Minimally Allowed Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Rates From Approximate Flavor Symmetries

Neutrinoless double beta decay ($\beta\beta0\nu$) is among the only realistic probes of Majorana neutrinos. In the standard scenario, dominated by light neutrino exchange, the process amplitude is proportional to $m_{ee}$, the $e-e$ element of the Majorana mass matrix. Naively, current data allows for vanishing $m_{ee}$, but this should be protected by an appropriate flavor symmetry. All such symmetries lead to mass matrices inconsistent with oscillation phenomenology. I perform a spurion analysis to break all possible Abelian symmetries that guarantee vanishing $\beta\beta0\nu$ rates and search for minimally allowed values. I survey 230 broken structures to yield $m_{ee}$ values and current phenomenological constraints under a variety of scenarios. This analysis also extracts predictions for both neutrino oscillation parameters and kinematic quantities. Assuming reasonable tuning levels, I find that $m_{ee}>4\times 10^{-6}$ eV at 99% confidence. Bounds below this value might indicate the Dirac neutrino nature or the existence of new light (eV-MeV scale) degrees of freedom that can potentially be probed elsewhere.Comment: 19 Pages, 4 .eps Figures, 3 Table

Wall-Enhanced Convection in Vibrofluidized Granular Systems

An event-driven molecular dynamics simulation of inelastic hard spheres contained in a cylinder and subject to strong vibration reproduces accurately experimental results[1] for a system of vibrofluidized glass beads. In particular, we are able to obtain the velocity field and the density and temperature profiles observed experimentally. In addition, we show that the appearance of convection rolls is strongly influenced by the value of the sidewall-particle restitution coefficient. Suggestions for observing more complex convection patterns are proposed.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Heating mechanism affects equipartition in a binary granular system

Two species of particles in a binary granular system typically do not have the same mean kinetic energy, in contrast to the equipartition of energy required in equilibrium. We investigate the role of the heating mechanism in determining the extent of this non-equipartition of kinetic energy. In most experiments, different species of particle are unequally heated at the boundaries. We show by event-driven simulations that this differential heating at the boundary influences the level of non-equipartition even in the bulk of the system. This conclusion is fortified by studying a numerical model and a solvable stochastic model without spatial degrees of freedom. In both cases, even in the limit where heating events are rare compared to collisions, the effect of the heating mechanism persists

Enskog Theory for Polydisperse Granular Mixtures II. Sonine Polynomial Approximation

The linear integral equations defining the Navier-Stokes (NS) transport coefficients for polydisperse granular mixtures of smooth inelastic hard disks or spheres are solved by using the leading terms in a Sonine polynomial expansion. Explicit expressions for all the NS transport coefficients are given in terms of the sizes, masses, compositions, density and restitution coefficients. In addition, the cooling rate is also evaluated to first order in the gradients. The results hold for arbitrary degree of inelasticity and are not limited to specific values of the parameters of the mixture. Finally, a detailed comparison between the derivation of the current theory and previous theories for mixtures is made, with attention paid to the implication of the various treatments employed to date.Comment: 26 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Microwave radiometric studies and ground truth measurements of the NASA/USGS Southern California test site

The field measurement program conducted at the NASA/USGS Southern California Test Site is discussed. Ground truth data and multifrequency microwave brightness data were acquired by a mobile field laboratory operating in conjunction with airborne instruments. The ground based investigations were performed at a number of locales representing a variety of terrains including open desert, cultivated fields, barren fields, portions of the San Andreas Fault Zone, and the Salton Sea. The measurements acquired ground truth data and microwave brightness data at wavelengths of 0.8 cm, 2.2 cm, and 21 cm

Shear-induced crystallization of a dense rapid granular flow: hydrodynamics beyond the melting point?

We investigate shear-induced crystallization in a very dense flow of mono-disperse inelastic hard spheres. We consider a steady plane Couette flow under constant pressure and neglect gravity. We assume that the granular density is greater than the melting point of the equilibrium phase diagram of elastic hard spheres. We employ a Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics with constitutive relations all of which (except the shear viscosity) diverge at the crystal packing density, while the shear viscosity diverges at a smaller density. The phase diagram of the steady flow is described by three parameters: an effective Mach number, a scaled energy loss parameter, and an integer number m: the number of half-oscillations in a mechanical analogy that appears in this problem. In a steady shear flow the viscous heating is balanced by energy dissipation via inelastic collisions. This balance can have different forms, producing either a uniform shear flow or a variety of more complicated, nonlinear density, velocity and temperature profiles. In particular, the model predicts a variety of multi-layer two-phase steady shear flows with sharp interphase boundaries. Such a flow may include a few zero-shear (solid-like) layers, each of which moving as a whole, separated by fluid-like regions. As we are dealing with a hard sphere model, the granulate is fluidized within the "solid" layers: the granular temperature is non-zero there, and there is energy flow through the boundaries of the "solid" layers. A linear stability analysis of the uniform steady shear flow is performed, and a plausible bifurcation diagram of the system, for a fixed m, is suggested. The problem of selection of m remains open.Comment: 11 pages, 7 eps figures, to appear in PR

An analysis of the gust-induced overspeed trends of helicopter rotors

Equations for analyzing the potential gust-induced overspeed tendency of helicopter rotors are presented. A parametric analysis was also carried out to illustrate the sensitivity of rotor angular acceleration to changes in rotor lift, propulsive force, tip speed, and forward velocity

Shocks in supersonic sand

We measure time-averaged velocity, density, and temperature fields for steady granular flow past a wedge and calculate a speed of granular pressure disturbances (sound speed) equal to 10% of the flow speed. The flow is supersonic, forming shocks nearly identical to those in a supersonic gas. Molecular dynamics simulations of Newton's laws and Monte Carlo simulations of the Boltzmann equation yield fields in quantitative agreement with experiment. A numerical solution of Navier-Stokes-like equations agrees with a molecular dynamics simulation for experimental conditions excluding wall friction.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure