Mixed Anomalies Research Articles

Magnetic resonance imaging in patients with atrial fibrillation before left atrial appendage closure after brain hemorrhage

Background: Brain MRI may be helpful for selecting patients at higher risk of further bleeding after a first hemorrhagic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation treated by oral anticoagulants. MRI may detect imaging markers consistent with an increased risk of further bleeding that could improve patient selection for left atrial appendage closure (LAAC). Method: We studied clinical and imaging data of patients with atrial fibrillation treated by oral anticoagulants who experienced hemorrhagic stroke. MRI was performed for the detection of small vessels disease abnormalities (cerebral amyloid angiopathy (AA) or severe hypertensive microangiopathy) suggesting a higher hemorrhagic risk thus supporting the choice of LAAC closure instead of anticoagulants to prevent thromboembolic events. Results: Between December 2013 and February 2016, 37 patients were included. Among them 25 patients experienced brain hemorrhage and underwent a cerebral MRI before LAAC. 16% (4/25) had severe white matter damage, 24% (6/25) exhibit MRI features consistent with hypertensive microangiopathy/or multiple cortical microbleeds (CMBs) and cortical superficial siderosis (CSS) consistent with AA. 16% (4/25) with mixed anomalies and 11 (44%) had undetermined small vessel disease. Conclusion: Brain MRI after a first hemorrhagic stroke may provide helpful information on the risk of bleeding recurrence before LAAC.

Surface flux and ocean heat transport convergence contributions to seasonal and interannual variations of ocean heat content

AbstractWe present an observation‐based heat budget analysis for seasonal and interannual variations of ocean heat content (H) in the mixed layer (Hmld) and full‐depth ocean (Htot). Surface heat flux and ocean heat content estimates are combined using a novel Kalman smoother‐based method. Regional contributions from ocean heat transport convergences are inferred as a residual and the dominant drivers of Hmld and Htot are quantified for seasonal and interannual time scales. We find that non‐Ekman ocean heat transport processes dominate Hmld variations in the equatorial oceans and regions of strong ocean currents and substantial eddy activity. In these locations, surface temperature anomalies generated by ocean dynamics result in turbulent flux anomalies that drive the overlying atmosphere. In addition, we find large regions of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans where heat transports combine with local air‐sea fluxes to generate mixed layer temperature anomalies. In all locations, except regions of deep convection and water mass transformation, interannual variations in Htot are dominated by the internal rearrangement of heat by ocean dynamics rather than the loss or addition of heat at the surface. Our analysis suggests that, even in extratropical latitudes, initialization of ocean dynamical processes could be an important source of skill for interannual predictability of Hmld and Htot. Furthermore, we expect variations in Htot (and thus thermosteric sea level) to be more predictable than near surface temperature anomalies due to the increased importance of ocean heat transport processes for full‐depth heat budgets.

G4-flux and standard model vacua in F-theory

We study the geometry of gauge fluxes in four-dimensional F-theory vacua with gauge group SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1)×U(1) and its implications for phenomenology. The models are defined by a previously introduced class of elliptic fibrations whose fibre is given as a cubic hypersurface in Bl2P2, with the non-abelian gauge group factors SU(3)×SU(2) engineered torically via the top construction. To describe gauge fluxes on these fibrations we provide a classification of the primary vertical middle cohomology group in a fashion valid for any choice of base space. Using the ideal theoretic technique of primary decomposition we compute the cohomology classes of the matter surfaces associated with states charged under the non-abelian gauge group. These expressions allow us to interpret the cancellation of the pure and mixed non-abelian anomalies geometrically as a result of the general form of the matter surfaces, without reference to a specific type of gauge flux. Explicit results for the chiral indices of all matter states are obtained in terms of intersection numbers of the base and can be directly applied to any choice of base consistent with the fibration. As a demonstration we scan for globally consistent F-theory vacua on P3, Bl1P3 and Bl2P3, and find a globally consistent flux configuration with the chiral Standard Model spectrum plus an extra triplet pair, which may be lifted by a recombination process.

