287 research outputs found
The All-Loop Integrand For Scattering Amplitudes in Planar N=4 SYM
We give an explicit recursive formula for the all L-loop integrand for
scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM in the planar limit, manifesting the full
Yangian symmetry of the theory. This generalizes the BCFW recursion relation
for tree amplitudes to all loop orders, and extends the Grassmannian duality
for leading singularities to the full amplitude. It also provides a new
physical picture for the meaning of loops, associated with canonical operations
for removing particles in a Yangian-invariant way. Loop amplitudes arise from
the "entangled" removal of pairs of particles, and are naturally presented as
an integral over lines in momentum-twistor space. As expected from manifest
Yangian-invariance, the integrand is given as a sum over non-local terms,
rather than the familiar decomposition in terms of local scalar integrals with
rational coefficients. Knowing the integrands explicitly, it is straightforward
to express them in local forms if desired; this turns out to be done most
naturally using a novel basis of chiral, tensor integrals written in
momentum-twistor space, each of which has unit leading singularities. As simple
illustrative examples, we present a number of new multi-loop results written in
local form, including the 6- and 7-point 2-loop NMHV amplitudes. Very concise
expressions are presented for all 2-loop MHV amplitudes, as well as the 5-point
3-loop MHV amplitude. The structure of the loop integrand strongly suggests
that the integrals yielding the physical amplitudes are "simple", and
determined by IR-anomalies. We briefly comment on extending these ideas to more
general planar theories.Comment: 46 pages; v2: minor changes, references adde
Spectroscopic, Morphological and Mechanistic Investigation of the Solvent.Promoted Aggregation of Porphyrins Modified in meso-positions by Glucosylated steroids
Solvent-driven aggregation
of a series of porphyrin derivatives was
studied by UV/Vis and circular dichroism
spectroscopy. The porphyrins are
characterised by the presence in the
meso positions of steroidal moieties
further conjugated with glucosyl
groups. The presence of these groups
makes the investigated macrocycles
amphiphilic and soluble in aqueous solvent,
namely, dimethyl acetamide/
water. Aggregation of the macrocycles
is triggered by a change in bulk solvent
composition leading to formation of
large architectures that express supramolecular
chirality, steered by the presence
of the stereogenic centres on the
periphery of the macrocycles. The aggregation
behaviour and chiroptical
features of the aggregates are strongly
dependent on the number of moieties
decorating the periphery of the porphyrin
framework. In particular, experimental
evidence indicates that the
structure of the steroid linker dictates
the overall chirality of the supramolecular
architectures. Moreover, the porphyrin
concentration strongly affects
the aggregation mechanism and the
CD intensities of the spectra. Notably,
AFM investigations reveal strong differences
in aggregate morphology that
are dependent on the nature of the appended
functional groups, and closely
in line with the changes in aggregation
mechanism. The suprastructures
formed at lower concentration show a
network of long fibrous structures
spanning over tens of micrometres,
whereas the aggregates formed at
higher concentration have smaller rodshaped
structures that can be recognised
as the result of coalescence of
smaller globular structures. The fully
steroid substituted derivative forms
globular structures over the whole concentration
range explored. Finally, a rationale
for the aggregation phenomena
was given by semiempirical calculations
at the PM6 level
New differential equations for on-shell loop integrals
We present a novel type of differential equations for on-shell loop
integrals. The equations are second-order and importantly, they reduce the loop
level by one, so that they can be solved iteratively in the loop order. We
present several infinite series of integrals satisfying such iterative
differential equations. The differential operators we use are best written
using momentum twistor space. The use of the latter was advocated in recent
papers discussing loop integrals in N=4 super Yang-Mills. One of our
motivations is to provide a tool for deriving analytical results for scattering
amplitudes in this theory. We show that the integrals needed for planar MHV
amplitudes up to two loops can be thought of as deriving from a single master
topology. The master integral satisfies our differential equations, and so do
most of the reduced integrals. A consequence of the differential equations is
that the integrals we discuss are not arbitrarily complicated transcendental
functions. For two specific two-loop integrals we give the full analytic
solution. The simplicity of the integrals appearing in the scattering
amplitudes in planar N=4 super Yang-Mills is strongly suggestive of a relation
to the conjectured underlying integrability of the theory. We expect these
differential equations to be relevant for all planar MHV and non-MHV
amplitudes. We also discuss possible extensions of our method to more general
classes of integrals.Comment: 39 pages, 8 figures; v2: typos corrected, definition of harmonic
polylogarithms adde
Future agroclimatic conditions and implications for European grasslands.
