Hestenes' Tetrad and Spin Connections

Defining a spin connection is necessary for formulating Dirac's bispinor equation in a curved space-time. Hestenes has shown that a bispinor field is equivalent to an orthonormal tetrad of vector fields together with a complex scalar field. In this paper, we show that using Hestenes' tetrad for the spin connection in a Riemannian space-time leads to a Yang-Mills formulation of the Dirac Lagrangian in which the bispinor field Ψ is mapped to a set of SL(2,R)× U(1) gauge potentials F_α^K and a complex scalar field ρ. This result was previously proved for a Minkowski space-time using Fierz identities. As an application we derive several different non-Riemannian spin connections found in the literature directly from an arbitrary linear connection acting on the tensor fields (F_α^K, ρ). We also derive spin connections for which Dirac's bispinor equation is form invariant. Previous work has not considered form invariance of the Dirac equation as a criterion for defining a general spin connection.     

Nuclear masses set bounds on quantum chaos

It has been suggested that chaotic motion inside the nucleus may significantly limit the accuracy with which nuclear masses can be calculated. Using a power spectrum analysis we show that the inclusion of additional physical contributions in mass calculations, through many-body interactions or local information, removes the chaotic signal in the discrepancies between calculated and measured masses. Furthermore, a systematic application of global mass formulas and of a set of relationships among neighboring nuclei to more than 2000 nuclear masses allows one to set an unambiguous upper bound for the average errors in calculated masses, which turn out to be almost an order of magnitude smaller than estimated chaotic components.     

Supersymmetric Killing Structures

In this text we combine the notions of supergeometry and supersymmetry. We construct a special class of supermanifolds whose reduced manifolds are (pseudo-) Riemannian manifolds. These supermanifolds allow us to treat vector fields on the one hand and spinor fields on the other hand as equivalent geometric objects. This is the starting point of our definition of supersymmetric Killing structures. The latter combines subspaces of vector fields and spinor fields, provided they fulfill certain field equations. This naturally leads to a superalgebra which extends the supersymmetry algebra to the case of non-flat reduced space. We examine in detail the additional terms which enter into this structure and we give a lot of examples.     

Unexpected density fluctuations in jammed disordered sphere packings

We computationally study jammed disordered hard-sphere packings as large as a million particles. We show that the packings are saturated and hyperuniform, i.e., that local density fluctuations grow only as a logarithmically augmented surface area rather than the volume of the window. The structure factor shows an unusual nonanalytic linear dependence near the origin, S(k) approximately |k|. In addition to exponentially damped oscillations seen in liquids, this implies a weak power-law tail in the total correlation function, h(r) approximately -r(-4), and a long-ranged direct correlation function c(r).     

Real radiation at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD: e+e- --> 2 jets through O(alpha2s)

We present a calculation of the differential two-jet cross section in e(+)e(-) annihilation through next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the strong coupling constant alpha(s). The calculation is performed using a new method for dealing with real radiation suggested recently by us. For the first time, the two-jet event rate is computed directly, without any reference to the inclusive cross section e(+)e(-)-->hadrons. We also calculate the energy distribution of the leading jet in e(+)e(-)-->2 jets and find significant modifications of the shape of this distribution at NNLO.     

Synthesis of peptide-nanotube platinum-nanoparticle composites

Nanotubes prepared by the self-assembly of D-Phe-D-Phe molecules are investigated by electron microscopy and Monte Carlo simulations; the nanotubes appear to be porous and are capable of forming novel peptide-nanotube platinum-nanoparticle composites.     

Brownian dynamics in Fourier space: membrane simulations over long length and time scales

A simulation algorithm for elastic membrane sheets is presented. Overdamped stochastic dynamics including hydrodynamic coupling to surrounding solvent and arbitrary external forces are generated by employing Fourier modes of the sheet as the primary dynamic variables. Simulations over the micron length scale and second time scale are easily achieved. The dynamics of a lipid bilayer attached to an underlying network of cytoskeletal filaments is used to estimate the diffusion constant of membrane-bound proteins on the surface of the red blood cell.     

The impact of metrological traceability on the validity of creatinine measurement as an index of renal function

When the calibration of a routine measurement procedure is traced back to metrological higher order, a significant discrepancy can occur between the analytical conditions of the routine measurement and the analytical conditions that were used in the clinical studies upon which the decision-making criteria are based. This can lead to serious interpretation errors with possible dramatic consequences for patients. The calibration of the creatinine Jaffé method is an excellent example of the importance of medical traceability. The compensated Jaffé method correlated accurately with the reference method and the compensated Jaffé creatinine clearance (CrCl), Cockroft and Gault and MDRD with the ⁵¹Cr EDTA clearance. The Schwartz estimate based upon the compensated Jaffé and enzymatic method overestimated, while uncompensated Jaffé slightly underestimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The situation in children is complex since serum creatinine concentrations are much lower in infants, rendering tubular secretion relatively more important. Low-molecular weight proteins have been suggested to replace serum creatinine as a marker for GFR. -trace protein, cystatin C, and ₂-microglobulin showed good correlation with GFR. However, care should be taken in patients presenting with some malignant tumors, since significant increases of cystatin C in patients with metastatic melanoma or colorectal cancer has been reported.Presented at the 9th Conference on Quality in the Spotlight, 18-19 March 2004, Antwerp, Belgium