136 research outputs found
A Definitive Signal of Multiple Supersymmetry Breaking
If the lightest observable-sector supersymmetric particle (LOSP) is charged
and long-lived, then it may be possible to indirectly measure the Planck mass
at the LHC and provide a spectacular confirmation of supergravity as a symmetry
of nature. Unfortunately, this proposal is only feasible if the gravitino is
heavy enough to be measured at colliders, and this condition is in direct
conflict with constraints from big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). In this work, we
show that the BBN bound can be naturally evaded in the presence of multiple
sectors which independently break supersymmetry, since there is a new decay
channel of the LOSP to a goldstino. Certain regions of parameter space allow
for a direct measurement of LOSP decays into both the goldstino and the
gravitino at the LHC. If the goldstino/gravitino mass ratio is measured to be
2, as suggested by theory, then this would provide dramatic verification of the
existence of multiple supersymmetry breaking and sequestering. A variety of
consistent cosmological scenarios are obtained within this framework. In
particular, if an R symmetry is imposed, then the gauge-gaugino-goldstino
interaction vertices can be forbidden. In this case, there is no bound on the
reheating temperature from goldstino overproduction, and thermal leptogenesis
can be accommodated consistently with gravitino dark matter.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, title changed to match the version published in
JHE
Probing High Reheating Temperature Scenarios at the LHC with Long-Lived Staus
We investigate the possibility of probing high reheating temperature
scenarios at the LHC, in supersymmetric models where the gravitino is the
lightest supersymmetric particle, and the stau is the next-to-lightest
supersymmetric particle. In such scenarios, the big-bang nucleosynthesis and
the gravitino abundance give a severe upper bound on the gluino mass. We find
that, if the reheating temperature is \sim 10^8 GeV or higher, the scenarios
can be tested at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of O(1 fb^{-1}) at
\sqrt{s}=7 TeV in most of the parameter space.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, minor modification
Transport theory yields renormalization group equations
We show that dissipative transport and renormalization can be described in a
single theoretical framework. The appropriate mathematical tool is the
Nakajima-Zwanzig projection technique. We illustrate our result in the case of
interacting quantum gases, where we use the Nakajima-Zwanzig approach to
investigate the renormalization group flow of the effective two-body
interaction.Comment: 11 pages REVTeX, twocolumn, no figures; revised version with
additional examples, to appear in Phys. Rev.
On the selection and design of proteins and peptide derivatives for the production of photoluminescent, red-emitting gold quantum clusters
Novel pathways of the synthesis of photoluminescent gold quantum clusters (AuQCs) using biomolecules as reactants provide biocompatible products for biological imaging techniques. In order to rationalize the rules for the preparation of red-emitting AuQCs in aqueous phase using proteins or peptides, the role of different organic structural units was investigated. Three systems were studied: proteins, peptides, and amino acid mixtures, respectively. We have found that cysteine and tyrosine are indispensable residues. The SH/S-S ratio in a single molecule is not a critical factor in the synthesis, but on the other hand, the stoichiometry of cysteine residues and the gold precursor is crucial. These observations indicate the importance of proper chemical behavior of all species in a wide size range extending from the atomic distances (in the AuI-S semi ring) to nanometer distances covering the larger sizes of proteins assuring the hierarchical structure of the whole self-assembled system
Neutralino versus axion/axino cold dark matter in the 19 parameter SUGRA model
We calculate the relic abundance of thermally produced neutralino cold dark
matter in the general 19 parameter supergravity (SUGRA-19) model. A scan over
GUT scale parameters reveals that models with a bino-like neutralino typically
give rise to a dark matter density \Omega_{\tz_1}h^2\sim 1-1000, i.e. between 1
and 4 orders of magnitude higher than the measured value. Models with higgsino
or wino cold dark matter can yield the correct relic density, but mainly for
neutralino masses around 700-1300 GeV. Models with mixed bino-wino or
bino-higgsino CDM, or models with dominant co-annihilation or A-resonance
annihilation can yield the correct abundance, but such cases are extremely hard
to generate using a general scan over GUT scale parameters; this is indicative
of high fine-tuning of the relic abundance in these cases. Requiring that
m_{\tz_1}\alt 500 GeV (as a rough naturalness requirement) gives rise to a
minimal probably dip in parameter space at the measured CDM abundance. For
comparison, we also scan over mSUGRA space with four free parameters. Finally,
we investigate the Peccei-Quinn augmented MSSM with mixed axion/axino cold dark
matter. In this case, the relic abundance agrees more naturally with the
measured value. In light of our cumulative results, we conclude that future
axion searches should probe much more broadly in axion mass, and deeper into
the axion coupling.Comment: 23 pages including 17 .eps figure
Axino Cold Dark Matter Revisited
Axino arises in supersymmetric versions of axion models and is a natural
candidate for cold or warm dark matter. Here we revisit axino dark matter
produced thermally and non-thermally in light of recent developments. First we
discuss the definition of axino relative to low energy axion one for several
KSVZ and DFSZ models of the axion. Then we review and refine the computation of
the dominant QCD production in order to avoid unphysical cross-sections and,
depending on the model, to include production via SU(2) and U(1) interactions
and Yukawa couplings.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, version accepted by JHE
Novel prokaryotic expression of thioredoxin-fused insulinoma associated protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (IA-2), its characterization and immunodiagnostic application
Background
The insulinoma associated protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (IA-2) is one of the immunodominant autoantigens involved in the autoimmune attack to the beta-cell in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. In this work we have developed a complete and original process for the production and recovery of the properly folded intracellular domain of IA-2 fused to thioredoxin (TrxIA-2ic) in Escherichia coli GI698 and GI724 strains. We have also carried out the biochemical and immunochemical characterization of TrxIA-2icand design variants of non-radiometric immunoassays for the efficient detection of IA-2 autoantibodies (IA-2A).
