Neutral color-spin locking phase in neutron stars

We present results for the spin-1 color-spin locking phase (CSL) using a NJL-type model in two flavor quark matter for compact stars applications. The CSL condensate is flavor symmetric and therefore charge and color neutrality can easily be satisfied. We find small energy gaps ~1 MeV, which make the CSL matter composition and the EoS not very different from the normal quark matter phase. We keep finite quark masses in our calculations and obtain no gapless modes that could have strong consequences in the late cooling of neutron stars. Finally, we show that the region of the phase diagram relevant for neutron star cores, when asymmetric flavor pairing is suppressed, could be covered by the CSL phase.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, contribution talk to the IVth International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics(QNP06), Madrid, Spain, 5-10 Jun 200

Between Crazy and Fine

As a young Latina, I grew up hiding the fact that I met with a therapist and that I suffered from depression and anxiety. Conversations about mental well-being or taking steps to cope with anxiety were non-existent in my community of friends and family. It was always a taboo topic, an area that we never touched. People were labeled as “crazy” and serious situations were swept under the rug. Seldom was I offered empathy or support. [excerpt

A Comparison of Machine-Learning Methods to Select Socioeconomic Indicators in Cultural Landscapes

Cultural landscapes are regarded to be complex socioecological systems that originated as a result of the interaction between humanity and nature across time. Cultural landscapes present complex-system properties, including nonlinear dynamics among their components. There is a close relationship between socioeconomy and landscape in cultural landscapes, so that changes in the socioeconomic dynamic have an effect on the structure and functionality of the landscape. Several numerical analyses have been carried out to study this relationship, with linear regression models being widely used. However, cultural landscapes comprise a considerable amount of elements and processes, whose interactions might not be properly captured by a linear model. In recent years, machine-learning techniques have increasingly been applied to the field of ecology to solve regression tasks. These techniques provide sound methods and algorithms for dealing with complex systems under uncertainty. The term ‘machine learning’ includes a wide variety of methods to learn models from data. In this paper, we study the relationship between socioeconomy and cultural landscape (in Andalusia, Spain) at two different spatial scales aiming at comparing different regression models from a predictive-accuracy point of view, including model trees and neural or Bayesian networks

Business travel and mobile workers

Transportation activity generated by businesses has been analyzed mainly with reference to freight flows and commuting trips. The area of employee business trips has been largely ignored, even though the literature – particularly that dealing with industrial economics – has endeavored to show both the central role played by face-to-face encounters in economic contact, and the decreased need for proximity as a prerequisite to such contact taking place in the first place. This paper takes this literature, both theoretical and empirical, as its base, and then aims to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the need for business travel and the profiles of mobile workers. It also investigates how the workers involved perceive, and how companies account for such mobility.business travel, mobile workers, face to face, ICT

Transcription as a Threat to Genome Integrity

Genomes undergo different types of sporadic alterations, including DNA damage, point mutations, and genome rearrangements, that constitute the basis for evolution. However, these changes may occur at high levels as a result of cell pathology and trigger genome instability, a hallmark of cancer and a number of genetic diseases. In the last two decades, evidence has accumulated that transcription constitutes an important natural source of DNA metabolic errors that can compromise the integrity of the genome. Transcription can create the conditions for high levels of mutations and recombination by its ability to open the DNA structure and remodel chromatin, making it more accessible to DNA insulting agents, and by its ability to become a barrier to DNA replication. Here we review the molecular basis of such events from a mechanistic perspective with particular emphasis on the role of transcription as a genome instability determinant

On the Mailbox Problem

The Mailbox Problem was described and solved by Aguilera, Gafni, and Lamport in their 2010 DC paper with an algorithm that uses two flag registers that carry 14 values each. An interesting problem that they ask is whether there is a mailbox algorithm with smaller flag values. We give a positive answer by describing a mailbox algorithm with 6 and 4 values in the two flag registers

Automorphisms of prime order of smooth cubic n-folds

In this paper we give an effective criterion as to when a prime number p is the order of an automorphism of a smooth cubic hypersurface of P^{n+1}, for a fixed n > 1. We also provide a computational method to classify all such hypersurfaces that admit an automorphism of prime order p. In particular, we show that p<2^{n+1} and that any such hypersurface admitting an automorphism of order p>2^n is isomorphic to the Klein n-fold. We apply our method to compute exhaustive lists of automorphism of prime order of smooth cubic threefolds and fourfolds. Finally, we provide an application to the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties.Comment: 10 page

Inferring neutron stars crust properties from quiescent thermal emission

The observation of thermal emission from isolated neutron stars and the modeling of the corresponding cooling curves has been very useful to get information on the properties of matter at very high densities. More recently, the detection of quiescent thermal emission from neutron stars in low mass X-ray binary systems after active periods opened a new window to the physics of matter at lower densities. Here we analyze a few sources that have been recently monitored and we show how the models can be used to establish constraints on the crust composition and their transport properties, depending on the astrophysical scenarios assumed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the conference "Compact Stars in the QCD Phase Diagram IV (CSQCD IV)" September 26-30, 2014, Prerow, German

Clock spectroscopy of interacting bosons in deep optical lattices

We report on high-resolution optical spectroscopy of interacting bosonic $^{174}$Yb atoms in deep optical lattices with negligible tunneling. We prepare Mott insulator phases with singly- and doubly-occupied isolated sites and probe the atoms using an ultra-narrow "clock" transition. Atoms in singly-occupied sites undergo long-lived Rabi oscillations. Atoms in doubly-occupied sites are strongly affected by interatomic interactions, and we measure their inelastic decay rates and energy shifts. We deduce from these measurements all relevant collisional parameters involving both clock states, in particular the intra- and inter-state scattering lengths

How robust is a 2SC quark matter phase under compact star constraints?

We study the phase structure and equation of state for two-flavor quark matter at low temperature under compact star constraints within a nonlocal chiral quark model. We find that the occurence of a two-flavor color superconducting (2SC) phase is sensitive to variations of both the formfactor of the interaction and the ratio \eta between the coupling constants in the diquark and the scalar meson channels. Our study suggests that for standard values of the coupling ratio 0.5<\eta<0.75 either the 2SC phase does not occur (Gaussian formfactor) or it exists only in a mixed phase with normal quark matter (NQ-2SC) with a volume fraction less than 20 - 40 %, occuring at high baryon chemical potentials \mu_B >1200 MeV and most likely not relevant for compact stars. We also present the relevant region of the phase diagram for compact star applications and obtain that no gapless 2SC occurs at low temperatures.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, Subsec.2.5: "Phase diagram" adde