Where are the missing cosmic metals ?

The majority of the heavy elements produced by stars 2 billion years after the Big Bang (redshift z~3) are presently undetected at those epochs. We propose a solution to this cosmic `missing metals' problem in which such elements are stored in gaseous halos produced by supernova explosions around star-forming galaxies. By using data from the ESO/VLT Large Program, we find that:(i) only 5%-9% of the produced metals reside in the cold phase, the rest being found in the hot (log T=5.8-6.4) phase; (ii) 1%-6% (3%-30%) of the observed CIV (OVI) is in the hot phase. We conclude that at z~3 more than 90% of the metals produced during the star forming history can be placed in a hot phase of the IGM, without violating any observational constraint. The observed galaxy mass-metallicity relation, and the intergalactic medium and intracluster medium metallicity evolution are also naturally explained by this hypothesis.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, ApJ Letters, in pres

The Painlev\'e methods

This short review is an introduction to a great variety of methods, the collection of which is called the Painlev\'e analysis, intended at producing all kinds of exact (as opposed to perturbative) results on nonlinear equations, whether ordinary, partial, or discrete.Comment: LaTex 2e, subject index, Nonlinear integrable systems: classical and quantum, ed. A. Kundu, Special issue, Proceedings of Indian Science Academy,

SUSYGEN 2.2 - A Monte Carlo Event Generator for MSSM Sparticle Production at e+ e- Colliders

SUSYGEN is a Monte Carlo program designed for computing distributions and generating events for MSSM sparticle production in e+ e- collisions. The Supersymmetric (SUSY) mass spectrum may either be supplied by the user, or can alternatively be calculated in two different models of SUSY Breaking: gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking (SUGRA), and gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB). The program incorporates the most important production processes and decay modes, including the full set of R-parity violating decays, and the decays to the gravitino in GMSB models. Initial state radiation corrections take into account pT/pL effects in the Structure Function formalism, and an optimised hadronisation interface to JETSET 7.4 including final state radiation is also provided.Comment: 68 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Comp. Phys. Commu

Constitutional Analogies in the International Legal System

This Article explores issues at the frontier of international law and constitutional law. It considers five key structural and systemic challenges that the international legal system now faces: (1) decentralization and disaggregation; (2) normative and institutional hierarchies; (3) compliance and enforcement; (4) exit and escape; and (5) democracy and legitimacy. Each of these issues raises questions of governance, institutional design, and allocation of authority paralleling the questions that domestic legal systems have answered in constitutional terms. For each of these issues, I survey the international legal landscape and consider the salience of potential analogies to domestic constitutions, drawing upon and extending the writings of international legal scholars and international relations theorists. I also offer some preliminary thoughts about why some treaties and institutions, but not others, more readily lend themselves to analysis in constitutional terms. And I distinguish those legal and political issues that may generate useful insights for scholars studying the growing intersections of international and constitutional law from other areas that may be more resistant to constitutional analogies

The gamma-ray burst monitor for Lobster-ISS

Lobster-ISS is an X-ray all-sky monitor experiment selected by ESA two years ago for a Phase A study (now almost completed) for a future flight (2009) aboard the Columbus Exposed Payload Facility of the International Space Station. The main instrument, based on MCP optics with Lobster-eye geometry, has an energy passband from 0.1 to 3.5 keV, an unprecedented daily sensitivity of 2x10^{-12} erg cm^{-2}s$^{-1}, and it is capable to scan, during each orbit, the entire sky with an angular resolution of 4--6 arcmin. This X-ray telescope is flanked by a Gamma Ray Burst Monitor, with the minimum requirement of recognizing true GRBs from other transient events. In this paper we describe the GRBM. In addition to the minimum requirement, the instrument proposed is capable to roughly localize GRBs which occur in the Lobster FOV (162x22.5 degrees) and to significantly extend the scientific capabilities of the main instrument for the study of GRBs and X-ray transients. The combination of the two instruments will allow an unprecedented spectral coverage (from 0.1 up to 300/700 keV) for a sensitive study of the GRB prompt emission in the passband where GRBs and X-Ray Flashes emit most of their energy. The low-energy spectral band (0.1-10 keV) is of key importance for the study of the GRB environment and the search of transient absorption and emission features from GRBs, both goals being crucial for unveiling the GRB phenomenon. The entire energy band of Lobster-ISS is not covered by either the Swift satellite or other GRB missions foreseen in the next decade.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Paper presented at the COSPAR 2004 General Assembly (Paris), accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research in June 2005 and available on-line at the Journal site (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02731177), section "Articles in press

Constructing Confinement

The interaction between static quarks is derived by applying many-body techniques to QCD in Coulomb gauge. The result is shown to be exact in the IR and UV limits, and agrees remarkably well with lattice computations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, proceedings for 2002 Lake Louise Winter Institut

GALEX J201337.6+092801: The lowest gravity subdwarf B pulsator

We present the recent discovery of a new subdwarf B variable (sdBV), with an exceptionally low surface gravity. Our spectroscopy of J20136+0928 places it at Teff = 32100 +/- 500, log(g) = 5.15 +/- 0.10, and log(He/H) = -2.8 +/- 0.1. With a magnitude of B = 12.0, it is the second brightest V361 Hya star ever found. Photometry from three different observatories reveals a temporal spectrum with eleven clearly detected periods in the range 376 to 566 s, and at least five more close to our detection limit. These periods are unusually long for the V361 Hya class of short-period sdBV pulsators, but not unreasonable for p- and g-modes close to the radial fundamental, given its low surface gravity. Of the ~50 short period sdB pulsators known to date, only a single one has been found to have comparable spectroscopic parameters to J20136+0928. This is the enigmatic high-amplitude pulsator V338 Ser, and we conclude that J20136+0928 is the second example of this rare subclass of sdB pulsators located well above the canonical extreme horizontal branch in the HR diagram.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

A Monte Carlo Test of the Optimal Jet Definition

We summarize the Optimal Jet Definition and present the result of a benchmark Monte Carlo test based on the W-boson mass extraction from fully hadronic decays of pairs of W's.Comment: 7 pages, talk given at Lake Louise Winter Institute: "Particles and the Universe", Lake Louise, Canada, February 16-22, 2003, to be published in the proceeding

Certifying isolated singular points and their multiplicity structure

This paper presents two new constructions related to singular solutions of polynomial systems. The first is a new deflation method for an isolated singular root. This construc-tion uses a single linear differential form defined from the Jacobian matrix of the input, and defines the deflated system by applying this differential form to the original system. The advantages of this new deflation is that it does not introduce new variables and the increase in the number of equations is linear instead of the quadratic increase of previous methods. The second construction gives the coefficients of the so-called inverse system or dual basis, which defines the multiplicity structure at the singular root. We present a system of equations in the original variables plus a relatively small number of new vari-ables. We show that the roots of this new system include the original singular root but now with multiplicity one, and the new variables uniquely determine the multiplicity structure. Both constructions are "exact", meaning that they permit one to treat all conjugate roots simultaneously and can be used in certification procedures for singular roots and their multiplicity structure with respect to an exact rational polynomial system