Anomalies of the upper water column in the Mediterranean Sea

The evolution of the upper water column in the Mediterranean Sea during more than 60years is reconstructed in terms of few parameters describing the mixed layer and the seasonal thermocline. The analysis covers the period 1945–2011 using data from three public sources: MEDAR-MEDATLAS, World Ocean Database, MFS-VOS program. Five procedures for estimating the mixed layer depth are described, discussed and compared using the 20-year long time series of temperature profiles of the DYFAMED station in the Ligurian Sea. On this basis the so-called three segments profile model (which approximates the upper water column with three segments representing mixed layer, thermocline and deep layer) has been selected for a systematic analysis at Mediterranean scale. A widespread increase of the thickness and temperature of the mixed layer, increase of the depth and decrease of the temperature of the thermocline base have been observed in summer and autumn during the recent decades. It is shown that positive temperature extremes of the mixed layer and of its thickness are potential drivers of the mass mortalities of benthic invertebrates documented since 1983. Hotspots of mixed layer anomalies have been also identified. These results refine previous analyses showing that ongoing and future warming of upper Mediterranean is likely to increase mass mortalities by producing environmental conditions beyond the limit of tolerance of some benthic species.

Anomalies and entanglement entropy

We initiate a systematic study of entanglement and Renyi entropies in the presence of gauge and gravitational anomalies in even-dimensional quantum field theories. We argue that the mixed and gravitational anomalies are sensitive to boosts and obtain a closed form expression for their behavior under such transformations. Explicit constructions exhibiting the dependence of entanglement entropy on boosts is provided for theories on spacetimes with non-trivial magnetic fluxes and (or) non-vanishing Pontryagin classes.

The Response of the Tropical Atlantic and West African Climate to Saharan Dust in a Fully Coupled GCM

Abstract This study examines the climate response in West Africa and the tropical Atlantic to an idealized aerosol radiative forcing from Saharan mineral dust, comparable to the observed changes between the 1960s and 1990s, using simulations with the fully coupled GFDL Climate Model, version 2.1 (CM2.1), for two optical property regimes: more absorbing (ABS) and more scattering (SCT) dust. For both regimes dust induces significant regional reductions in radiative flux at the surface (approximately −30 W m−2). At the top of the atmosphere (TOA) dust in the two simulations produces a radiative flux anomaly of opposite sign (+30 W m−2 in the ABS case and −20 W m−2 in the SCT case). These differences result in opposing regional hydrologic and thermodynamic effects of dust. The ABS-forced simulations show an increase in the West African monsoon resulting from dust, whereas in the SCT-forced simulations dust causes a decrease in the monsoon. This is due to moist enthalpy changes throughout the atmospheric column over West Africa creating either horizontal divergence or convergence near the surface, respectively. In the tropical North Atlantic, dust acts to cool the ocean surface. However, in the subsurface the ABS-forced simulations show a decrease in upper-ocean heat content, while the SCT-forced simulations show an increase in upper-ocean heat content. The peak differences primarily arise from the wind stress curl response to a shift in the Atlantic ITCZ and associated mixed layer depth anomalies. Changes to upper-ocean currents are also found to be important in transporting energy across the equator.

Inflationary baryogenesis in a model with gauged baryon number

We argue that inflationary dynamics may support a scenario where significant matter-antimatter asymmetry is generated from initially small-scale quantum fluctuations that are subsequently stretched out over large scales. This scenario can be realised in extensions of the Standard Model with an extra gauge symmetry having mixed anomalies with the electroweak gauge symmetry. Inflationary baryogenesis in a model with gauged baryon number is considered in detail.

