Gravitationally Coupled Electroweak Monopole

We present a family of gravitationally coupled electroweak monopole solutions in Einstein-Weinberg-Salam theory. Our result confirms the existence of globally regular gravitating electroweak monopole which changes to the magnetically charged black hole as the Higgs vacuum value approaches to the Planck scale. Moreover, our solutions could provide a more accurate description of the monopole stars and magnetically charged black holes

Finite Energy Electroweak Dyon

The recent MoEDAL experiment at LHC to detect the electroweak monopole makes the theoretical prediction of the monopole mass an urgent issue. We discuss different ways to estimate the mass of the electroweak monopole. We first present a scaling argument which indicates that the mass of the electroweak monopole to be around 4 TeV. To justify this we construct finite energy analytic dyon solutions which could be viewed as the regularized Cho-Maison dyon, modifying the coupling strengths of the electromagnetic interaction of $W$-boson in the standard model. Our result demonstrates that a genuine electroweak monopole whose mass scale is much smaller than the grand unification scale can exist, which can actually be detected at the present LHC.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:hep-th/0210299, arXiv:hep-th/970703

Dynamic model for failures in biological systems

A dynamic model for failures in biological organisms is proposed and studied both analytically and numerically. Each cell in the organism becomes dead under sufficiently strong stress, and is then allowed to be healed with some probability. It is found that unlike the case of no healing, the organism in general does not completely break down even in the presence of noise. Revealed is the characteristic time evolution that the system tends to resist the stress longer than the system without healing, followed by sudden breakdown with some fraction of cells surviving. When the noise is weak, the critical stress beyond which the system breaks down increases rapidly as the healing parameter is raised from zero, indicative of the importance of healing in biological systems.Comment: To appear in Europhys. Let

Elastic Cross Sections for Electron Collisions with Molecules Relevant to Plasma Processing

Absolute electron-impact cross sections for molecular targets, including their radicals, are important in developing plasma reactors and testing various plasma processing gases. Low-energy electron collision data for these gases are sparse and only the limited cross section data are available. In this report, elastic cross sections for electron-polyatomic molecule collisions are compiled and reviewed for 17molecules relevant to plasma processing. Elastic cross sections are essential for the absolute scale conversion of inelastic cross sections, as well as for testing computational methods. Data are collected and reviewed for elastic differential, integral, and momentum transfer cross sections and, for each molecule, the recommended values of the cross section are presented. The literature has been surveyed through early 2010.This work is accomplished as a collaboration through APAN (Asia-Pacific Atomic Data Network: a network for dissemination of collisional data relevant to plasmas, discharges, materials, and biosciences). H.C. acknowledges a support by the National Research Foundation of Korea (Grant No. 20100000035), and M.J.B. and S.J.B. support from the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Antimatter-Matter Studies. Collaboration between NIFS and NFRI is also acknowledged for the Korea-Japan exchanges

Effects of Zerovalent Iron Nanoparticles on Photosynthesis and Biochemical Adaptation of Soil-Grown Arabidopsis thaliana

Nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI) is the most widely used nanomaterial for environmental remediation. The impacts of nZVI on terrestrial organisms have been recently reported, and in particular, plant growth was promoted by nZVI treatment in various concentrations. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the detailed physiological and biochemical responses of plants toward nZVI treatment for agricultural application. Here, the effects of nZVI on photosynthesis and related biochemical adaptation of soil-grown Arabidopsis thaliana were examined. After treatment with 500 mg nZVI/kg soil, the plant biomass increased by 38% through enhanced photosynthesis, which was confirmed by the gas-exchange system, carbon isotope ratio and chlorophyll content analysis. Besides, the iron uptake of the plant increased in roots and leaves. The magnetic property measurements and transmission electron microscopy showed that the transformed particles were accumulated in parts of the plant tissues. The accumulation of carbohydrates such as glucose, sucrose and starch increased by the enhanced photosynthesis, and photosynthetic-related inorganic nutrients such as phosphorus, manganese and zinc maintained homeostasis, according to the increased iron uptake. These findings suggest that nZVI has additional or alternative benefits as a nano-fertilizer and a promoter of CO2 uptake in plants.11Ysciescopu