Contribution of b→sggb \to sgg through the QCD anomaly in exclusive decays B±→(η′,η)(K±,K∗±)B^{\pm}\to (\eta^{\prime},\eta)(K^{\pm}, K^{*\pm}) and B0→(η′,η)(K0,K∗0)B^{0}\to (\eta^{\prime},\eta)(K^{0},K^{*0})

We compute the decay rates for the exclusive decays $B^{\pm} \to (\eta^{\prime},\eta) (K^{\pm}, K^{*\pm})$ and $B^{0}\to (\eta^{\prime},\eta) (K^{0}, K^{*0})$ in a QCD-improved factorization framework by including the contribution from the process $b\to sgg \to s (\eta^{\prime}, \eta)$ through the QCD anomaly. This method provides an alternative estimate of the contribution $b \to s c\bar{c} \to s(\eta,\eta^\prime)$ to these decays as compared to the one using the intrinsic charm content of the $\eta^{\prime}$ and $\eta$ mesons determined through the decays $J/\psi \to (\eta,\eta^\prime ,\eta_c) \gamma$. The resulting branching ratios are compared with the CLEO data on $B^{\pm} \to \eta^{\prime} K^{\pm}$ and $B^{0} \to \eta^{\prime} K^{0}$ and predictions are made for the rest.Comment: 16 pages including 4 postscript figures; uses epsfig. The most recent branching ratios from CLEO, ref. [5], are taken into account. The theory part is unchange

Effect of resonance decays on hadron elliptic flows

The influence of resonance decays on the elliptic flows of stable hadrons is studied in the quark coalescence model. Although difference between the elliptic flow of pions from resonance decays, except the rho meson, and that of directly produced pions is appreciable, those for other stable hadrons are small. Since there are more pions from the decays of rho mesons than from other resonances, including resonance decays can only account partially the deviation of final pion elliptic flow from the observed scaling of hadron elliptic flows, i.e., the hadron elliptic flow per quark is the same at same transverse momentum per quark. The remaining deviation can be explained by including the effect due to the quark momentum distribution inside hadrons.Comment: 13 pages and 5 figures, version pubblished in PRC, updated references and figure

Avalanche-Induced Current Enhancement in Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes

Semiconducting carbon nanotubes under high electric field stress (~10 V/um) display a striking, exponential current increase due to avalanche generation of free electrons and holes. Unlike in other materials, the avalanche process in such 1D quantum wires involves access to the third sub-band, is insensitive to temperature, but strongly dependent on diameter ~exp(-1/d^2). Comparison with a theoretical model yields a novel approach to obtain the inelastic optical phonon emission length, L_OP,ems ~ 15d nm. The combined results underscore the importance of multi-band transport in 1D molecular wires

Lymphotoxins and cytomegalovirus cooperatively induce interferon-beta, establishing host-virus détente

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related cytokines regulate cell death and survival and provide strong selective pressures for viruses, such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), to evolve counterstrategies in order to persist in immune-competent hosts. Signaling by the lymphotoxin (LT)-β receptor or TNF receptor-1, but not Fas or TRAIL receptors, inhibits the cytopathicity and replication of human CMV by a nonapoptotic, reversible process that requires nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)-dependent induction of interferon-β (IFN-β). Efficient induction of IFN-β requires virus infection and LT signaling, demonstrating the need for both host and viral factors in the curtailment of viral replication without cellular elimination. LTα-deficient mice and LTβR-Fc transgenic mice were profoundly susceptible to murine CMV infection. Together, these results reveal an essential and conserved role for LTs in establishing host defense to CMV