Results
The main findings can be summarized in the following statements: i) TrxIA-2ic expression after 3 h of induction on GI724 strain yielded ≈ 10 mg of highly pure TrxIA-2ic/L of culture medium by a single step purification by affinity chromatography, ii) the molecular weight of TrxIA-2ic (55,358 Da) could be estimated by SDS-PAGE, size exclusion chromatography and mass spectrometry, iii) TrxIA-2ic was properly identified by western blot and mass spectrometric analysis of proteolytic digestions (63.25 % total coverage), iv) excellent immunochemical behavior of properly folded full TrxIA-2ic was legitimized by inhibition or displacement of [35S]IA-2 binding from IA-2A present in Argentinian Type 1 Diabetic patients, v) great stability over time was found under proper storage conditions and vi) low cost and environmentally harmless ELISA methods for IA-2A assessment were developed, with colorimetric or chemiluminescent detection.
Conclusions
E. coli GI724 strain emerged as a handy source of recombinant IA-2ic, achieving high levels of expression as a thioredoxin fusion protein, adequately validated and applicable to the development of innovative and cost-effective immunoassays for IA-2A detection in most laboratories.Fil: Guerra, Luciano Lucas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Faccinetti, Natalia Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Trabucchi, Aldana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Rovitto, Bruno David. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Sabljic, Adriana Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Poskus, Edgardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Iacono, Ruben Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Valdez, Silvina Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; Argentin
Direct stau production at hadron colliders in cosmologically motivated scenarios
We calculate dominant cross section contributions for stau pair production at
hadron colliders within the MSSM, taking into account left-right mixing of the
stau eigenstates. We find that b-quark annihilation and gluon fusion can
enhance the cross sections by more than one order of magnitude with respect to
the Drell-Yan predictions. These additional production channels are not yet
included in the common Monte Carlo analysis programs and have been neglected in
experimental analyses so far. For long-lived staus, we investigate differential
distributions and prospects for their stopping in the collider detectors. New
possible strategies are outlined to determine the mass and width of the heavy
CP-even Higgs boson H0. Scans of the relevant regions in the CMSSM are
performed and predictions are given for the current experiments at the LHC and
the Tevatron. The obtained insights allow us to propose collider tests of
cosmologically motivated scenarios with long-lived staus that have an
exceptionally small thermal relic abundance.Comment: 49 pages, 13 figures; v2: references added, typos corrected, text
streamlined, results unchange
Reward devaluation disrupts latent inhibition in fear conditioning
Three experiments explored the link between
reward shifts and latent inhibition (LI). Using consummatory
procedures, rewards were either downshifted
from 32% to 4% sucrose (Experiments 1–2), or
upshifted from 4% to 32% sucrose (Experiment 3). In
both cases, appropriate unshifted controls were also included.
LI was implemented in terms of fear conditioning
involving a single tone-shock pairing after extensive
tone-only preexposure. Nonpreexposed controls were also
included. Experiment 1 demonstrated a typical LI effect
(i.e., disruption of fear conditioning after preexposure to the
tone) in animals previously exposed only to 4% sucrose.
However, the LI effect was eliminated by preexposure to a
32%-to-4% sucrose devaluation. Experiment 2 replicated
this effect when the LI protocol was administered immediately
after the reward devaluation event. However, LI was
restored when preexposure was administered after a 60-
min retention interval. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that
a reward upshift did not affect LI. These results point to a
significant role of negative emotion related to reward devaluation
in the enhancement of stimulus processing despite
extensive nonreinforced preexposure experience
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