Power-law Solutions from Heterotic Strings

In this paper, we search for accelerating power-law and ekpyrotic solutions in heterotic string theory with NS-NS fluxes compactified on half-flat and generalized half-flat manifolds. We restrict our searches to the STZ sector of the theory. We also considered linear order $\alpha'$ corrections for the half-flat case. The power-law solutions that we find are neither accelerating nor ekpyrotic in any of the models.Comment: 21 pages. Major revision. Conclusions change

Three-loop HTLpt thermodynamics at finite temperature and chemical potential

In this proceedings we present a state-of-the-art method of calculating thermodynamic potential at finite temperature and finite chemical potential, using Hard Thermal Loop perturbation theory (HTLpt) up to next-to-next-leading-order (NNLO). The resulting thermodynamic potential enables us to evaluate different thermodynamic quantities including pressure and various quark number susceptibilities (QNS). Comparison between our analytic results for those thermodynamic quantities with the available lattice data shows a good agreement.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, conference proceedings of XXI DAE-BRNS HEP Symposium, IIT Guwahati, December 2014; to appear in 'Springer Proceedings in Physics Series

Representations of swine flu: Perspectives from a Malaysian pig farm

© The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below.Novel influenza viruses are seen, internationally, as posing considerable health challenges, but public responses to such viruses are often rooted in cultural representations of disease and risk. However, little research has been conducted in locations associated with the origin of a pandemic. We examined representations and risk perceptions associated with swine flu amongst 120 Malaysian pig farmers. Thirty-seven per cent of respondents felt at particular risk of infection, two-thirds were somewhat or very concerned about being infected. Those respondents who were the most anxious believed particular societal “out-groups” (homosexuals, the homeless and prostitutes) to be at higher infection risk. Although few (4%) reported direct discrimination, 46% claimed friends had avoided them since the swine flu outbreak. Findings are discussed in the context of evolutionary, social representations and terror management theories of response to pandemic threat

Goats excel at learning and remembering a highly novel cognitive task

PMCID: PMC398717

Initial behavioural and attitudinal responses to influenza A, H1N1 ('swine flu')

Copyright © 2010 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. All rights reserved.This study was sponsored by Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), and supported by the Community Coalition Concerned about SARS and other community organisations in the great Toronto area

Renormalized Entanglement Entropy for BPS Black Branes

We compute the renormalized entanglement entropy (REE) for BPS black solutions in ${\cal N}=2$, 4d gauged supergravity. We find that this quantity decreases monotonically with the size of the entangling region until it reaches a critical point, then increases and approaches the entropy density of the brane. This behavior can be understood as a consequence of the REE being driven by two competing factors, namely entanglement and the mixedness of the black brane. In the UV entanglement dominates, whereas in the IR the mixedness takes over.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; v2: Typos fixed, citation and clarifying text added, version accepted in Physical Review