0000000000294683
AUTHOR
João P. Silva
Large birds travel farther in homogeneous environments
Aim: Animal movement is an important determinant of individual survival, population dynamics and ecosystem structure and function. Nonetheless, it is still unclear how local movements are related to resource availability and the spatial arrangement of resources. Using resident bird species and migratory bird species outside the migratory period, we examined how the distribution of resources affects the movement patterns of both large terrestrial birds (e.g., raptors, bustards and hornbills) and waterbirds (e.g., cranes, storks, ducks, geese and flamingos). Location: Global. Time period: 2003–2015. Major taxa studied: Birds. Methods: We compiled GPS tracking data for 386 individuals across 3…
Diurnal timing of nonmigratory movement by birds: the importance of foraging spatial scales
Timing of activity can reveal an organism's efforts to optimize foraging either by minimizing energy loss through passive movement or by maximizing energetic gain through foraging. Here, we assess whether signals of either of these strategies are detectable in the timing of activity of daily, local movements by birds. We compare the similarities of timing of movement activity among species using six temporal variables: start of activity relative to sunrise, end of activity relative to sunset, relative speed at midday, number of movement bouts, bout duration and proportion of active daytime hours. We test for the influence of flight mode and foraging habitat on the timing of movement activit…
Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements
Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T17:44:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-01-26 Robert Bosch Foundation Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of their movements in areas with a low human footprint. We attribute this reduction to behavioral changes of individual animals and to the exclusion of species with long-…
Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons decaying to τ+τ− pairs in proton–proton collisions at s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
A search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to pairs of tau leptons with the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, recorded in 2010 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb^-1. After signal selection, 276 events are observed in this data sample. The observed number of events is consistent with the total expected background of 269 +/- 36 events. Exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived for the production cross section of a generic Higgs boson phi as a function of the Higgs boson mass and for A/H/h production in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) as a function of…
Jarlskog-like invariants for theories with scalars and fermions
Within the framework of theories where both scalars and fermions are present, we develop a systematic prescription for the construction of CP-violating quantities that are invariant under basis transformations of those matter fields. In theories with Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking, the analysis involves the vevs' transformation properties under a scalar basis change, with a considerable simplification of the study of CP violation in the scalar sector. These techniques are then applied in detail to the two Higgs-doublet model with quarks. It is shown that there are new invariants involving scalar-fermion interactions, besides those already derived in previous analyses for the fermion-gauge an…
Reparametrization invariance ofBdecay amplitudes and implications for new physics searches inBdecays
When studying $B$ decays within the standard model (SM), it is customary to use the unitarity of the CKM matrix in order to write the decay amplitudes in terms of only two of the three weak phases which appear in the various diagrams. Occasionally, it is mentioned that those two weak phases can be used in order to describe any decay amplitude, even beyond the standard model. Here we point out that, when describing a generic decay amplitude, the two weak phases can be chosen completely at will, and we study the behavior of the decay amplitudes under changes in the two weak phases chosen as a basis. Of course, physical observables cannot depend on such reparametrizations. This has an impact o…
Measurements of new physics inB→ππdecays
If new physics (NP) is present in B{yields}{pi}{pi} decays, it can affect the isospin I=2 or I=0 channels. In this paper, we discuss various methods for detecting and measuring this NP. The techniques have increasing amounts of theoretical hadronic input. If NP is eventually detected in B{yields}{pi}{pi}--there is no evidence for it at present--one will be able to distinguish I=2 and I=0, and measure its parameters, using these methods.
Neutrino masses and mixing in A(4) models with three Higgs doublets
We study neutrino masses and mixing in the context of flavor models with A(4) symmetry, three scalar doublets in the triplet representation, and three lepton families. We show that there is no representation assignment that yields a dimension-5 mass operator consistent with experiment. We then consider a type-I seesaw with three heavy right-handed neutrinos, explaining in detail why it fails, and allowing us to show that agreement with the present neutrino oscillation data can be recovered with the inclusion of dimension-3 heavy neutrino mass terms that break softly the A(4) symmetry.
Baryogenesis through split Higgsogenesis
We study the cosmological evolution of asymmetries in the two-Higgs doublet extension of the Standard Model, prior to the electroweak phase transition. If Higgs flavour-exchanging interactions are sufficiently slow, then a relative asymmetry among the Higgs doublets corresponds to an effectively conserved quantum number. Since the magnitude of the Higgs couplings depends on the choice of basis in the :Higgs doublet space, we attempt to formulate basis-independent out-of-equilibrium conditions. We show that an initial asymmetry between the fliggs scalars, which could be generated by GP violation in the :Higgs sector, will be transformed into a baryon asymmetry by the sphalerons, without the …
Constraining multi-Higgs flavour models
To study a flavour model with a non-minimal Higgs sector one must first define the symmetries of the fields; then identify what types of vacua exist and how they may break the symmetries; and finally determine whether the remnant symmetries are compatible with the experimental data. Here we address all these issues in the context of flavour models with any number of Higgs doublets. We stress the importance of analysing the Higgs vacuum expectation values that are pseudo-invariant under the generators of all subgroups. It is shown that the only way of obtaining a physical CKM mixing matrix and, simultaneously, non-degenerate and non-zero quark masses is requiring the vacuum expectation value…