Standard Model False Vacuum Inflation: Correlating the Tensor-to-Scalar Ratio to the Top Quark and Higgs Boson masses

For a narrow band of values of the top quark and Higgs boson masses, the Standard Model Higgs potential develops a false minimum at energies of about $10^{16}$ GeV, where primordial Inflation could have started in a cold metastable state. A graceful exit to a radiation-dominated era is provided, e.g., by scalar-tensor gravity models. We pointed out that if Inflation happened in this false minimum, the Higgs boson mass has to be in the range $126.0 \pm 3.5$ GeV, where ATLAS and CMS subsequently reported excesses of events. Here we show that for these values of the Higgs boson mass, the inflationary gravitational wave background has be discovered with a tensor-to-scalar ratio at hand of future experiments. We suggest that combining cosmological observations with measurements of the top quark and Higgs boson masses represents a further test of the hypothesis that the Standard Model false minimum was the source of Inflation in the Universe.Comment: v1: 4 pages, 2 figures; v2: 5 pages, 2 figures, improvements in the text; v3: 5 pages, 2 figures, minor improvements in the text, matches PRL versio

Empowering formative assessment using embedded Web Widgets in Wikis

The article can be viewed at: http://opensym.org/wsos2013/proceedings/p0901-notari.pdfIn this article we describe how we developed and how we use a tool for teachers enhancing inter-group collaboration of learners using wikis in project-based learning settings with over 100 participants, where different groups of students develop similar projects and each project has an own wiki page. To achieve our goal we extended typical wiki functionality by using web widgets, mini applications embedded anywhere in the wiki environment using the iframe tag. Two different evaluation widgets (rating widget and 'working progress' widget) are placed on each of the project pages. The project groups use the 'working progress' widget to declare the amount of work done. The teacher and the rest of the learning community use the 'rating' widget to rate the ongoing project work. A so called 'meta widget' showing a summary of the results of the 'rating' and 'working progress' widget can be displayed on the start page of the learning community or if a project is divided in different milestones, on the page describing the goals and timeline for the milestone. Evaluation widgets and meta widget, which easily can be embedded by the teacher potentially all over the wiki pages, enhances visibility of quality and termination degree of a project and enhance so the self, the tutor and the peer review opportunities in such large scale project based learning settings. The created evaluation widgets and meta widgets have been embedded in the wiki of a three months curriculum. The evaluation of utility and usability of the widgets is ongoing. The educational value of rating and reflecting about the working progress of a given task is discussed

Representation of Lipschitz Maps and Metric Coordinate Systems

[EN] Here, we prove some general results that allow us to ensure that specific representations (as well as extensions) of certain Lipschitz operators exist, provided we have some additional information about the underlying space, in the context of what we call enriched metric spaces. In this conceptual framework, we introduce some new classes of Lipschitz operators whose definition depends on the notion of metric coordinate system, which are defined by specific dominance inequalities involving summations of distances between certain points in the space. We analyze ¿Pietsch Theorem inspired factorizations" through subspaces of `¿ and L1, which are proved to characterize when a given metric space is Lipschitz isomorphic to a metric subspace of these spaces. As an application, extension results for Lipschitz maps that are obtained by a coordinate-wise adaptation of the McShane¿Whitney formulas, are also given.The first author was supported by a contract of the Programa de Ayudas de Investigacion y Desarrollo (PAID-01-21), Universitat Politecnica de Valencia. The third author was supported by Grant PID2020-112759GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.Arnau-Notari, AR.; Calabuig, JM.; Sánchez Pérez, EA. (2022). Representation of Lipschitz Maps and Metric Coordinate Systems. Mathematics. 10(20):1-23. https://doi.org/10.3390/math10203867123102

