869 research outputs found
On Statistical Aspects of Qjets
The process by which jet algorithms construct jets and subjets is inherently
ambiguous and equally well motivated algorithms often return very different
answers. The Qjets procedure was introduced by the authors to account for this
ambiguity by considering many reconstructions of a jet at once, allowing one to
assign a weight to each interpretation of the jet. Employing these weighted
interpretations leads to an improvement in the statistical stability of many
measurements. Here we explore in detail the statistical properties of these
sets of weighted measurements and demonstrate how they can be used to improve
the reach of jet-based studies.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures. References added, minor modification of the
text. This version to appear in JHE
Qjets: A Non-Deterministic Approach to Tree-Based Jet Substructure
Jet substructure is typically studied using clustering algorithms, such as
kT, which arrange the jets' constituents into trees. Instead of considering a
single tree per jet, we propose that multiple trees should be considered,
weighted by an appropriate metric. Then each jet in each event produces a
distribution for an observable, rather than a single value. Advantages of this
approach include: 1) observables have significantly increased statistical
stability; and, 2) new observables, such as the variance of the distribution,
provide new handles for signal and background discrimination. For example, we
find that employing a set of trees substantially reduces the observed
fluctuations in the pruned mass distribution, enhancing the likelihood of new
particle discovery for a given integrated luminosity. Furthermore, the
resulting pruned mass distributions for (background) QCD jets are found to be
substantially wider than that for (signal) jets with intrinsic mass scales,
e.g. jets containing a W decay. A cut on this width yields a substantial
enhancement in significance relative to a cut on the standard pruned jet mass
alone. In particular the luminosity needed for a given significance requirement
decreases by a factor of two relative to standard pruning.Comment: Minor changes to match journal versio
Magnetic field line braiding in the solar atmosphere
AbstractUsing a magnetic carpet as model for the near surface solar magnetic field we study its effects on the propagation of energy injectected by photospheric footpoint motions. Such a magnetic carpet structure is topologically highly non-trivial and with its magnetic nulls exhibits qualitatively different behavior than simpler magnetic fields. We show that the presence of magnetic fields connecting back to the photosphere inhibits the propagation of energy into higher layers of the solar atmosphere, like the solar corona. By applying certain types of footpoint motions the magnetic field topology is is greatly reduced through magnetic field reconnection which facilitates the propagation of energy and disturbances from the photosphere.</jats:p
Topological constraints in the reconnection of vortex braids
We study the relaxation of a topologically nontrivial vortex braid with zero net helicity in a barotropic fluid. The aim is to investigate the extent to which the topology of the vorticity field—characterized by braided vorticity field lines—determines the dynamics, particularly the asymptotic behavior under vortex reconnection in evolution at high Reynolds numbers (25 000). Analogous to the evolution of braided magnetic fields in plasma, we find that the relaxation of our vortex braid leads to a simplification of the topology into large-scale regions of opposite swirl, consistent with an inverse cascade of the helicity. The change of topology is facilitated by a cascade of vortex reconnection events. During this process, the existence of regions of positive and negative kinetic helicities imposes a lower bound for the kinetic energy. For the enstrophy, we derive analytically a lower bound given by the presence of unsigned kinetic helicity, which we confirm in our numerical experiments
Quantifying the tangling of trajectories using the topological entropy
We present a simple method to efficiently compute a lower limit of the
topological entropy and its spatial distribution for two-dimensional mappings.
These mappings could represent either two-dimensional time-periodic fluid flows
or three-dimensional magnetic fields, which are periodic in one direction. This
method is based on measuring the length of a material line in the flow.
Depending on the nature of the flow, the fluid can be mixed very efficiently
which causes the line to stretch. Here we study a method that adaptively
increases the resolution at locations along the line where folds lead to high
curvature. This reduces the computational cost greatly which allows us to study
unprecedented parameter regimes. We demonstrate how this efficient
implementation allows the computation of the variation of the finite-time
topological entropy in the mapping. This measure quantifies spatial variations
of the braiding efficiency, important in many practical applications.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Selected vitamins and trace elements support immune function by strengthening epithelial barriers and cellular and humoral immune responses
Adequate intakes of micronutrients are required for the immune system to function efficiently. Micronutrient deficiency suppresses immunity by affecting innate, T cell mediated and adaptive antibody responses, leading to dysregulation of the balanced host response. This situation increases susceptibility to infections, with increased morbidity and mortality. In turn, infections aggravate micronutrient deficiencies by reducing nutrient intake, increasing losses, and interfering with utilization by altering metabolic pathways. Insufficient intake of micronutrients occurs in people with eating disorders, in smokers (active and passive), in individuals with chronic alcohol abuse, in certain diseases, during pregnancy and lactation, and in the elderly. This paper summarises the roles of selected vitamins and trace elements in immune function. Micronutrients contribute to the body's natural defences on three levels by supporting physical barriers (skin/mucosa), cellular immunity and antibody production. Vitamins A, C, E and the trace element zinc assist in enhancing the skin barrier function. The vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E and folic acid and the trace elements iron, zinc, copper and selenium work in synergy to support the protective activities of the immune cells. Finally, all these micronutrients, with the exception of vitamin C and iron, are essential for antibody production. Overall, inadequate intake and status of these vitamins and trace elements may lead to suppressed immunity, which predisposes to infections and aggravates malnutrition. Therefore, supplementation with these selected micronutrients can support the body's natural defence system by enhancing all three levels of immunit
Estimating the Rate of Field Line Braiding in the Solar Corona by Photospheric Flows
In this paper, we seek to understand the timescale in which the photospheric motions on the Sun braid coronal magnetic field lines. This is a crucial ingredient for determining the viability of the braiding mechanism for explaining the high temperatures observed in the corona. We study the topological complexity induced in the coronal magnetic field, primarily using plasma motions extracted from magneto-convection simulations. This topological complexity is quantified using the field line winding, finite time topological entropy (FTTE), and passive scalar mixing. With these measures, we contrast mixing efficiencies of the magneto-convection simulation, a benchmark flow known as a "blinking vortex", and finally photospheric flows inferred from sequences of observed magnetograms using local correlation tracking. While the highly resolved magneto-convection simulations induce a strong degree of field line winding and FTTE, the values obtained from the observations from the plage region are around an order of magnitude smaller. This behavior is carried over to the FTTE. Nevertheless, the results suggest that the photospheric motions induce complex tangling of the coronal field on a timescale of hours
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