482 research outputs found
Mussel eggs as indicators of mutagen exposure in coastal and estuarine environments
The aim of this study was to develop a short-term genotoxicity assay for monitoring the marine environment for mutagens. Based on the developing eggs and embryos of the marine mussel Mytilus edulis, an important pollution indicator species, the test employs the sensitive sister chromatid exchange (SCE) technique as its end-point, and exploits the potential of mussel eggs to accumulate mutagenic pollutants from the surrounding sea water. Mussel eggs take up to 6 months to develop while in the gonad, which provides scope for DNA damage to be accumulated over an extended time interval; chromosome damage is subsequently visualised as SCEs in 2-cell-stage embryos after these have been spawned in the laboratory. Methods which measure biological responses to pollutant exposure are able to integrate all the factors (internal and external) which contribute to the exposure. The new cytogenetic assay allows the effects of adult exposure to be interpreted in cells destined to become part of the next generation
Mirror Manifolds in Higher Dimension
We describe mirror manifolds in dimensions different from the familiar case
of complex threefolds. We emphasize the simplifying features of dimension three
and supply more robust methods that do not rely on such special characteristics
and hence naturally generalize to other dimensions. The moduli spaces for
Calabi--Yau -folds are somewhat different from the ``special K\"ahler
manifolds'' which had occurred for , and we indicate the new geometrical
structures which arise. We formulate and apply procedures which allow for the
construction of mirror maps and the calculation of order-by-order instanton
corrections to Yukawa couplings. Mathematically, these corrections are expected
to correspond to calculating Chern classes of various parameter spaces (Hilbert
schemes) for rational curves on Calabi--Yau manifolds. Our results agree with
those obtained by more traditional mathematical methods in the limited number
of cases for which the latter analysis can be carried out. Finally, we make
explicit some striking relations between instanton corrections for various
Yukawa couplings, derived from the associativity of the operator product
algebra.Comment: 44 pages plus 3 tables using harvma
Steiner t-designs for large t
One of the most central and long-standing open questions in combinatorial
design theory concerns the existence of Steiner t-designs for large values of
t. Although in his classical 1987 paper, L. Teirlinck has shown that
non-trivial t-designs exist for all values of t, no non-trivial Steiner
t-design with t > 5 has been constructed until now. Understandingly, the case t
= 6 has received considerable attention. There has been recent progress
concerning the existence of highly symmetric Steiner 6-designs: It is shown in
[M. Huber, J. Algebr. Comb. 26 (2007), pp. 453-476] that no non-trivial
flag-transitive Steiner 6-design can exist. In this paper, we announce that
essentially also no block-transitive Steiner 6-design can exist.Comment: 9 pages; to appear in: Mathematical Methods in Computer Science 2008,
ed. by J.Calmet, W.Geiselmann, J.Mueller-Quade, Springer Lecture Notes in
Computer Scienc
Classical approach in quantum physics
The application of a classical approach to various quantum problems - the
secular perturbation approach to quantization of a hydrogen atom in external
fields and a helium atom, the adiabatic switching method for calculation of a
semiclassical spectrum of hydrogen atom in crossed electric and magnetic
fields, a spontaneous decay of excited states of a hydrogen atom, Gutzwiller's
approach to Stark problem, long-lived excited states of a helium atom recently
discovered with the help of Poincar section, inelastic
transitions in slow and fast electron-atom and ion-atom collisions - is
reviewed. Further, a classical representation in quantum theory is discussed.
