333 research outputs found
A new species of the genus Odonteus (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae) from Northern Pakistan
No full textA remarkable new species, Odonteus gandhara Carpaneto & Mignani, n. sp., is described from
northern Pakistan. The holotype (adult male) and the paratype (adult female) are illustrated and
compared with O. armiger (Scopoli, 1772) and O. orientalis Mittal, 1998, the only two species of
this genus recognized in the Old World. Both O. armiger and O. orientalis have the eye not completely
divided by the canthus and have a sensory area on the external side of the last antennomere
(this character has never been discussed in the literature until now). These two character states in O.
armiger and O. orientalis compel emendations to the definition of the genus. The new species has a
great zoogeographical relevance because similar species occur in North America (O. obesus
LeConte, 1859 and O. falli Wallis, 1928), and probably represents a relict species endemic to the
Himalayan range.
Key words: Odonteus, systematics, new species, zoogeography, Pakistan, Himalayan range, Palearctic
Regio
Reply to "Comment on 'Piezonuclear decay of thorium' [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956]" [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 3795]
No full textIn a paper appearing in this issue of Physics Letters A, Ericsson et al. raise some critical comments on the experiment [F. Cardone, R. Mignani, A. Petrucci, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956] we carried out by cavitating a solution of thorium-228, which evidenced its anomalous decay behaviour, thus confirming the results previously obtained by Urutskoev et al. by explosion of titanium foils in solutions. In this Letter, we reply to these comments. In our opinion, the main shortcomings of the criticism by the Swedish authors are due to their omitting of inserting our experiment in the wider research stream of piezonuclear reactions, and to the statistical analysis they used, which does not comply with the rules generally accepted for samples with small numbers. However, apart from any possible theoretical speculation, there is the basic fact that two different experiments (ours and that by Urutskoev et al.), carried out independently and by different means, highlight an analogous anomaly in the decay of thorium subjected to pressure waves. Such a convergence of results shows that it is worth to further carry on experimental investigations, in order to get either a confirmation or a disproof of the induced-pressure anomalous behaviour of radioactive nuclides even different from thorium. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
AHARONOV-CASHER EFFECT AND GEOMETRICAL PHASES
No full textThe phaseshift experienced by a neutral particle with a magnetic moment as it encircles an infinite line of charge (Aharonov-Casher effect) is derived as a special case of geometrical phases, i.e. the standard Berry phase and the gauge-invariant Yang phase
GENERALIZED YANG PHASE FOR OPEN SYSTEMS
No full textA generalization of the gauge-invariant Yang phase for open systems (described by non-Hermitian (NH) Hamiltonians) is derived by a biorthonormal-state approach. It is shown that the NH Yang phase is invariant under nonunitary bicanonical transformations
QUASAR REDSHIFTS IN ISO-MINKOWSKI SPACES
No full textWe suggest a possible interpretation of the large redshifts of quasars in terms of a deformation of their interior metric, based on Santilli's Lie-isotopic lifting of special relativity. The Lie-isotopic Doppler effect is due to the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of the hyperdense quasar's atmosphere. Numerical estimates are derived from available astrophysical data, which indicate a possible revision of the speed of quasars with respect to the associated galaxy, while leaving current views on the expansion of the universe completely unaffected
YANG PHASE FOR NONHERMITIAN SYSTEMS AND BIUNITARY TRANSFORMATIONS
No full textWe introduce a non-Hermitian (nH) generalization of the gauge-invariant Yang-Kobe phase for non-conservative quantum systems. The nH Yang phase is shown to be invariant under non-unitary (bicanonical) transformations, unlike the nH generalization of Berry's phase. It arises for a system evolution that is neither adiabatic nor cyclic, and its relations with the Samuel-Bhandari phase are briefly outlined
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