Grasslands play a significant role in livestock fodder production and thus, contribute to food security worldwide while providing numerous additional ecosystem services. However, how agroclimatic conditions and adverse weather events relevant for grasslands will change across the European grassland areas has not been examined to date. Using a single reference setup for soil and management over 476 European sites defined by climate stations, we show the probability of eight selected adverse weather events with the potential to significantly affect grassland productivity under climate change and how these events vary regionally across Europe. Changes in these eight key agroclimatic indicators create markedly specific spatial patterns. We found that by 2050, the exposure of the south and west European grasslands to heat and drought may double in comparison with today and that the area with frequent occurrences of heat and drought will expand northwards. However, across Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic countries to southern Finland and Sweden, the likelihood of these events is likely to decrease. While changing cultivars and management strategies are unavoidable, shifting grassland production to other regions to reduce the risk may not be possible as the risk of adverse events beyond the key grassland-growing areas increases even further. Moreover, we found marked changes in the overall thermal and water regimes across European regions. The effect of adverse weather events in the future could be different in other regions of the world compared to regions in Europe, emphasizing the importance of conducting similar analyses for other major grassland producing regions. To mitigate the impact of climate change, new ways of maintaining grassland productivity need to be developed. These methods include more efficient selection of species mixtures for specific regions, including increased use of legumes and forbs; incorporation of new genetic resources, including the development of hybrid cultivars, such as Festulolium hybrids; and incorporation of state-of-the-art technologies in breeding programs and new grazing management
Generic multiloop methods and application to N=4 super-Yang-Mills
We review some recent additions to the tool-chest of techniques for finding
compact integrand representations of multiloop gauge-theory amplitudes -
including non-planar contributions - applicable for N=4 super-Yang-Mills in
four and higher dimensions, as well as for theories with less supersymmetry. We
discuss a general organization of amplitudes in terms of purely cubic graphs,
review the method of maximal cuts, as well as some special D-dimensional
recursive cuts, and conclude by describing the efficient organization of
amplitudes resulting from the conjectured duality between color and kinematic
structures on constituent graphs.Comment: 42 pages, 18 figures, invited review for a special issue of Journal
of Physics A devoted to "Scattering Amplitudes in Gauge Theories", v2 minor
corrections, v3 added reference
Recent growth coherence in long-term oak (Quercus spp.) ring width chronologies in the Czech Republic
Oak ring width measurements compiled from 44 sampling sites throughout the territory of the Czech Republic are analysed for the 1655-2013 period. Measurements taken at all these sites are sorted into 10 sub-chronologies on the basis of 5 environmental factors: soil moisture (dry/wet), elevation (low/high), age (young/old), species (Quercus robur or Q. petraea), and geographical position (east/west). Several statistical tests are applied to investigate existing significant differences between chronologies during 1920-2013. Further, the sensitivities of individual sub-chronologies to precipitation are compared. Three tests indicate 5 pairs of very similar sub-chronologies. Moreover, the growth-response to May-July precipitation totals is very much the same in these sub-chronologies. This analysis demonstrates that, even in the absence of certainty about age structure, species composition and some environmental factors in the earlier parts of oak ring width chronologies, the internal homogeneity of the chronology remains essentially unaffected, and the lack of such information does not preclude their use in dendroclimatology
Basics of Generalized Unitarity
We review generalized unitarity as a means for obtaining loop amplitudes from
on-shell tree amplitudes. The method is generally applicable to both
supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric amplitudes, including non-planar
contributions. Here we focus mainly on N=4 Yang-Mills theory, in the context of
on-shell superspaces. Given the need for regularization at loop level, we also
review a six-dimensional helicity-based superspace formalism and its
application to dimensional and massive regularizations. An important feature of
the unitarity method is that it offers a means for carrying over any identified
tree-level property of on-shell amplitudes to loop level, though sometimes in a
modified form. We illustrate this with examples of dual conformal symmetry and
a recently discovered duality between color and kinematics.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures. Invited review for a special issue of Journal
of Physics A devoted to "Scattering Amplitudes in Gauge Theories", R.
Roiban(ed), M. Spradlin(ed), A. Volovich(ed
Climate-induced severe water scarcity events as harbinger of global grain price
The severe water scarcity (SWS) concept allows for consistent analysis of the supply and demand for water sourced grain production worldwide. Thus, the primary advantage of using SWS is its ability to simultaneously accommodate the spatial extent and temporal persistence of droughts using climatic data. The SWS concept was extended here to drivers of global grain prices using past SWS events and prices of three dominant grain crops: wheat, rice and maize. A significant relation between the SWS affected area and the prices of wheat was confirmed. The past price–SWS association was then used to project future wheat prices considering likely climate change scenarios until 2050 and expected SWS extent. The projected wheat prices increase with increasing SWS area that is in turn a function of greenhouse gas emissions. The need to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is again reinforced assuming the SWS-price relation for wheat is unaltered
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