Azimuthal correlation between the (p⃗l,p⃗Xb)(\vec{p}_l,\vec{p}_{X_b}) and (p⃗l,P⃗t)(\vec{p}_l,\vec{P}_t) planes in the semileptonic rest frame decay of a polarized top quark: An O(αs)O(\alpha_s) effect

The azimuthal correlation between the planes formed by the vectors $(\vec{p}_\ell,\vec{p}_{X_b})$ and $(\vec{p}_\ell,\vec{P}_t)$ in the semileptonic rest frame decay of a polarized top quark $t(\uparrow) \to X_b + l^+ + \nu_\ell$ belongs to a class of polarization observables involving the top quark which vanish at the Born term level in the standard model. We determine the next--to--leading order QCD corrections to the afore-mentioned azimuthal correlation and compare the result to the corresponding contribution of a non--standard--model right--chiral quark current.Comment: latex, 12 pages with 2 figures in the text, typos removed,comment and references added, replaced with published versio

Push-out tests and analytical study of shear transfer mechanisms in composite shallow cellular floor beams

The shear transferring mechanisms of composite shallow cellular floor beams are different with the conventional headed shear studs, and have not been investigated previously. This paper presents the experimental and analytical studies of the shear transferring mechanisms with the aims to provide information on their shear resistance and behaviour. The composite shallow cellular floor beam is a new type of composite floor beam that consists of an asymmetric steel section with circular web openings and concrete slabs incorporated between the top and bottom flange. The unique feature of the web openings allows tie-bars, building services and ducting to pass through the structural depth of the floor beam, creating an ultra-shallow floor beam structure. The shear connection of the composite shallow cellular floor beam is formed innovatively by the web openings, as the in-situ concrete passes through the web openings may or may not include the tie-bars or ducting to transfer the longitudinal shear force. In total, 24 push-out tests were carried out to investigate the shear connection under the direct shear force. The effect of loading cycles on the shear connection was also investigated. The failure mechanisms of the shear connection were extensively studied, which had led to the development of a calculation method of shear resistance for the shear connection

An Automatic System to Discriminate Malignant from Benign Massive Lesions on Mammograms

Mammography is widely recognized as the most reliable technique for early detection of breast cancers. Automated or semi-automated computerized classification schemes can be very useful in assisting radiologists with a second opinion about the visual diagnosis of breast lesions, thus leading to a reduction in the number of unnecessary biopsies. We present a computer-aided diagnosis (CADi) system for the characterization of massive lesions in mammograms, whose aim is to distinguish malignant from benign masses. The CADi system we realized is based on a three-stage algorithm: a) a segmentation technique extracts the contours of the massive lesion from the image; b) sixteen features based on size and shape of the lesion are computed; c) a neural classifier merges the features into an estimated likelihood of malignancy. A dataset of 226 massive lesions (109 malignant and 117 benign) has been used in this study. The system performances have been evaluated terms of the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, obtaining A_z = 0.80+-0.04 as the estimated area under the ROC curve.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; Proceedings of the ITBS 2005, 3rd International Conference on Imaging Technologies in Biomedical Sciences, 25-28 September 2005, Milos Island, Greec

Non-Abelian vortices in the emergent U(2) gauge theory of the Hubbard model

By the spin-fermion formula, the Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice is represented by a U(2) gauge theory in the mean field method, non-Abelian vortex solutions are constructed based on this theory. The quantization condition shows that the magnetic flux quanta are half-integer. There are $2k$ bosonic zero modes for $k$ winding vortices. For the fermions, there are 2 zero energy states (ZESs) corresponding to the single elementary vortex. In the vortex core and on the edge, the system are in the semi-metal phase with a spin gap and in the insulator phase with N\'eel order phase, and can be mapped to the superconductor in class A and CI, respectively.Comment: 4pages, 2table

Phonon-Assisted Two-Photon Interference from Remote Quantum Emitters

Photonic quantum technologies are on the verge offinding applications in everyday life with quantum cryptography andquantum simulators on the horizon. Extensive research has beencarried out to identify suitable quantum emitters and single epitaxialquantum dots have emerged as near-optimal sources of bright, on-demand, highly indistinguishable single photons and entangledphoton-pairs. In order to build up quantum networks, it is essentialto interface remote quantum emitters. However, this is still anoutstanding challenge, as the quantum states of dissimilar“artificialatoms”have to be prepared on-demand with highfidelity and thegenerated photons have to be made indistinguishable in all possibledegrees of freedom. Here, we overcome this major obstacle and show an unprecedented two-photon interference (visibility of 51±5%) from remote strain-tunable GaAs quantum dots emitting on-demand photon-pairs. We achieve this result by exploiting forthefirst time the full potential of a novel phonon-assisted two-photon excitation scheme, which allows for the generation ofhighly indistinguishable (visibility of 71±9%) entangled photon-pairs (fidelity of 90±2%), enables push-button biexciton statepreparation (fidelity of 80±2%) and outperforms conventional resonant two-photon excitation schemes in terms of robustnessagainst environmental decoherence. Our results mark an important milestone for the practical realization of quantum repeatersand complex multiphoton entanglement experiments involving dissimilar artificial atom