Fermion mass and mixing patterns from a rotating mass matrix

It is shown that all existing data on mixing between up and down fermion states (i.e. CKM matrix and neutrino oscillations) and on the hierarchical quark and lepton mass ratios between generations are consistent with the two phenomena being both consequences of a mass matrix rotating in generation space with changing energy scale. As a result, the rotation of the mass matrix can be traced over some 14 orders of magnitude in energy from the mass scale of the $t$-quark at 175 GeV to below that of the atmospheric neutrino at 0.05 eV. This is a summary of recent work done in collaboration with Chan Hong-Mo and Jose Bordes.Comment: 12 pages latex, 6 figures, talk given at the International Symposium on Frontiers of Science - In Celebration of the 80th Birthday of C N Yang, June 2002, Beijin

Intact capture of cosmic dust

The focus of this development effort is to capture dust particles at hypervelocities intact and unmelted in order to preserve volatile organics. At the same time, the capture process must minimize any organic elemental or compound contamination to prevent any compromise of exobiological analyses. Inorganic silicate aerogel has been developed as a successful capture medium to satisfy both requirements of intact capture and minimal organic contamination. Up to 6 km/s, silicate projectiles from a few microns up to 100 microns have been captured intact without any melting and with minimal loss of mass. Carbon in silicate aerogel can be reduced to less than 1 part in 1000 and hydrogen 3 parts in 1000 when baked in air. Under controlled inert gas environments, additional hydrocarbon reduction can be achieved

Monopoles in Superloop Space

In this paper, we will analyse a four dimensional gauge theory with $\mathcal{N} =1$ supersymmetry in superloop space formalism. We will thus obtain an expression for the connection in the infinite-dimensional superloop space. We will then use this connection to obtain an expression for the curvature of the infinite-dimensional superloop space. We will also show that this curvature is proportional to the Bianchi identity in spacetime. Thus, in absence of a monopole this curvature will vanish. However, it will not vanish if the superloop intersects the world-line of a monopole because the Bianchi will not hold at that point.Comment: 9 pages, 0 figures, accepted for publication in EP