Chiral and Gravitational Anomalies on Fermi Surfaces

A Fermi surface threaded by a Berry phase can be described by the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. After gauging, it produces a five-dimensional Chern-Simons term in the action. We show how this Chern-Simons term captures the essence of the Abelian, non-Abelian, and mixed gravitational anomalies in describing both in- and off-equilibrium phenomena. In particular, we derive a novel contribution to the chiral vortical effect that arises when a temperature gradient is present. We also discuss the issue of universality of the anomalous currents.

Thermodynamics, gravitational anomalies and cones

By studying the Euclidean partition function on a cone, we argue that pure and mixed gravitational anomalies generate a "Casimir momentum" which manifests itself as parity violating coefficients in the hydrodynamic stress tensor and charge current. The coefficients generated by these anomalies enter at a lower order in the hydrodynamic gradient expansion than would be naively expected. In 1+1 dimensions, the gravitational anomaly affects coefficients at zeroth order in the gradient expansion. The mixed anomaly in 3+1 dimensions controls the value of coefficients at first order in the gradient expansion.

Anomaly cancellation and abelian gauge symmetries in F-theory

We study 4D F-theory compactifications on singular Calabi-Yau fourfolds with fluxes. The resulting $\mathcal{N}=1$ effective theories can admit non-Abelian and U(1) gauge groups as well as charged chiral matter. In these setups we analyze anomaly cancellation and the generalized Green-Schwarz mechanism. This requires the study of 3D $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories obtained by a circle compactification and their M-theory duals. Reducing M- theory on resolved Calabi-Yau fourfolds corresponds to considering the effective theory on the 3D Coulomb branch in which certain massive states are integrated out. Both 4D gaugings and 3D one-loop corrections of these massive states induce Chern-Simons terms. All 4D anomalies are captured by the one-loop terms. The ones corresponding to the mixed gauge-gravitational anomalies depend on the Kaluza-Klein vector and are induced by integrating out Kaluza-Klein modes of the U(1) charged matter. In M-theory all Chern-Simons terms classically arise from G 4-flux. We find that F-theory fluxes implement automatically the 4D Green-Schwarz mechanism if non-trivial geometric relations for the resolved Calabi-Yau fourfold are satisfied. We confirm these relations in various explicit examples and elucidate the general construction of U(1) symmetries in F-theory. We also compare anomaly cancellation in F-theory with its analog in Type IIB orientifold setups.

Parity violating gravitational response and anomalous constitutive relations

We compute the parity violating part of the time-dependent gravitational response function of an ideal gas of Weyl fermions up to third order in the derivative expansion and give its full tensorial structure. Our main results are two functions that parametrize the energy-momentum tensor in terms of gauge-invariant combinations of vector and tensor metric perturbations. The zero frequency limit of these functions is related with the anomalous constitutive relations and with the full anomalous partition function in the presence of gauge and mixed anomalies. In particular, our results imply the existence of a previously unknown invariant contribution to the parity-odd partition function at third derivative order that we explicitly construct. Beyond the static limit, the gravitational response function may provide valuable insights into time-dependent phenomena driven by anomalies.

Open string axions and the flavor problem

We consider extensions of the standard model inspired by intersecting D-brane constructions, in order to address flavor mass textures. We include additional anomalous gauge symmetries, and scalar fields to break them and to generate Froggatt-Nielsen mass terms. Green-Schwarz axions are included to cancel mixed anomalies rendering the models consistent. At low energies, a residual anomalous global symmetry remains, and its associated pseudo-Goldstone mode becomes the physical axion, which can be interpreted as an axion arising from open string modes. General considerations show that such axions are very common in D-brane models and can be completely incompatible with current bounds. Astrophysical constraints are placed on the axion both by including neutrino masses in the Froggatt-Nielsen scheme and considering QCD instanton contributions to the axion mass. We find simple models where the axion decay constant is in the allowed range, but only one such minimal model with this property is free from excessive fine tunings elsewhere. We also note that generically addressing flavor textures for the CKM matrix leads to deconstructed extra dimensions.

