Cold, anisotropically-interacting van der Waals molecule: TiHe

We have used laser ablation and helium buffer-gas cooling to produce the titanium-helium van der Waals molecule at cryogenic temperatures. The molecules were detected through laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. Ground-state Ti-He binding energies were determined for the ground and first rotationally excited states from studying equilibrium thermodynamic properties, and found to agree well with theoretical calculations based on newly calculated ab initio Ti-He interaction potentials, opening up novel possibilities for studying the formation, dynamics, and non-universal chemistry of van der Waals clusters at low temperatures

Triviality and vacuum stability bounds in the three-loop neutrino mass model

We study theoretical constraints on the parameter space under the conditions from vacuum stability and triviality in the three-loop radiative seesaw model with TeV-scale right-handed neutrinos which are odd under the $Z_2$ parity. In this model, some of the neutrino Yukawa coupling constants can be of the order of one. Requirement of strongly first order phase transition for successful electroweak baryogenes is also prefers order-one coupling constants in the scalar sector. Hence, it is important to clarify whether this model satisfies those theoretical conditions up to a given cutoff scale. It is found that the model can be consistent up to the scale above 10 TeV in the parameter region where the neutrino data, the lepton flavor violation data, the thermal relic abundance of dark matter as well as the requirement from the strongly first order phase transition are satisfied.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure

Higher Order Stability of a Radiatively Induced 220 GeV Higgs Mass

The effective potential for radiatively broken electroweak symmetry in the single Higgs doublet Standard Model is explored to four sequentially subleading logarithm-summation levels (5-loops) in the dominant Higgs self-interaction couplant $\lambda$. We augment these results with all contributing leading logarithms in the remaining large but sub-dominant Standard Model couplants (t-quark, QCD and $SU(2)\otimes U(1)$ gauge couplants) as well as next to leading logarithm contributions from the largest of these, the t-quark and QCD couplants. Order-by-order stability is demonstrated for earlier leading logarithm predictions of an order 220 GeV Higgs boson mass in conjunction with fivefold enhancement of the value for $\lambda$ over that anticipated from conventional spontaneous symmetry breaking.Comment: revtex, 6 pages. Analysis and text is expanded in revised versio

The Effective Potential, the Renormalisation Group and Vacuum Stability

We review the calculation of the the effective potential with particular emphasis on cases when the tree potential or the renormalisation-group-improved, radiatively corrected potential exhibits non-convex behaviour. We illustrate this in a simple Yukawa model which exhibits a novel kind of dimensional transmutation. We also review briefly earlier work on the Standard Model. We conclude that, despite some recent claims to the contrary, it can be possible to infer reliably that the tree vacuum does not represent the true ground state of the theory.Comment: 23 pages; 5 figures; v2 includes minor changes in text and additional reference

From cartoons to quantitative models in Golgi transport

Background: Cell biology is evolving to become a more formal and quantitative science. In particular, several mathematical models have been proposed to address Golgi self-organisation and protein and lipid transport. However, most scientific articles about the Golgi apparatus are still using static cartoons that miss the dynamism of this organelle. Results: In this report, we show that schematic drawings of Golgi trafficking can be easily translated into an agent-based model using the Repast platform. The simulations generate an active interplay among cisternae and vesicles rendering quantitative predictions about Golgi stability and transport of soluble and membrane-associated cargoes. The models can incorporate complex networks of molecular interactions and chemical reactions by association with COPASI, a software that handles ordinary differential equations. Conclusions: The strategy described provides a simple, flexible and multiscale support to analyse Golgi transport. The simulations can be used to address issues directly linked to the mechanism of transport or as a way to incorporate the complexity of trafficking to other cellular processes that occur in dynamic organelles. Significance: We show that the rules implicitly present in most schematic representations of intracellular trafficking can be used to build dynamic models with quantitative outputs that can be compared with experimental results.Fil: Quiros, D. Nicolas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Nieto, Franco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Mayorga, Luis Segundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; Argentin

