Transient effects in the backscattered current of a Luttinger liquid

We study the backscattered current in a Luttinger liquid in the presence of a point like weak impurity switched on at finite time, taking into account finite-temperature effects. We show how the well-known results for a static impurity are distorted. We derive a dimensionless parameter $\tau_{R}$ as function of the electron-electron interaction and the temperature, such that for $\tau_{R} 1$) the switching process is relevant (irrelevant). Our results suggest the possibility of determining the value of the Luttinger parameter $K$ through time measurements in transport experiments at fixed voltage.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Physical Review

Dynamical model for Pion - Nucleon Bremsstrahlung

A dynamical model based on effective Lagrangians is proposed to describe the bremsstrahlung reaction $\pi N \to \pi N \gamma$ at low energies. The $\Delta(1232)$ degrees of freedom are incorporated in a way consistent with both, electromagnetic gauge invariance and invariance under contact transformations. The model also includes the initial and final state rescattering of hadrons via a T-matrix with off-shell effects. The $\pi N \gamma$ differential cross sections are calculated using three different T-matrix models and the results are compared with the soft photon approximation, and with experimental data. The aim of this analysis is to test the off-shell behavior of the different T-matrices under consideration.Comment: 16 pages, latex, 6 eps figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Structure of ternary additive hard-sphere fluid mixtures

Monte Carlo simulations on the structural properties of ternary fluid mixtures of additive hard spheres are reported. The results are compared with those obtained from a recent analytical approximation [S. B. Yuste, A. Santos, and M. Lopez de Haro, J. Chem. Phys. 108, 3683 (1998)] to the radial distribution functions of hard-sphere mixtures and with the results derived from the solution of the Ornstein-Zernike integral equation with both the Martynov-Sarkisov and the Percus-Yevick closures. Very good agreement between the results of the first two approaches and simulation is observed, with a noticeable improvement over the Percus-Yevick predictions especially near contact.Comment: 11 pages, including 8 figures; A minor change; accepted for publication in PR

Non-singular four-dimensional black holes and the Jackiw-Teitelboim theory

A four-dimensional dilaton-gravity action whose spherical reduction to two dimensions leads to the Jackiw-Teitelboim theory is presented. A nonsingular black hole solution of the theory is obtained and its physical interpretation is discussed. The classical and semiclassical properties of the solution and of its 2d counterpart are analysed. The 2d theory is also used to model the evaporation process of the near-extremal 4d black hole. We describe in detail the peculiarities of the black hole solutions, in particular the purely topological nature of the Hawking radiation, in the context of the Jackiw-Teitelboim theory.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures available upon request, Plain Tex, INFN-CA-TH-94-2

Impulsive choice in hippocampal but not orbitofrontal cortex-lesioned rats on a nonspatial decision-making maze task

Orbitofrontal cortical (OFC) and hippocampal (HPC) lesions in primates and rodents have been associated with impulsive behaviour. We showed previously that OFC- or HPC-lesioned rats chose the immediate low-reward (LR) option in preference to the delayed high-reward (HR) option, where LR and HR were associated with different spatial responses in a uniform grey T-maze. We now report that on a novel nonspatial T-maze task in which the HR and LR options are associated with patterned goal arms (black-and-white stripes vs. gray), OFC-lesioned rats did not show impulsive behaviour, choosing the delayed HR option, and were indistinguishable from controls. In contrast, HPC-lesioned rats exhibited impulsive choice in the nonspatial decision-making task, although they chose the HR option on the majority of trials when there was a 10-s delay associated with both goal arms. The previously reported impairment in OFC-lesioned rats on the spatial version of the intertemporal choice task is unlikely to reflect a general problem with spatial learning, because OFC lesions were without effect on acquisition of the standard reference memory water-maze task and spatial working memory performance (nonmatching-to-place) on the T-maze. The differential effect of OFC lesions on the two versions of the intertemporal choice task may be explained instead in terms of the putative role of OFC in using associative information to represent expected outcomes and generate predictions. The impulsivity in HPC-lesioned rats may reflect impaired temporal information processing, and emphasizes a role for the hippocampus beyond the spatial domain