In Situ Observations of Madden–Julian Oscillation Mixed Layer Dynamics in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans

Abstract The boreal winter response of the ocean mixed layer to the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) in the Indo-Pacific region is determined using in situ observations from the Argo profiling float dataset. Composite averages over numerous events reveal that the MJO forces systematic variations in mixed layer depth and temperature throughout the domain. Strong MJO mixed layer depth anomalies (>15 m peak to peak) are observed in the central Indian Ocean and in the far western Pacific Ocean. The strongest mixed layer temperature variations (>0.6°C peak to peak) are found in the central Indian Ocean and in the region between northwest Australia and Java. A heat budget analysis is used to evaluate which processes are responsible for mixed layer temperature variations at MJO time scales. Though uncertainties in the heat budget are on the same order as the temperature trend, the analysis nonetheless demonstrates that mixed layer temperature variations associated with the canonical MJO are driven largely by anomalous net surface heat flux. Net heat flux is dominated by anomalies in shortwave and latent heat fluxes, the relative importance of which varies between active and suppressed MJO conditions. Additionally, rapid deepening of the mixed layer in the central Indian Ocean during the onset of active MJO conditions induces significant basin-wide entrainment cooling. In the central equatorial Indian Ocean, MJO-induced variations in mixed layer depth can modulate net surface heat flux, and therefore mixed layer temperature variations, by up to ~40%. This highlights the importance of correctly representing intraseasonal mixed layer depth variations in climate models in order to accurately simulate mixed layer temperature, and thus air–sea interaction, associated with the MJO.

A rationale for long-lived quarks and leptons at the LHC: low energy flavour theory

Abstract In the framework of gauged flavour symmetries, new fermions in parity symmetric representations of the standard model are generically needed for the compensation of mixed anomalies. The key point is that their masses are also protected by flavour symmetries and some of them are expected to lie way below the flavour symmetry breaking scale(s), which has to occur many orders of magnitude above the electroweak scale to be compatible with the available data from flavour changing neutral currents and CP violation experiments. We argue that, actually, some of these fermions would plausibly get masses within the LHC range. If they are taken to be heavy quarks and leptons, in (bi)-fundamental representations of the standard model symmetries, their mixings with the light ones are strongly constrained to be very small by electroweak precision data. The alternative chosen here is to exactly forbid such mixings by breaking of flavour symmetries into an exact discrete symmetry, the so-called proton-hexality, primarily suggested to avoid proton decay. As a consequence of the large value needed for the flavour breaking scale, those heavy particles are long-lived and rather appropriate for the current and future searches at the LHC for quasi-stable hadrons and leptons. In fact, the LHC experiments have already started to look for them.

Anomaly equations and intersection theory

Six-dimensional supergravity theories with N=(1,0) supersymmetry must satisfy anomaly equations. These equations come from demanding the cancellation of gravitational, gauge and mixed anomalies. The anomaly equations have implications for the geometrical data of Calabi-Yau threefolds, since F-theory compactified on an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold with a section generates a consistent six-dimensional N=(1,0) supergravity theory. In this paper, we show that the anomaly equations can be summarized by three intersection theory identities. In the process we also identify the geometric counterpart of the anomaly coefficients---in particular, those of the abelian gauge groups---that govern the low-energy dynamics of the theory. We discuss the results in the context of investigating string universality in six dimensions.

Holographic gravitational anomaly and chiral vortical effect

We analyze a holographic model with a pure gauge and a mixed gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons term in the action. These are the holographic implementations of the usual chiral and the mixed gauge-gravitational anomalies in four dimensional field theories with chiral fermions. We discuss the holographic renormalization and show that the gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons term does not induce new divergences. In order to cancel contributions from the extrinsic curvature at a boundary at finite distance a new type of counterterm has to be added however. This counterterm can also serve to make the Dirichlet problem well defined in case the gauge field strength vanishes on the boundary. A charged asymptotically AdS black hole is a solution to the theory and as an application we compute the chiral magnetic and chiral vortical conductivities via Kubo formulas. We find that the characteristic term proportional to T^2 is present also at strong coupling and that its numerical value is not renormalized compared to the weak coupling result.

