Emergently thermalized islands in the landscape

In this Letter, we point out that in the eternal inflation driven by the metastable vacua of the landscape, it might be possible that some large and local quantum fluctuations with the null energy condition violation can stride over the barriers between different vacua and straightly create some islands with radiation and matter in new vacua. Then these thermalized islands will evolve with the standard cosmology. We show that such islands may be consistent with our observable universe, while has some distinctly observable signals, which may be tested in coming observations.     

A view of the chromatin landscape

The microscope has been indispensable to the last century of chromatin structure research. Microscopy techniques have revealed that the three-dimensional location of chromatin is not random but represents a further manifestation of a highly compartmentalized cell nucleus. Moreover, the structure and location of genetic loci display cell type-specific differences and relate directly to the state of differentiation. Advances to bridge imaging with genetic, molecular and biochemical approaches have greatly enhanced our understanding of the interdependence of chromatin structure and nuclear function in mammalian cells. In this review we discuss the current state of chromatin structure research in relationship to the variety of microscopy techniques that have contributed to this field.     

浣花溪公园不同景观空间下的声景观特性研究

该文以成都市浣花溪公园为研究对象,通过对景观空间中声环境的综合研究探究其声景观特性,以此作为营造城市声环境的有效依据。文章首先通过声压级、声景观多样性指数和清晰度指数来定量探讨公园中17种景观空间下的声环境异同;然后以声景观舒适度指数和重要性-满意度-清晰度模型对12种声音类型进行主客观评价;最后通过声景观提升指数综合反映各景观空间下声景观的提升重点。研究发现,声景观会受到基底-覆盖-围合层面的不同类型和组合的影响,尤其在建设面开敞和绿色半开敞或绿色半封闭空间中得到社会声和自然声最为明显;声景提升应重点关注风声、鸟声、水声、昆虫声和音响声在对应景观空间中的利用。     

Results of the whole GALLEX experiment

After 5.5 years of data taking, GALLEX ended its experimental phase. The solar neutrino production rate, 76.4 ± 8 SNU, represents about 55% of the predicted rate. The As tests prove, at the 1% level, the reliability of the technique and the detection of ⁵¹Cr neutrino, with the nominal efficiency (93.0±8%), control the response of the detector to neutrinos in the solar energy range.     

Spin-glass energy landscape

We consider a nearest-neighbor-interaction ±J Ising spin glass in a square lattice. Inspired by natural evolution, we design a dynamic rule that includesselection, randomness, andmultibranch exploration. Following this rule, we succeed in walking along the space of states between local energy maxima and minima alternately. During the walk, we store various information about the spin states corresponding to these minima and maxima for later statistical analysis. In particular, we plot a histogram displaying how many times each minimum (or maximum) energy is visited as a function of the corresponding density value. Through finite-size scaling analysis, we conclude that a nonvanishing fraction of bonds remains unsatisfied (satisfied) at these energy minimum (maximum) states in the thermodynamic limit. This fraction measures the degree of unavoidable frustration of the system. Also in this limit, the width of these histograms vanishes, meaning that almost all metastable states occur at the same energy density value, with no dispersion.     

Miscibility gap in the microbial fitness landscape

It is shown from molecular statistical considerations that a demixing instability exists in the moment space of a microbial protein expression profile. Although avoidance of demixing is generally requisite for biological function, a comparison with proteomic and genomic data suggests that many microbes lie close to the onset of this instability. Over evolutionary time scales, straying too close or into the immiscible domain may be associated with intracellular compartmentalization.     

Vacuum sampling in the landscape during inflation

We consider the phenomenological consequences of sampling multiple vacua during inflation motivated by an enormous landscape. A generic consequence of this sampling is the formation of domain walls, characterized by the scale mu of the barriers that partition the accessed vacua. We find that the success of big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) implies mu > or = 10 TeV, as long as the sampled vacua have a nondegeneracy larger than O(MeV4). Otherwise, the walls will dominate and eventually form black holes that must reheat the universe sufficiently for BBN to take place; in this case, we obtain mu > or = 10(-5)MP. These black holes are not allowed to survive and contribute to cosmic dark matter density.     

