4,711 research outputs found
Axon fasciculation and differences in midline kinetics between pioneer and follower axons within commissural fascicles
Early neuronal scaffold development studies suggest that initial neurons and their axons serve as guides for later neurons and their processes. Although this arrangement might aid axon navigation, the specific consequence(s) of such interactions are unknown in vivo. We follow forebrain commissure formation in living zebrafish embryos using timelapse fluorescence microscopy to examine quantitatively commissural axon kinetics at the midline: a place where axon interactions might be important. Although it is commonly accepted that commissural axons slow down at the midline, our data show this is only true for leader axons. Follower axons do not show this behavior. However, when the leading axon is ablated, follower axons change their midline kinetics and behave as leaders. Similarly, contralateral leader axons change their midline kinetics when they grow along the opposite leading axon across the midline. These data suggest a simple model where the level of growth cone exposure to midline cues and presence of other axons as a substrate shape the midline kinetics of commissural axons
Dual of Big-bang and Big-crunch
Starting from the Janus solution and its gauge theory dual, we obtain the
dual gauge theory description of the cosmological solution by procedure of the
double anaytic continuation. The coupling is driven either to zero or to
infinity at the big-bang and big-crunch singularities, which are shown to be
related by the S-duality symmetry. In the dual Yang-Mills theory description,
these are non singular at all as the coupling goes to zero in the N=4 Super
Yang-Mills theory. The cosmological singularities simply signal the failure of
the supergravity description of the full type IIB superstring theory.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, references added, minor corrections, further
minor corrections, v4: some clarification and more details adde
Janus within Janus
We found a simple and interesting generalization of the non-supersymmetric
Janus solution in type IIB string theory. The Janus solution can be thought of
as a thick AdS_d-sliced domain wall in AdS_{d+1} space. It turns out that the
AdS_d-sliced domain wall can support its own AdS_{d-1}-sliced domain wall
within it. Indeed this pattern persists further until it reaches the
AdS_2-slice of the domain wall within self-similar AdS_{p (2<p\le d)}-sliced
domain walls. In other words the solution represents a sequence of little Janus
nested in the interface of the parent Janus according to a remarkably simple
``nesting'' rule. Via the AdS/CFT duality, the dual gauge theory description is
in general an interface CFT of higher codimensions.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, v2 references added. v3 eq.(3.33) correcte
Elliptic supertube and a Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield D2-brane--anti-D2-brane Pair
An exact solution, in which a D2-brane and an anti-D2-brane are connected by
an elliptically tubular D2-brane, is obtained without any junction condition.
The solution is shown to preserve one quarter of the supersymmetries of the
type-IIA Minkowski vacuum. We show that the configuration cannot be obtained by
"blowing-up" from some inhomogeneously D0-charged superstrings. The BPS bound
tells us that it is rather composed of D0-charged D2-brane-anti-D2-brane pair
and a strip of superstrings connecting them. We obtain the correction to the
charges of the string end points in the constant magnetic background.Comment: v3. 12 pages, journal version; title changed, length trimmed to fit
for Rapid Communication forma
Janus Black Holes
In this paper Janus black holes in AdS3 are considered. These are static
solutions of an Einstein-scalar system with broken translation symmetry along
the horizon. These solutions are dual to interface conformal field theories at
finite temperature. An approximate solution is first constructed using
perturbation theory around a planar BTZ black hole. Numerical and exact
solutions valid for all sets of parameters are then found and compared. Using
the exact solution the thermodynamics of the system is analyzed. The entropy
associated with the Janus black hole is calculated and it is found that the
entropy of the black Janus is the sum of the undeformed black hole entropy and
the entanglement entropy associated with the defect.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figures, reference adde
The Moduli Space of Noncommutative Vortices
The abelian Higgs model on the noncommutative plane admits both BPS vortices
and non-BPS fluxons. After reviewing the properties of these solitons, we
discuss several new aspects of the former. We solve the Bogomoln'yi equations
perturbatively, to all orders in the inverse noncommutivity parameter, and show
that the metric on the moduli space of k vortices reduces to the computation of
the trace of a k-dimensional matrix. In the limit of large noncommutivity, we
present an explicit expression for this metric.Comment: Invited contribution to special issue of J.Math.Phys. on
"Integrability, Topological Solitons and Beyond"; 10 Pages, 1 Figure. v2:
revision of history in introductio
Scale Dependent Dimension of Luminous Matter in the Universe
We present a geometrical model of the distribution of luminous matter in the
universe, derived from a very simple reaction-diffusion model of turbulent
phenomena. The apparent dimension of luminous matter, , depends linearly
on the logarithm of the scale under which the universe is viewed: , where is a correlation length.
Comparison with data from the SARS red-shift catalogue, and the LEDA database
provides a good fit with a correlation length Mpc. The
geometrical interpretation is clear: At small distances, the universe is
zero-dimensional and point-like. At distances of the order of 1 Mpc the
dimension is unity, indicating a filamentary, string-like structure; when
viewed at larger scales it gradually becomes 2-dimensional wall-like, and
finally, at and beyond the correlation length, it becomes uniform.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure
Zipf's Law in Gene Expression
Using data from gene expression databases on various organisms and tissues,
including yeast, nematodes, human normal and cancer tissues, and embryonic stem
cells, we found that the abundances of expressed genes exhibit a power-law
distribution with an exponent close to -1, i.e., they obey Zipf's law.
Furthermore, by simulations of a simple model with an intra-cellular reaction
network, we found that Zipf's law of chemical abundance is a universal feature
of cells where such a network optimizes the efficiency and faithfulness of
self-reproduction. These findings provide novel insights into the nature of the
organization of reaction dynamics in living cells.Comment: revtex, 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Complete Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics of Magnetic Monopoles in N=4 SYM Theory
We find the most general low energy dynamics of 1/2 BPS monopoles in the N=4
supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories (SYM) when all six adjoint Higgs expectation
values are turned on. When only one Higgs is turned on, the Lagrangian is
purely kinetic. When all six are turned on, however, this moduli space dynamics
is augmented by five independent potential terms, each in the form of half the
squared norm of a Killing vector field on the moduli space. A generic
stationary configuration of the monopoles can be interpreted as stable non BPS
dyons, previously found as non-planar string webs connecting D3-branes. The
supersymmetric extension is also found explicitly, and gives the complete
quantum mechanics of monopoles in N=4 SYM theory. We explore its supersymmetry
algebra.Comment: Errors in the SUSY algebra corrected. The version to appear in PR
The Most Severe Test for Hydrophobicity Scales: Two Proteins with 88% Sequence Identity but Different Structure and Function
Protein-protein interactions (protein functionalities) are mediated by water,
which compacts individual proteins and promotes close and temporarily stable
large-area protein-protein interfaces. In their classic paper Kyte and
Doolittle (KD) concluded that the "simplicity and graphic nature of
hydrophobicity scales make them very useful tools for the evaluation of protein
structures". In practice, however, attempts to develop hydrophobicity scales
(for example, compatible with classical force fields (CFF) in calculating the
energetics of protein folding) have encountered many difficulties. Here we
suggest an entirely different approach, based on the idea that proteins are
self-organized networks, subject to finite-scale criticality (like some network
glasses). We test this proposal against two small proteins that are delicately
balanced between alpha and alpha/beta structures, with different functions
encoded with only 12% of their amino acids. This example explains why protein
structure prediction is so challenging, and it provides a severe test for the
accuracy and content of hydrophobicity scales. The new method confirms KD's
evaluation, and at the same time suggests that protein structure, dynamics and
function can be best discussed without using CFF
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