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Creators/Authors contains: "Dunn, Timothy E"

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  1. Call a hereditary family F of graphs strongly persistent if there exists a graphon W such that in all subgraphons W0 of W , F is precisely the class of finite graphs that have positive density in W0. Our first result is a complete characterization of the hereditary families of graphs that are strongly persistent as precisely those that are closed under substitutions. We call graphons with the self-similarity property above weakly random. A hereditary family F is said to have the weakly random Erdos–Hajnal property (WR) if every graphon that is a limit of graphs in F has a weakly random subgraphon. Among families of graphs that are closed under substitutions, we completely characterize the families that belong to WR as those with “few” prime graphs. We also extend some of the results above to structures in finite relational languages by using the theory of theons. 
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  2. Abstract The South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) is an atmospheric system occurring in austral summer on the South America continent and sometimes extending over the adjacent South Atlantic. It is characterized by a persistent and very large, northwest-southeast-oriented, cloud band. Its presence over the ocean causes sea surface cooling that some past studies indicated as being produced by a decrease of incoming solar heat flux induced by the extensive cloud cover. Here we investigate ocean–atmosphere interaction processes in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean (SWA) during SACZ oceanic episodes, as well as the resulting modulations occurring in the oceanic mixed layer and their possible feedbacks on the marine atmospheric boundary layer. Our main interests and novel results are on verifying how the oceanic SACZ acts on dynamic and thermodynamic mechanisms and contributes to the sea surface thermal balance in that region. In our oceanic SACZ episodes simulations we confirm an ocean surface cooling. Model results indicate that surface atmospheric circulation and the presence of an extensive cloud cover band over the SWA promote sea surface cooling via a combined effect of dynamic and thermodynamic mechanisms, which are of the same order of magnitude. The sea surface temperature (SST) decreases in regions underneath oceanic SACZ positions, near Southeast Brazilian coast, in the South Brazil Bight (SBB) and offshore. This cooling is the result of a complex combination of factors caused by the decrease of solar shortwave radiation reaching the sea surface and the reduction of horizontal heat advection in the Brazil Current (BC) region. The weakened southward BC and adjacent offshore region heat advection seems to be associated with the surface atmospheric circulation caused by oceanic SACZ episodes, which rotate the surface wind and strengthen cyclonic oceanic mesoscale eddy. Another singular feature found in this study is the presence of an atmospheric cyclonic vortex Southwest of the SACZ (CVSS), both at the surface and aloft at 850 hPa near 24°S and 45°W. The CVSS induces an SST decrease southwestward from the SACZ position by inducing divergent Ekman transport and consequent offshore upwelling. This shows that the dynamical effects of atmospheric surface circulation associated with the oceanic SACZ are not restricted only to the region underneath the cloud band, but that they extend southwestward where the CVSS presence supports the oceanic SACZ convective activity and concomitantly modifies the ocean dynamics. Therefore, the changes produced in the oceanic dynamics by these SACZ events may be important to many areas of scientific and applied climate research. For example, episodes of oceanic SACZ may influence the pathways of pollutants as well as fish larvae dispersion in the region. 
