2,367 research outputs found
Supernova cosmology: legacy and future
The discovery of dark energy by the first generation of high-redshift
supernova surveys has generated enormous interest beyond cosmology and has
dramatic implications for fundamental physics. Distance measurements using
supernova explosions are the most direct probes of the expansion history of the
Universe, making them extremely useful tools to study the cosmic fabric and the
properties of gravity at the largest scales. The past decade has seen the
confirmation of the original results. Type Ia supernovae are among the leading
techniques to obtain high-precision measurements of the dark energy equation of
state parameter, and in the near future, its time dependence. The success of
these efforts depends on our ability to understand a large number of effects,
mostly of astrophysical nature, influencing the observed flux at Earth. The
frontier now lies in understanding if the observed phenomenon is due to vacuum
energy, albeit its unnatural density, or some exotic new physics. Future
surveys will address the systematic effects with improved calibration
procedures and provide thousands of supernovae for detailed studies.Comment: Invited review, Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science
(submitted version
Electromagnetic Production of Quarkonium in decay
The decay , where is a
quarkonium state, has a very clean final state, which should
make it easy to detect. The branching ratio of this mode is greater than
for , , and , indicating that these processes may
be detectable at LEP.Comment: Latex, 6 pages, 2 figure in postscript format (uuencoded), (or
available upon request), NUHEP-TH-93-1
Cross-correlations in scaling analyses of phase transitions
Thermal or finite-size scaling analyses of importance sampling Monte Carlo
time series in the vicinity of phase transition points often combine different
estimates for the same quantity, such as a critical exponent, with the intent
to reduce statistical fluctuations. We point out that the origin of such
estimates in the same time series results in often pronounced
cross-correlations which are usually ignored even in high-precision studies,
generically leading to significant underestimation of statistical fluctuations.
We suggest to use a simple extension of the conventional analysis taking
correlation effects into account, which leads to improved estimators with often
substantially reduced statistical fluctuations at almost no extra cost in terms
of computation time.Comment: 4 pages, RevTEX4, 3 tables, 1 figur
Dark matter annihilation at the galactic center
If cold dark matter is present at the galactic center, as in current models
of the dark halo, it is accreted by the central black hole into a dense spike.
Particle dark matter then annihilates strongly inside the spike, making it a
compact source of photons, electrons, positrons, protons, antiprotons, and
neutrinos. The spike luminosity depends on the density profile of the inner
halo: halos with finite cores have unnoticeable spikes, while halos with inner
cusps may have spikes so bright that the absence of a detected neutrino signal
from the galactic center already places interesting upper limits on the density
slope of the inner halo. Future neutrino telescopes observing the galactic
center could probe the inner structure of the dark halo, or indirectly find the
nature of dark matter.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Diffuse inverse Compton and synchrotron emission from dark matter annihilations in galactic satellites
Annihilating dark matter particles produce roughly as much power in electrons
and positrons as in gamma ray photons. The charged particles lose essentially
all of their energy to inverse Compton and synchrotron processes in the
galactic environment. We discuss the diffuse signature of dark matter
annihilations in satellites of the Milky Way (which may be optically dark with
few or no stars), providing a tail of emission trailing the satellite in its
orbit. Inverse Compton processes provide X-rays and gamma rays, and synchrotron
emission at radio wavelengths might be seen. We discuss the possibility of
detecting these signals with current and future observations, in particular
EGRET and GLAST for the gamma rays.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Considerations on rescattering effects for threshold photo- and electro-production of on deuteron
We show that for the S-state -production in processes and the rescattering effects due to the
transition: (or are cancelled
out due to the Pauli principle. The large values for these effects predicted in
the past may result from the fact that the spin structure of the corresponding
matrix element and the necessary antisymmetrization induced by the presence of
identical protons (or neutrons) in the intermediate state was not taken into
account accurately. One of the important consequences of these considerations
is that photo- and electro-production on deuteron near threshold can
bring direct information about elementary neutron amplitudes.Comment: Add a new sectio
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