Unparticles-Higgs Interplay

We show that scalar unparticles coupled to the Standard Model Higgs at the renormalizable level can have a dramatic impact in the breaking of the electroweak symmetry already at tree level. In particular one can get the proper electroweak scale without the need of a Higgs mass term in the Lagrangian. By studying the mixed unparticle-Higgs propagator and spectral function we also show how unparticles can shift the Higgs mass away from its Standard Model value, \lambda v^2, and influence other Higgs boson properties. Conversely, we study in some detail how electroweak symmetry breaking affects the unparticle sector by breaking its conformal symmetry and generating a mass gap. We also show that, for Higgs masses above that gap, unparticles can increase quite significantly the Higgs width.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, typos correcte

Quarkonium dissociation by anisotropy

We compute the screening length for quarkonium mesons moving through an anisotropic, strongly coupled N=4 super Yang-Mills plasma by means of its gravity dual. We present the results for arbitrary velocities and orientations of the mesons, as well as for arbitrary values of the anisotropy. The anisotropic screening length can be larger or smaller than the isotropic one, and this depends on whether the comparison is made at equal temperatures or at equal entropy densities. For generic motion we find that: (i) mesons dissociate above a certain critical value of the anisotropy, even at zero temperature; (ii) there is a limiting velocity for mesons in the plasma, even at zero temperature; (iii) in the ultra-relativistic limit the screening length scales as $(1-v^2)^\epsilon$ with \epsilon =1/2, in contrast with the isotropic result \epsilon =1/4.Comment: 39 pages, 26 figures; v2: minor changes, added reference

Flavor Phenomenology in General 5D Warped Spaces

We have considered a general 5D warped model with SM fields propagating in the bulk and computed explicit expressions for oblique and non-oblique electroweak observables as well as for flavor and CP violating effective four-fermion operators. We have compared the resulting lower bounds on the Kaluza-Klein (KK) scale in the RS model and a recently proposed model with a metric modified towards the IR brane, which is consistent with oblique parameters without the need for a custodial symmetry. We have randomly generated 40,000 sets of O(1) 5D Yukawa couplings and made a fit of the quark masses and CKM matrix elements in both models. This method allows to identify the percentage of points consistent with a given KK mass, which in turn provides us with a measure for the required fine-tuning. Comparison with current experimental data on Rb, FCNC and CP violating operators exhibits an improved behavior of our model with respect to the RS model. In particular, allowing 10% fine-tuning the combined results point towards upper bounds on the KK gauge boson masses around 3.3 TeV in our model as compared with 13 TeV in the RS model. One reason for this improvement is that fermions in our model are shifted, with respect to fermions in the RS model, towards the UV brane thus decreasing the strength of the modifications of electroweak observables.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures, 4 table

Apotransferrin-induced recovery after hypoxic/ischaemic injury on myelination

We have previously demonstrated that aTf (apotransferrin) accelerates maturation of OLs (oligodendrocytes) in vitro as well as in vivo. The purpose of this study is to determine whether aTf plays a functional role in a model of H/I (hypoxia/ischaemia) in the neonatal brain. Twenty-four hours after H/I insult, neonatal rats were intracranially injected with aTf and the effects of this treatment were evaluated in the CC (corpus callosum) as well as the SVZ (subventricular zone) at different time points. Similar to previous studies, the H/I event produced severe demyelination in the CC. Demyelination was accompanied by microglial activation, astrogliosis and iron deposition. Ferritin levels increased together with lipid peroxidation and apoptotic cell death. Histological examination after the H/I event in brain tissue of aTf-treated animals (H/I aTF) revealed a great number of mature OLs repopulating the CC compared with saline-treated animals (H/I S). ApoTf treatment induced a gradual increase in MBP (myelin basic protein) and myelin lipid staining in the CC reaching normal levels after 15 days. Furthermore, significant increase in the number of OPCs (oligodendroglial progenitor cells) was found in the SVZ of aTf-treated brains compared with H/I S. Specifically, there was a rise in cells positive for OPC markers, i.e. PDGFRα and SHH+ cells, with a decrease in cleaved-caspase-3+ cells compared with H/I S. Additionally, neurospheres from aTf-treated rats were bigger in size and produced more O4/MBP+ cells. Our findings indicate a role for aTf as a potential inducer of OLs in neonatal rat brain in acute demyelination caused by H/I and a contribution to the differentiation/maturation of OLs and survival/migration of SVZ progenitors after demyelination in vivo