Radiative Electroweak Symmetry-Breaking Revisited

In the absence of a tree-level scalar-field mass, renormalization-group methods permit the explicit summation of leading-logarithm contributions to all orders of the perturbative series within the effective potential for $SU(2)\times U(1)$ electroweak symmetry. This improvement of the effective potential function is seen to reduce residual dependence on the renormalization mass scale. The all-orders summation of leading logarithm terms involving the dominant three couplings contributing to radiative corrections is suggestive of a potential characterized by a plausible Higgs boson mass of 216 GeV. However, the tree potential's local minimum at $\phi =0$ is restored if QCD is sufficiently strong.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, 1 eps figure embedded in manuscript. Updated version contains additional comments and corrects minor error

Microfluidic genome-wide profiling of intrinsic electrical properties in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Methods to analyze the intrinsic physical properties of cells – for example, size, density, rigidity, or electrical properties – are an active area of interest in the microfluidics community. Although the physical properties of cells are determined at a fundamental level by gene expression, the relationship between the two remains exceptionally complex and poorly characterized, limiting the adoption of intrinsic separation technologies. To improve our current understanding of how a cell's genotype maps to a measurable physical characteristic and quantitatively investigate the potential of using these characteristics as biomarkers, we have developed a novel screen that combines microfluidic cell sorting with high-throughput sequencing and the haploid yeast deletion library to identify genes whose functions modulate one such characteristic – intrinsic electrical properties. Using this screen, we are able to establish a high-content electrical profile of the haploid yeast gene deletion strains. We find that individual genetic deletions can appreciably alter the electrical properties of cells, affecting [approximately] 10% of the 4432 gene deletion strains screened. Additionally, we find that gene deletions affecting electrical properties in specific ways (i.e. increasing or decreasing effective conductivity at higher or lower electric field frequencies) are strongly associated with an enriched subset of fundamental biological processes that can be traced to specific pathways and complexes. The screening approach demonstrated here and the attendant results are immediately applicable to the intrinsic separations community.Singapore-MIT AllianceNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF IDBR grant DBI-0852654)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant EB005753

Higgs Mediated EDMs in the Next-to-MSSM: An Application to Electroweak Baryogenesis

We perform a study on the predictions of electric-dipole moments (EDMs) of neutron, Mercury (Hg), Thallium (Tl), deuteron, and Radium (Ra) in the framework of next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) with CP-violating parameters in the superpotential and soft-supersymmetry-breaking sector. We confine to the case in which only the physical tree-level CP phase $(\phi'_\lambda - \phi'_\kappa)$, associated with the couplings of the singlet terms in the superpotential and with the vacuum-expectation-values (VEVs), takes on a nonzero value. We found that the one-loop contributions from neutralinos are mostly small while the two-loop Higgs-mediated contributions of the Barr-Zee (BZ) type diagrams dominate. We emphasize a scenario motivated by electroweak baryogenesis.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures, to appear in PR

Covariant and locally Lorentz-invariant varying speed of light theories

We propose definitions for covariance and local Lorentz invariance applicable when the speed of light $c$ is allowed to vary. They have the merit of retaining only those aspects of the usual definitions which are invariant under unit transformations, and which can therefore legitimately represent the outcome of an experiment. We then discuss some possibilities for invariant actions governing the dynamics of such theories. We consider first the classical action for matter fields and the effects of a changing $c$ upon quantization. We discover a peculiar form of quantum particle creation due to a varying $c$. We then study actions governing the dynamics of gravitation and the speed of light. We find the free, empty-space, no-gravity solution, to be interpreted as the counterpart of Minkowksi space-time, and highlight its similarities with Fock-Lorentz space-time. We also find flat-space string-type solutions, in which near the string core $c$ is much higher. We label them fast-tracks and compare them with gravitational wormholes. We finally discuss general features of cosmological and black hole solutions, and digress on the meaning of singularities in these theories.Comment: To be published in Physical Review

Dynamics of Quintessence Models of Dark Energy with Exponential Coupling to the Dark Matter

We explore quintessence models of dark energy which exhibit non-minimal coupling between the dark matter and the dark energy components of the cosmic fluid. The kind of coupling chosen is inspired in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. We impose a suitable dynamics of the expansion allowing to derive exact Friedmann-Robertson-Walker solutions once the coupling function is given as input. Self-interaction potentials of single and double exponential types emerge as result of our choice of the coupling function. The stability and existence of the solutions is discussed in some detail. Although, in general, models with appropriated interaction between the components of the cosmic mixture are useful to handle the coincidence problem, in the present study the coincidence can not be evaded due to the choice of the solution generating ansatz.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure