Statistical mechanics of base stacking and pairing in DNA melting

We propose a statistical mechanics model for DNA melting in which base stacking and pairing are explicitly introduced as distinct degrees of freedom. Unlike previous approaches, this model describes thermal denaturation of DNA secondary structure in the whole experimentally accessible temperature range. Base pairing is described through a zipper model, base stacking through an Ising model. We present experimental data on the unstacking transition, obtained exploiting the observation that at moderately low pH this transition is moved down to experimentally accessible temperatures. These measurements confirm that the Ising model approach is indeed a good description of base stacking. On the other hand, comparison with the experiments points to the limitations of the simple zipper model description of base pairing.Comment: 13 pages with figure

Chiral Extrapolation of Lattice Data for Heavy Baryons

The masses of heavy baryons containing a b quark have been calculated numerically in lattice QCD with pion masses which are much larger than its physical value. In the present work we extrapolate these lattice data to the physical mass of the pion by applying the effective chiral Lagrangian for heavy baryons, which is invariant under chiral symmetry when the light quark masses go to zero and heavy quark symmetry when the heavy quark masses go to infinity. A phenomenological functional form with three parameters, which has the correct behavior in the chiral limit and appropriate behavior when the pion mass is large, is proposed to extrapolate the lattice data. It is found that the extrapolation deviates noticably from the naive linear extrapolation when the pion mass is smaller than about 500MeV. The mass differences between Sigma_b and Sigma_b^* and between Sigma_b^{(*)} and Lambda_b are also presented. Uncertainties arising from both lattice data and our model parameters are discussed in detail. We also give a comparision of the results in our model with those obtained in the naive linear extrapolations.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figure

Chiral extrapolation of lattice data for the hyperfine splittings of heavy mesons

Hyperfine splittings between the heavy vector (D*, B*) and pseudoscalar (D, B) mesons have been calculated numerically in lattice QCD, where the pion mass (which is related to the light quark mass) is much larger than its physical value. Naive linear chiral extrapolations of the lattice data to the physical mass of the pion lead to hyperfine splittings which are smaller than experimental data. In order to extrapolate these lattice data to the physical mass of the pion more reasonably, we apply the effective chiral perturbation theory for heavy mesons, which is invariant under chiral symmetry when the light quark masses go to zero and heavy quark symmetry when the heavy quark masses go to infinity. This leads to a phenomenological functional form with three parameters to extrapolate the lattice data. It is found that the extrapolated hyperfine splittings are even smaller than those obtained using linear extrapolation. We conclude that the source of the discrepancy between lattice data for hyperfine splittings and experiment must lie in non-chiral physics.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure

Impurity (Fe, Cl, and P)-induced grain boundary and secondary phases in commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti)

A detailed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study has been made of the microstructures of two as-sintered CP-Ti materials. We show that iron content at the impurity level of 1280 ppm, less than the limit (2000 ppm) for CP-Ti ASTM Grade 1, is sufficient to lead to the formation of a grain boundary (GB) β-Ti phase in the as-sintered microstructure due to segregation. The Fe-stabilized GB β-Ti phase contains ∼7 at. pct Fe and ∼1.5 at. pct Cl. In addition, nano-precipitates of ω-Ti exist in the Fe-stabilized GB β-Ti phase. A phosphorus (P)-enriched Ti-P-based phase was also identified, which has a tetragonal crystal structure with lattice parameters of (a = b = 8.0 ± 0.2 Å and c = 2.7 ± 0.2 Å) and is new to the existing database for Ti-P-enriched phases. As-sintered CP-Ti materials are thus not necessarily a single α-Ti phase material. These impurity-induced phases may exert potential impacts on the properties of sintered CP-Ti

Behavior of metakaolin-based geopolymers incorporating sewage sludge ash (SSA)

[EN] In recent years, geopolymers have become a widely researched binding material. There are technological and environmental advantages tousing this type of binder instead of Portland cement. In this study, binary systems of geopolymers were produced by using mixtures of metakaolin (MK) ,a well-known aluminosilicate raw material, and a residue from sewage sludge incineration: sewage sludge ash (SSA). This ash was used to partially replace the metakaolin in proportions of 0 20%. The mixtures were activated with alkaline solutions and they were cured by using two different conditions: at room temperature (25 °C) and in a thermal bath (65 °C). The samples were assessed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (pastes) and compressive strength (mortars). The results from these studies showed zeolite formation (faujasite) in geopolymers cured in the thermal bath, which caused a decrease in the compressive strength of the alkali-activated mortars.Replacement of MK with SSA caused a lower reduction in the compressive strength of mortars cured at 65 °C. However, at room temperature, similar mechanical strength was observed for the MK and MK-SSA systems. These results demonstrated that SSA is a suitable mineral precursor for partial replacement of MK in geopolymer production.The authors acknowledge Santander Universidades for the grant to Lucia Reig (program: Becas lberoamerica Jovenes Profesores Investigadores Espana 2014), CAPES (CAPES/DGU no 266/12), CNPq (no. 14/2013 processo 478057/2013-0) Scanning electron microscopy service of FEIS/UNESP and CNPq (processo 309015/2015-4).Istuque, D.; Reig Cerdá, L.; Moraes, J.; Akasaki, JL.; Borrachero Rosado, MV.; Soriano Martínez, L.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ.... (2016). Behavior of metakaolin-based geopolymers incorporating sewage sludge ash (SSA). Materials Letters. 180:192-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2016.05.137S19219518

Counting function fluctuations and extreme value threshold in multifractal patterns: the case study of an ideal 1/f1/f noise

To understand the sample-to-sample fluctuations in disorder-generated multifractal patterns we investigate analytically as well as numerically the statistics of high values of the simplest model - the ideal periodic $1/f$ Gaussian noise. By employing the thermodynamic formalism we predict the characteristic scale and the precise scaling form of the distribution of number of points above a given level. We demonstrate that the powerlaw forward tail of the probability density, with exponent controlled by the level, results in an important difference between the mean and the typical values of the counting function. This can be further used to determine the typical threshold $x_m$ of extreme values in the pattern which turns out to be given by $x_m^{(typ)}=2-c\ln{\ln{M}}/\ln{M}$ with $c=3/2$. Such observation provides a rather compelling explanation of the mechanism behind universality of $c$. Revealed mechanisms are conjectured to retain their qualitative validity for a broad class of disorder-generated multifractal fields. In particular, we predict that the typical value of the maximum $p_{max}$ of intensity is to be given by $-\ln{p_{max}} = \alpha_{-}\ln{M} + \frac{3}{2f'(\alpha_{-})}\ln{\ln{M}} + O(1)$, where $f(\alpha)$ is the corresponding singularity spectrum vanishing at $\alpha=\alpha_{-}>0$. For the $1/f$ noise we also derive exact as well as well-controlled approximate formulas for the mean and the variance of the counting function without recourse to the thermodynamic formalism.Comment: 28 pages; 7 figures, published version with a few misprints corrected, editing done and references adde

Effective Field Theories

These lectures introduce some of the basic notions of effective field theories, as used in particle physics. The topics discussed are the $\Delta S=1$ and $\Delta S =2$ weak interactions, and chiral perturbation theory as applied to mesons, baryons, and hadrons containing heavy quarks.Comment: Lectures on Effective Field Theories at the Lake Louise Winter Institute, February 1995. 42 pages, 16 figures; extended version in hep-ph/960622

Production of singlet P-wave ccˉc \bar c and bbˉb \bar b states

No spin-singlet $b \bar b$ quarkonium state has yet been observed. In this paper we discuss the production of the singlet P-wave $b\bar{b}$ and $c\bar{c}$ $^1P_1$ states $h_b$ and $h_c$. We consider two possibilities. In the first the $^1P_1$ states are produced via the electromagnetic cascades \ups(3S) \to \eta_b(2S) + \gamma \to h_b + \gamma \gamma \to \eta_b +\gamma\gamma\gamma and $\psi'\to \eta_c' + \gamma \to h_c + \gamma \gamma \to \eta_c + \gamma\gamma\gamma$. A more promising process consists of single pion transition to the $^1P_1$ state followed by the radiative transition to the $1^1S_0$ state: \ups(3S)\to h_b + \pi^0 \to \eta_b + \pi^0 +\gamma and $\psi' \to h_c + \pi^0 \to \eta_c + \pi^0 +\gamma$. For a million \ups(3S) or $\psi'$'s produced we expect these processes to produce several hundred events.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure, to be published Phys. Rev. D. Some equation numbers and one table number correcte