AC losses reduction in Hairpin Windings produced via Additive Manufacturing

One of the key challenges of hairpin windings is the reduction of their high losses at high-frequency operations. Hairpin layouts comprising conductors with variable cross sections have proven good loss performance in previous studies. However, they come at the cost of significant manufacturing complications. The aim of this work is to design hairpin layouts featuring reduced losses compared to classical configurations, exploiting the flexibility enabled by additive manufacturing. In this context, the choice of a proper material with relatively high conductivity and low ecological impact plays an important role. Hence, this article first presents an overview of materials that can be used for the winding additive manufacturing, aiming to select the most suitable one for the application at hand. Then, the loss performance is evaluated and compared against classical copper hairpins. The results demonstrate that opportunely selected alloys featuring asymmetric configurations can compete against classical hairpin windings. © 20XX IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksThis paper reflects only the author's view. JU is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains

"Swiss-Cheese" Inhomogeneous Cosmology & the Dark Energy Problem

We study an exact swiss-cheese model of the Universe, where inhomogeneous LTB patches are embedded in a flat FLRW background, in order to see how observations of distant sources are affected. We find negligible integrated effect, suppressed by (L/R_{H})^3 (where L is the size of one patch, and R_{H} is the Hubble radius), both perturbatively and non-perturbatively. We disentangle this effect from the Doppler term (which is much larger and has been used recently \cite{BMN} to try to fit the SN curve without dark energy) by making contact with cosmological perturbation theory.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figure

Detecting the Cold Spot as a Void with the Non-Diagonal Two-Point Function

The anomaly in the Cosmic Microwave Background known as the "Cold Spot" could be due to the existence of an anomalously large spherical (few hundreds Mpc/h radius) underdense region, called a "Void" for short. Such a structure would have an impact on the CMB also at high multipoles l through Lensing. This would then represent a unique signature of a Void. Modeling such an underdensity with an LTB metric, we show that the Lensing effect leads to a large signal in the non-diagonal two-point function, centered in the direction of the Cold Spot, such that the Planck satellite will be able to confirm or rule out the Void explanation for the Cold Spot, for any Void radius with a Signal-to-Noise ratio of at least O(10).Comment: v1: 6 pages, 2 figures; v2: 6 pages, 2 figures, text improved, to appear on JCA

Development of a glass-ceramic glaze formulated from industrial residues to improve the mechanical properties of the porcelain stoneware tiles

In this research a mixture of 90%wt of industrial residues (recycled soda-lime glass and ashes from a coalpower thermal plant) have been vitrified for their use as ‘‘secondary raw material”. Then, a glaze suspen-sion was prepared to be applied on the porcelain stoneware tile. The tested pieces have been fired by aconventional porcelain cycle at 1180 °C of maximum temperature. The XRD, XRF, SEM/EDS and thedilatometric analysis have been the instrumental techniques used to characterize the material. Finally,an ecological glass-ceramic glaze perfectly fitting on porcelain ceramic tile has been produced, exhibitinga unique phase, anorthite, which ensures a high flexural strength (around 96 MPa) and a significantVickers microhardness of 250 GPa, improving the mechanical properties of a conventional the porcelainceramic tile

Clinical Support through Telemedicine in Heart Failure Outpatients during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period: Results of a 12-Months Follow Up

Background: Heart failure (HF) patients are predisposed to recurrences and disease destabilizations, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak period. In this scenario, telemedicine could be a proper way to ensure continuous care. The purpose of the study was to compare two modalities of HF outpatients’ follow up, the traditional in-person visits and telephone consultations, during the COVID-19 pandemic period in Italy. Methods: We conducted an observational study on consecutive HF outpatients. The follow up period was 12 months, starting from the beginning of the COVID-19 Italy lockdown. According to the follow up modality, and after the propensity matching score, patients were divided into two groups: those in G1 (n = 92) were managed with traditional in-person visits and those in G2 (n = 92) were managed with telephone consultation. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were the primary endpoints. Secondary endpoints were overall mortality, cardiovascular death, cardiovascular hospitalization, and hospitalization due to HF. Results: No significant differences between G1 and G2 have been observed regarding MACE (p = 0.65), cardiovascular death (p = 0.39), overall mortality (p = 0.85), hospitalization due to acute HF (p = 0.07), and cardiovascular hospitalization (p = 0.4). Survival analysis performed by the Kaplan–Meier method also did not show significant differences between G1 and G2. Conclusions: Telephone consultations represented a valid option to manage HF outpatients during COVID-19 pandemic, comparable to traditional in-person visits