NOTE ON ANOMALY CANCELLATION ON SO(32) HETEROTIC 5-BRANE

We show that the gauge, gravitational (tangent-bundle) and their mixed anomalies arising from the localized modes near a 5-brane in the SO(32) heterotic string theory cancel with the anomaly inflow from the bulk with the use of the Green–Schwarz mechanism on the brane, similarly to the E8×E8 5-brane case. We also compare our result with Mourad's analysis performed in the small-instanton limit.

D =7/D =6 heterotic supergravity with gauged R-symmetry

We construct a family of chiral anomaly-free supergravity theories in D =6 starting from D = 7 supergravity with a gauged noncompact R-symmetry, employing a Hořava-Witten bulk-plus-boundary construction. The gauged noncompact R-symmetry yields a positive (de Sitter sign) D = 6 scalar field potential. Classical anomaly inflow which is needed to cancel boundary-field loop anomalies requires careful consideration of the gravitational, gauge, mixed and local supersymmetry anomalies. Coupling of boundary hypermultiplets requires care with the Sp(1) gauge connection required to obtain quaternionic Kähler target manifolds in D = 6. This class of gauged R-symmetry models may be of use as starting points for further compactifications to D = 4 that take advantage of the positive scalar potential, such as those proposed in the scenario of supersymmetry in large extra dimensions.

Viable axion from gauged flavor symmetries

We consider a string inspired non-supersymmetric extension of the standard model with gauged anomalous U(1) flavor symmetries. Consistency requires the Green-Schwarz mechanism to cancel mixed anomalies. The additional required scalars provide Stuckelberg masses for the $Z'$ particles associated to the gauged flavor symmetry, so they decouple at low energies. Our models also include a complex scalar field $\phi$ to generate Froggatt-Nielsen mass terms for light particles giving a partial solution to the fermion mass problem. A residual approximate (anomalous) global symmetry survives at low energies. The associated pseudo-Goldstone mode is the phase of the $\phi$ scalar field, and it becomes the dominant contribution to the physical axion. An effective field theory analysis that includes neutrino masses gives a prediction for the axion decay constant. We find a simple modeI where the axion decay constant is in the center of the allowed window.

Genesis of Indian Ocean Mixed Layer Temperature Anomalies: A Heat Budget Analysis

Abstract The genesis of mixed layer temperature anomalies across the Indian Ocean are analyzed in terms of the underlying heat budget components. Observational data, for which a seasonal budget can be computed, and a climate model output, which provides improved spatial and temporal coverage for longer time scales, are examined. The seasonal climatology of the model heat budget is broadly consistent with the observational reconstruction, thus providing certain confidence in extending the model analysis to interannual time scales. To identify the dominant heat budget components, covariance analysis is applied based on the heat budget equation. In addition, the role of the heat budget terms on the generation and decay of temperature anomalies is revealed via a novel temperature variance budget approach. The seasonal evolution of the mixed layer temperature is found to be largely controlled by air–sea heat fluxes, except in the tropics where advection and entrainment are important. A distinct shift in the importance and role of certain heat budget components is shown to be apparent in moving from seasonal to interannual time scales. On these longer time scales, advection gains importance in generating and sustaining anomalies over extensive regions, including the trade wind and midlatitude wind regimes. On the other hand, air–sea heat fluxes tend to drive the evolution of thermal anomalies over subtropical regions including off northwestern Australia. In the tropics, however, they limit the growth of anomalies. Entrainment plays a role in the generation and maintenance of interannual anomalies over localized regions, particularly off Sumatra and over the Seychelles–Chagos Thermocline Ridge. It is further shown that the spatial distribution of the role and importance of these terms is related to oceanographic features of the Indian Ocean. Mixed layer depth effects and the influence of model biases are discussed.