233 research outputs found
Genetic variation in Rhabdomys pumilio (Sparrman 1784) - an allozyme study
The striped-mouse, Rhabdomys pumilio, is widely distributed throughout southern Africa. It prefers grasslands but is also found in vlei areas and dry river beds and its attraction to cultivated land has resulted in extensive damage to plants. An allozyme study of R. pumilio populations in different regions of southern Africa was undertaken to evaluate the genetic structure within and between 23 populations and to draw conclusions about the taxonomic status of populations within this species. Fifteen of the 26 loci examined were polymorphic. The mean heterozygosity (0.073) was high for a mammal, although relatively low heterozygosities (0.036â0.054) were recorded for three localities from the peninsular region of the Western Cape. The high mean value for local genetic differentiation (Fst) of 0.459 and the low mean value for the effective number of migrants (Nm) of 0.179 indicated low levels of gene flow between the different localities of R. pumilio.The negative, near zero Fis value of -0.01 indicated a balance between heterozygotes and homozygotes. Rogers (1972) genetic similarity ranged between 0.796 and 0.988, and Nei's (1978) unbiased genetic distance varied between 0.000 and 0.189 between the samples of R. pumilio. The phenogram based on Nei's (1978) unbiased genetic distance showed some degree of geographical subgrouping. The Mantel test indicated a significant relationship between the Fst values and the geographical distances between sample pairs, supporting an isolation by distance model for R. pumilio. Although the genetic evidence for geographical divergence does suggest the possible existence of subspecies, this remains to be substantiated
Constraints on Leptoquark Masses and Couplings from Rare Processes and Unification
Motivated by the recent experimental data at HERA and ZEUS, which have
reported evidence for leptoqark production at Sqrt{s}=314 GeV with a mass at
M_D=200 GeV we consider its implications in unified supersymmetric theories. We
also present calculations for leptoquark production incorporating the existing
limits from other exotic reactions on its couplings and other relevant
parameters.Comment: Latex file, 10pages, reference adde
A new photon recoil experiment: towards a determination of the fine structure constant
We report on progress towards a measurement of the fine structure constant to
an accuracy of or better by measuring the ratio of the
Planck constant to the mass of the cesium atom. Compared to similar
experiments, ours is improved in three significant ways: (i) simultaneous
conjugate interferometers, (ii) multi-photon Bragg diffraction between same
internal states, and (iii) an about 1000 fold reduction of laser phase noise to
-138 dBc/Hz. Combining that with a new method to simultaneously stabilize the
phases of four frequencies, we achieve 0.2 mrad effective phase noise at the
location of the atoms. In addition, we use active stabilization to suppress
systematic effects due to beam misalignment.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Interesting magnetic properties of FeCoSi alloys
Solid solution between nonmagnetic narrow gap semiconductor FeSi and
diamagnetic semi-metal CoSi gives rise to interesting metallic alloys with
long-range helical magnetic ordering, for a wide range of intermediate
concentration. We report various interesting magnetic properties of these
alloys, including low temperature re-entrant spin-glass like behaviour and a
novel inverted magnetic hysteresis loop. Role of Dzyaloshinski-Moriya
interaction in the magnetic response of these non-centrosymmetric alloys is
discussed.Comment: 11 pages and 3 figure
A high stability semiconductor laser system for a Sr-based optical lattice clock
We describe a frequency stabilized diode laser at 698 nm used for high
resolution spectroscopy of the 1S0-3P0 strontium clock transition. For the
laser stabilization we use state-of-the-art symmetrically suspended optical
cavities optimized for very low thermal noise at room temperature. Two-stage
frequency stabilization to high finesse optical cavities results in measured
laser frequency noise about a factor of three above the cavity thermal noise
between 2 Hz and 11 Hz. With this system, we demonstrate high resolution remote
spectroscopy on the 88Sr clock transition by transferring the laser output over
a phase-noise-compensated 200 m-long fiber link between two separated
laboratories. Our dedicated fiber link ensures a transfer of the optical
carrier with frequency stability of 7 \cdot 10^{-18} after 100 s integration
time, which could enable the observation of the strontium clock transition with
an atomic Q of 10^{14}. Furthermore, with an eye towards the development of
transportable optical clocks, we investigate how the complete laser system
(laser+optics+cavity) can be influenced by environmental disturbances in terms
of both short- and long-term frequency stability.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Appl. Phys.
