Transverse momentum and pseudorapidity distributions of charged hadrons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 0.9 and 2.36 TeV

Measurements of inclusive charged-hadron transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions are presented for proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 0.9 and 2.36 TeV. The data were collected with the CMS detector during the LHC commissioning in December 2009. For non-single-diffractive interactions, the average charged-hadron transverse momentum is measured to be 0.46 +/- 0.01 (stat.) +/- 0.01 (syst.) GeV/c at 0.9 TeV and 0.50 +/- 0.01 (stat.) +/- 0.01 (syst.) GeV/c at 2.36 TeV, for pseudorapidities between -2.4 and +2.4. At these energies, the measured pseudorapidity densities in the central region, dN(charged)/d(eta) for |eta|

Asymtotic solution of the Frieman and Book equation for the pair-correlation function

Using Thomé's procedure, the asymptotic solutions of the Frieman and Book equation for the two-particle correlation in a plasma have been obtained in a complete form. The solution is interpreted in terms of the Lorentz distance. The exact expressions for the internal energy and pressure are evaluated and they are found to be a generalization of the result obtained earlier by others.

Evaluating the Predictability of the Volatility Smile Using Return Distributions

In this paper, we examine the predictability of observed volatility smiles in three major European index options markets, utilising the historical return distributions of the respective underlying assets. The analysis involves an application of the Black (1976) pricing model adjusted in accordance with the Jarrow-Rudd methodology as proposed in 1982. Thereby we adjust the expected future returns for the third and fourth central moments as these represent deviations from normality in the distributions of observed returns. Thus, they are considered one possible explanation to the existence of the smile. The obtained results indicate that the inclusion of the higher moments in the pricing model to some extent reduces the volatility smile, compared with the unadjusted Black-76 model. However, as the smile is partly a function of supply, demand, and liquidity, and as such intricate to model, this modification does not appear sufficient to fully capture the characteristics of the smile.

An algorithm to find distant repeats in a pair of protein sequences

Distant repeats between a pair of protein sequences can be exploited to study the various aspects of proteins such as structure-function relationship, disorders due to protein malfunction, evolutionary analysis, etc. An in-depth analysis of the distant repeats would facilitate to establish a stable evolutionary relation of the repeats with respect to their three-dimensional structure. To this effect, an algorithm has been devised to identify the distant repeats in a pair of protein sequences by essentially using the scores of PAM (Percent Accepted Mutation) matrices. The proposed algorithm will be of much use to researchers involved in the comparative study of various organisms based on the amino-acid repeats in protein sequences. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhanced Pair Hydrophobicity in the Water-Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) Binary Mixture at Low DMSO Concentrations

We observe a surprisingly sharp increase in the pair hydrophobicity in the water climethylsulfoxide (DMSO) binary mixture at small DMSO concentrations, with the mole fraction of DMSO (x(D)) in the range 0.12-0.16. The increase in pair hydrophobicity is measured by an increase in the depth of the first minimum in the potential of mean force (PMF) between two methane molecules. However, this enhanced hydrophobicity again weakens at higher DMSO concentrations. We find markedly unusual behavior of the pure binary mixture (in the same composition range) in the diffusion coefficient of DMSO and in the local composition fluctuation of water, We find that, in the said composition range, the average coordination number of the methyl groups (of distinct DMSO) varies between 2.4 and 2.6, indicating the onset of the formation of a chain-like extended connectivity in an otherwise stable tetrahedral network comprising of water and DMSO molecules. We propose that the enhanced pair hydrophobicity of the binary mixture at low DMSO concentrations is due to the participation of the two methane molecules in the local structural order and the emerging molecular associations in the water-DMSO mixture.

Optimum aperture distributions in the presence of blockage

A method is presented for optimising the performance indices of aperture antennas in the presence of blockage. An N-dimensional objective function is formed for maximising the directivity factor of a circular aperture with blockage under sidelobe-level constraints, and is minimised using the simplex search method. Optimum aperture distributions are computed for a circular aperture with blockage of circular geometry that gives the maximum directivity factor under sidelobe-level constraints.