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  3. Abstract Despite the f0(980) hadron having been discovered half a century ago, the question about its quark content has not been settled: it might be an ordinary quark-antiquark ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ q q ¯ ) meson, a tetraquark ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}{{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ q q ¯ q q ¯ ) exotic state, a kaon-antikaon ($${{\rm{K}}}\overline{{{\rm{K}}}}$$ K K ¯ ) molecule, or a quark-antiquark-gluon ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}{{\rm{g}}}$$ q q ¯ g ) hybrid. This paper reports strong evidence that the f0(980) state is an ordinary$${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ q q ¯ meson, inferred from the scaling of elliptic anisotropies (v2) with the number of constituent quarks (nq), as empirically established using conventional hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The f0(980) state is reconstructed via its dominant decay channel f0(980) →π+π, in proton-lead collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, and itsv2is measured as a function of transverse momentum (pT). It is found that thenq= 2 ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ q q ¯ state) hypothesis is favored overnq= 4 ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}{{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ q q ¯ q q ¯ or$${{\rm{K}}}\overline{{{\rm{K}}}}$$ K K ¯ states) by 7.7, 6.3, or 3.1 standard deviations in thepT< 10, 8, or 6 GeV/cranges, respectively, and overnq= 3 ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}{{\rm{g}}}$$ q q ¯ g hybrid state) by 3.5 standard deviations in thepT< 8 GeV/crange. This result represents the first determination of the quark content of the f0(980) state, made possible by using a novel approach, and paves the way for similar studies of other exotic hadron candidates. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available December 1, 2026
  4. A first search for beyond the standard model physics in jet multiplicity patterns of multilepton events is presented, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb 1 of 13 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC. The search uses observed jet multiplicity distributions in one-, two-, and four-lepton events to explore possible enhancements in jet production rate in three-lepton events with and without bottom quarks. The data are found to be consistent with the standard model expectation. The results are interpreted in terms of supersymmetric production of electroweak chargino-neutralino superpartners with cascade decays terminating in prompt hadronic R -parity violating interactions. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available December 1, 2026
  5. A search for the rare decay D 0 μ + μ is reported using proton-proton collision events at s = 13.6 TeV collected by the CMS detector in 2022–2023, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 64.5 fb 1 . This is the first analysis to use a newly developed inclusive dimuon trigger, expanding the scope of the CMS flavor physics program. The search uses D 0 mesons obtained from D * + D 0 π + decays. No significant excess is observed. A limit on the branching fraction of B ( D 0 μ + μ ) < 2.4 × 10 9 at 95% confidence level is set. This is the most stringent upper limit set on any flavor changing neutral current decay in the charm sector. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available October 1, 2026
  6. A<sc>bstract</sc> A search for a heavy pseudoscalar Higgs boson, A, decaying to a 125 GeV Higgs boson h and a Z boson is presented. The h boson is identified via its decay to a pair of tau leptons, while the Z boson is identified via its decay to a pair of electrons or muons. The search targets the production of the A boson via the gluon-gluon fusion process, gg → A, and in association with bottom quarks,$$\text{b}\overline{\text{b}}\text{A }$$. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of$$\sqrt{s}=13$$TeV. Constraints are set on the product of the cross sections of the A production mechanisms and the A → Zh decay branching fraction. The observed (expected) upper limit at 95% confidence level ranges from 0.049 (0.060) pb to 1.02 (0.79) pb for the gg → A process and from 0.053 (0.059) pb to 0.79 (0.61) pb for the$$\text{b}\overline{\text{b}}\text{A }$$process in the probed range of the A boson mass,mA, from 225 GeV to 1 TeV. The results of the search are used to constrain parameters within the$${\text{M}}_{\text{h},\text{EFT}}^{125}$$benchmark scenario of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Values of tanβbelow 2.2 are excluded in this scenario at 95% confidence level for allmAvalues in the range from 225 to 350 GeV. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available October 1, 2026
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  10. The polarization of the Λ and Λ ¯ hyperons along the beam direction has been measured in proton-lead ( p -Pb ) collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 8.16 TeV. The data were obtained with the CMS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 186.0 ± 6.5 nb 1 . A significant azimuthal dependence of the hyperon polarization, characterized by the second-order Fourier sine coefficient P z , s 2 , is observed. The P z , s 2 values decrease as a function of charged particle multiplicity, but increase with transverse momentum. A hydrodynamic model that describes the observed P z , s 2 values in nucleus-nucleus collisions by introducing vorticity effects does not reproduce either the sign or the magnitude of the p -Pb results. These observations pose a challenge to the current theoretical implementation of spin polarization in heavy ion collisions and offer new insights into the origin of spin polarization in hadronic collisions at LHC energies. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available September 1, 2026