226 research outputs found
Heavy neutrino signals at large hadron colliders
We study the LHC discovery potential for heavy Majorana neutrino singlets in
the process pp -> W+ -> l+ N -> l+ l+ jj (l=e,mu) plus its charge conjugate.
With a fast detector simulation we show that backgrounds involving two
like-sign charged leptons are not negligible and, moreover, they cannot be
eliminated with simple sequential kinematical cuts. Using a likelihood analysis
it is shown that, for heavy neutrinos coupling only to the muon, LHC has 5
sigma sensitivity for masses up to 200 GeV in the final state mu+- mu+- jj.
This reduction in sensitivity, compared to previous parton-level estimates, is
driven by the ~ 10^2-10^3 times larger background. Limits are also provided for
e+- e+- jj and e+- mu+- jj final states, as well as for Tevatron. For heavy
Dirac neutrinos the prospects are worse because backgrounds involving two
opposite charge leptons are much larger. For this case, we study the
observability of the lepton flavour violating signal e+- mu-+ jj. As a
by-product of our analysis, heavy neutrino production has been implemented
within the ALPGEN framework.Comment: Latex 36 pages, 49 PS figures. Major extension incorporating analysis
for e+- e+-, e+- mu+- and e+- mu-+ final states. Final version to appear in
JHE
Effects of inhomogeneities on apparent cosmological observables: "fake" evolving dark energy
Using the exact Lemaitre-Bondi-Tolman solution with a non-vanishing
cosmological constant , we investigate how the presence of a local
spherically-symmetric inhomogeneity can affect apparent cosmological
observables, such as the deceleration parameter or the effective equation of
state of dark energy (DE), derived from the luminosity distance under the
assumption that the real space-time is exactly homogeneous and isotropic. The
presence of a local underdensity is found to produce apparent phantom behavior
of DE, while a locally overdense region leads to apparent quintessence
behavior. We consider relatively small large scale inhomogeneities which today
are not linear and could be seeded by primordial curvature perturbations
compatible with CMB bounds. Our study shows how observations in an
inhomogeneous CDM universe with initial conditions compatible with the
inflationary beginning, if interpreted under the wrong assumption of
homogeneity, can lead to the wrong conclusion about the presence of "fake"
evolving dark energy instead of .Comment: 22 pages, 19 figures,Final version to appear in European Physical
Journal
l W nu production at CLIC: a window to TeV scale non-decoupled neutrinos
We discuss single heavy neutrino production e+ e- -> N nu -> l W nu, l = e,
mu, tau, at a future high energy collider like CLIC, with a centre of mass
energy of 3 TeV. This process could allow to detect heavy neutrinos with masses
of 1-2 TeV if their coupling to the electron V_eN is in the range 0.004-0.01.
We study the dependence of the limits on the heavy neutrino mass and emphasise
the crucial role of lepton flavour in the discovery of a positive signal at
CLIC energy. We present strategies to determine heavy neutrino properties once
they are discovered, namely their Dirac or Majorana character and the size and
chirality of their charged current couplings. Conversely, if no signal is
found, the bound V_eN < 0.002-0.006 would be set for masses of 1-2 TeV,
improving the present limit up to a factor of 30. We also extend previous work
examining in detail the flavour and mass dependence of the corresponding limits
at ILC, as well as the determination of heavy neutrino properties if they are
discovered at this collider.Comment: LaTeX 32 pages. Added comments and references. Matches version to
appear in JHE
Revealing Bell's Nonlocality for Unstable Systems in High Energy Physics
Entanglement and its consequences - in particular the violation of Bell
inequalities, which defies our concepts of realism and locality - have been
proven to play key roles in Nature by many experiments for various quantum
systems. Entanglement can also be found in systems not consisting of ordinary
matter and light, i.e. in massive meson--antimeson systems. Bell inequalities
have been discussed for these systems, but up to date no direct experimental
test to conclusively exclude local realism was found. This mainly stems from
the fact that one only has access to a restricted class of observables and that
these systems are also decaying. In this Letter we put forward a Bell
inequality for unstable systems which can be tested at accelerator facilities
with current technology. Herewith, the long awaited proof that such systems at
different energy scales can reveal the sophisticated "dynamical" nonlocal
feature of Nature in a direct experiment gets feasible. Moreover, the role of
entanglement and CP violation, an asymmetry between matter and antimatter, is
explored, a special feature offered only by these meson-antimeson systems.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Reply to the discussion and comments of AzerĂȘdo et al. (2023) and Schneider et al. (2023) on the paper by MagalhĂŁes et al. âMiddle Jurassic multi-scale transgressiveâregressive cycles: An example from the Lusitanian Basinâ, The Depositional Record, 9, 174â202
cently published paper. The exchange of ideas, data and interpretation improves our knowledge and is the right way to discuss science\u27s advances. This reply considers the points raised by AzerĂȘdo et al. (2023) and Schneider et al. (2023). In both manuscripts, these authors raised many issues about sedimentological and stratigraphic aspects that can be separated into two groups: (a) those related to the age of the studied succession; and (b) those assigning the studied succession to the Candeeiros Formation
A Tail of a Quark in N=4 SYM
We study the dynamics of a `composite' or `dressed' quark in strongly-coupled
large-N_c N=4 super-Yang-Mills, making use of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We
show that the standard string dynamics nicely captures the physics of the quark
and its surrounding non-Abelian field configuration, making it possible to
derive a relativistic equation of motion that incorporates the effects of
radiation damping. From this equation one can deduce a non-standard dispersion
relation for the composite quark, as well as a Lorentz covariant formula for
its rate of radiation. We explore the consequences of the equation in a few
simple examples.Comment: 26 pages, no figures. v2: added brief clarification on string
boundary conditions, version to be published in JHE
CHARACTERIZATION OF CLOGGING MATERIAL FROM HORIZONTAL SUBSURFACE FLOW CONSTRUCTED WETLAND SYSTEMS
The influence of rice husk ash addition on the properties of metakaolin-based geopolymers
This paper investigates the replacement of metakaolin (MK) with rice husk ash (RHA) in the production of alkali-activated binders or geopolymers. The influence of the RHA addition on compressive and flexural strength, as well as water absorption and apparent porosity were determined, in terms of the percentage of RHA in the mixture and molar ratios of the mixes. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Energy Dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were carried out to assess the changes in the microstructure of the geopolymer matrices with the RHA addition. Results have shown that RHA may be a supplementary precursor for geopolymers. The composition of the geopolymer matrices containing 0-40% RHA is very similar, which indicates that the additional Si provided by RHA is not incorporated to the geopolymer matrix. In addition, geopolymers with RHA content higher than 40% present a plastic behavior, characterized by extremely low strength and high deformation, which can be attributed to the formation of silica gel in formulations containing variable Si/Al ratio
Molecular confirmation of ovine herpesvirus 2-induced malignant catarrhal fever lesions in cattle from Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
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