Identified Hadrons and Jet Chemistry for p+p and Au+Au Collisions at RHIC

The study of hadron spectra at high $p_{T}$ in p+p collisions provides a good test of perturbative quantum chromo-dynamic calculations (pQCD) and baseline for measurements of nuclear modification factors in Au+Au collisions. Using events triggered by the Barrel Electro-Magnetic Calorimeter, identified charged hadron transverse momentum ($p_T$) spectra are measured up to 15 GeV/$c$ at mid-rapidity ($\mid y\mid$ $<$ 0.5) and neutral kaon $p_T$ spectra up to 12 GeV/$c$ in p + p collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. The particle ratios of $p/\pi^{+}$, $\bar{p}/\pi^{-}$ and $K^{\pm,0}$ / $\pi^{\pm}$ in p + p collisions are shown and compared with next-to-leading order pQCD calculations. In central Au+Au collisions, we report nuclear modification factors ($R_{AA}$) for pion, kaon, proton and $\rho$ and discuss several model calculations: color-charge dependence of jet quenching and jet conversion. Finally, centrality dependence of $R_{AA}$ at high $p_T$ ($>$ 5.5 GeV/c) for kaon are compared with that of pion in Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, SQM 2009 contributio

Transverse hydrodynamics with sudden hadronization -- production of strangeness

We consider a physical scenario for ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions where, at the early stage, only transverse degrees of freedom of partons are thermalized, while the longitudinal motion is described by free streaming. When the energy density of the partonic system drops to a certain critical value, the partons hadronize and the newly formed hadronic system freezes out. This sudden change is described with the help of the Landau matching conditions followed by the simulations done with THERMINATOR. The proposed scenario reproduces well the transverse-momentum spectra, the elliptic flow coefficient v2, and the HBT radii of pions and kaons studied at RHIC (Au+Au collisions at the top beam energy). It also reproduces quite well the transverse-momentum spectra of hyperons.Comment: talk presented by WF at the Strangeness in Quark Matter Conference, Buzios, Brazil, Sept. 27 - oct. 2, 200

Forty-Four Pass Fibre Optic Loop for Improving the Sensitivity of Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors

A forty-four pass fibre optic surface plasmon resonance sensor that enhances detection sensitivity according to the number of passes is demonstrated for the first time. The technique employs a fibre optic recirculation loop that passes the detection spot forty- four times, thus enhancing sensitivity by a factor of forty-four. Presently, the total number of passes is limited by the onset of lasing action of the recirculation loop. This technique offers a significant sensitivity improvement for various types of plasmon resonance sensors that may be used in chemical and biomolecule detections.Comment: Submitted for publication; patent disclosure submitte

Constraining properties of neutron stars with heavy-ion reactions in terrestrial laboratories

Heavy-ion reactions provide a unique means to investigate the equation of state (EOS) of neutron-rich nuclear matter, especially the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy $E_{sym}(\rho)$. The latter plays an important role in understanding many key issues in both nuclear physics and astrophysics. Recent analyses of heavy-ion reactions have already put a stringent constraint on the $E_{sym}(\rho)$ around the saturation density. This subsequently allowed us to constrain significantly the radii and cooling mechanisms of neutron stars as well as the possible changing rate of the gravitational constant G.Comment: 6 pages. Talk given at the Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics III, Dresden, Germany, March 26-31, 2007. To appear in a special volume of J. of Phys.

New Developments in MadGraph/MadEvent

We here present some recent developments of MadGraph/MadEvent since the latest published version, 4.0. These developments include: Jet matching with Pythia parton showers for both Standard Model and Beyond the Standard Model processes, decay chain functionality, decay width calculation and decay simulation, process generation for the Grid, a package for calculation of quarkonium amplitudes, calculation of Matrix Element weights for experimental events, automatic dipole subtraction for next-to-leading order calculations, and an interface to FeynRules, a package for automatic calculation of Feynman rules and model files from the Lagrangian of any New Physics model.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Plenary talk given at SUSY08, Seoul, South Korea, June 2008. To appear in the proceeding

Directed flow of neutral strange particles at AGS

Directed flow of neutral strange particles in heavy ion collisions at AGS is studied in the ART transport model. Using a lambda mean-field potential which is 2/3 of that for a nucleon as predicted by the constituent quark model, lambdas are found to flow with protons but with a smaller flow parameter as observed in experiments. For kaons, their repulsive potential, which is calculated from the impulse approximation using the measured kaon-nucleon scattering length, leads to a smaller anti-flow than that shown in the preliminary E895 data. Implications of this discrepancy are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure