537 research outputs found
How Good a Deal Was the Tobacco Settlement?: Assessing Payments to Massachusetts
We estimate the increment in Massachusetts Medicaid program costs attributable to smoking from December 20, 1991, to 1998. We describe how our methods improve upon earlier estimates of analogous costs at the national level. Current costs to the Massachusetts Medicaid program approximate the payments to Massachusetts under the tobacco settlement of November 1998. Whether these payments are viewed as appropriate compensation for Medicaid costs over time depends upon the rate of increase in future health care costs, the rate of decline in smoking, the proportion of smoking that should be attributed to the actions of the tobacco companies and the liklihood that state would have prevailed at trial. The costs to the Medicaid program are dwarfed by the internal costs to smokers themselves.
Quark Coulomb Interactions and the Mass Difference of Mirror Nuclei
We study the Okamoto-Nolen-Schiffer (ONS) anomaly in the binding energy of
mirror nuclei at high density by adding a single neutron or proton to a quark
gluon plasma. In this high-density limit we find an anomaly equal to two-thirds
of the Coulomb exchange energy of a proton. This effect is dominated by quark
electromagnetic interactions---rather than by the up-down quark mass
difference. At normal density we calculate the Coulomb energy of neutron matter
using a string-flip quark model. We find a nonzero Coulomb energy because of
the neutron's charged constituents. This effect could make a significant
contribution to the ONS anomaly.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figs. sub. to Phys. Rev. Let
Constraints on Parity-Even Time Reversal Violation in the Nucleon-Nucleon System and Its Connection to Charge Symmetry Breaking
Parity-even time reversal violation (TRV) in the nucleon-nucleon interaction
is reconsidered. The TRV -exchange interaction on which recent analyses
of measurements are based is necessarily also charge-symmetry breaking (CSB).
Limits on its strength relative to regular -exchange are
extracted from recent CSB experiments in neutron-proton scattering. The result
(95% CL) is considerably lower than limits
inferred from direct TRV tests in nuclear processes. Properties of
-exchange and limit imposed by the neutron EDM are briefly discussed.Comment: RevTex, 8 pages. Factor ten error in cited neutron EDM corrected,
discussion and two references adde
Seismic Search for Strange Quark Nuggets
Bounds on masses and abundances of Strange Quark Nuggets (SQNs) are inferred
from a seismic search on Earth. Potential SQN bounds from a possible seismic
search on the Moon are reviewed and compared with Earth capabilities. Bounds
are derived from the data taken by seismometers implanted on the Moon by the
Apollo astronauts. We show that the Apollo data implies that the abundance of
SQNs in the region of 10 kg to one ton must be at least an order of magnitude
less than would saturate the dark matter in the solar neighborhood.Comment: 7 pages and 4 tables, plus 3 attached figures. Revised version
responds to helpful comments of Phys. Rev. referee by adding 3 figures,
subtracting two tables and taking into account information from QC
Measurement of the Absolute np Scattering Differential Cross Section at 194 MeV
We describe a double-scattering experiment with a novel tagged neutron beam
to measure differential cross sections for np back-scattering to better than 2%
absolute precision. The measurement focuses on angles and energies where the
cross section magnitude and angle-dependence constrain the charged pion-nucleon
coupling constant, but existing data show serious discrepancies among
themselves and with energy-dependent partial wave analyses (PWA). The present
results are in good accord with the PWA, but deviate systematically from other
recent measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Measurement of the Absolute Differential Cross Section for np Elastic Scattering at 194 MeV
A tagged medium-energy neutron beam has been used in a precise measurement of
the absolute differential cross section for np back-scattering. The results
resolve significant discrepancies within the np database concerning the angular
dependence in this regime. The experiment has determined the absolute
normalization with 1.5% uncertainty, suitable to verify constraints of
supposedly comparable precision that arise from the rest of the database in
partial wave analyses. The analysis procedures, especially those associated
with evaluation of systematic errors in the experiment, are described in detail
so that systematic uncertainties may be included in a reasonable way in
subsequent partial wave analysis fits incorporating the present results.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, submitted for publication in Physical Review
Report on CE-19: 16-O(p,n)16-F(0-) in the IUCF Cooler
This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478
Mirror Dark Matter and Core Density of Galaxies
We present a particle physics realization of a recent suggestion by Spergel
and Steinhardt that collisional but dissipationless dark matter may resolve the
core density problem in dark matter-dominated galaxies such as the dwarf
galaxies. The realization is the asymmetric mirror universe model introduced to
explain the neutrino puzzles and the microlensing anomaly. The mirror baryons
are the dark matter particles with the desired properties. The time scales are
right for resolution of the core density problem and formation of mirror stars
(MACHOs observed in microlensing experiments). The mass of the region
homogenized by Silk damping is between a dwarf and a large galaxy.Comment: 9 pages, LaTex. The present version shows that atomic scattering
inherent in the mirror model can solve the core density problem without the
need for an extra U(1) discussed in the original version; all conclusions are
unchanged. This version is accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
New Supernova Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Production
We consider the possibility that a light sterile-neutrino species can
be produced by scattering during the cooling of a proto-neutron star.
If we parameterize the sterile neutrino production cross-section by a parameter
as , where is an electron, neutron or proton, we show that is
constrained by limits to the conversion of to in the region
between the sterile-neutrino trapping region and the electron-neutrino trapping
region. This consideration excludes values of in the range between 10^{-4}
\la A \la 10^{-1}.Comment: 12 pages; Late
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