Feeding and Distribution of Porosity in Cast Al-Si Alloys as Function of Alloy Composition and Modification
Unmodified, Na-modified, and Sr-modified castings of Al-7 pct Si and Al-12.5 pct Si alloys were cast in molds in which it was possible to create different cooling conditions. It is shown how solidification influences the distribution of porosity at the surface and the center of the castings as a function of modification and Si content in sand- and chill-cast samples. Eutectic modification, Si content, and cooling conditions have a great impact on the distribution of porosity. Unmodified and Na-modified castings are more easily fed with porosity tending to congregate near the centerline of the casting, while Sr-modified castings solidify in a mushy manner that creates a more homogeneous distribution of porosity in the casting. The amount of porosity was highest in the Sr-modified alloys, lower in the Na-modified alloys, and lowest in the unmodified alloys. The size of the porosity-free layer and the effectiveness of the feeders were greater in the castings made with the steel chills due to the increased thermal gradients and consequent increase in the directionality of solidification
Lepton Flavor Non-Conservation
In the present work we review the most prominent lepton flavor violating
processes (\mu \ra e\gamma, \mu \ra 3e, conversion,
oscillations etc), in the context of unified gauge theories. Many currently
fashionable extensions of the standard model are considered, such as: {\it i)}
extensions of the fermion sector (right-handed neutrino); {\it ii)} minimal
extensions involving additional Higgs scalars (more than one isodoublets,
singly and doubly charged isosinglets, isotriplets with doubly charged members
etc.); {\it iii)} supersymmetric or superstring inspired unified models
emphasizing the implications of the renormalization group equations in the
leptonic sector. Special attention is given to the experimentaly most
interesting conversion in the presence of nuclei. The relevant
nuclear aspects of the amplitudes are discussed in a number of fashionable
nuclear models. The main features of the relevant experiments are also
discussed, and detailed predictions of the above models are compared to the
present experimental limits.Comment: (IOA-300/93, review article, 83p, 6 epsf figures , available upon
request from [email protected])
Softening the Supersymmetric Flavor Problem in Orbifold GUTs
The infra-red attractive force of the bulk gauge interactions is applied to
soften the supersymmetric flavor problem in the orbifold SU(5) GUT of Kawamura.
Then this force aligns in the infra-red regime the soft supersymmetry breaking
terms out of their anarchical disorder at a fundamental scale, in such a way
that flavor-changing neutral currents as well as dangerous CP-violating phases
are suppressed at low energies. It is found that this dynamical alignment is
sufficiently good compared with the current experimental bounds, as long as the
diagonalization matrices of the Yukawa couplings are CKM-like.Comment: 15 pages,4 figure
Heavy quarkonium: progress, puzzles, and opportunities
A golden age for heavy quarkonium physics dawned a decade ago, initiated by
the confluence of exciting advances in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and an
explosion of related experimental activity. The early years of this period were
chronicled in the Quarkonium Working Group (QWG) CERN Yellow Report (YR) in
2004, which presented a comprehensive review of the status of the field at that
time and provided specific recommendations for further progress. However, the
broad spectrum of subsequent breakthroughs, surprises, and continuing puzzles
could only be partially anticipated. Since the release of the YR, the BESII
program concluded only to give birth to BESIII; the -factories and CLEO-c
flourished; quarkonium production and polarization measurements at HERA and the
Tevatron matured; and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC have opened a window on the
deconfinement regime. All these experiments leave legacies of quality,
precision, and unsolved mysteries for quarkonium physics, and therefore beg for
continuing investigations. The plethora of newly-found quarkonium-like states
unleashed a flood of theoretical investigations into new forms of matter such
as quark-gluon hybrids, mesonic molecules, and tetraquarks. Measurements of the
spectroscopy, decays, production, and in-medium behavior of c\bar{c}, b\bar{b},
and b\bar{c} bound states have been shown to validate some theoretical
approaches to QCD and highlight lack of quantitative success for others. The
intriguing details of quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions that have
emerged from RHIC have elevated the importance of separating hot- and
cold-nuclear-matter effects in quark-gluon plasma studies. This review
systematically addresses all these matters and concludes by prioritizing
directions for ongoing and future efforts.Comment: 182 pages, 112 figures. Editors: N. Brambilla, S. Eidelman, B. K.
Heltsley, R. Vogt. Section Coordinators: G. T. Bodwin, E. Eichten, A. D.
Frawley, A. B. Meyer, R. E. Mitchell, V. Papadimitriou, P. Petreczky, A. A.
Petrov, P. Robbe, A. Vair
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