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Galli, P., Goldstein, K., & Perz, J. (2013). On anharmonic stabilisation equations for black holes. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 036–7pp.
Abstract: We investigate the stabilisation equations for sufficiently general, yet regular, extremal (supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric) and non-extremal black holes in four-dimensional N = 2 supergravity using both the H-FGK approach and a generalisation of Denef's formalism. By an explicit calculation we demonstrate that the equations necessarily contain an anharmonic part, even in the static, spherically symmetric and asymptotically flat case.
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Villaescusa-Navarro, F., Vogelsberger, M., Viel, M., & Loeb, A. (2013). Neutrino signatures on the high-transmission regions of the Lyman alpha forest. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 431(4), 3670–3677.
Abstract: We quantify the impact of massive neutrinos on the statistics of low-density regions in the intergalactic medium as probed by the Lyman alpha forest at redshifts z = 2.2-4. Based on mock but realistic quasar (QSO) spectra extracted from hydrodynamic simulations with cold dark matter, baryons and neutrinos, we find that the probability distribution of weak Lyman alpha absorption features, as sampled by Lyman alpha flux regions at high transmissivity, is strongly affected by the presence of massive neutrinos. We show that systematic errors affecting the Lyman alpha forest reduce but do not erase the neutrino signal. Using the Fisher matrix formalism, we conclude that the sum of the neutrino masses can be measured, using the method proposed in this paper, with a precision smaller than 0.4 eV using a catalogue of 200 high-resolution (signal-to-noise ratio similar to 100) QSO spectra. This number reduces to 0.27 eV by making use of reasonable priors in the other parameters that also affect the statistics of the high-transitivity regions of the Lyman alpha forest. The constraints obtained with this method can be combined with independent bounds from the cosmic microwave background, large-scale structures and measurements of the matter power spectrum from the Lyman alpha forest to produce tighter upper limits on the sum of the masses of the neutrinos.
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Sanjuan, R., Nebot, M., Peris, J. B., & Alcami, J. (2013). Immune Activation Promotes Evolutionary Conservation of T-Cell Epitopes in HIV-1. PLoS. Biol., 11(4), e1001523–10pp.
Abstract: The immune system should constitute a strong selective pressure promoting viral genetic diversity and evolution. However, HIV shows lower sequence variability at T-cell epitopes than elsewhere in the genome, in contrast with other human RNA viruses. Here, we propose that epitope conservation is a consequence of the particular interactions established between HIV and the immune system. On one hand, epitope recognition triggers an anti-HIV response mediated by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs), but on the other hand, activation of CD4(+) helper T lymphocytes (T-H cells) promotes HIV replication. Mathematical modeling of these opposite selective forces revealed that selection at the intrapatient level can promote either T-cell epitope conservation or escape. We predict greater conservation for epitopes contributing significantly to total immune activation levels (immunodominance), and when T-H cell infection is concomitant to epitope recognition (transinfection). We suggest that HIV-driven immune activation in the lymph nodes during the chronic stage of the disease may offer a favorable scenario for epitope conservation. Our results also support the view that some pathogens draw benefits from the immune response and suggest that vaccination strategies based on conserved T-H epitopes may be counterproductive.
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Pavon Valderrama, M. (2012). Power counting and perturbative one pion exchange in heavy meson molecules. Phys. Rev. D, 85(11), 114037–21pp.
Abstract: We discuss the possible power counting schemes that can be applied in the effective field theory description of heavy meson molecules, such as the X(3872) or the recently discovered Z(b)(10610) and Z(b)(10650) states. We argue that the effect of coupled channels is suppressed by at least two orders in the effective field theory expansion, meaning that they can be safely ignored at lowest order. The role of the one pion exchange potential between the heavy mesons, and, in particular, the tensor force, is also analyzed. By using techniques developed in atomic physics for handling power-law singular potentials, which have been also successfully employed in nuclear physics, we determine the range of center-of-mass momenta for which the tensor piece of the one pion exchange potential is perturbative. In this momentum range, the one pion exchange potential can be considered a subleading order correction, leaving at lowest order a very simple effective field theory consisting only of contact-range interactions.
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Hidalgo-Duque, C., Nieves, J., & Pavon Valderrama, M. (2013). Light flavor and heavy quark spin symmetry in heavy meson molecules. Phys. Rev. D, 87(7), 076006–14pp.
Abstract: We propose an effective field theory incorporating light SU(3)-flavor and heavy quark spin symmetry to describe charmed meson-antimeson bound states. At lowest order the effective field theory entails a remarkable simplification: it only involves contact range interactions among the heavy meson and antimeson fields. We show that the isospin violating decays of the X(3872) can be used to constrain the interaction between the D and a (D) over bar* mesons in the isovector channel. As a consequence, we can rule out the existence of an isovector partner of the X(3872). If we additionally assume that the X(3915) and Y(4140) are D*(D) over bar* and D*(s)(D) over bar*(s) molecular states, we can determine the full spectrum of molecular states with isospin I = 0, 1/2 and 1.
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