In this representation the quantum states are treating as an ensemble of
classical states. This approach opens the way to an accurate description of the
initial and final states in classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) method and
a purely classical explanation of tunneling phenomenon. The general aspects of
the structure of the semiclassical series such as renormgroup symmetry,
criterion of accuracy and so on are reviewed as well. In conclusion, the
relation between quantum theory, classical physics and measurement is
discussed.Comment: This review paper was rejected from J.Phys.A with referee's comment
"The author has made many worthwhile contributions to semiclassical physics,
but this article does not meet the standard for a topical review"
CDMS, Supersymmetry and Extra Dimensions
The CDMS experiment aims to directly detect massive, cold dark matter
particles originating from the Milky Way halo. Charge and lattice excitations
are detected after a particle scatters in a Ge or Si crystal kept at ~30 mK,
allowing to separate nuclear recoils from the dominating electromagnetic
background. The operation of 12 detectors in the Soudan mine for 75 live days
in 2004 delivered no evidence for a signal, yielding stringent limits on dark
matter candidates from supersymmetry and universal extra dimensions. Thirty Ge
and Si detectors are presently installed in the Soudan cryostat, and operating
at base temperature. The run scheduled to start in 2006 is expected to yield a
one order of magnitude increase in dark matter sensitivity.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the 7th UCLA symposium on
sources and detection of dark matter and dark energy in the universe, Marina
del Rey, Feb 22-24, 200
Topological String Amplitudes, Complete Intersection Calabi-Yau Spaces and Threshold Corrections
We present the most complete list of mirror pairs of Calabi-Yau complete
intersections in toric ambient varieties and develop the methods to solve the
topological string and to calculate higher genus amplitudes on these compact
Calabi-Yau spaces. These symplectic invariants are used to remove redundancies
in examples. The construction of the B-model propagators leads to compatibility
conditions, which constrain multi-parameter mirror maps. For K3 fibered
Calabi-Yau spaces without reducible fibers we find closed formulas for all
genus contributions in the fiber direction from the geometry of the fibration.
If the heterotic dual to this geometry is known, the higher genus invariants
can be identified with the degeneracies of BPS states contributing to
gravitational threshold corrections and all genus checks on string duality in
the perturbative regime are accomplished. We find, however, that the BPS
degeneracies do not uniquely fix the non-perturbative completion of the
heterotic string. For these geometries we can write the topological partition
function in terms of the Donaldson-Thomas invariants and we perform a
non-trivial check of S-duality in topological strings. We further investigate
transitions via collapsing D5 del Pezzo surfaces and the occurrence of free Z2
quotients that lead to a new class of heterotic duals.Comment: 117 pages, 1 Postscript figur
Angular momentum exchange during secular migration of two-planet systems
We investigate the secular dynamics of two-planet coplanar systems evolving
under mutual gravitational interactions and dissipative forces. We consider two
mechanisms responsible for the planetary migration: star-planet (or
planet-satellite) tidal interactions and interactions of a planet with a
gaseous disc. We show that each migration mechanism is characterized by a
specific law of orbital angular momentum exchange. Calculating stationary
solutions of the conservative secular problem and taking into account the
orbital angular momentum leakage, we trace the evolutionary routes followed by
the planet pairs during the migration process. This procedure allows us to
recover the dynamical history of two-planet systems and constrain parameters of
the involved physical processes.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Celestial Mechanics
and Dynamical Astronomy (special issue on Exoplanets
Measurement of the Strong Coupling alpha s from Four-Jet Observables in e+e- Annihilation
Data from e+e- annihilation into hadrons at centre-of-mass energies between
91 GeV and 209 GeV collected with the OPAL detector at LEP, are used to study
the four-jet rate as a function of the Durham algorithm resolution parameter
ycut. The four-jet rate is compared to next-to-leading order calculations that
include the resummation of large logarithms. The strong coupling measured from
the four-jet rate is alphas(Mz0)=
0.1182+-0.0003(stat.)+-0.0015(exp.)+-0.0011(had.)+-0.0012(scale)+-0.0013(mass)
in agreement with the world average. Next-to-leading order fits to the
D-parameter and thrust minor event-shape observables are also performed for the
first time. We find consistent results, but with significantly larger
theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, Submitted to Euro. Phys. J.
Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy
We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable
and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is
presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and
systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of
globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude,
with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may
have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky
Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the
second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the
HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The
relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level
and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax
measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance
modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are
studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of
low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and
Space Scienc
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