15,249 research outputs found
Electroweak lights from Dark Matter annihilations
The energy spectra of Standard Model particles originated from Dark Matter
annihilations can be significantly altered by the inclusion of electroweak
gauge boson radiation from the final state. A situation where this effect is
particularly important is when a Majorana Dark Matter particle annihilates into
two light fermions. This process is in p-wave and hence suppressed by the small
value of the relative velocity of the annihilating particles. The inclusion of
electroweak radiation eludes this suppression and opens up a potentially
sizeable s-wave contribution to the annihilation cross section. I will discuss
the impact of this effect on the fluxes of stable particles resulting from the
Dark Matter annihilations, which are relevant for Dark Matter indirect
searches.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the conference proceedings of
TAUP 2011, Munich - Germany (5-9 September 2011
HST Proper Motion confirms the optical identification of the nearby pulsar PSR 1929+10
We report on the proper motion measurement of the proposed optical
counterpart of the X-ray/radio pulsar PSR 1929+10. Using images obtained with
the HST/STIS (average epoch 2001.73) we computed a yearly displacement of +97
+/- 1 mas yr^{-1} in RA and +46 +/- 1 mas yr^{-1} in Dec since the epoch
(1994.52) of the original HST/FOC detection. Both the magnitude and direction
of the optical proper motion components are found to be fully consistent with
the most recent VLBA radio measurements. This result provides an unambiguous
confirmation of the pulsar optical identification. In addition, we have used
the combined STIS/FOC datasets to derive information on the pulsar spectrum,
which seems characterized by a power law component, apparently unrelated to the
X-ray emission.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter
Polymers as compressible soft spheres
We consider a coarse-grained model in which polymers under good-solvent
conditions are represented by soft spheres whose radii, which should be
identified with the polymer radii of gyrations, are allowed to fluctuate. The
corresponding pair potential depends on the sphere radii. This model is a
single-sphere version of the one proposed in Vettorel et al., Soft Matter 6,
2282 (2010), and it is sufficiently simple to allow us to determine all
potentials accurately from full-monomer simulations of two isolated polymers
(zero-density potentials). We find that in the dilute regime (which is the
expected validity range of single-sphere coarse-grained models based on
zero-density potentials) this model correctly reproduces the density dependence
of the radius of gyration. However, for the thermodynamics and the
intermolecular structure, the model is largely equivalent to the simpler one in
which the sphere radii are fixed to the average value of the radius of gyration
and radiiindependent potentials are used: for the thermodynamics there is no
advantage in considering a fluctuating sphere size.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure
Phase diagram of mixtures of colloids and polymers in the thermal crossover from good to solvent
We determine the phase diagram of mixtures of spherical colloids and neutral
nonadsorbing polymers in the thermal crossover region between the
point and the good-solvent regime. We use the generalized free-volume theory
(GFVT), which turns out to be quite accurate as long as
( is the radius of gyration of the polymer and is the colloid
radius). Close to the point the phase diagram is not very sensitive to
solvent quality, while, close to the good-solvent region, changes of the
solvent quality modify significantly the position of the critical point and of
the binodals. We also analyze the phase behavior of aqueous solutions of
charged colloids and polymers, using the extension of GFVT proposed by Fortini
et al., J. Chem. Phys. 128, 024904 (2008)
Tracheocutaneous fistula in patients undergoing supracricoid partial laryngectomy: the role of chronic aspiration
The aim of the present retrospective controlled study was to analyse and compare risk factors for tracheocutaneous fistula in patients who received tracheostomy after supracricoid partial laryngectomy with those who received tracheostomy for other causes. We enrolled 39 patients with tracheocutaneous fistulas who were divided into two groups. The first received temporary tracheostomy for supracricoid partial laryngectomies (n = 21), while the control group consisted of patients who received temporary tracheostomy for other causes (n = 18). Risk factors believed to play a role in the pathogenesis of tracheocutaneous fistula were examined including advanced age, cardiopathy, local infections, radiotherapy, elevated body mass index, malnutrition, decannulation time and aspiration grade. The Leipzig and Pearson scale score was significantly higher in the supracricoid partial laryngectomy group (p = 0.006 and 0.031 for univariate and multivariate analyses, respectively). The penetration/aspiration scale score was significantly higher in the supracricoid partial laryngectomy group as determined by univariate analysis (p = 0.014). The decannulation time was significantly lower in the supracricoid partial laryngectomy group (p = 0.004 and 0.0004 for univariate and multivariate analyses, respectively). The number of surgical closures for tracheocutaneous fistula was significantly higher in the supracricoid partial laryngectomy group by univariate analysis (p = 0.027). These results suggest that chronic aspiration and related cough may be important pathogenic factors for tracheocutaneous fistula and could be responsible for the significantly higher rates of closure failure in patients after supracricoid partial laryngectomy
The distribution of Omega_k from the scale-factor cutoff measure
Our universe may be contained in one among a diverging number of bubbles that
nucleate within an eternally inflating multiverse. A promising measure to
regulate the diverging spacetime volume of such a multiverse is the
scale-factor cutoff, one feature of which is bubbles are not rewarded for
having a longer duration of slow-roll inflation. Thus, depending on the
landscape distribution of the number of e-folds of inflation among bubbles like
ours, we might hope to measure spacetime curvature. We study a recently
proposed cartoon model of inflation in the landscape and find a reasonable
chance (about ten percent) that the curvature in our universe is well above the
value expected from cosmic variance. Anthropic selection does not strongly
select for curvature as small as is observed (relative somewhat larger values),
meaning the observational bound on curvature can be used to rule out landscape
models that typically give too little inflation.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
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New emissive mononuclear copper (I) complex: Structural and photophysical characterization focusing on solvatochromism, rigidochromism and oxygen sensing in mesoporous solid matrix
Consistent coarse-graining strategy for polymer solutions in the thermal crossover from Good to Theta solvent
We extend our previously developed coarse-graining strategy for linear
polymers with a tunable number n of effective atoms (blobs) per chain [D'Adamo
et al., J. Chem. Phys. 137, 4901 (2012)] to polymer systems in thermal
crossover between the good-solvent and the Theta regimes. We consider the
thermal crossover in the region in which tricritical effects can be neglected,
i.e. not too close to the Theta point, for a wide range of chain volume
fractions Phi=c/c* (c* is the overlap concentration), up to Phi=30. Scaling
crossover functions for global properties of the solution are obtained by
Monte-Carlo simulations of the Domb-Joyce model. They provide the input data to
develop a minimal coarse-grained model with four blobs per chain. As in the
good-solvent case, the coarse-grained model potentials are derived at zero
density, thus avoiding the inconsistencies related to the use of
state-dependent potentials. We find that the coarse-grained model reproduces
the properties of the underlying system up to some reduced density which
increases when lowering the temperature towards the Theta state. Close to the
lower-temperature crossover boundary, the tetramer model is accurate at least
up to Phi<10, while near the good-solvent regime reasonably accurate results
are obtained up to Phi<2. The density region in which the coarse-grained model
is predictive can be enlarged by developing coarse-grained models with more
blobs per chain. We extend the strategy used in the good-solvent case to the
crossover regime. This requires a proper treatment of the length rescalings as
before, but also a proper temperature redefinition as the number of blobs is
increased. The case n=10 is investigated. Comparison with full-monomer results
shows that the density region in which accurate predictions can be obtained is
significantly wider than that corresponding to the n=4 case.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figure
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