The Noncommutative Standard Model and Polarization in Charged Gauge Boson Production at the LHC

We study the pair production of charged gauge bosons at the LHC in a noncommutative extension of the standard model. We use angular distributions in the decays of the gauge bosons to partially reconstruct polarized cross sections. We use this, together with CP considerations, to construct more sensitive observables that allow to separate space-time from space-space noncommutativities.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures; minor cosmetic change; clarifying remarks on our Feynman rules, add explicit calculation of Ward identities to appendi

Single-Particle Tracking Reveals Anti-Persistent Subdiffusion in Cell Extracts

Single-particle tracking (SPT) has become a powerful tool to quantify transport phenomena in complex media with unprecedented detail. Based on the reconstruction of individual trajectories, a wealth of informative measures become available for each particle, allowing for a detailed comparison with theoretical predictions. While SPT has been used frequently to explore diffusive transport in artificial fluids and inside living cells, intermediate systems, i.e., biochemically active cell extracts, have been studied only sparsely. Extracts derived from the eggs of the clawfrog Xenopus laevis, for example, are known for their ability to support and mimic vital processes of cells, emphasizing the need to explore also the transport phenomena of nano-sized particles in such extracts. Here, we have performed extensive SPT on beads with 20 nm radius in native and chemically treated Xenopus extracts. By analyzing a variety of distinct measures, we show that these beads feature an anti-persistent subdiffusion that is consistent with fractional Brownian motion. Chemical treatments did not grossly alter this finding, suggesting that the high degree of macromolecular crowding in Xenopus extracts equips the fluid with a viscoelastic modulus, hence enforcing particles to perform random walks with a significant anti-persistent memory kernel

Sting of passion

A new exhibition of contemporary jewellery by 12 up-and-coming international jewellery artists opens at Manchester Art Gallery this July. Curated by Manchester-based jewellery artist Jo Bloxham, the exhibition features new conceptual works of jewellery by artists from as far afield as the USA and Mexico. All the works on display have been inspired by Pre-Raphaelite paintings from Manchester Art Gallery’s prestigious collections. The paintings have all been selected by the exhibition curator, Jo Bloxham and include Pre-Raphaelite favourites such as Arthur Hughes’ Ophelia and Rossetti’s The Bower Meadow and Astarte Syriaca. The works portray women as a femme fatale, a seductress, and in some cases, purely as an object of beauty. Bloxham comments that each of the jewellers has responded individually, the works have provoked some strong reactions, and astonishing results: “The jewellers have created an exciting body of work using a diverse selection of materials, from gold and garnets to concrete and broken glass. The Sting of Passion is an opportunity to explore an area of jewellery design rarely seen in the UK.” Polish jeweller, Arek Wolski has added modern irony to his work for Eve Tempted by John Stanhope. Playing on words, Wolski has created a t-shirt brooch, changing the phrase ‘Last Forever’ to a more cynical ‘Lust Forever’. French jeweller, Benjamin Lignel found The Bower Meadow by Dante Gabriel Rossetti deeply unsettling. Lignel says “Here are the real desperate housewives: typecast for maximum excitement. Rossetti’s dancing beauties live the test-tube lives of neutered she-monsters in a tree-lined water-tank.” Nanna Melland from Germany has created a fine, gold chain, to sit around the waist of Rossetti’s Astarte Syriaca in the form of a new girdle