Top polarization as a probe of new physics

We investigate the effects of new physics scenarios containing a high mass vector resonance on top pair production at the LHC, using the polarization of the produced top. In particular we use kinematic distributions of the secondary lepton coming from top decay, which depends on top polarization, as it has been shown that the angular distribution of the decay lepton is insensitive to the anomalous tbW vertex and hence is a pure probe of new physics in top quark production. Spin sensitive variables involving the decay lepton are used to reconstruct the top polarization. Some sensitivity is found for the new couplings of the top.

A Triggering Mechanism for Enhanced Star-Formation in Colliding Galaxies

We propose a physical mechanism to explain the origin of the intense burst of massive-star formation seen in colliding/merging, gas-rich, field spiral galaxies. We explicitly take account of the different parameters for the two main mass components, H-2 and H I, of the interstellar medium within a galaxy and follow their consequent different evolution during a collision between two galaxies. We also note that, in a typical spiral galaxy-like our galaxy, the Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) are in a near-virial equilibrium and form the current sites of massive-star formation, but have a low star formation rate. We show that this star formation rate is increased following a collision between galaxies. During a typical collision between two field spiral galaxies, the H I clouds from the two galaxies undergo collisions at a relative velocity of approximately 300 km s-1. However, the GMCs, with their smaller volume filling factor, do not collide. The collisions among the H I clouds from the two galaxies lead to the formation of a hot, ionized, high-pressure remnant gas. The over-pressure due to this hot gas causes a radiative shock compression of the outer layers of a preexisting GMC in the overlapping wedge region. This makes these layers gravitationally unstable, thus triggering a burst of massive-star formation in the initially barely stable GMCs.The resulting value of the typical IR luminosity from the young, massive stars from a pair of colliding galaxies is estimated to be approximately 2 x 10(11) L., in agreement with the observed values. In our model, the massive-star formation occurs in situ in the overlapping regions of a pair of colliding galaxies. We can thus explain the origin of enhanced star formation over an extended, central area approximately several kiloparsecs in size, as seen in typical colliding galaxies, and also the origin of starbursts in extranuclear regions of disk overlap as seen in Arp 299 (NGC 3690/IC 694) and in Arp 244 (NGC 4038/39). Whether the IR emission from the central region or that from the surrounding extranuclear galactic disk dominates depends on the geometry and the epoch of the collision and on the initial radial gas distribution in the two galaxies. In general, the central starburst would be stronger than that in the disks, due to the higher preexisting gas densities in the central region. The burst of star formation is expected to last over a galactic gas disk crossing time approximately 4 x 10(7) yr. We can also explain the simultaneous existence of nearly normal CO galaxy luminosities and shocked H-2 gas, as seen in colliding field galaxies.This is a minimal model, in that the only necessary condition for it to work is that there should be a sufficient overlap between the spatial gas distributions of the colliding galaxy pair.

Comparison of heat transfer correlations for cryogenic engine thrustchamber design

A comparative study of the correlations available in the literature is made to arrive at an appropriate pair for estimating the coolant-side and hot-gas-side heat transfer coefficients in the thrust chamber of a cryogenic engine. Based on this, the thermal analysis of a supercritical liquid hydrogen cooled engine is carried out. Results are presented for axial variation of heat transfer coefficients and temperature distributions for coolant and exposed wall. Tubular as well as milled channel configurations are considered for coolant flow.

