Non-Minimal Coupling to a Lorentz-Violating Background and Topological Implications

The non-minimal coupling of fermions to a background responsible for the breaking of Lorentz symmetry is introduced in Dirac's equation; the non-relativistic regime is contemplated, and the Pauli's equation is used to show how an Aharonov-Casher phase may appear as a natural consequence of the Lorentz violation, once the particle is placed in a region where there is an electric field. Different ways of implementing the Lorentz breaking are presented and, in each case, we show how to relate the Aharonov-Casher phase to the particular components of the background vector or tensor that realises the violation of Lorentz symmetry.Comment: 8 pages, added references, no figure

Flavor changing neutral currents from lepton and B decays in the two Higgs doublet model

Constraints on the whole spectrum of lepton flavor violating vertices are shown in the context of the standard two Higgs doublet model. The vertex involving the $e-\tau$ mixing is much more constrained than the others, and the decays proportional to such vertex are usually very supressed. On the other hand, bounds on the quark sector are obtained from leptonic decays of the $B_{d,s}^{0}$ mesons and from $\Delta M_{B_{d}^{0}}$. We emphasize that although the $B_{d}^{0}-\bar{B}_{d}^{0}$ mixing restricts severely the $$ mixing vertex, the upper bound for this vertex could still give a sizeable contribution to the decay $B_{d}^{0}\to \mu \bar{\mu}$ respect to the standard model contribution, from which we see that such vertex could still play a role in the phenomenology.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX2e. Minor typos corrected. References added and corrected. Introduction change

Anisotropic field dependence of the magnetic transition in Cu2Te2O5Br2

We present the results of measurements of the thermal conductivity of Cu2Te2O5Br2, a compound where tetrahedra of Cu^{2+} ions carrying S=1/2 spins form chains along the c-axis of the tetragonal crystal structure. The thermal conductivity kappa was measured along both the c- and the a-direction as a function of temperature between 3 and 300 K and in external magnetic fields H up to 69 kOe, oriented both parallel and perpendicular to the c-axis. Distinct features of kappa(T) were observed in the vicinity of T_N=11.4 K in zero magnetic field. These features are unaltered in external fields which are parallel to the c-axis, but are more pronounced when a field is applied perpendicularly to the c-axis. The transition temperature increases upon enhancing the external field, but only if the field is oriented along the a-axis.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas

Using the complete numerical solution of a time-dependent three-dimensional mean-field model we study the Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas (SFG) at zero temperature formed in a combined axially-symmetric harmonic plus one-dimensional periodic optical-lattice (OL) potentials after displacing the harmonic trap along the axial OL axis. We study the dependence of Josephson frequency on the strength of the OL potential. The Josephson frequency decreases with increasing strength as found in the experiment of Cataliotti et al. [Science 293 (2001) 843] for a Bose-Einstein condensate and of the experiment of Pezze et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 120401] for an ideal Fermi gas. We demonstrate a breakdown of Josephson oscillation in the SFG for a large displacement of the harmonic trap. These features of Josephson oscillation of a SFG can be tested experimentally.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figure

Transport of a quantum degenerate heteronuclear Bose-Fermi mixture in a harmonic trap

We report on the transport of mixed quantum degenerate gases of bosonic 87Rb and fermionic 40K in a harmonic potential provided by a modified QUIC trap. The samples are transported over a distance of 6 mm to the geometric center of the anti-Helmholtz coils of the QUIC trap. This transport mechanism was implemented by a small modification of the QUIC trap and is free of losses and heating. It allows all experiments using QUIC traps to use the highly homogeneous magnetic fields that can be created in the center of a QUIC trap and improves the optical access to the atoms, e.g., for experiments with optical lattices. This mechanism may be cascaded to cover even larger distances for applications with quantum degenerate samples.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

A description of the ratio between electric and magnetic proton form factors by using space-like, time-like data and dispersion relations

We use the available information on the ratio between the electric and magnetic proton form factors coming from recently published space-like data and from the few available time-like data. We apply a dispersive procedure on these data to evaluate the behaviour of this ratio, as a complex function, for all values of q^2.Comment: 12 pages, 7 Encapsulated Postscript figures, uses epsfig, rotating, exscale, amsmath, cite, latexsym, graphics, color packages, added reference

The Experimental Status of the Standard Electroweak Model at the End of the LEP-SLC Era

A method is proposed to calculate the confidence level for agreement of data with the Standard Model (SM) by combining information from direct and indirect Higgs Boson searches. Good agreement with the SM is found for $m_H \simeq 120$ GeV using the observables most sensitive to $m_H$: $A_l$ and $m_W$. In particular, quantum corrections, as predicted by the SM, are observed with a statistical significance of forty-four standard deviations. However, apparent deviations from the SM of 3.7$\sigma$ and 2.8$\sigma$ are found for the Z$\nu \bar{\nu}$ and right-handed Zb$\bar{{\rm b}}$ couplings respectively. The maximum confidence level for agreement with the SM of the entire data set considered is $\simeq 0.006$ for $m_H \simeq 180$ GeV. The reason why confidence levels about an order of magnitude higher than this have been claimed for global fits to similar data sets is explained.Comment: 47 pages, 8 figures, 24 tables. An in-depth study of statistical issues related to the comparison of precision EW data to the S

Non-extensive resonant reaction rates in astrophysical plasmas

We study two different physical scenarios of thermonuclear reactions in stellar plasmas proceeding through a narrow resonance at low energy or through the low energy wing of a wide resonance at high energy. Correspondingly, we derive two approximate analytical formulae in order to calculate thermonuclear resonant reaction rates inside very coupled and non ideal astrophysical plasmas in which non-extensive effects are likely to arise. Our results are presented as simple first order corrective factors that generalize the well known classical rates obtained in the framework of Maxwell-Boltzmann statistical mechanics. As a possible application of our results, we calculate the dependence of the total corrective factor with respect to the energy at which the resonance is located, in an extremely dense and non ideal carbon plasma.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Robust and fragile Werner states in the collective dephasing

We investigate the concurrence and Bell violation of the standard Werner state or Werner-like states in the presence of collective dephasing. It is shown that the standard Werner state and certain kinds of Werner-like states are robust against the collective dephasing, and some kinds of Werner-like states is fragile and becomes completely disentangled in a finite-time. The threshold time of complete disentanglement of the fragile Werner-like states is given. The influence of external driving field on the finite-time disentanglement of the standard Werner state or Werner-like states is discussed. Furthermore, we present a simple method to control the stationary state entanglement and Bell violation of two qubits. Finally, we show that the theoretical calculations of fidelity based on the initial Werner state assumption well agree with previous experimental results.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, RevTex4, Accepted by EPJ

Monte Carlo simulation for radiative kaon decays

For high precision measurements of K decays, the presence of radiated photons cannot be neglected. The Monte Carlo simulations must include the radiative corrections in order to compute the correct event counting and efficiency calculations. In this paper we briefly describe a method for simulating such decays.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur