentum gets asymptotically large then eradicates the IR/UV
problem. With gravity and NCG coupled to each other, one might expect
anti-symmetric components to arise in the metric. Cosmological implications of
such are subsequently discussed.Comment: 6 pages; MPLA versio
Linear density response function in the projector-augmented wave method: Applications to solids, surfaces, and interfaces
We present an implementation of the linear density response function within
the projector-augmented wave (PAW) method with applications to the linear
optical and dielectric properties of both solids, surfaces, and interfaces. The
response function is represented in plane waves while the single-particle
eigenstates can be expanded on a real space grid or in atomic orbital basis for
increased efficiency. The exchange-correlation kernel is treated at the level
of the adiabatic local density approximation (ALDA) and crystal local field
effects are included. The calculated static and dynamical dielectric functions
of Si, C, SiC, AlP and GaAs compare well with previous calculations. While
optical properties of semiconductors, in particular excitonic effects, are
generally not well described by ALDA, we obtain excellent agreement with
experiments for the surface loss function of the Mg(0001) surface with plasmon
energies deviating by less than 0.2 eV. Finally, we apply the method to study
the influence of substrates on the plasmon excitations in graphene. On
SiC(0001), the long wavelength plasmons are significantly damped although
their energies remain almost unaltered. On Al(111) the plasmon is
completely quenched due to the coupling to the metal surface plasmon.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, articl
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