Charting the landscape of supercritical string theory

Special solutions of string theory in supercritical dimensions can interpolate in time between theories with different numbers of spacetime dimensions and different amounts of world sheet supersymmetry. These solutions connect supercritical string theories to the more familiar string duality web in ten dimensions and provide a precise link between supersymmetric and purely bosonic string theories. Dimension quenching and c duality appear to be natural concepts in string theory, giving rise to large networks of interconnected theories.     

Local grand unification in the heterotic landscape

We consider the possibility that the unification of the electroweak interactions and the strong force arises from string theory, at energies significantly lower than the string scale. As a tool, an effective grand unified field theory in six dimensions is derived from an anisotropic orbifold compactification of the heterotic string. It is explicitly shown that all anomalies cancel in the model, though anomalous Abelian gauge symmetries are present locally at the boundary singularities. In the supersymmetric vacuum additional interactions arise from higher‐dimensional operators. We develop methods that relate the couplings of the effective theory to the location of the vacuum, and find that unbroken discrete symmetries play an important role for the phenomenology of orbifold models. An efficient algorithm for the calculation of the superpotential to arbitrary order is developed, based on symmetry arguments. We furthermore present a correspondence between bulk fields of the orbifold model in six dimensions, and the moduli fields that arise from compactifying four internal dimensions on a manifold with non‐trivial gauge background.     

Computational complexity of the landscape: Part I

We study the computational complexity of the physical problem of finding vacua of string theory which agree with data, such as the cosmological constant, and show that such problems are typically NP hard. In particular, we prove that in the Bousso-Polchinski model, the problem is NP complete. We discuss the issues this raises and the possibility that, even if we were to find compelling evidence that some vacuum of string theory describes our universe, we might never be able to find that vacuum explicitly. In a companion paper, we apply this point of view to the question of how early cosmology might select a vacuum.     

Statistics in the landscape of intersecting brane models

An approach towards a statistical survey of four-dimensional supersymmetric vacua in the string theory landscape is described and illustrated with three examples of ensembles of intersecting D-brane models. The question whether it is conceivable to make predictions based on statistical distributions is discussed. Especially interesting in this context are possible correlations between low energy observables. As an example we look at correlations between properties of the gauge sector of intersecting D-brane models and Gepner model constructions. Based on a talk presented at “The 15th International Conference on Supersymmetry and the Unification of Fundamental Interactions”, July 26–August 1, 2007, Karlsruhe, Germany.     

Low energy supersymmetry from the heterotic string landscape

We study possible correlations between properties of the observable and hidden sectors in heterotic string theory. Specifically, we analyze the case of the Z6-II orbifold compactification which produces a significant number of models with the spectrum of the supersymmetric standard model. We find that requiring realistic features does affect the hidden sector such that hidden sector gauge group factors SU(4) and SO(8) are favored. In the context of gaugino condensation, this implies low energy supersymmetry breaking.     

Ultrasonic method for the whole blood coagulation analysis

The developed ultrasonic method is based on the experimentally established fact that the ultrasound velocity in a blood sample is changing in a specific way during the blood clotting process. For ultrasound velocity measurements pulse echo method was selected. Implementation of this approach has a few problems caused by small dimensions of the measurement cell. All elements of the cell contacting with the blood are made of biologically compatible materials. The length of Pd coated chamber is 5 mm, volume 0.2 ml. Data of measurements are stored and processed by PC. The ultrasound velocity in a sample is displayed as it changes in time during the experiment; the temperature is monitored as well. Application of the digital filtering allows to smooth the coagulation curve and reach the sensitivity up to +/-3 cm/s. The coagulation curves were obtained at frequency 5 MHz and they represent peculiar stages of blood clotting characterised by their duration and ultrasound velocity differences. Fine structure of ultrasonic velocity changes is registered from the very beginning of the clotting to lysis. Such experiments were carried out using blood samples taken from a few hundred volunteers. For dynamic calibration and periodic checking of the measuring system the liquid medium in which acrylamide polymerisation reaction takes place is proposed as a reference liquid. Such a liquid mimics clotting blood from the point of view of ultrasonic velocity changes.     

Birth of the universe from the landscape of string theory

We show that a unique, most probable and stable solution for the wavefunction of the universe, with a very small cosmological constant , can be predicted from the supersymmetric minisuperspace with N vacua of the landscape of string theory without referring to the anthropic principle. Due to the nearest neighbor tunneling in moduli space lattice, the N-fold degeneracy of the vacua is lifted and a discrete spectrum of bound state levels over the whole minisuperspace emerges. Supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by these bound states, with discrete non-zero energy levels , s=1,2,... PACS 98.80.Qc; 11.25.Wx     

Effects of the heterogeneous landscape on a predator-prey system

In order to understand how a heterogeneous landscape affects a predator-prey system, a spatially explicit lattice model consisting of predators, prey, grass, and landscape was constructed. The predators and preys randomly move on the lattice space and the grass grows in its neighboring site according to its growth probability. When predators and preys meet at the same site at the same time, a number of prey, equal to the number of predators are eaten. This rule was also applied to the relationship between the prey and grass. The predator (prey) could give birth to an offspring when it ate prey (grass), with a birth probability. When a predator or prey animal was initially introduced, or newly born, its health state was set at a given high value. This health state decreased by one with every time step. When the state of an animal decreased to less than zero, the animal died and was removed from the system. The heterogeneous landscape was characterized by parameter H, which controlled the heterogeneity according to the neutral model. The simulation results showed that H positively or negatively affected a predator’s survival, while its effect on prey and grass was less pronounced. The results can be understood by the disturbance of the balance between the prey and predator densities in the areas where the animals aggregated.     

A landscape of time asymmetry

This is a conceptual overview on a polemical subject: the problem of time asymmetry. It is proved that time asymmetry can be considered as a global generalized symmetry breaking, produced by a choice of a physically admissible state space, in a global Gel'fand triplet. The well-known physics of irreversible process can be studied using this mathematical structure and all the arrows of time can be explained and coordinated. But the deeper problems of time definition and time arrow in quantum gravity remain outside of this landscape.     

Evolution on a smooth landscape

We study in detail a recently proposed simple discrete model for evolution on smooth landscapes. An asymptotic solution of this model for long times is constructed. We find that the dynamics of the population is governed by correlation functions that although being formally down by powers ofN (the population size), nonetheless control the evolution process after a very short transient. The long-time behavior can be found analytically since only one of these higher order correlators (the two-point function) is relevant. We compare and contrast the exact findings derived herein with a previously proposed phenomenological treatment employing mean-field theory supplemented with a cutoff at small population density. Finally, we relate our results to the recently studied case of mutation on a totally flat landscape.     

Sampling the energy landscape of Pt13 with metadynamics

The potential energy surface of a metallic nanoparticle formed by 13 atoms of platinum is efficiently explored using metadynamics in combination with empirical potential molecular dynamics. The scenario obtained is wider and more complex of what was previously reported: more than thirty independent energy basins are found, corresponding to different local minima of Pt. It is demonstrated that in almost all the cases these motifs are local minima even at ab-initio level, hence proving the effectiveness of the method to sample the energy landscape. A classification of the minima in structural families is proposed, and a discussion regarding the shape and the connections between energy basins is reported.     

Saddles in the energy landscape probed by supercooled liquids

We numerically investigate the supercooled dynamics of two simple model liquids exploiting the partition of the multidimensional configuration space in basins of attraction of the stationary points (inherent saddles) of the potential energy surface. We find that the inherent saddle order and potential energy are well-defined functions of the temperature T. Moreover, by decreasing T, the saddle order vanishes at the same temperature (T(MCT)) where the inverse diffusivity appears to diverge as a power law. This allows a topological interpretation of T(MCT): it marks the transition from a dynamics between basins of saddles (T > T(MCT)) to a dynamics between basins of minima (T < T(MCT)).