We find supertubes with arbitrary (and not necessarily planar) cross-section; the stability against the D2-brane tension is due to a compensation by the local momentum generated by Born-Infeld fields. Stability against long-range supergravity forces is also established. We find the corresponding solutions of the N = ∞ M(atrix) model. The supersymmetric D2/D2 system is a special case of the general supertube, and we show that there are no open-string tachyons in this system via a computation of the open-string one-loop vacuum energy.

We show that the assumption of type II seesaw mechanism for small neutrino masses coupled with b − τ mass unification in a minimal SUSY SO(10) model leads not only to a natural understanding of large atmospheric mixing angle (θ 23 ) among neutrinos, as recently pointed out, but also to large solar angle (θ 12 ) and a small θ 13 ≡ U e3 as required to fit observations. This is therefore a minimal, completely realistic grand unified model for all low energy observations that naturally explains the diverse mixing patterns between the quark and leptons without any additional inputs such as extra global symmetries. The proposed long baseline neutrino experiments will provide a crucial test of this model since it predicts U e3 ≃ 0.16 for the allowed range of parameters.

The TST-dual of the general 1/4-supersymmetric D2-brane supertube is identified as a 1/4-supersymmetric IIA `supercurve': a string with arbitrary transverse displacement travelling at the speed of light. A simple proof is given of the classical upper bound on the angular momentum, which is also recovered as the semi-classical limit of a quantum bound. The classical bound is saturated by a `superhelix', while the quantum bound is saturated by a bosonic oscillator state in a unique SO(8) representation.Comment: 1+14 pages, LaTe

Progesterone is a gonadal steroid hormone whose physiological effects extend well beyond the strict confines of reproductive function. In fact, progesterone can have important effects on a variety of tissues, including the bone, the heart and the brain. Mechanistically, progesterone has been thought to exert its effects through the progesterone receptor (PR), a member of the nuclear steroid hormone superfamily, and as such, acts through specific progesterone response elements (PRE) within the promoter region of target genes to regulate transcription of such genes. This has been often described as the “genomic” mechanism of progesterone action. However, just as progesterone has a diverse range of tissue targets, the mechanisms through which progesterone elicits its effects are equally diverse. For example, progesterone can activate alternative receptors, such as membrane-associated PRs (distinct from the classical PR), to elicit the activation of several signaling pathways that in turn, can influence cell function. Here, we review various non-nuclear (i.e., non-genomic) signaling mechanisms that progesterone can recruit to elicit its effects, focusing our discussion primarily on those signaling mechanisms by which progesterone influences cell viability in the brain.

Dancers ages 16-18 years who enter full-time ballet training did not augment their ankle dorsiflexion to any appreciable degree. Some, but certainly not all, increased their hip active external rotation over 12 months without increasing their total lower limb turnout. Hip ER was more likely to improve in the first-year rather than second-year student in this elite full-time training school.

The Penrose limits of a D5-brane wrapped on the sphere of AdS 5 × S 5 and connected to the boundary by N fundamental strings, which is dual to the baryon vertex of the N = 4 SU(N) super Yang-Mills theory, are investigated. It is shown that, for null geodesics that lead to the maximally supersymmetric Hpp-wave background, the resulting D5-brane is a 1/2-supersymmetric null brane. For an appropriate choice of radial geodesic, however, the limiting configuration is 1/4-supersymmetric and closely related to the Penrose limit of a flat space BIon.

As neutrino experiments are starting to probe the detailed structure of the neutrino mass matrix, we present sumrules relating its matrix elements for a class of models with approximate L e − L µ − L τ symmetry and the observables in neutrino oscillation experiments. We show that regardless of how the above symmetry is broken (whether in the neutrino sector or the charged lepton sector), as long as the breaking terms are small, there is a lower bound on the solar neutrino mixing angle, sin 2 2θ ⊙ , correlated with the solar mass difference square, ∆m 2 ⊙ , or the mixing parameter, U e3 . We also discuss models where such patterns can arise.

The AdS/dCFT correspondence is used to show that a planar q-dimensional superconformal CFT defect expands, under the addition of electric charge and angular momentum, to a supersymmetric higher-dimensional defect of geometry R q × C, where C is an arbitrary curve. The dual string theory process is the expansion of D-branes and fundamental strings into a supertube in an AdS background.