Sterile neutrinos in neutrinoless double beta decay

We study possible contribution of the Majorana neutrino mass eigenstate $\nu_h$ dominated by a sterile neutrino component to neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay. From the current experimental lower bound on the $0\nu\beta\beta$-decay half-life of $^{76}$Ge we derive stringent constraints on the $\nu_h-\nu_e$ mixing in a wide region of the values of $\nu_h$ mass. We discuss cosmological and astrophysical status of $\nu_h$ in this mass region.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure; v2 added comments and reference

Robust optical emission polarization in MoS2 monolayers through selective valley excitation

We report polarization resolved photoluminescence from monolayer MoS2, a two-dimensional, non-centrosymmetric crystal with direct energy gaps at two different valleys in momentum space. The inherent chiral optical selectivity allows exciting one of these valleys and close to 90% polarized emission at 4K is observed with 40% polarization remaining at 300K. The high polarization degree of the emission remains unchanged in transverse magnetic fields up to 9T indicating robust, selective valley excitation.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Role of the rho meson in the description of pion electroproduction experiments at JLab

We study the p(e,e' pi+)n reaction in the framework of an effective Lagrangian approach including nucleon, pi and rho meson degrees of freedom and show the importance of the rho-meson t-pole contribution to sigmaT, the transverse part of cross section. We test two different field representations of the rho meson, vector and tensor, and find that the tensor representation of the rho meson is more reliable in the description of the existing data. In particular, we show that the rho-meson t-pole contribution, including the interference with an effective non-local contact term, sufficiently improves the description of the recent JLab data at invariant mass W less 2.2 GeV and Q2 less 2.5 GeV2/c2. A ``soft'' variant of the strong piNN and rhoNN form factors is also found to be compatible with these data. On the basis of the successful description of both the sigmaL and sigmaT parts of the cross section we discuss the importance of taking into account the sigmaT data when extracting the charge pion form factor Fpi from sigmaL.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Anisotropic flow of charged and identified hadrons in the quark-gluon string model for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

The pseudorapidity behaviour of the azimuthal anisotropy parameters v_1 and v_2 of inclusive charged hadrons and their dependence on the centrality has been studied in Au+Au collisions at full RHIC energy of sqrt(s) = 200 GeV within the microscopic quark-gluon string model. The QGSM simulation results for the directed flow v_1 show antiflow alignment within the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2 in a fair agreement with the experimental v_1(eta) data, but cannot reproduce the further development of the antiflow up to |eta| around 3.5. The eta dependence of the elliptic flow v_2 extracted from the simulations agrees well with the experimental data in the whole pseudorapidity range for different centrality classes. The centrality dependence of the integrated elliptic flow of charged hadrons in the QGSM almost coincides with the PHOBOS experimental distribution. The transverse momentum dependence of the elliptic flow of identified and inclusive charged hadrons is studied also. The model reproduces quantitatively the low p_T part of the distributions rather good, but underestimates the measured elliptic flow for transverse momenta p_T > 1 GeV/c. Qualitatively, however, the model is able to reproduce the saturation of the v_2(p_T) spectra with rising p_T as well as the crossing of the elliptic flow for mesons and baryons.Comment: REVTeX, 10 pages, 10 figures, v2: extended discussion of the model results, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

New features of the triaxial nuclei described with a coherent state model

Supplementing the Liquid Drop Model (LDM) Hamiltonian, written in the intrinsic reference frame, with a sextic oscillator plus a centrifugal term in the variable $\beta$ and a potential in $\gamma$ with a minimum in $\frac{\pi}{6}$, the Sch\"{o}dinger equation is separated for the two variables which results in having a new description for the triaxial nuclei, called Sextic and Mathieu Approach (SMA). SMA is applied for two non-axial nuclei, $^{180}$Hf and $^{182}$W and results are compared with those yielded by the Coherent State Model (CSM). As the main result of this paper we derive analytically the equations characterizing SMA from a semi-classical treatment of the CSM Hamiltonian. In this manner the potentials in $\beta$ and $\gamma$ variables respectively, show up in a quite natural way which contrasts their ad-hoc choice when SMA emerges from LDM.Comment: 13 figures, 13 page

Proton-neutron pairing in the deformed BCS approach

We examine isovector and isoscalar proton-neutron pairing correlations for the ground state of even-even Ge isotopes with mass number A=64-76 within the deformed BCS approach. For N=Z 64Ge the BCS solution with only T=0 proton-neutron pairs is found. For other nuclear systems (N>Z) a coexistence of a T=0 and T=1 pairs in the BCS wave function is observed. A problem of fixing of strengths of isoscalar and isovector pairing interactions is addressed. A dependence of number of like and unlike pairs in the BCS ground state on the difference between number of neutrons and protons is discussed. We found that for nuclei with N much bigger than Z the effect of proton-neutron pairing is small but not negligible.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Weyl's symbols of Heisenberg operators of canonical coordinates and momenta as quantum characteristics

The knowledge of quantum phase flow induced under the Weyl's association rule by the evolution of Heisenberg operators of canonical coordinates and momenta allows to find the evolution of symbols of generic Heisenberg operators. The quantum phase flow curves obey the quantum Hamilton's equations and play the role of characteristics. At any fixed level of accuracy of semiclassical expansion, quantum characteristics can be constructed by solving a coupled system of first-order ordinary differential equations for quantum trajectories and generalized Jacobi fields. Classical and quantum constraint systems are discussed. The phase-space analytic geometry based on the star-product operation can hardly be visualized. The statement "quantum trajectory belongs to a constraint submanifold" can be changed e.g. to the opposite by a unitary transformation. Some of relations among quantum objects in phase space are, however, left invariant by unitary transformations and support partly geometric relations of belonging and intersection. Quantum phase flow satisfies the star-composition law and preserves hamiltonian and constraint star-functions.Comment: 27 pages REVTeX, 6 EPS Figures. New references added. Accepted for publication to JM