Where is SUSY?

The searches for supersymmetry at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have so far yielded only null results and have considerably tightened the bounds on the sparticle masses. This has generated some skepticism in the literature regarding the ‘naturalness of SUSY’ which qualitatively requires some sparticles to be relatively light. Re-examining some of the bounds from LHC searches, it is argued with specific examples that the above skepticism is a red herring because (i) a quantitative and universally accepted definition of ‘naturalness’ is not available and (ii) even if some conventional definitions of naturalness is accepted at their face values, the alleged tension with the apparently stringent LHC bounds wither away once the strong assumptions, by no means compelling, underlying such bounds are relaxed.     

First-principle calculations of structural,electronic, optical,elastic and thermal properties of $$\hbox {MgXAs}_{2}$$ ($$\hbox {X}=\hbox {Si}, \hbox {Ge}$$X=Si,Ge) compounds

First-principle calculations on the structural, electronic, optical, elastic and thermal properties of the chalcopyrite \(\hbox {MgXAs}_{2}\) (\(\hbox {X}=\hbox {Si}, \hbox {Ge}\)) have been performed within the density functional theory (DFT) using the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The obtained equilibrium structural parameters are in good agreement with the available experimental data and theoretical results. The calculated band structures reveal a direct energy band gap for the interested compounds. The predicted band gaps using the modified Becke–Johnson (mBJ) exchange approximation are in fairly good agreement with the experimental data. The optical constants such as the dielectric function, refractive index, and the extinction coefficient are calculated and analysed. The independent elastic parameters namely, \(C_{11}\), \(C_{12}\), \(C_{13}\), \(C_{33}\), \(C_{44}\) and \(C_{66 }\) are evaluated. The effects of temperature and pressure on some macroscopic properties of \(\hbox {MgSiAs}_{2}\) and \(\hbox {MgGeAs}_{2}\) are predicted using the quasiharmonic Debye model in which the lattice vibrations are taken into account.     

A new fractional derivative involving the normalized sinc function without singular kernel

In this paper, a new fractional derivative involving the normalized sinc function without singular kernel is proposed. The Laplace transform is used to find the analytical solution of the anomalous heat-diffusion problems. The comparative results between classical and fractional-order operators are presented. The results are significant in the analysis of one-dimensional anomalous heat-transfer problems.     

RF and field measurements of the SSC-LINAC RFQ

The 53.667 MHz continuous-wave heavy ion RFQ has been designed and manufactured for the SSC-LINAC project.This four-rod RFQ accelerates ions with maximum mass to charge ratio of 7 from 3.728 keV/u to 143 keV/u.Measurements have been carried out to check the RF performance of the cavity and the quality of the electric field.The S11 of the power coupler is adjusted to better than-44 dB,and the Q0 of the cavity is 6440.The quality of the electric field is evaluated by the perturbation method.The measurement procedure and data analysis will be discussed in detail.The error due to gravity of the perturbation bead has been corrected by averaging the fields in different quadrants.As a result,the unflatness of the electric field is±2.5%,and the dipole field component distributes from 0%to 20%in different longitudinal positions,which indicates the asymmetry of the quadrupole field.The unflatness of the quadrupole field distribution represents a good agreement with the simulation results.High power RF test and beam commissioning of the RFQ are on schedule in early 2014.     

An in silico protocol for identifying mTOR inhibitors from natural products

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is an anti-cancer target. In this study, we propose an in silico protocol for identifying mTOR inhibitors from the ZINC natural product database. First, a three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship pharmacophore model was built based on known mTOR inhibitors. The model was validated with an external test set, Fischer’s randomization method, a decoy set and pharmacophore mapping conformation testing. The results showed that the model can predict the mTOR inhibition activity of the tested compounds. Virtual screening was performed based on the best pharmacophore model, and the results were then filtered using a molecular docking approach. In addition, molecular mechanics/generalized born surface area analysis was used to refine the selected candidates. The top 20 natural products were selected as potential mTOR inhibitors, and their structural scaffolds could serve as building blocks in designing drug-like molecules for mTOR inhibition.     

20 keV质子在聚碳酸酯微孔膜中传输的动态演化过程

测量了20 ke V质子穿过倾斜角为+1?的聚碳酸酯微孔膜后,出射粒子的位置分布、相对穿透率以及电荷纯度随时间的演化.实验发现,能量电荷比E/q≈10~1k V的质子穿过绝缘纳米微孔的物理机理与E/q≈10~0k V和E/q≈10~2k V区域离子有显著不同.对于E/q≈10~1k V的质子穿过绝缘纳米微孔,存在一段相当长的导向建立之前(导向前)的过程,在该时期内出射质子及氢原子的特性和导向建立后的特性有很大差异.在导向前的演化过程中,我们可以观察到出射质子的峰位逐渐向孔轴向附近转移;出射氢原子由束流方向的尖峰以及孔轴向的主峰构成,峰位角保持基本不变且尖峰逐渐消失.这一过程的主要机理为微孔内表面以下的多次随机二体碰撞和近表面镜面反射两种传输方式逐步向电荷斑约束下的"导向效应"过渡的过程.对E/q≈10~1k V区间离子"导向前过程"的完整观测,使得对低能向中能过渡区间离子穿过绝缘微孔膜物理机制和图像有更深入和完整的认识,有助于约10 ke V离子微束的精确控制和应用.