DNA polymorphism and local variation in base-pair orientation: a theoretical rationale

Basepair stacking calculations have been carried out to understand the conformational polymorphism of DNA and its sequence dependence. The recently developed self-consistent parameter set, which is specially suitable for describing irregular DNA structures, has been used to describe the geometry of a basepair doublet. While for basepairs without any propeller, the favourable stacking patterns do not appear to have very strong features, much more noticeable sequence dependent stacking patterns emerge once a propeller is applied to the basepairs. The absolute minima for most sequences occurs for a doublet geometry close to the B-DNA fibre models. Hence in the B-DNA region, no strong sequence dependent features are found, but the range of doublet geometries observed in the crystal structures generally lie within the low energy contours, obtained from stacking energy calculations. The doublet geometry corresponding to the A-DNA fibre model is not energetically favourable for the purine-pyrimidine sequences, which prefer small roll angle values when the slide has a large negative value as in A-DNA. However positive roll with large negative slide is allowed for GG, GA, AG and the pyrimidine-purine steps. This is consistent with the observed geometries of various steps in A-DNA crystals. Thus the general features of the basepair doublets predicted from these theoretical studies agree very well with the results from crystal structure analysis. However, since most sequences show an overall preference for B-type doublet geometry, the B --> A transition for random sequence DNA cannot be explained on the basis of basepair stacking interactions.

Toxicant distributions and impact models in environmental risk analysis of waste sites

Myrkyllisten aineiden jakaumat ja vaikutusmallit jätealueiden ympäristöriskien analyysissä.

Scaling theory of quantum resistance distributions in disordered systems

We have derived explicitly, the large scale distribution of quantum Ohmic resistance of a disordered one-dimensional conductor. We show that in the thermodynamic limit this distribution is characterized by two independent parameters for strong disorder, leading to a two-parameter scaling theory of localization. Only in the limit of weak disorder we recover single parameter scaling, consistent with existing theoretical treatments.

The influence of lone-pair repulsions on C–C bond lengths: a critical evaluation of the experimental and theoretical evidence

X-Ray structural data, as well as semiempirical and ab initio molecular orbital calculations, reveal no systematic and substantial difference between the C–C bond lengths of cis and trans 1,2-diketones. Additional results on various conformations of 1,2-diimines and 1,2-dithiones follow the same pattern. Therefore, lone-pair repulsions cannot be implicated in the observed lengthening of C–C bonds in isatin and several related molecules. Conjugation in these systems occurs peripherally avoiding the participation of the central C–C bond. Negative hyperconjugative interaction between the oxygen lone pairs and the adjacent C–C σ* orbital is suggested to be the principal reason for the relatively long C–C bond in diketones. This effect is found in both the cis and trans conformations.

Properties of Toeplitz operators on analytic function spaces : from function symbols to distributions

Toeplitz operators are among the most important classes of concrete operators with applications to several branches of pure and applied mathematics. This doctoral thesis deals with Toeplitz operators on analytic Bergman, Bloch and Fock spaces. Usually, a Toeplitz operator is a composition of multiplication by a function and a suitable projection. The present work deals with generalizing the notion to the case where the function is replaced by a distributional symbol. Fredholm theory for Toeplitz operators with matrix-valued symbols is also considered. The subject of this thesis belongs to the areas of complex analysis, functional analysis and operator theory. This work contains five research articles. The articles one, three and four deal with finding suitable distributional classes in Bergman, Fock and Bloch spaces, respectively. In each case the symbol class to be considered turns out to be a certain weighted Sobolev-type space of distributions. The Bergman space setting is the most straightforward. When dealing with Fock spaces, some difficulties arise due to unboundedness of the complex plane and the properties of the Gaussian measure in the definition. In the Bloch-type spaces an additional logarithmic weight must be introduced. Sufficient conditions for boundedness and compactness are derived. The article two contains a portion showing that under additional assumptions, the condition for Bergman spaces is also necessary. The fifth article deals with Fredholm theory for Toeplitz operators having matrix-valued symbols. The essential spectra and index theorems are obtained with the help of Hardy space factorization and the Berezin transform, for instance. The article two also has a part dealing with matrix-valued symbols in a non-reflexive Bergman space, in which case a condition on the oscillation of the symbol (a logarithmic VMO-condition) must be added.